The week at a glance ... Americas

last updated 8 January 2015

Ottawa

General toppled by affair: Canada’s former top commander in Afghanistan was charged with obstruction of justice this week for allegedly blocking the investigation into his affair with a junior soldier. Brig. Gen. Daniel Ménard was abruptly removed from his command post last month amid revelations he was having an affair with Master Cpl. Bianka Langlois, a clerk at his headquarters in Kandahar. Both are married. The charges may prompt a court-martial, but his career is already over. The army has canceled his commission as head of the army in Quebec and relegated him to a desk job. “He had a bright future,” said defense analyst Alain Pellerin. “He was one of the stars of the regiment.”

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Castro warns of nuclear war: In his first major television appearance in several years, former Cuban President Fidel Castro this week warned that the U.S. was sending the world hurtling toward nuclear war. Wearing a tracksuit and looking his age, 83, but not sickly, Castro said the U.S. had been quietly stationing ships and military equipment in the Persian Gulf region in preparation for bombing Iran. “If there’s an attack on Iran by Israel and the U.S.,” Castro warned, “there’s no way to prevent it from becoming a nuclear war.” Castro handed power to his brother Raúl after falling ill in 2006 and has rarely been seen in public since then. Analysts suggested his TV appearance was meant to draw attention away from the release of dozens of political prisoners, who were freed this week after pressure from Spain and the Vatican.

Nassau, Bahamas

‘Barefoot Bandit’ caught: The two-year U.S. crime spree of the teenage “Barefoot Bandit,” who became a folk hero in some quarters for evading cops by stealing and flying private airplanes, finally ended this week after a high-speed boat chase in the Bahamas. Cornered at a marina by Bahamian police, Colton Harris-Moore, 19, stole a boat and led police on a chase, authorities said. After police disabled his boat by shooting the engines, he threatened to shoot himself but then surrendered. He is accused of committing dozens of burglaries and stealing cars, planes, and boats in nine U.S. states. Harris-Moore’s penchant for taunting police by leaving his bare footprints at crime scenes earned him his nickname—along with legions of Facebook fans. He has been on the run since he escaped from a juvenile halfway house in Renton, Wash., in 2008.