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Brazilian footballers speak of ‘terror’ in Ukraine flight
AFP
A group of Brazilian footballers and their families arrived in Sao Paulo on Tuesday after a two-day odyssey to escape war-torn Ukraine, where they play their club football.
The contingent of 13 Brazilians from Shakhtar Donetsk were among dozens of people that crammed into a train and then a bus for a journey to Romania that lasted more than 30 hours.
From there, they were able to board flights back to their homeland.
“The hardest thing was everything we saw on the road: people dying, people that had nothing to do with this situation,” said Pedrinho, a 23-year-old forward, upon his arrival in Sao Paulo.
“I took my four-month-old daughter with me and all I wanted was for her to be ok. Images of terror, destroyed cities: these are the things that remain in my head.
“What I most want now is to be with my family, with my parents. I said goodbye to them every time we spoke because I did not know if it would be the last time we would talk.”
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Shakhtar’s Brazilians and a pair of players from Dynamo Kyiv — Uruguayan Carlos de Pena and Vitinho of Brazil — took shelter in a hotel with their families while asking Brazil’s government to help them leave the country.
Before the war began there were around 500 Brazilians in Ukraine. That is down to around 100 now, according to the Brazilian embassy in Kyiv.
“Everything blew up from one day to another. Thursday morning we were at home when we started hearing the sound of the bombs, the planes, and that’s when the nightmare began,” De Pena told AFP as he waited in Sao Paulo for an onward flight to Montevideo.
“It wasn’t easy coordinating the transport because there were many desperate people, many people fleeing, Russian troops closing in on the capital.”
Now he remembers the feelings of “fear, sadness and not knowing whether we will go back.”
Brazilian Marlon Santos, 26, admitted it was “difficult to stay calm.”
After three days in the hotel, the players embarked on a 17-hour train journey and then 15-hour bus ride with the help of European football’s governing body UEFA to reach Romania.
“It was very dark when we left, we didn’t know what we would come across,” said Maycon, 24, a Shakhtar player who left with his wife, two children and parents.
“I just asked for calm so that my children did not feel what we were feeling,” said Maycon’s wife Lyarah Vojnovic Barberan.
But the relief at now being in a safe haven is tempered by the concern for Ukrainian teammates left behind.
“We have great friends there, I’m sorry for them and really hope everything gets resolved,” said Maycon.
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Eight Killed in Series of Armed Attacks in Ecuador’s Manabí Province
At least eight people were killed in four separate armed attacks reported Sunday night in the cities of Manta and Montecristi, in Ecuador’s coastal province of Manabí, one of the areas hardest hit by the country’s escalating wave of criminal violence, local media reported on Monday.
The shootings occurred between 7:50 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. local time and affected several neighborhoods, as well as a family gathering, according to press reports. Police are investigating the incidents.
The first attack took place in the Los Artesanos sector of Montecristi, where a couple was shot dead in a public street.
Minutes later, in Manta’s 12 de Octubre neighborhood, a man was killed while sitting down. Police arrested a suspect at the scene and seized a 9mm magazine, authorities said.
A third incident occurred in the Bellavista area of Manta, when an armed assailant entered a home and shot a man during a family celebration. The attacker was captured by neighbors and sustained injuries.
The deadliest attack was reported at 10:50 p.m. in the Leonidas Proaño parish of Montecristi, where gunmen opened fire from two vehicles on a group of people, leaving four dead and five wounded.
According to Jaime Salgado, acting chief of the Manta Police District, officers recovered seven 7.62mm shell casings, consistent with rifle ammunition, and 14 .40-caliber casings at the scene.
With these killings, the Manta police district, a port and tourist area on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, has recorded 51 violent deaths so far in January 2026, according to official figures.
The attacks occurred amid a state of emergency declared by the government in December due to serious internal unrest in Manabí, where military operations have been intensified this month, particularly in high-conflict zones.
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El Salvador Launches Fourth Year of Ocean Mission to Protect Marine Ecosystems
El Salvador’s Ministry of Environment has launched the fourth consecutive year of “Ocean Mission,” a permanent strategy focused on the protection, restoration, and responsible management of marine ecosystems, linking conservation efforts from inland mountain ranges to the coastline.
During an event held at the Los Cóbanos Protected Natural Area, Environment Minister Fernando López highlighted the ecological, social, and economic value of the site, which is recognized as the country’s eighth wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
“We are in one of the most valuable natural treasures of our country, not only because of its beauty, but also due to the enormous ecological, social, and economic importance that Los Cóbanos holds for El Salvador,” López said.
The minister emphasized that this volcanic-origin ecosystem is home to coral reefs and key coastal-marine systems that serve as refuge, breeding, and feeding grounds for emblematic species such as sea turtles, cetaceans, and a wide diversity of fish.
“Protecting Los Cóbanos means protecting biodiversity, community livelihoods, the local economy, and our natural heritage,” López stated.
He also stressed that Ocean Mission goes beyond rhetoric, focusing instead on direct action framed within the National Environmental Education Policy. “We are not here to talk about environmental education; we are here to practice it,” he said, underscoring the guiding principle of moving from paper to action.
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Convicted gang member challenges Guatemala’s anti-gang law, citing Human Rights Violations
A member of a criminal gang currently facing sentencing for the crime of extortion has filed a constitutional appeal before Guatemala’s Constitutional Court against the recently approved and enacted Anti-Gang Law.
The appeal, submitted by Dylan Smaily Archila García, argues that the new legislation violates his fundamental human rights and claims there were procedural irregularities during its approval process, according to local Guatemalan media.
Archila García filed the motion just hours after the law took effect. The new legislation, passed by Guatemala’s Congress, increases penalties for crimes linked to gang activity and authorizes the construction of a mega-prison, modeled after El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT).
Local outlets reported that in his petition, Archila García contends that the approval of the law did not comply with constitutional requirements and requests that the Court issue a ruling to annul the legislation, effectively halting its enforcement.
The appeal further claims that the Anti-Gang Law infringes on due process rights, as it allegedly fails to guarantee a fair criminal trial in which defendants can prove their innocence, undermining legal certainty and judicial security.
Through this legal action, the petitioner seeks to have the law suspended and ultimately struck down by the Constitutional Court, preventing it from being debated again in Congress.
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