Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s party lost its absolute majority in the lower house in elections Sunday, initial results indicated, in a setback to his promised “transformation” of the country. Lopez Obrador’s Morena party was set to take between 190 and 203 of the 500 seats, the National Electoral Institute said, though it could still secure an absolute majority with its allies. The polls were seen as a referendum on his more than two years in office overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and cartel-related violence.   Dozens of politicians have been murdered in the months leading up to the midterm elections for the lower house of Congress, 15 of 32 state governors and thousands of local politicians. On the eve of the election, gunmen killed five people helping to organize voting in southern Mexico, while two human heads were left at polling stations in the border city of Tijuana. Lopez Obrador was elected in 2018 for a term of six years, vowing to overhaul Mexico’s “neoliberal” economic model, root out corruption and end profligacy by a privileged elite. The future of the left-wing populist’s reform agenda — such as seeking greater energy independence — hinged on whether voters would punish him for issues such as the pandemic.   “They never had a plan and they still don’t,” said Claudia Cervantes, a hospital worker. But some other voters such as Tania Calderon were willing to give the ruling party more time.   “Without the pandemic, the government would have done better,” the 37-year-old said. High approval ratingsMexico’s economy, the second largest in Latin America, plunged by 8.5 percent in 2020 in the worst slump in decades, although the government predicts a rebound this year.   Despite more than a quarter of a million coronavirus deaths — one of the world’s highest tolls — the 67-year-old president continues to enjoy public approval ratings above 60 percent.   Deaths and infections from Covid-19 have fallen steadily for several months, helped by a vaccination campaign. Lopez Obrador owes much of his popularity to his social welfare programs aimed at helping the elderly and disadvantaged Mexicans. His supporters say he is their first president to put the interests of the Mexican majority, many of whom live in poverty, before those of the wealthy elite.   The president’s critics accuse him of a dangerous tilt towards authoritarianism with attacks on the judiciary and the National Electoral Institute. “Long live democracy,” Lopez Obrador declared Sunday after voting. Political violenceThe ruling coalition has had a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house of Congress that enabled Lopez Obrador to amend the constitution without negotiating with his opponents.   Without it, he faces a tougher time pushing through his reforms.   Sunday’s vote has been overshadowed by a wave of political bloodshed that has seen more than 90 politicians murdered since the electoral process began in September. In the southern state of Chiapas, gunmen killed five people on Saturday in an attack that coincided with the delivery of ballot boxes and other voting materials.   A manhunt was launched for the perpetrators, whose motives were not immediately known. In Guerrero, one of the country’s most violent regions, also located in southern Mexico, members of a community police force kept watch over voting. “Members of organized crime come to divide the people. They don’t let them vote freely,” said community police leader Isaias Posotema. 
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Guatemala and Mexico this week on a trip that spotlights migration issues at the southern U.S. border. Michelle Quinn reports.
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Peruvian voters chose between two polarizing populist candidates Sunday in a presidential runoff held as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the Andean country and festering anger has led to fears of more political instability.  Political novice Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori, making her third run for the presidency, both promised coronavirus vaccines for all and other strategies to alleviate the health emergency that has killed more than 180,000 people in Peru and pushed millions into poverty. The election follows a statistical revision from Peru’s government that more than doubled the death toll previously acknowledged by officials.  The pandemic not only has collapsed Peru’s medical and cemetery infrastructure, left millions unemployed and highlighted longstanding inequalities in the country, it has also deepened people’s mistrust of government as it mismanaged the COVID-19 response and a secret vaccination drive for the well-connected erupted into a national scandal.  Amid protests and corruption allegations, the South American country cycled through three presidents in November. Now, analysts warn this election could be another tipping point for people’s simmering frustrations and bring more political instability.”I think in both situations the risk of social unrest is high. It’s a time bomb,” said Claudia Navas, an analyst with the global firm Control Risks. “I think if Castillo wins, people who support Fujimori or support the continuation to some extent of the economic model may protest.”But Navas said “a more complex scenario will evolve if Fujimori wins because Castillo has been able to create a discourse that has played well in some rural communities with regards to the social divide and saying that political and economic elites have orchestrated things to remain in power and maintain the social inequalities.”  Pre-election polls indicated the candidates were virtually tied heading into the runoff. In the first round of voting, featuring 18 candidates, neither received more than 20% support and both were strongly opposed by sectors of Peruvian society.”Well, the truth is that I believe that Peruvians are used to this type of decision — of being left with two options that leave much to be desired, but what do we do?” one voter, Paul Perez, said at a school in Lima where he was voting. “We are in a social, cultural situation that limits us to anticipating all of this.”For Lima resident Felipa Yanacris, Peru’s presidential politics desperately need a shake-up.  “We want change, we have been waiting for 30 years of change,” Yanacris said.Fujimori voted in the wealthy neighborhood of the capital of Lima where she lives, urging people to vote ”without fear,” while Castillo appealed for calm while casting his ballot alongside his parents in the rural Anguia area.President Francisco Sagasti also voted, saying both candidates should respect the results and ask their followers to refrain from staging protests over the outcome.  Fujimori, a conservative former congresswoman, has promised various bonuses to people, including a $2,500 one-time payment to each family with at least one COVID-19 victim. She has also proposed distributing 40% of a tax for the extraction of minerals, oil or gas among families who live near those areas.Her supporters include the wealthy players of the national soccer team and Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru’s foremost author and the winner of a Nobel Prize in literature. Vargas, who lost a presidential election three decades ago to the candidate’s father, Alberto Fujimori, called her the “daughter of the dictator” in 2016 but now considers her to be the representative of “freedom and progress.”  Keiko Fujimori herself has been imprisoned as part of a graft investigation though she was later released. Her father governed between 1990 and 2000 and is serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and the killings of 25 people. She has promised to free him should she win.Castillo until recently was a rural schoolteacher in the country’s third-poorest district, deep in the Andes. The son of illiterate peasants entered politics by leading a teachers’ strike. While his stance on nationalizing key sectors of the economy has softened, he remains committed to rewriting the constitution that was approved under the regime of Fujimori’s father.Among Castillo’s supporters are former Bolivia President Evo Morales and former Uruguay President José Mujica, who in a conversation via Facebook told Castillo on Thursday to “not fall into authoritarianism.”  Peru is the second largest copper exporter in the world and mining accounts for almost 10% of its GDP and 60% of its exports, so Castillo’s initial proposal to nationalize the nation’s mining industry set off alarm bells among business leaders. But regardless of who gets picked to succeed Sagasti on July 28, investors will remain skittish.  “A victory for left-wing populist Pedro Castillo in Peru’s presidential election on Sunday would probably send local financial markets into a tailspin, but we doubt that investors would have much to cheer about even if his rival Keiko Fujimori wins,” Nikhil Sanghani, emerging markets economist with Capital Economics, wrote in an investors note Friday.”Fujimori is a controversial figure who is under investigation for corruption charges. Given Peru’s recent history, it’s not hard to imagine that this could spark impeachment proceedings,” he said. 
 
