Rebel ‘baby boom’ was a sign of hope. Now, it represents uncertainty. (National Geographic)
After Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas signed a peace pact with the Colombian government, there was a baby boom among former rebel fighters who saw their kids – "niños de la paz," or "children of peace" – as a step into a future without war. But 5 years later, that peace process is crumbling and their children have grown to represent a deepening uncertainty. (Photo: Juan Arredondo/NatGeo)
TikTok smugglers: How migrants are sold an American dream in a digital world (AP)
At a time when legal pathways to the U.S. have been slashed and criminal groups are raking in money from migrant smuggling, social media apps like TikTok have become an essential tool for smugglers. Laced with emojis, the videos posted by smugglers offer a simple promise: If you don’t have a visa in the U.S., trust us. We’ll get you over safely. The videos offer a rare look inside a long elusive industry and the narratives used by trafficking networks to fuel migration north.
For Haiti, the Paris Olympics is about more than just winning gold (AP)
For the seven athletes competing for Haiti, participating in the Paris Games has always been about more than just winning gold. It’s about sending a message of hope to a nation reeling from gang violence and political turmoil. The athletes hope to change the narrative around the Caribbean country, long portrayed as a victim. It’s also in part about reclaiming their history from France, the former colonizer that bankrupted Haiti for more than a century.
Colombian guerrillas are using coronavirus curfews to expand their control. Violators have been killed. (The Washington Post)
Guerrillas, paramilitaries and armed groups across Colombia have imposed strict coronavirus quarantines to consolidate power, sewing fear in populations who have already lived through decades of conflict. The consequences for violating these controls is death. (Photo: Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images)
He fought to save jungles in Honduras. Now his killing haunts environmental defenders (AP)
Seven bullets pounded into Juan López outside a small white church on a sunny September afternoon. Six shots in the chest. One in the head. And a masked gunman standing in front of López’s blood-spattered truck. In seconds, another environmental champion in Honduras was dead after leading the fight to protect dense jungle and crystalline waters in a region rife with corruption and crime.
Meet the newscaster in drag making LGBTQ+ history in Mexican television (AP)
Through his drag personality “Amanda”, Mexican journalist Guillermo Barraza is making history as the first newscaster on Mexican TV to tell the news in drag. By stepping into the spotlight, Barraza is going against the grain in a country where both LGBTQ+ people and journalists are regularly targeted and killed. (AP Photo: Aurea Del Rosario)
A hidden paradise under threat (AP)
Mexico’s outgoing leader has rapidly built a train system looping around the country’s southern Yucatan Peninsula. But the crown jewel of the populist’s presidency, meant to draw development into long-neglected communities, also runs over one of Mexico’s natural wonders: A fragile system of an estimated 10,000 subterranean caverns, rivers, lakes, and freshwater sinkholes. “That’s total ecocide," said one researcher staring into the destroyed remnants of a cave. (Photo: Rodrigo Abd)
Doctor, Refugee. Violinist, Refugee. Model, Refugee. (The New York Times)
When earthquake, war or social upheaval drives you across a border and into the unknown, you learn the hard lesson of the refugee: You didn’t just lose a home, a job, a country. You may also have lost your identity. With refugees around the world now put at around 25 million, this lesson is being driven home for a record number of people – among them, millions of Venezuelans. (Photo: Federico Rios)
In Haiti, gangs take control as democracy withers (AP)
At a time when democracy has withered in Haiti and gang violence has spiraled out of control, it’s armed men like Jimmy Cherizier, known better by his nickname Barbecue, that are filling the power vacuum left by a crumbling government. In December, the U.N. estimated that gangs controlled 60% of Haiti’s capital, but nowadays most on the streets of Port-au-Prince say that number is closer to 100%. " (AP Photo: Odelyn Joseph)
As Colombia’s Peace Crumbles, Female Guerrillas Wonder What’s Left for Them (Foreign Policy)
Five years after the FARC signed a historic peace deal with the Colombian government, women ex-rebels have crash-landed into a harsh reality. The traditional gender roles they once took up arms to escape have snapped back, and former FARC fighters face a moment of reckoning as the narratives of gender equality they once pushed fall apart. As the accords crumble, women guerrillas wonder what is left for them.
Migration once fueled an economic boom in the Darien Gap. Now that lifeline is gone (AP)
The Darien Gap, a stretch of nearly impenetrable rain forest along the border with Colombia, was transformed into a migratory highway in recent years as more than 1.2 million people from around the world traveled north toward the United States. They brought an economic boom to remote swathes of jungle. Then the money vanished, and residents newly dependent on it scramble for options.
To save lives, midwives mix Mayan heritage with Western medicine (National Geographic)
In the remnants of the Mayan empire – Central America and southern Mexico – tens of thousands of indigenous midwives are the ones standing between life & death for women out of reach of their countries' health systems. Despite an age-old rift between "comadronas" and medical systems, such women have only grown more important in the pandemic. (Photo: Janet Jarman)