The world at a glance . . . Americas

Kashechewan, Canada

Indians evacuated again: For the fourth time in four years, a group of Cree Indians had to be evacuated from their reservation by airplane because of flooding. The Kashechewan First Nation, a community of about 1,000 people, has lived in a flood plain in northern Ontario since 1957, when the Canadian government forcibly relocated it there. For the past few years, the community has agitated to be moved somewhere else, but the government last year decided a move was too expensive and that the Crees would instead receive money to improve dams and drainage. About half of Kashechewan residents were evacuated this week; they will stay in motels in nearby towns for up to eight weeks.

Tijuana, Mexico

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Shootout between drug gangs: A gang war in Tijuana killed 15 people over just a few hours last weekend. Mexican newspapers reported that several major drug lords, including those known as “Crutches,” “Mr. Three Letters,” and “La Perra,” had been killed. Police refused to release details of the shootout or names of the dead, giving rise to speculation that some law enforcement officers might have been involved. In recent months, the government of President Felipe Caldéron has sent army troops to Tijuana and other drug-plagued cities to take over policing, as the police are widely believed to be in the pockets of the drug cartels.

Caracas, Venezuela

Helping American hostages: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said this week that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had agreed to help negotiate for the release of American hostages being held by Colombian rebels. Chavez, a self-declared foe of the U.S., has contacts with the rebels, and earlier this year he helped negotiate the release of six of the rebels’ hostages. Richardson, who has negotiated the release of Americans held in North Korea, Iraq, and Sudan, met with Chavez on behalf of the hostages’ families, but not as an official envoy of the U.S. government. The three Americans were defense contractors employed in busting cocaine labs. They were kidnapped in 2003. A Colombian police officer captured with them

escaped last spring and said they were still alive.

Bogotá, Colombia

President’s cousin arrested: Colombian police last week arrested former Sen. Mario Uribe, a cousin and aide to President Álvaro Uribe, for alleged ties to death squads. It was the highest-profile arrest so far in an inquiry that has fingered nearly one-quarter of the country’s legislature. Since investigations began in 2006, 32 members of Congress have been arrested, and 30 more are under suspicion of having ties to the brutal paramilitary groups that run the cocaine industry. “What we’ve seen happen is a de facto alliance between powerful economic interests and narco-traffickers,” Sen. Gustavo Petro, a leading voice in the investigation, told The Washington Post. “Congress is one of the institutions that’s been co-opted.”