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Kamala Harris left Sunday on her first trip as U.S. vice president, visiting Guatemala and Mexico on a mission to try to figure out how to keep the people there and in Honduras and El Salvador from migrating north to the United States.As thousands of migrants try to cross the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico, Harris is looking to reach agreements for more cooperation on border security and economic development to keep people in their home countries even as corruption in the region complicates already difficult issues.Harris, who has little foreign policy experience, was tasked by President Joe Biden to resolve the migration dilemma for the U.S., searching for a way to stem the flow of migrants in a humane way and not allow unfettered access into the U.S.She is meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday. In addition, Harris is meeting community leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs in Guatemala, and while in Mexico, she is participating in a conversation with female entrepreneurs and holding a roundtable with labor workers.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 21 MB720p | 42 MB1080p | 86 MBOriginal | 606 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioWatch: ‘Kamala Harris Heads to Mexico, Guatemala’ by VOA’s Patsy WidakuswaraAhead of her visits to the two countries, she has emphasized the need for increased employment opportunities and better living conditions. She announced $310 million in U.S. aid to support refugees and deal with food shortages. She also recently won commitments from U.S. companies and organizations to invest in Central American countries to promote economic opportunity and job training.The U.S. also last week said it would send a combined 1.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to Guatemala and Mexico.Harris’s diplomatic outreach has touched off political mockery at home because she has yet to visit the U.S.-Mexico border even though she said she would at some point.At a news conference, some Republicans displayed a milk carton showing Harris with the headline: “MISSING AT THE BORDER.”Over recent years, the U.S. has sent billions of dollars in assistance to Central American countries in hopes of curbing the motivation for residents there to migrate north to the U.S. But so far, the aid has not stemmed the tide of migration as people look to escape crime and poverty in search of a better life in the U.S.Former President Donald Trump adopted get-tough policies at the border to turn back migrants. Biden also is turning back migrants but has allowed unaccompanied children to enter the U.S., unlike Trump. The policy shift combined with a predictable rise in spring migration and the easing of pandemic restrictions at the border, contributed to the arrival of thousands of migrants in recent months, increasing pressure on the Biden administration to resolve the issue.”We have to give people a sense of hope, a sense of hope that help is on the way, a sense of hope that if they stay, things will get better,” Harris said after Biden named her to lead diplomatic efforts in Latin America.The Harris trip got off to a tentative start when her plane leaving Washington was forced to return after 30 minutes by what was described as a “technical issue.” She boarded another plane and left about an hour and a half later.
 
