The week at a glance...Americas

Windsor, Ontario

What’s that sound? Canadians are blaming the U.S. for a mysterious noise plaguing one of their border cities. Residents of Windsor, just across the Detroit River from Michigan, say the on-and-off rumbling sound, like a subway going under the town, can get so loud it rattles windows, terrifies cats and dogs, and wakes people up. Seismic studies conducted by the Canadian government pinpointed the source as Zug Island in River Rouge, Mich., home to steel mills and factories. Last month, a foreign ministry official visited the area to plead for action. But American officials said they couldn’t hear a thing. “The only place I am hearing noise from is Canada—from politicians complaining,” said River Rouge Mayor Michael Bowdler.

Mexico City

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Cash for victims: In a victory for victims’ rights advocates, Mexico has passed a law to allocate some of the money seized from drug lords to the victims of their violence. The government will create a national registry of victims and set aside funds to compensate them or their survivors. Payments could reach 1 million pesos ($77,000) each. The law requires officials to identify crime victims’ remains, including those believed to be of drug gang members killed by rival gangs, and investigate all reports of missing persons. Thousands of victims have never been identified because the bodies were hacked to bits, dissolved in acid, or buried in mass graves. Poet and activist Javier Sicilia, who led the struggle for victims’ rights after a drug gang murdered his son, thanked the legislature for “not betraying the nation.”

Havana

Reaching out: Cuban officials held an unprecedented dialogue with Cuban-American exiles last week, hosting a videoconference between Havana and Washington, D.C. Vice Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodríguez said the government was eager to have good relations with the Cuban diaspora, and he promised exiles that Cuba would soon reform its visa requirements, which currently place severe restrictions on Cubans who wish to travel abroad. Still, he warned them not to expect a complete opening. “The migratory relaxation will take into account the revolutionary state’s right to defend itself from the interventionist plans of the U.S. government and its allies,” Rodríguez said, adding that “reasonable countermeasures will be imposed to preserve the human capital created by the revolution.”

La Paz, Bolivia

Another blow to Spain: Without warning, Bolivian President Evo Morales has nationalized the country’s main power company, which is Spanish-owned. This week, Morales sent in the military to take control of Transportadora de Electricidad, a subsidiary of Spanish power company Red Eléctrica that owns and runs around three quarters of Bolivia’s electricity grid. He said the takeover was “in honor of all Bolivian people who have struggled to recuperate our natural resources and basic services.” Last month, Argentina nationalized a Spanish-owned oil company.