Toluca, Mexico
Save the monarch: More than 100 scientists, artists, and environmentalists have appealed to the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. to protect the breeding grounds and migratory routes of the monarch butterfly. The number of monarchs migrating thousands of miles across North America has been declining each year, and illegal logging in the Mexican forests where they winter has long been blamed. But now activists also cite the eradication in the U.S. and Canada of milkweed plants, which monarch caterpillars eat exclusively. Activists are urging American farmers to replant milkweed between their fields and along roadways, where the plant’s population has been decimated by modern pesticides. “It is ecological genocide,” said Mexican poet and activist Homero Aridjis.
Managua, Nicaragua
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Ortega forever: The Nicaraguan Constitution has officially been changed to allow President Daniel Ortega to run for re-election as many times as he wants. The amendments, pushed through by the ruling Sandinista party last month but not official until this month, eliminate term limits and allow a candidate to be elected president with a plurality of votes instead of a majority. The opposition and civic and business groups say the changes should have been put to a popular referendum instead of a simple vote in parliament. Ortega, 68, plans to run for a fourth five-year term in 2016. He “wants to die in power,” said dissident and ex--Sandinista Dora María Téllez.
Caracas, Venezuela
Opposition leader arrested: Tens of thousands of people protested this week after troops arrested Venezuela’s right-wing opposition leader. Leopoldo López, a Harvard-educated economist, was charged with murder and terrorism for his role in organizing anti--government protests (see Best columns: International). Four people have been killed in clashes among police, protesters, and pro--government citizen militias. “May my jailing serve to wake up a people!” López said as he was put into an armored military vehicle. President Nicolás Maduro says the protest is a front for a fascist coup backed by the U.S. He expelled three U.S. diplomats this week, saying they had recruited students for the protests, a claim Washington said was “baseless and false.”
Bogotá, Colombia
Army chief fired: The head of the Colombian army has been fired for insulting the judiciary after a recording of one of his phone calls was released online by Semana magazine. Gen. Leonardo Barrero was talking to a colonel who had been jailed for ordering extra-judicial executions and told him that such prosecutions were “a bunch of crap.” He said he would try to find a way to discredit the prosecutors who were investigating army officers for the killings, which took place before 2008. Colombian soldiers have been convicted of killing hundreds of people and then dressing the corpses in fatigues and saying they were guerrillas killed in combat.
Itu, Brazil
Water rationing: More than 140 cities in 11 states across Brazil are rationing water because the worst drought in decades has dried up reservoirs. Brazil is having one of its hottest summers ever, and many towns are turning on the water only every other day. In at least one city, Itu, running water is only available for half a day every three days. The drought has devastated crops, and global prices of coffee, soybeans, and sugar—all major exports for Brazil—are already rising. The record heat has also produced an immense algae slick off the Brazilian coast that stretches 500 miles and is visible from space.