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Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his pain over the discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 Indigenous students of church-run boarding schools and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on “this sad affair.” But he didn’t offer the apology sought by the Canadian prime minister.Francis, in remarks to faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, also called on the authorities to foster healing but made no reference to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s insistence, two days earlier, that the Vatican apologize and take responsibility.From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools, the majority of them run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, in a campaign to assimilate them into Canadian society.The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.Ground-penetrating radar was used to confirm the remains of the children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, last month. The school was Canada’s largest such facility and was operated by the Catholic Church between 1890 and 1969.”I am following with pain the news that arrives from Canada about the upsetting discovery of the remains of 215 children,” Francis said in his customary Sunday noon remarks to the public.”I join with the Canadian bishops and the entire Catholic Church in Canada in expressing my closeness to the Canadian people traumatized by the shocking news,” Francis said.”This sad discovery adds to the awareness of the sorrows and sufferings of the past,” he added.Trudeau on Friday blasted the church for being “silent” and “not stepping up,” and called on it to formally apologize and to make amends for its prominent role in his nation’s former system of church-run Indigenous boarding schools.He noted that when he met with Francis at the Vatican in 2017, he had asked him to “move forward on apologizing” and on making records available. But, Trudeau said, “we’re still seeing resistance from the church, possibly from the church in Canada.”Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia has said her nation wants a public apology from the Catholic Church. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which ran nearly half of Canada’s residential schools, has yet to release any records about the Kamloops school, she also said.Francis’ comments spoke of healing but not of apology.”May the political and religious authorities continue to collaborate with determination to shed light on this sad affair and to commit humbly to a path of reconciliation and healing,” Francis said.”These difficult moments represent a strong call to distance ourselves from the colonial model and from today’s ideological colonizing and to walk side by side in dialogue, in mutual respect and in recognizing rights and cultural values of all the daughters and sons of Canada,” the pope said.”Let’s entrust to the Lord the souls of all those children, deceased in the residential schools of Canada,” the pontiff added. “Let us pray for the families and for the indigenous Canadian communities overcome by sorrow.” Francis then asked the public in the square below his window to join him in silent prayer.Last week, the Vatican spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment about the demands for a formal apology from the pope.On Wednesday, Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller tweeted his “deep apology and profound condolences to the families and communities that have been devastated by this horrific news.” The churchman, who leads Catholics in that British Columbia archdiocese, added that the church was “unquestionably wrong in implementing a government colonialist policy which resulted in devastation for children, families and communities.”The United, Presbyterian and Anglican churches have apologized for their roles in the abuse, as has the Canadian government, which has offered compensation.Among the many recommendations of a government-established Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a papal apology.In 2009, then Pope Benedict XVI met with former students and survivors and told them of his “personal anguish” over their suffering. But his words weren’t described as an apology. 
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Mexicans headed to the polls on Sunday to vote for a new lower house of Congress, state governors and local lawmakers, in a race seen as a referendum on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s policies and efforts to shake up Mexico’s institutions.All 500 seats in the lower house, 15 state governorships and thousands of local leadership positions are up for grabs, with some 93.5 million Mexicans eligible to vote. 
The elections have been tinged by the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout, as well as record criminal violence, with security consultancy Etellekt saying 91 politicians have been killed in this election cycle. Since taking office in 2018 after a landslide victory, Lopez Obrador has expanded the role of the state in the energy industry and radically cut back on the cost of government to channel resources to the poor and his priority infrastructure projects. In the process, he has eroded institutional checks and balances and frequently criticized autonomous bodies, including the Bank of Mexico, prompting critics to sound the alarm about a dangerous centralization of power. Though voters tend to criticize his government’s record on job creation and fighting crime, they are more skeptical of Mexico’s former rulers, now in opposition. Lopez Obrador has also benefited from the vaccine rollout. Recent polls suggest his National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) may lose some of its current 253 seats in the lower house, but is still likely to retain a majority with the help of the allied Green and Labor parties. The Senate is not up for election. That support partly reflects discontent with older parties. To stay on top in the long term, MORENA must improve its record on the economy, officials, lawmakers and voters say. At least one survey pointed to a tight race with the three opposition parties, the center-right National Action Party (PAN), centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), that have forged an electoral alliance nipping at the heels of the MORENA-led coalition.Though the president’s name is not on the ballot, a big win “may embolden Lopez Obrador to pursue more interventionist policies and could open the door to constitutional changes,” said Nikhil Sanghani, Latin America economist at Capital Economics. Sanghani said the president would likely deepen his state-centric policies, especially in the energy sector, in his remaining three years in office. Lopez Obrador has made reversing his predecessor’s opening of the energy sector a top priority and has bolstered state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and national power utility the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), often to the detriment of private enterprise. Duncan Wood of the Washington-based Wilson Center said that Lopez Obrador, who describes his administration as the “Fourth Transformation,” wants to leave a lasting imprint on Mexico’s political landscape. “To leave a lasting legacy means changing the constitution, because if you change the constitution, it’s much more difficult for governments who follow you to change it back,” said Wood, adding the president would likely want to further centralize power in the hands of the executive and federal government over the states. Lopez Obrador has signaled that he has already carried out the core of his legislative agenda, however, and says that only a few major issues are pending for the second half of his administration. By law Lopez Obrador can only serve one term, so keeping or expanding a majority in the lower house is needed to accelerate the “structural economic and social transformation the president has been advocating, and pave the way for a friendly political succession in 2024,” said Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Ramos. In the campaign leading up to Sunday’s election, former President Felipe Calderon, a longstanding adversary of Lopez Obrador, said Mexicans were choosing between “democracy and dictatorship.” Lopez Obrador has repeatedly rejected suggestions that he could turn Mexico into a dictatorship. Calderon, who ruled Mexico for the center-right PAN from 2006 to 2012, said the leftist government of Lopez Obrador had little regard for the constitution or the law. “If we don’t stop this, we’re going directly to where Venezuela is,” he said in an online discussion in May. For his part, Lopez Obrador has accused Calderon of robbing him of the presidency in 2006 and often pillories him as part of a corrupt political system. A loss at the ballot box for MORENA and its allies, though unlikely, could help moderate Lopez Obrador by creating a new check on his power. But it could also prompt a backlash. “It could also bring out Lopez Obrador’s combativeness, and lead to legal challenges against results, more anti-business rhetoric, and increased political polarization,” said Nicholas Watson, managing director of consultancy Teneo. 
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Peruvians face a polarizing choice between right-wing populist Keiko Fujimori and radical leftist Pedro Castillo when they elect a new president Sunday, in a country desperate for a return to normalcy after years of political turbulence.The new leader will need to tackle a country in crisis, suffering from recession and with the worst coronavirus death rate in the world after recording 184,000 mortalities among the 33 million population.And after four presidents in the last three years and with seven of the last 10 of the country’s leaders either having been convicted of or investigated for corruption, Peruvians will look to their next leader to bring an end to the recent turbulence.At the height of the political storm in November last year, Peru had three different presidents in just five days.Two million Peruvians have lost their jobs during the pandemic and nearly a third of the country now lives in poverty, according to official figures.Fujimori, 46, and Castillo, 51, caused a surprise when taking the top two spots in April’s first round of voting.Now voters must decide between their polar opposite economic and political programs.In the most recent poll, Castillo had a narrow 2 percentage points edge but 18% of people remained undecided in a country where voting is obligatory.Fujimori, the daughter of disgraced and jailed former president Alberto Fujimori, represents the neoliberal economic model of tax cuts and boosting private activity to generate jobs.Trade unionist schoolteacher Castillo has pledged to nationalize vital industries, raise taxes, eliminate tax exemptions and increase state regulation.Fujimori’s bastion is the capital Lima, while Castillo’s bulwark is the rural deep interior.”We’re fed up with always being governed by the same people, we want Peru to change,” Martha Huaman, 27, a fruit seller in Tacabamba, in the Cajamarca region where Castillo lives, told AFP.”For us it’s a dream, it’s an awakening, we’re really happy to be with” Castillo, said evangelical priest Victor Cieza Rivera, whose church is attended by the presidential candidate’s wife, Lilia Paredes.Tacabamba and other villages in Cajamarca are full of posters for Castillo, who topped the first round of voting.’I don’t want to vote’Favored by the business sector and middle classes, Fujimori has tried to portray Castillo as a communist threat, warning that Peru would become a new Venezuela or North Korea should he win.Castillo has pointed to the Fujimori family’s history of corruption scandals. Keiko Fujimori is under investigation for accepting illegal campaign funding in her 2011 and 2016 presidential bids and has already spent 16 months in pre-trial detention.Her father is serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity and corruption.For many in Peru this election is about the “lesser of evils.””I don’t even want to vote, neither of them deserve it, but Castillo panics me so I’m going to vote for Fujimori,” said trucker Johnny Samaniego, 51, who lives in Lima.Whoever wins will have a hard time governing as Congress is fragmented. Castillo’s Free Peru is the largest single party, just ahead of Fujimori’s Popular Force, but without a majority.If Fujimori wins “it won’t be easy given the mistrust her name and that of her family generates in many sectors. She’ll have to quickly calm the markets and generate ways to reactivate them,” political scientist Jessica Smith told AFP.If Castillo triumphs, he’ll have to “consolidate a parliamentary majority that will allow him to deliver his ambitious program,” added Smith.But in either case “it will take time to calm the waters because there’s fierce polarization and an atmosphere of social conflict,” analyst Luis Pasaraindico told AFP.Some 160,000 police and soldiers have been deployed to guarantee peace on election day.The 11,400 voting centers will open at 7:00 am (1200 GMT) for 12 hours.Some 25 million people will vote, plus another 1 million from the Peruvian diaspora living in 75 countries around the world.The first results are expected at 11:00 pm on Sunday (0400 GMT Monday).The new president will take office on July 28, replacing centrist interim leader Francisco Sagasti. 
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El Salvador may become the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, President Nayid Bukele announced Saturday, saying he would soon propose a bill that could transform the remittance-dependent economy.The move would make the Central American nation the first in the world to formally accept the cryptocurrency as legal money and would “allow the financial inclusion of thousands of people who are outside the legal economy,” Bukele said.”Next week, I will send to Congress a bill that makes Bitcoin legal money,” the populist leader said during a video message to the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Florida.The bill aims to create jobs, he said, in a country where “70% of the population does not have a bank account and works in the informal economy.”The El Salvador government is yet to give details of the bill, which will require approval from a parliament dominated by the president’s allies.Remittances from Salvadorans working overseas represent a major chunk of the economy — equivalent to roughly 22% of Gross Domestic Product.In 2020, remittances to the country totaled $5.9 billion, according to official reports.According to Bukele, bitcoin represented “the fastest growing way to transfer” those billions of dollars in remittances and to prevent millions from being lost to intermediaries.”Thanks to the use of bitcoin, the amount received by more than a million low-income families increases by several billion dollars every year,” said the president.”This improves life and the future of millions of people.”The cryptocurrency market grew to more than $2.5 trillion in mid-May 2020, according to the Coinmarketcap page, driven by interest from increasingly serious investors from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.But the volatility of bitcoin — currently priced at $36,127 — and its murky legal status has raised questions about whether it could ever replace fiat currency in day-to-day transactions.
