South America
Millions of Venezuelans living abroad will be unable to vote in upcoming presidential election
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is under major pressure. The country will hold elections on July 28, and he’s performing badly in the polls. Under his 11-year rule, Venezuela’s economy collapsed, oppression increased and about 20% of the country’s population left. A diaspora of millions of people could have been crucial for the electoral outcome. But as The World’s Tibisay Zea reports, most Venezuelans living abroad were not allowed to register to vote. Some experts suspect that this is a deliberate strategy by the Maduro government to cling to power.
Heavy flooding in Brazil’s south creates havoc for residents
Southern Brazil is facing the worst climate disaster in its history. Unprecedented floods have engulfed major Rio Grande do Sul cities, including the capital, Porto Alegre, where 135,000 people have been pushed from their homes, and there is still little end in sight.
‘I’ll go for the American dream’: After struggling to get legal status in Colombia, many Venezuelan migrants are heading to the US
For years, Colombia has been the main destination for Venezuelans escaping their nation’s humanitarian crisis. But that’s changing as Colombia’s government makes it harder for them to get residency permits.
‘Spirit Run’: A new memoir details one man’s journey to reconnect with nature and his Indigenous heritage
In his memoir, “Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land,” Noe Álvarez shares how the communal run helped him reclaim a relationship with the land and reconnect with his parents’ migration and life of labor in the agricultural fields of the northwest.
Bogotá tries ‘staggered quarantine’ to slow coronavirus spread
Officials in Bogotá, Colombia are ordering residents in some boroughs to stay in their homes for two-week intervals in hopes that staggering a shutdown across swaths of the city will allow most economic activity to continue while slowing the rate of coronavirus infections.