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Internacionales

Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be regions with high homicide rates, according to UN study

Photo: BBC

December 8 |

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Homicide Survey has revealed that, in 2021, most of the countries with the highest homicide rates in the world are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Notable exceptions include South Africa, Myanmar and Iraq. Jamaica, in particular, stands out as the country with the highest homicide rate globally.

The Latin America and Caribbean region accounted for 27% of the 458,000 homicides recorded worldwide in 2021, consolidating its position as the most violent area on the planet, despite the overall downward trend. Countries such as Ecuador, Nicaragua and Panama are mentioned as exceptions to the general decline.

In 2021, eight of the ten countries with the highest homicide rates globally were in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to data compiled by UNODC. Not only does the region consistently maintain the highest homicide rate among all sub-regions, but it also led the world in the proportion of homicides related to organized crime.

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Despite the high rates, the study indicates that the region has experienced a downward trend in homicide rates since 2017, especially due to the decline in Brazil. Between 2017 and 2021, the homicide rate in the region decreased by almost 14%. However, the evolution has been uneven, with some countries, such as Guatemala, experiencing increases in 2021 after years of decline.

Bolivia stands out as the country with the lowest homicide rate in the region, pointing to the diversity of situations in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of security and crime.

Internacionales

The indigenous people demand from Lula more speed for the demarcation of their lands

Thousands of indigenous people marched through Brasilia to the seat of the Government, where President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received a delegation that demanded greater speed in the regularization of the lands they have occupied for centuries.

Those and other demands were turned into a document delivered by about forty leaders of the indigenous peoples, who were received by Lula and the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, along with other members of the cabinet in the Presidential Palace of Planalto.

“I have a moral duty and a lifelong commitment to do everything possible, and even the impossible, to minimize the suffering of indigenous peoples and guarantee their rights,” Lula said on his social networks after the meeting.

The text also asks the Government for “greater political commitment” in the face of the conservative majority of Parliament. He accuses of promoting an “agenda” contrary to the indigenous people and the protection of the Amazon and other biomes inhabited by the indigenous peoples.

The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples (Apib) calculated that in the march, which took place peacefully, about 9,000 indigenous people who left the Free Land Camp participated. About two kilometers from the presidential palace and that brings together representatives of about two hundred ethnic groups this week.

While the meeting with Lula lasted, the demonstrators remained at the doors of the government headquarters in the midst of indigenous rituals. In a festive but also combative climate, in defense of their territories.

The main object of protests was a thesis known as a “time frame,” approved last year by the conservative majority of Parliament. It only recognizes as indigenous territories those that the original peoples effectively occupied on October 5, 1988, when the current Brazilian Constitution was promulgated.

The approval was after the Supreme Court had declared that thesis unconstitutional, which has generated a conflict, yet unresolved, in the face of which the court has urged a “conciliation”, to which the indigenous people oppose.

The camp, the largest annual event of the indigenous peoples, has been held since 2004 and this time has as its motto the phrase “Our framework is ancestral. We were always here,” alluding to the thesis defended by conservatism and the agricultural sector.

According to official data, indigenous people occupy about 14% of the national territory. It is represented by about 600 already delimited areas, to which can be added another 120 that are still being analyzed.

The demarcation of indigenous lands, an obligation of the State under the Constitution, was suspended between 2019 and 2022, during the administration of the then far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, and was resumed last year by Lula’s government.

However, of the fourteen territories ready for demarcation, the Government has so far regularized ten and the other four are pending negotiation. They are currently occupied by landowners who, in the past, expelled the indigenous people.

Lula pointed out in his message in X that it was not “easy to rebuild indigenous politics” after Bolsonaro’s mandate. He was “satisfied with what has been done so far” and guaranteed that his Government will work “even harder” for the indigenous peoples.

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Internacionales

Indonesia warns of a potential tsunami following the eruptions of the Ruang volcano

Indonesia warned on Thursday about a potential tsunami affecting the central region of the Asian archipelago as a result of the continued eruptions of the Ruang volcano, in the Cebel Islands, while continuing with the evacuation tasks of its inhabitants.

“Residents of the island of Tagulandand, especially those who live near the coast, should be cautious about the potential expulsion of incandescent rocks, smoke columns and a possible tsunami caused by the collapse of parts of the volcano into the sea,” says the Department of Vulcanology of Indonesia in a statement published on its portal.