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U.S Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Guatemala and Mexico this week, bringing a message of hope to a region hammered by COVID-19 and which is the source of most of the undocumented migrants seeking entry in the U.S.Harris is taking her first trip abroad as President Joe Biden’s deputy with an eye towards tackling the root causes of migration from the region — one of the thorniest issues facing the White House.”We have to give people a sense of hope, a sense of hope that help is on the way, a sense of hope that if they stay, things will get better,” Harris has said, after Biden tasked her with leading diplomatic efforts on the issue in March.She is set to fly Sunday to Guatemala, where she will meet with President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday before setting off to meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday.Harris also has plans to meet with community, labor and business leaders, according to her team.Harris said she hopes to have “very frank and honest discussions” about corruption, crime and violence.Detentions of undocumented travelers, including unaccompanied minors, along the US-Mexico border hit a 15-year record high in April, with nearly 180,000 people intercepted — more than 80% of them coming from Mexico or the so-called Northern Triangle of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.Vaccines, TPS, Title 42Donation of coronavirus vaccines by the United States to the region is also expected to be up for discussion.Harris already addressed the subject over the phone with Giammattei and Lopez Obrador on Thursday, just before Biden announced the shipment of a first batch of 6 million doses to be distributed in Central America and the Caribbean through the global Covax program, plus others to be sent directly from Washington to partner countries such as Mexico.For security and democracy expert Rebecca Bill Chavez, “a real commitment” on the number of doses destined for the Northern Triangle would be “one very positive outcome” of Harris’s trip.Another potential topic is the possibility of granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Guatemalans living in the United States, allowing them to work legally.And there could be talk in Mexico of the end of “Title 42,” a Trump-era coronavirus policy allowing the immediate deportation of undocumented migrants — even those who arrive seeking asylum.’A lot tougher’The vice president’s trip to Central America is part of the Biden administration’s promise of a more humane immigration policy — in contrast to the hardline approach taken by his predecessor Donald Trump.But Harris faces challenges even more complicated than the ones Biden dealt with as vice president under Barack Obama, when he himself was charged with handling the same matter.”The conditions have deteriorated dramatically since 2014,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, referring to a worsening economic situation and an increase in violence, both exacerbated by the pandemic.Harris’s work is therefore “a lot tougher,” Shifter said, “because the (country) partners are far more problematic.”The relationship between Washington and El Salvador has been tense since the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly, led by the ruling party, fired judges and the attorney general May 1, and after the U.S. labeled members of President Nayib Bukele’s government as corrupt.And Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was implicated of cocaine trafficking in a New York court earlier this year.A group of 18 US Democratic senators wrote a letter to Harris ahead of her trip.”Ensuring stability in Central America directly supports the national interests of the United States,” said the group, led by Foreign Relations Committee head Bob Menendez.The Republican opposition, on the other hand, has accused Biden of creating a “crisis” on the country’s southern border.Congress must still decide whether to approve the $861 million Biden has asked for next year as part of his $4 billion plan to take on the issue of illegal immigration.
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El Salvador’s new attorney general announced Friday that he would end the cooperation agreement between his office and an anti-impunity mission from the Organization of American States that was supporting the country’s justice system.Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado, who was named to the post last month by the congress, suggested the move was triggered by the OAS naming former San Salvador Mayor Ernesto Muyshondt as an adviser.Delgado said that he would ask the Foreign Ministry to cancel the agreement and that cooperation with the mission would end in 30 days.”We are open to working with the international community and receiving support in the fight against impunity, but it is not possible to receive this kind of support from an organization that now has the advice of a criminal,” he said.Muyshondt is being prosecuted with others for alleged crimes related to electoral fraud and illegal association for allegedly negotiating payments to the country’s powerful street gangs in exchange for their electoral support in 2014.Muyshondt, who has called his prosecution politically motivated, responded that his appointment as an OAS adviser was an excuse to end the cooperation agreement so the administration of President Nayib Bukele could “continue doing the corruption it has been doing.”The U.S. Embassy said via Twitter that it regretted the announcement.”The fight against corruption is essential and fundamental,” it said. “We are going to continue looking for ways to reduce and combat corruption and impunity.”On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a National Security Study Memorandum that established fighting corruption as a core national security interest.Earlier Friday, the congress passed laws proposed by Bukele that strip the country’s most powerful business association of its right to representation on nearly two dozen autonomous boards that oversee activities ranging from water distribution to airports and seaports.Bukele said via Twitter that he had sent 23 initiatives to the congress to remove the National Private Business Association from the institutions “to put them at the service of the people.”The business association, known by its Spanish initials ANEP, and its president, Javier Simán, are among Bukele’s most outspoken critics.ANEP said in a statement Friday that the changes would “open the door for companies and people with direct conflicts of interest to nominate candidates” to the institutions.The statement said the change would replace “representation of the independent, critical and watchful private sector with obliging, submissive and patronizing voices.”It was just the latest in a series of moves by Bukele and his New Ideas party, which holds a supermajority in the Legislative Assembly, to remove critical voices from government and quasi-governmental positions. 
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The Catholic Church must take responsibility for its role in running many of Canada’s residential schools for Indigenous children, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday, after the discovery of the remains of 215 children at one former school last month.”As a Catholic, I am deeply disappointed by the position the Catholic Church has taken now and over the past many years,” Trudeau told reporters. “We expect the Church to step up and take responsibility for its role in this.”The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops did not respond to a request for comment.Between 1831 and 1996, Canada’s residential school system forcibly separated about 150,000 children from their homes. Many were subjected to abuse, rape and malnutrition in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called “cultural genocide.”Run by the government and church groups, the majority of them Catholic, the schools’ stated aim was to assimilate Indigenous children.The discovery this week of the remains of the children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, which closed in 1978, has reopened old wounds and is fueling outrage about a persistent lack of information and accountability.From 1893-1969, a Catholic congregation called the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate ran the Kamloops school, which was once Canada’s largest.Seeking an apologyOn Friday, Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir, on whose land the Kamloops school still stands, told reporters the nation has not received any records from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate that would help identify the children.”We do want an apology” from the Catholic Church, Casimir said. “A public apology. Not just for us, but for the world.”In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for the system. Trudeau said many are “wondering why the Catholic Church in Canada is silent.”He added: “Before we have to start taking the Catholic Church to court, I am very hopeful that religious leaders will understand this is something they need to participate in and not hide from.”Trudeau has not directed such pointed comments at the Catholic Church over the residential schools since taking office in 2015.’Unquestionably wrong’On Wednesday, Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller said on Twitter “the Church was unquestionably wrong” and his archdiocese would be transparent with its archives and records regarding residential schools.The Conference said on its website that each diocese is separate and responsible for its own actions.”The Catholic Church as a whole in Canada was not associated with the residential schools, nor was the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops,” it said.Separately, United Nations human rights experts on Friday called on both Canada and the Vatican to further investigate the deaths of the children found in Kamloops.”It is inconceivable that Canada and the Holy See would leave such heinous crimes unaccounted for and without full redress,” they said in a statement.
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Mexican voters will go to the polls Sunday to elect candidates for thousands of local offices, and in a country where elections have a tradition of violence, journalists will be in the crosshairs.“We know that when there’s so much violence, journalists who cover these elections, they can become targets, too,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico representative at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).In April, the U.S.-based rights group went so far as to publish a “journalists safety kit” just for the Mexico elections, citing harassment, online bullying and assassination. Five journalists were killed in 2020; one was shot and killed in May, and another survived a knife attack.Mexico emerged as Guadalupe Severo, the wife of slain journalist Julio Valdivia, is embraced during his wake inside their home in Tezonapa, Veracruz, Mexico, Sept. 10, 2020. Valdivia’s decapitated body was found five miles from Tezonapa a day earlier.The journalists had all been involved in investigating or working on reports of high-level official corruption, or government involvement in human rights abuses. Targets received text messages with personal and sexual taunts and kidnapping warnings, among other threats.More recently, on March 23, 2021, in the state of Baja California, investigative reporter Dianeth Perez Arreola received a letter from a special prosecutor for electoral crimes.The letter ordered her to remove online content with references to a female political candidate and warned Perez Arreola not to publish details about the candidate that “denigrate or degrade a woman.”’Absurd’ allegationsPerez Arreola had published a video alleging that the candidate used her position in the Sonora governor’s office to enrich herself. Perez Arreola faces arrest or fines if she refuses to comply with the letter, according to an account by CPJ.“The allegations are absurd, as none of the videos were about [the candidate’s] personal life, and none of them contained any content that would be degrading to her as a woman,” Perez Arreola said to CPJ.Given the gang violence and government corruption in Mexico, journalists often don’t know where threats are coming from. That makes it hard to take precautions.“Even if measures are taken to stay safe, they are an illusion. When someone is a clear target, there is no army to protect anyone,” said Aguilar Perez.Still, Hootsen said journalists can create their own mutual safety net.“When reporting on the election, try to check in with your colleagues. Try to make sure that people know where you are, what you’re doing, and make sure that you know who to call when you get into trouble,” Hootsen said.Despite the risks, Aguilar Perez takes solace in the belief that Mexicans still respect and respond to journalism that holds politicians accountable for their actions.“The only thing that still weighs on Mexican politics is the public claim of citizens,” he said. “In my case, the support of citizens and fellow media has been the most important factor.”
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The Biden administration has quietly tasked six humanitarian groups with recommending which migrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. instead of being rapidly expelled from the country under federal pandemic-related powers that block people from seeking asylum.
 
