Ottawa
Millionaire immigrants denied: Canada has scrapped its “investor immigrant” policy, under which any millionaire who invested around $400,000 in Canada could apply for citizenship. The government said the investor immigrants tended to pay less in taxes than other immigrants and were less likely to stay in Canada over the long term. Some 65,000 mostly Chinese applicants will be denied citizenship, even though they have already submitted their paperwork and in many cases already invested. “While we recognize that some investors have settled in Canada and have made valuable contributions, we believe that we can do better,” said Immigration Minister Chris Alexander.
Havana
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Hero’s welcome: Cuban President Raul Castro personally welcomed Cuban spy Fernando González home last week after his release from a U.S. prison. González was the second to be released of the Cuban Five, a group of agents arrested in 1998 and convicted of spying on Cuban exiles in Florida. The agents infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, an exile group that flew planes over the ocean to locate people fleeing Cuba by boat. At least one agent got a janitorial job at Boca Chica Naval Air Station and reported on military flights. Cuba says the five were not spying on the U.S. but were only monitoring Cuban exiles promoting terrorism.
Caracas, Venezuela
Protests continue: Venezuelans obeyed the opposition call to continue their anti-government protests during Carnival, and tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Caracas and other cities this week. Hundreds of protesters formed a human shield around the home of Ángel Vivas, a general who resigned in 2007 after opposing then-President Hugo Chávez’s order that the Venezuelan army swear an oath written by Cuba’s Fidel Castro: “Fatherland, socialism or death!” The government has an arrest warrant out for Vivas for encouraging violence and libeling the government on social media, where he accuses President Nicolás Maduro of being a puppet of Cuba. Vivas has more than 260,000 Twitter followers.
Quito, Ecuador
Chevron wins: Environmentalists in Ecuador said they will fight on for compensation from Chevron despite a U.S. court ruling this week striking down a historic judgment against the U.S. oil company. In 2011, an Ecuadoran court ordered Chevron to pay $19 billion for massively polluting the Amazon rain forest and destroying farmers’ livelihoods. But U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said that ruling was void because Steven Donziger, a lawyer for the Ecuadoran farmers, bribed an Ecuadoran judge and ghostwrote that judge’s ruling against Chevron. “Judge Kaplan has no power to enforce his decision outside the U.S.,” said Juan Pablo Sáenz, a lawyer for the Amazon Defense Front. “We will execute the judgment on company assets in other countries, like Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.”
Rio de Janeiro
Carnival! Brazilians this week put aside their rage over the hosting of the World Cup to celebrate the world’s largest Mardi Gras street party. Protests have been held in major cities most weeks since last summer, as demonstrators call for less spending on the soccer world championship that starts in June and more on education and the poor. But for Mardi Gras, which marks the last hurrah before the Catholic penitential season of Lent, the protesters took a break. “I am a protester; we all know Brazilian politicians are corrupt,” reveler Sergio Mendes told Al Jazeera. “But the people are the majority, and Carnival is for us.” One in five Brazilians lives in a shantytown, or favela.
