Advocates for migrants in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from Laredo, were informed of the suspension by a US consular official, a June 2 message reviewed by Reuters showed. No reason for the change was stated.

A website for the app, called CBP One, no longer lists Laredo as a city where asylum seekers can schedule appointments. Nuevo Laredo has long been notorious for widespread kidnapping and extortion of migrants.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not respond to requests for comment.

The appointments are a key part of a border system put in place by U.S. President Joe Biden last month when COVID-era restrictions known as Title 42 expired.

Biden’s administration opened up legal pathways, including via the app, while also implementing a strict new regulation that could deny asylum to many migrants crossing the border illegally.

Advocates and some Democrats argue that migrants should not be forced to wait in dangerous conditions in northern Mexico, particularly as demand outstrips the 1,250 CBP One appointments available per day.

The suspension was first reported by the Associated Press.

Lately, criminal groups in Nuevo Laredo have allegedly demanded payment from migrants headed to the port of entry, including those with CBP One appointments, according to a May report from the Strauss Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

An advocate in Nuevo Laredo, who requested anonymity due to safety fears, said criminals have demanded as much as $500 per person.

Human Rights First recorded over 13,000 reports of violent attacks against migrants in Mexico in 2021 and 2022. – Rappler.com

Castro’s trip marks the latest step in the two nations’ new relationship, after her government ditched ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing.

Foreign Minister Enrique Reina told reporters at an event inaugurating China’s embassy in Tegucigalpa that Castro will travel on Tuesday this week.

Later on Monday, Castro’s press office tweeted that the official visit would take place from this coming Friday to Wednesday of next week.

Castro’s trip to the world’s second-biggest economy stemmed from an invitation from her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Honduran state media outlet Poder Popular wrote in story published earlier on Monday.

Honduras and China launched diplomatic relations after Castro cut ties with Taiwan in a bid for more investment and jobs from the much larger Chinese economy.

Last month, Reina announced that both sides will “soon” begin trade talks, with coffee set to be the first Honduran export to the massive Chinese consumer market.

The minister added on Monday that several “cooperation agreements” would be signed, but did not specify further.

Castro’s government is also seeking deals with China to lighten the nation’s debt burden. – Rappler.com

“How to Save the Amazon: Ask the People Who Know” is due to be published by Manilla Press, an imprint of publisher Bonnier Books, subject to fund-raising to allow completion of the remaining work.

Phillips – a freelance journalist who wrote for the Guardian, the Washington Post and other media – had completed only half the book when he was killed alongside Bruno Pereira, an expert on indigenous issues, near Brazil’s border with Peru. Brazilian police have said the alleged leader of a local gang planned the murders because Pereira posed a threat to its illegal fishing operation.

Among the writers who will help to finish the work are Jon Lee Anderson who writes for the New Yorker, Tom Phillips and Jonathan Watts who work for the Guardian, and Andrew Fishman, president of the Intercept Brasil, as well as Brazilian writers.

They will use notes and transcriptions of interviews conducted by Dom Phillips and conduct their own research trips to the Amazon region to complete the missing chapters.

Other journalists who also have experience covering issues related to the Amazon will fact-check and proofread the draft chapters, Watts said.

“Dom was killed for this book,” he said. “The least we can do is finish the task to which he had devoted the latter part of his life. He may be gone, but he won’t be silenced.”

Four people have been charged with double homicide and concealment of corpses. – Rappler.com

The police, loyal to the government of President Daniel Ortega which has clashed fiercely with Nicaragua’s bishops, said that since May 19 they found “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in Church facilities in various parts of the country.

Investigations “confirmed the unlawful removal of resources from bank accounts that had been ordered by law to be frozen,” the police said in a statement.

Ortega’s government has intensified attacks against the Catholic Church in the wake of 2018 anti-government protests in which some 360 people died after what human rights groups call police repression. The government accused the bishops, who mediated talks between the government and protesters, of attempting a coup.

The police statement said the bank accounts were linked to religious figures convicted of treason and other crimes, and that the investigations confirmed the funds entered the country irregularly.

The police said the investigation also confirmed “other illicit activities, which are still being investigated as part of a money laundering network that has been discovered in the dioceses in different departments.”

“People have their bank accounts here, this is how they carried out their work,” Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said in an article posted on news website despacho505.com.

“We are analyzing the situation,” he said, adding that the bishops would meet and later provide more information.

Since the anti-government protests, Ortega has imprisoned and expelled priests and nuns, banned pilgrimages and religious processions and shut nursing homes and soup kitchens that had been run by nuns.

Last February, a Nicaraguan court sentenced high-profile government critic Bishop Rolando Alvarez to 26 years in prison for treason and cybercrimes, after he refused to board a plane amid the expulsion of 222 other political prisoners.