The groups will determine who is most vulnerable in Mexico, and their criteria has not been made public. It comes as large numbers of people are crossing the southern border and as the government faces intensifying pressure to lift the public health powers instituted by former President Donald Trump and kept in place by President Joe Biden during the coronavirus pandemic.
 
Several members of the consortium spoke to The Associated Press about the criteria and provided details of the system that have not been previously reported. The government is aiming to admit to the country up to 250 asylum-seekers a day who are referred by the groups and is agreeing to that system only until July 31. By then, the consortium hopes the Biden administration will have lifted the public health rules, though the government has not committed to that.
 
So far, a total of nearly 800 asylum-seekers have been let in since May 3, and members of the consortium say there is already more demand than they can meet.  
 
The groups have not been publicly identified except for the International Rescue Committee, a global relief organization. The others are London-based Save the Children; two U.S.-based organizations, HIAS and Kids in Need of Defense; and two Mexico-based organizations, Asylum Access and the Institute for Women in Migration, according to two people with direct knowledge who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not intended for public release.
 
Asylum Access, which provides services to people seeing asylum in Mexico, characterized its role as minimal.
 
The effort started in El Paso, Texas, and is expanding to Nogales, Arizona.  
A similar but separate mechanism led by the American Civil Liberties Union began in late March and allows 35 families a day into the United States at places along the border. It has no end date.
 
The twin tracks are described by participating organizations as an imperfect transition from so-called Title 42 authority, named for a section of an obscure 1944 public health law that Trump used in March 2020 to effectively end asylum at the Mexican border. With COVID-19 vaccination rates rising, Biden is finding it increasingly difficult to justify the expulsions on public health grounds and faces demands to end it from the U.N. refugee agency and members of his own party and administration.  
 
Critics of the new selection processes say too much power is vested in a small number of organizations and that the effort is shrouded in secrecy without a clear explanation of how the groups were chosen. Critics also say there are no assurances that the most vulnerable or deserving migrants will be chosen to seek asylum.
 
Some consortium members are concerned that going public may cause their offices in Mexico to be mobbed by asylum-seekers, overwhelming their tiny staffs and exposing them to potential threats and physical attacks from extortionists and other criminals.  
 
The consortium was formed after the U.S. government asked the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ office in Mexico for the names of organizations with deep experience and capacity in Mexico, said Sibylla Brodzinsky, a spokeswoman for the U.N. office.
 
“We’ve had long relationships with them and they’re trusted partners,” she said.  
 
The groups say they are merely streamlining the process but that the vulnerable migrants’ cases can come from anywhere.
 
In Nogales, Arizona, the International Rescue Committee is connecting to migrants via social media and smartphones to find candidates. It plans to refer up to 600 people a month to U.S. officials, said Raymundo Tamayo, the group’s director in Mexico.  
 
Special consideration is being given to people who have been in Mexico a long time, need acute medical attention or who have disabilities, are members of the LGBTQ community or are non-Spanish speakers, though each case is being weighed on its unique circumstances, Tamayo said.
 
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said advocacy groups are in “a very difficult position because they need to essentially rank the desperation” of people, but he insisted it was temporary. The government, he said, “cannot farm out the asylum system.”
 
Migration experts not involved in the process have questioned how the groups determine who is eligible.
 
“It has been murky,” said Jessica Bolter, an analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute who believes the administration is trying to quietly be humane without encouraging more people to come, a balancing act she doubts will succeed.
 
“Setting out clear and accurate information about how and who might get in might lead to fewer migrants making the trip, so there’s not this game of chance that kind of seems to be in place right now,” Bolter said.
 
U.S. border authorities recorded the highest number of encounters with migrants in more than 20 years in April, though many were repeat crossers who had previously been expelled from the country. The number of children crossing the border alone also is hovering at all-time highs.
 