Authorities seek to prevent a scenario similar to that caused by the eruption of the Anak Krakatoa volcano, located in the Sonda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra, which on December 22, 2018 caused a landslide and a subsequent tsunami that caused at least 426 deaths.

The Ruang volcano, 725 meters high and located on a small homonymous island about 5 kilometers wide, has recorded great activity in recent days, including four strong eruptions detected in the early hours of this Thursday.

Emergency teams have evacuated at least 1,600 people, including the entire population of the island-volcano and some residents on the coast of the neighboring island of Tagulandang, located about 4 kilometers north of the Ruang crater and inhabited by about 22,000 people.

“People who live in the Tagulandang island area and are within a radius of 6 kilometers (from the crater) must be evacuated immediately to a safe place,” the Indonesian Disaster Management Agency said in a statement.

The volcanology agency raised the volcano’s alert last night to the maximum level of IV, after the Ruang launched ash clouds up to 3,000 meters high and caused small earthquakes.

According to the Zoom Earth portal, which follows the development of meteorological phenomena, one of the eruptions recorded in the last few hours was so large that it could be captured by satellite images and created a large cloud that affected the neighboring islands.

Images captured this Thursday show the foothills of the volcano covered by a gray mantle of ash.

For its part, the Meteorological Agency of Japan is studying whether a potential tsunami could impact the west coast of the country, almost 4,000 kilometers away from the volcano.

However, he has not observed “significant changes in the tide level” after last night’s eruptions.

In Australia, the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center pointed out in its latest statement that the material expelled by the Ruang can reach 16,700 meters in height.

The expulsion of ashes has forced the closure of the international airport of the city of Manado, capital of the province of Northern Celebes and located about 70 kilometers southwest of the volcano, affecting at least a dozen flights, most of them domestic.

“All arrival and departure flights have been canceled until 23:59 (local time, 15:59 GMT),” a spokesman for Sam Ratulangi airport, which operates international flights to Singapore and the Philippine city of Davao, told EFE by phone.

Indonesia is home to more than 400 volcanoes, of which at least 129 are still active and 65 are classified as dangerous.

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Centroamérica

Salvadoran woman decides to return to the country to live in an environment of peace and tranquility

Live a quiet life, full of peace and for your mental and emotional well-being. Those are the main reasons that motivated Cinthia Gracast, creator of content of Salvadoran nationality, to return to the country after several years living in Chicago, United States.

Gracast has published on his social media platforms the step by step of his move to El Salvador, his country of birth and to which he returns after having recently visited him, at which time, he says, he made the decision to return.

The content creator points out that, during her visit to the country, she witnessed the substantial changes that El Salvador has undergone and that have made it the safest country in America. In addition, he remarked how that atmosphere of peace helped to improve his mental and emotional health, which was quite affected during his stay in Chicago.

“I love the lifestyle of El Salvador. As soon as I went, I just fell in love even more. I feel like that’s how you live and here in the United States you live only to work. It’s a routine that’s ruining you. A routine that has had me in depression, in anxiety. It is something that I have fought with alone,” she says in one of her videos, in which she announced her decision to return to the country.

Gracast commented in that publication that he recently visited the country and was able to witness how El Salvador has changed, moving from an environment full of violence to an environment of peace and security, thanks to the transformations driven by the current government of Nayib Bukele.

“When I went to El Salvador this time, I swear that I felt a peace, something changed in me. Being there I felt very good, I felt happy, I didn’t feel any anxiety. I feel that my mental health is priceless and I want to be there (in El Salvador) and I’m going to be there. I know it’s going to be a very good change,” he added in that video.

After this publication, the content creator published several videos showing her moving process. Finally, yesterday he published the video of his first day in El Salvador, showing his followers the preparation of a coffee with Salvadoran tradition, inherited from his grandmother, and highlighting the atmosphere of peace that is currently lived in the country.

El Salvador has undergone a positive change in terms of public safety in the last five years and under the presidential leadership of Nayib Bukele, going from being one of the most violent countries in the world to becoming the safest in America.

During Nayib Bukele’s five-year period, El Salvador has recorded 600 days with zero homicides and has seen the average of violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants categorically reduced, thanks to strategies such as the Territorial Control Plan or the emergency regime still in force in El Salvador, which has allowed the capture of more than 79,000 gang members and criminals.

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