In Haiti, gangs take control as democracy withers (The Associated Press)
At a time when democracy has withered in Haiti and gang violence has spiraled out of control, armed men like Jimmy Cherizier – known by the nickname Barbecue - have filled the power vacuum left by a crumbling government. While gangs profit from the chaos, at least 155,000 people have been forced to flee the violence. (AP Photo: Odelyn Joseph)
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)
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: Oscar Coral/The Washington Post)
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 during Covid as women fear hospitals and still feel the economic turmoil of the crisis. (Photo: Janet Jarman/NatGeo)
2 Cuban sisters 4,200-mile journey to the U.S. (The Associated Press)
An odyssey of more than 4,200 miles would lead two Cuban medical students to question their past lives, race unknowingly against a ticking legal clock and leave them teetering on the edge of death as they tumbled down a cliff. It’s a voyage that hundreds of thousands of Cubans have made over the last two years in an historic wave of migration. (AP Photo: Ramon Espinosa)
Former Bolivian President Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison (The New York Times)
Jeanine Añez, the former president of Bolivia, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday following accusations that she illegally took over the presidency after the resignation of her predecessor, Evo Morales. The trial has led to concerns about politicians’ use of the justice system to target opponents. (Photo: Federico Rios/The New York Times)
Lima’s ‘Wall of Shame’ and the Art of Building Barriers (The Atlantic)
Lima, Peru’s “Wall of Shame” was constructed by the city’s hyper-rich in the 1980s to keep out poor migrants displaced by bloodshed in Peru’s countryside. Like many world walls – whether it be the U.S.-Mexico border’s to Israel-Palestine’s – the 6-mile-long barrier stands as a testament to the culture’s deeper societal divisions.
'It's only a matter of time' Brazil once wiped away preventable diseases. Why are they coming back? (Al Jazeera & IWMF)
A global backslide in childhood vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred on a resurgence of previously eliminated preventable diseases like measles, polio, diphtheria and more. In Brazil, a country once renowned for its immunization program, vaccination rates have dipped while health authorities struggle to control measles outbreaks. They worry it could take decades to reverse.
He tried to save a rare parrot. It cost him his life. (The Washington Post)
Despite being one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, Colombia is also the most dangerous to be an environmental protector. With an uptick in rural violence and extractive interests pushing into previously untouched nature, the job has only grown more deadly. Gonzalo Cardona Molina, an environmentalist that brought a parrot species back from the brink of extinction, was the first defender killed in 2021.
Vaccinating the Amazon: Hundreds of Indigenous languages, climate, terrain and more all complicate a massive effort (USA Today & IWMF)
How do you vaccinate the 30 million habitants of the Amazon? In the remote region 2x the size of India, with hundreds of indigenous dialects , largely abandoned by health systems, there’s no easy answer. But health authorities have made a transnational push to vaccinate the region and grapple with the complicated dynamics that come with it. (Photo: Fernanda Pineda/USA Today)
Crisis-stricken Cuba caught between ally Russia, nearby U.S. (The Associated Press)
At a time when Cuba is urging the Biden administration to ease U.S. sanctions that it says stifle hurricane recovery efforts, Russian oil has flooded into the island, providing relief to debilitating blackouts. Russia has shipped an estimated $352 million in oil to Cuba since the start of the Ukraine war, the biggest inflow from Russia this century and enough to cover about 40% of the shortfall in the island’s supplies, according to independent estimates.
Record numbers of young Guatemalans migrate north, leaving families in limbo (BBC News)
The number of unaccompanied minors from Central America turning up at the U.S.-Mexico border has reached record highs. Migrants from countries like Guatemala flee poverty, gang violence and climate change in search of a better life. But they often leave families at home in limbo, with no idea when they will see their children again.