Against that backdrop, some advocates are seeing the makings of the “humane” asylum system that Biden promised during his campaign. Details have been elusive, with administration officials saying they need time.
 
Susana Coreas, who fled El Salvador, was among those identified as vulnerable and allowed into the United States last month. Coreas spent more than a year in Ciudad Juarez waiting to apply for asylum but was barred by the public health order.
 
She and other transgender women refurbished an abandoned hotel to have a safe place to stay after they felt uncomfortable at several shelters in the rough Mexican city.
 
But they continued to have problems. One woman had a knife pointed at her. Another had a gun pulled on her.  
 
“There was so much anxiety,” Coreas said. “I now feel at peace.”
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At least two people died early Thursday after a residential building collapsed in a working-class area of Rio de Janeiro.People nearby reported hearing a booming sound, according to Reuters. The collapsed four-story building reportedly also caught fire.More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene in the Rio das Pedras neighborhood, but they were too late to save an adult and child.An aerial view shows a collapsed building in the Rio das Pedras slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 3, 2021.The neighborhood is known to be controlled by organized crime groups reportedly involved in the construction of many substandard buildings.In 2019, in the adjacent neighborhood of Itanhanga, another organized crime-built building collapsed and killed two people, Reuters reported.
 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Central American leaders to tackle corruption, poverty and drug trafficking to improve the lives of their citizens and stem migration to the United States. Blinken made the appeal in Costa Rica, where he met with the region’s leaders, as VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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The United States is calling on Central American countries to confront corruption and poverty as Washington examines root causes and strategies to manage the flood of migrants at its southern border.
 
Wednesday in Costa Rica, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard discussed “a variety of issues to promote the prosperity and security” in the region.The top U.S. diplomat thanked Ebrard “for the Mexican government’s continued collaboration on addressing the root causes of irregular migration in the region.”Both also “discussed progress toward addressing COVID-19 and economic recovery, as well as issues related to regional democracy and governance, and security,” according to the U.S. State Department.Blinken embarked on his first in-person trip to the Western Hemisphere this week when he traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica.U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris stands by as President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, June 2, 2021.The top U.S. diplomat’s trip comes ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ upcoming visit to Guatemala and Mexico.Harris has been tapped by U.S. President Joe Biden to lead diplomatic efforts in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to address the underlying causes of migration in hopes of halting the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S.Some experts see Blinken’s visit to Costa Rica as laying the foundation for a successful visit by Harris.“The U.S. is also looking for cooperation on immigration, and we’re more likely to get that cooperation when governments see the carrot of a broad-based economic integration program,” said Professor Richard Feinberg, who teaches international political economy at the University of California, San Diego.Feinberg suggested including Caribbean Basin countries in the U.S. “transportation networks” and “economic integration,” as Biden is eyeing large expenditures on infrastructure, roads, ports and airports in the U.S.COVID vaccinesBlinken’s trip to the region also comes as China actively positions itself as the dominating provider of COVID-19 vaccinations in Latin America. FILE – Refrigerated containers with supplies to produce China’s Sinovac vaccines against the coronavirus disease arrive at Sao Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos, Brazil, April 19, 2021.As countries in Latin America continue to get doses, three Chinese vaccines — CanSino, Sinopharm, and Sinovac — are reaching wider distribution in the region.  The U.S. has announced its goal to ship 80 million vaccine doses abroad by the end of June. Blinken said Biden will detail this global distribution plan, possibly as early as Thursday.  
 
“In a few short days — in fact, possibly as early as tomorrow — the president is going to announce in more detail the plan that he has put together to push out 80 million vaccines around the world that we have at our disposal,” Blinken said Wednesday during his remarks at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica.
A day before, the top U.S. diplomat pledged no political strings would be attached when providing U.S. vaccines to other countries.“Among other things, we will focus on equity — on the equitable distribution of vaccines. We’ll focus on science. We’ll work in coordination with COVAX. And we will distribute vaccines without political requirements of those receiving them,” Blinken said during a joint press conference with Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado on Tuesday.
 
Asked if he was worried that getting Chinese vaccines would come with certain conditions, Alvarado said there should be “no strings attached.”“Our condition is that those vaccines that we buy or receive as donations should be qualified by a strict agency,” he said.In May, the United States said it would share an additional 20 million coronavirus vaccine doses with other countries, in addition to the 60 million it has already committed. Officials said the U.S. will distribute according to need and not to curry favor.US to Distribute 80 Million Vaccine Doses Globally, on Basis of Need  Sharing is caring: US distribution of vaccines is, president says, a case of ‘the fundamental decency of American people’  Blinken also attended a regional meeting of the Central American foreign ministers held Tuesday under the auspices of the Central American Integration System, where collaborating on migration challenges, combating the COVID-19 pandemic, improving economic growth, as well as reinforcing democratic institutions, were said to be high on the agenda.VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Central American governments to do more to help contain illegal immigration and voiced concerns about the health of local democracy and human rights during a visit to the region on Tuesday. Speaking at a joint news conference with Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado, Blinken said the United States wanted to hear from its partners in the region about their shared commitment to managing migratory pressures. “Good governance is crucial for confronting the challenges and seizing the opportunities of this moment, and yet we meet at a moment when democracy and human rights are being undermined in many parts of the region,” Blinken told reporters. Blinken cited erosion of judicial independence, crackdowns on independent media and NGOs, as well as the suppression of anti-corruption efforts to illustrate his point, noting that the United States had also suffered its own setbacks. U.S. President Joe Biden has been under pressure to reduce a sharp increase in undocumented immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office in January. Regional cooperation to address the issue was now more important than ever, said Blinken, who traveled to Costa Rica to hold talks with leaders from Central America and Mexico. Many immigrants stopped at the U.S. border are from three violent and impoverished Central American countries, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which Washington has pledged aid in return for commitments to improve local governance. That drive has been clouded by concern about graft, cronyism, signs of authoritarianism and efforts to block the appointment of judges with track records of tackling corruption. The United States has promised to help poorer countries in the fight against COVID-19 with vaccines, and Blinken said the government would in the next week or so set out plans for how millions of doses would be distributed. 
 
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday laid flowers at a makeshift memorial in front of parliament for 215 Indigenous students whose remains were discovered last week at a former boarding school.The grim find came last week at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the largest of a network of boarding schools set up in the late 19th century to forcibly assimilate the country’s Indigenous peoples.Trudeau observed several minutes of silence and knelt before the heaps of children’s shoes and toys left at the Centennial Flame in Ottawa, before speaking briefly with an Indigenous passerby.’Every child matters’Among the tributes at the memorial were messages of condolence, along with one that read: “Every child matters.”Marking the start of National Indigenous History Month, Trudeau later tweeted: “This is a painful reminder of what took place at residential schools and the impacts still felt today. We cannot hide from this.”Residential schools were a reality — a tragedy that existed in our country — and we have to own up to it,” he wrote.”We all have a role to play in dismantling systemic inequalities and discrimination – it starts with acknowledging the truth about these past wrongs … and honoring the heritage, cultures, and traditions of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples.”Take-note debateA take-note debate was to be held in parliament later Tuesday, allowing the government to solicit lawmakers’ views on future Indigenous policies.The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc tribe in the western province of British Columbia announced last week it had used ground-penetrating radar to confirm the remains of the 215 students who attended the school near the city of Kamloops.It was operated by the Catholic Church on behalf of the Canadian government from 1890 to 1969, before Ottawa took over its administration and closed it a decade later.On Monday, Trudeau expressed Canada’s grievance while pledging “concrete actions” in support of Indigenous communities left traumatized by the news.Some 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis youngsters in total were forcibly enrolled in the boarding schools, where students were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers who stripped them of their culture and language.At least 4,100 died, according to a truth and reconciliation commission, which estimated the actual toll was much higher. 
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns the United States and countries in the Caribbean and Central America to be prepared for what is expected to be another above-normal Atlantic hurricane season.The outlook for this year’s hurricane season, which began Tuesday, is grim. Last year’s record-breaking season had 30 named tropical storms, including 19 hurricanes, six of them major.The WMO says the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be less active, with between 13 and 20 named storms, of which six to 10 could become hurricanes.WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis says the coming season is likely to be particularly difficult for countries, such as those in Central America, that are still recovering from last year’s devastating storms.“Emergency managers are obviously very concerned that if another tropical storm or hurricane does impact, this will have serious consequences. It only takes one hurricane to make landfall in a season to wipe out years of social and economic development.” she said.Nullis says climate change has an influence on seasonal storms, which are increasing in intensity and frequency. She says carbon dioxide concentrations remain at record high levels and will continue to drive global warming.“All naturally occurring climate events now take place in the context of climate change, which is increasing global temperatures. As we know, it is exacerbating extreme weather and it is impacting seasonal rainfall patterns,” Nullis said.While 2021 got off to a relatively cool start, Nullis cautioned against believing that there is a pause in climate change. She noted that the WMO predicts a 90% likelihood of at least one year between 2021-2025 becoming the warmest on record, dislodging 2016 from its top ranking. Globally averaged temperatures in 2016 were 0.99 degrees Celsius warmer than the mid-20th century mean.The Atlantic hurricane season ends November 30. 
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday his government is on board with hosting the Copa America soccer tournament later this month, in a last-minute switch after planned host Argentina pulled out due to the coronavirus.
Speaking to supporters in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said he consulted with Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga and they had agreed the four-week long tournament played by 10 South American nations could take place.
“As far as it is up to me, and all the ministers, including the health minister, it is all decided,” Bolsonaro said.
Brazil was chosen as host nation on Monday in a surprise decision made jointly with the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) after Argentina withdrew as host.
The tournament is set to feature some of the greatest names in world football, with Argentines Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero, Neymar from Brazil, and Uruguayans Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani among those expected to participate. CONMEBOL has promised all players will be vaccinated before the tournament begins.
The opening match is scheduled for June 13 and the final is slated for July 10, but the host cities have not been named and organizers are scrambling to put together a plan for the 10 teams that will fly to Brazil to take part.
No fans are expected to attend the games and Bolsonaro said the same health protocols will be followed that have been in place for other soccer tournaments.
Brazil has hosted teams this year from across the continent in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, South America’s equivalent of the Champions League and Europa League, respectively.
“Are you watching the Libertadores? Are you watching the Copa Sudamericana? There will be a World Cup qualifier here on Friday. And no one says anything, there’s no problem,” Bolsonaro said.
“The protocols are the same.”
This year’s edition of the Copa America, the oldest international tournament in the world, was held over from 2020 because of the pandemic.
It was supposed to be the first to be held jointly by two nations but Colombia and then Argentina pulled out.
It comes as Brazil struggles to cope with the ravages of a virus that has killed 462,791 people, according to government figures.
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Violent confrontations continue between armed groups on the Colombia-Venezuela border, displacing thousands of people.  One Venezuelan nurse is crossing into Colombia to help those in need. For VOA, Jair Diaz has the story from Arauquita, Colombia, in this report narrated by Cristina Smit.
Camera: David Hernandez, Oscar Cavadia
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Spain is grappling with the dilemma of whether it should allow the courts to consider a request to extradite the leading Venezuelan opposition activist to Caracas. The Venezuelan government filed a request for Spain to return Leopoldo López to complete the remaining eight years of a 14-year prison sentence for instigating violence in antigovernment protests and other crimes. The former Caracas mayor, who has been one of the most prominent leaders of the opposition to the rule of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, fled the country last year and has been living in Spain. Spain has so far refused to give any indication as to how it will respond to the request. FILE – Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez speaks during a media briefing at San Carlos Palace in Bogota, Colombia, Feb. 26, 2021.“We will process it as it is always done but obviously I am not going to discuss what is the response that the government of Spain as this [request] just arrived,” said Spanish Foreign Minister Gonzalez Laya last week. López has received widespread international support including from former U.S. President Barack Obama for taking a stand against Maduro. Owing to the political sensitivity of the case, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will consider the request first. Opposition conservative parties in Spain will also put pressure on Spain’s leftist coalition government not to make concessions to Venezuela which is seen as a pariah state by the Right in Madrid. Pablo Casado, the leader of the conservative People’s Party, has urged the prime minister not to recognize the legitimacy of Venezuela’s High Court which issued the extradition order. “Sánchez must immediately say that he does not recognize a court of a dictatorship and that he is not going to process the extradition of an exile like Leopoldo López,” Casado tweeted.  Under pressure   Sánchez is already facing widespread criticism in Spain because he is considering pardoning nine separatist Catalan political activists in order to try to break the deadlock between Madrid and Barcelona. A poll published last week for El Español, an online Spanish newspaper, found 79.6% of Spaniards oppose pardoning separatists who were jailed for between 13 and nine years in prison for their roles in staging an illegal independence referendum in 2017. The opposition is likely to seize on any sudden concession by the prime minister to the Venezuelan government.  Experts have suggested the leftist Spanish government has been keen to keep negotiating channels open with Caracas to try to force reform in Venezuela as well as backing European Union sanctions against the Latin American state. If the Socialist prime minister believes the case should be considered by judges, it will be passed to the National Court, which decides extradition cases. However, in the past, the Spanish judiciary has refused to extradite former Venezuelan officials accused of corruption and dissidents wanted by Caracas after judges ruling that they would face political prosecutions if they were returned to their own countries. Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and his wife Lilian Tintori arrive at the National Assembly to attend the inauguration of Ecuadorean President-elect Guillermo Lasso, in Quito, on May 24, 2021.López, who is currently on a tour of Latin America to meet foreign leaders, has expressed his confidence in the Spanish justice system. “Faced with the persecution of the Maduro dictatorship, now reflected in an illegal petition for extradition, I will put myself at the disposition of the justice system, in a country with democratic institutions, separation of powers and justice and in which I have confidence,” he tweeted.   Manipulation   Analysts suggest that the extradition request is an attempt by Maduro to split the opposition in Venezuela ahead of regional elections in November. “With elections later this year, Maduro has allowed two members of the opposition into a body called the National Forum,” Ana Ayuso, a Latin American specialist at the CIDOB think-tank in Barcelona, told VOA. “At the same time, he wants to take a hard line against López and carry on splitting the opposition.” FILE – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro speaks to supporters during a closing campaign rally for National Assembly elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2020.However, other experts believe Maduro wants to use the López extradition request to level criticism at the international community, principally the United States and the European Union. Carlos Malamud, a senior investigator who specializes in Latin America at the Real Elcano Institute, a research organization in Madrid, believes if the request is refused, Caracas will try to use it to claim that the international community does not respect human rights. “This [extradition request] forms part of the line from Caracas that the international community does not abide by human rights,” he told VOA in an interview. “I do not see much chance of this prospering. For Spain to grant this extradition request to Caracas would break ranks with Spain’s European allies and with the United States,” Malamud said.  
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday it’s not an isolated incident that over 200 children were found buried at a former Indigenous residential school.Trudeau’s comments come as Indigenous leaders are calling for an examination of every former residential school site — institutions that held children taken from families across the nation.Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia said the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, were confirmed this month with the help of ground-penetrating radar. She described the discovery as “an unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented” at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the largest such school in the country.”As prime minister, I am appalled by the shameful policy that stole Indigenous children from their communities,” Trudeau said.”Sadly, this is not an exception or an isolated incident,” he said. ”We’re not going to hide from that. We have to acknowledge the truth. Residential schools were a reality — a tragedy that existed here, in our country, and we have to own up to it. Kids were taken from their families, returned damaged or not returned at all.”Beatings, abuseFrom the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.The Canadian government apologized in Parliament in 2008 and admitted that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant. Many students recalled being beaten for speaking their native languages. They also lost touch with their parents and customs.Indigenous leaders have cited that legacy of abuse and isolation as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.Plans are under way to bring in forensics experts to identify and repatriate the remains of the children found buried on the Kamloops site.Trudeau said he’ll be talking to his ministers about further things his government needs to do to support survivors and the community. Flags at all federal buildings are at half-staff.Opposition New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh called Monday for an emergency debate in Parliament.”This is not a surprise. This is a reality of residential schools,” Singh said.”Two hundred fifteen Indigenous kids were found in an unmarked mass grave,” he said. ”Anytime we think about unmarked mass graves, we think about a distant country where a genocide has happened. This is not a distant country.”The Kamloops school operated between 1890 and 1969, when the federal government took over operations from the Catholic Church and operated it as a day school until it closed in 1978.Archbishop apologizesRichard Gagnon, archbishop of Winnipeg and president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he wanted to express “our deepest sorrow for the heartrending loss of the children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.”The National Truth and Reconciliation Commission has records of at least 51 children dying at the school between 1915 and 1963. The commission identified about 3,200 confirmed deaths at schools but noted the schools did not record the cause of death in almost half of them. Some died of tuberculosis. The commission said the practice was not to send the bodies of the students who died at the schools to their communities. The commission also said the government wanted to keep costs down, so adequate regulations were never established.”This discovery is a stain on our country. It is one that needs to be rectified,” opposition Conservative lawmaker Michelle Rempel Garner said.Empty pairs of children’s shoes have been placed at memorials throughout the country.Perry Bellegarde, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has said that while it is not new to find graves at former residential schools, it’s always crushing to have that chapter’s wounds exposed.The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and the Saskatchewan government said they want Ottawa to help research undocumented deaths and burials at residential schools in the province.Federation Chief Bobby Cameron said finding the children’s remains and giving them proper burials is important to help First Nations communities and families find closure. The federation has compiled a list of initial sites where it hopes to complete radar ground searches.Sol Mamakwa, an opposition lawmaker with the New Democrat party in Ontario, also called on the government to search the grounds of other former residential schools.”It is a great open secret that our children lie on the properties of former schools. It is an open secret that Canadians can no longer look away from,” he said.
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A manhunt continued into Memorial Day for three masked suspects who opened fire early Sunday morning outside a Miami banquet hall, killing two men and wounding 21 others, in a shooting authorities said had spread terror and grief through their communities.That anguish was reinforced Monday by a grieving father who interrupted a news conference just as the Miami-Dade Police Department’s director, Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III, was decrying the weekend’s gun violence and appealing for the community’s help in tracking down the shooters.”You killed my kid with no reason,” the distraught man yelled out as he was escorted away from cameras. Police would later confirm that the man, Clayton Dillard, is the father of one of two 26-year-old men who were gunned down outside the banquet hall that was hosting a rap concert.”That is the pain that you see. That is the pain that affects our community right there before you,” Ramirez said.On Monday, police released a snippet from surveillance video that showed a white SUV driving into an alley at the strip mall housing the El Mula Banquet Hall in northwest Miami-Dade, near Hialeah. The video shows three people getting out of the vehicle, one gripping a handgun, while the other two carried what police described as “assault-style rifles.”That’s when the gunmen sprayed bullets indiscriminately into the crowd, even though police said the assailants had specific targets in mind.Ramirez told the Miami Herald that the shooters waited between 20 and 40 minutes before attacking shortly after midnight. Police said some in the crowd returned fire.In all, 23 people were shot. In addition to the two fatalities, three others were in the hospital in critical condition. Because of privacy laws, police were not releasing the names of any of the victims.The SUV used in the shooting was later found Sunday submerged in a canal about 13 kilometers east of the banquet hall. Police said the vehicle was reported stolen two weeks ago.Sunday’s shooting came a little more than a day after a drive-by shooting claimed the life of one person outside another venue about 21 kilometers away in the Wynwood area. Six others were injured. Some witnesses likened the scene to a war zone after a barrage of dozens of bullets sent people scurrying in the night.”This is a weekend when we should be out remembering, enjoying time with loved ones, and instead, we’re here mourning,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at Monday’s press conference.”These despicable shootings in Northwest Miami-Dade and in Wynwood are shameful acts of violence that have left innocent people dead and injured,” Cava said.Police said the two shootings were unrelated.Police said Sunday’s shooting appeared to stem from rivalries between two groups but declined to refer to those groups as gangs.Businessman and TV personality Marcus Lemonis, star of “The Profit,” pledged $100,000 toward a reward fund to help authorities capture the suspects.
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