The expelled prisoners were promptly stripped of their nationality, including six priests from Alvarez’ diocese who had previously been convicted of the same crimes.

Ortega also suspended ties with the Vatican in March, shortly after Pope Francis compared his administration to the Nazi dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. – Rappler.com

The accusations were sparked by the publication in Spanish newspaper El Pais in April of the diary of a late Jesuit priest, which contained multiple confessions of the sexual abuse of children in the schools he ran in Bolivia. It alleged Church officials knew about the abuse but did nothing.

Since April, some 200 people have come forward to say they suffered abuse in religious-run schools in the country.

Abuse scandals globally have shredded the Church’s reputation and been a major challenge for Pope Francis, who has passed a series of measures over the last 10 years aimed at holding the Church hierarchy more accountable, with mixed results.

In their statement on Wednesday, May 24, Bolivia’s Catholic bishops acknowledged that “as a Church… we are certain of having taken part, directly or indirectly, in deep pain inflicted on innocent people who were victims of sexual abuse and of an insufficient handling of the situation.”

The bishops said they would set up two commissions to investigate the abuse and help victims who instead of receiving protection “found themselves with a Church deaf to their sufferings.”

Earlier this month, President Luis Arce wrote a letter to Pope Francis requesting access to files concerning accusations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Bolivia.

The country’s attorney general is also investigating the multiple accusations of abuse. – Rappler.com

The case has triggered complaints from former students about other abuse in religious-run schools in Bolivia, including those of Jesuits, but also Dominicans, Franciscans, and other orders.

The revelations, first published by Spanish newspaper El Pais in April, documented abuse by Alfonso Pedrajas, known as Father Pica, a Spanish priest who lived for years in Bolivia where he ran schools for marginalized communities.

After his death in 2009, his nephew found a 300-page diary on his computer where Pedrajas confessed to the sexual abuse of dozens of minors around the 1970s, according to El Pais.

In the diary, Pedrajas wrote that he had spoken to superiors about what he had done but they did nothing about it.

Bolivia’s attorney general is investigating the case and looking at whether any Church officials should be held responsible.

Since the diary was published, some 200 people in Bolivia have come forward to say they were abused by Pedrajas or other priests, with protests held outside Jesuit offices.

Prosecutors have raided some schools and Jesuit buildings as part of preliminary investigations into the accusations and detained two priests.

“I ask only for justice, so aggressive and abominable acts against the defenseless are never repeated,” Carlos, 52, who said he was abused by Pedrajas when he was a student at the Juan XXIII school in Cochabamba, told Reuters.

“I am willing to risk everything. Some people ask: ‘Why now?’ I tell them that their questions hurt, they are meaningless because they don’t know the ordeal we experienced.”

Bernardo Mercado, a Bolivian Jesuit who spoke for the order, said the body was seeking clarification about the complaints and was cooperating with authorities.

“I have absolutely no reason to obstruct the investigation and I fully trust the attorney general,” he said.

Ricardo Centellas, vice president of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, said the Church was willing to cooperate in any investigation.

“Let’s wait for the results, to find out what the crimes are so those responsible receive the corresponding sentence,” he said.

On Friday, May 19, Bolivia’s government said it would in future demand background checks from the Vatican for any religious envoys coming on a mission to the country.

At one of the protests, activist America Maceda said it was important that both individuals and institutions be held responsible.

“We demand justice for the victims. Not only against those who commit these acts, but also against those who systematically cover them up,” she said. – Rappler.com

Police and military decked in riot gear guarded the National Assembly building from behind barricades in capital Quito, allowing no one inside.

Opposition politicians wanted to impeach Lasso over accusations he disregarded warnings of embezzlement related to a contract at state-owned oil transportation company Flopec, charges the president denies.

A majority of lawmakers had backed a resolution accusing Lasso of allowing the corrupt contract to continue after taking office in 2021, although a congressional oversight committee, which heard testimony from opposition lawmakers, officials, and Lasso’s lawyer, said in its report it did not recommend impeachment.

Lasso says the impeachment process – the first against an Ecuadorean president in decades – is politically motivated and has sparked a grave crisis that has threatened democracy. The dissolution was necessary, he said.

“This is a democratic decision, not only because it is constitutional, but because it returns the power to the Ecuadorean people … to decide their future in the next elections,” Lasso said in a video broadcast.

The turmoil in Ecuador is the latest episode of volatility in a region that saw Peru’s former President Pedro Castillo removed from office in a December impeachment trial and arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress.

Ecuador sovereign bond prices tumbled on the news, which spooked investors with worries over increased uncertainty and fears the market-friendly Lasso could be replaced.

Lasso’s decision prompted an outcry from Indigenous and leftist groups – some of who said they would take the matter to the streets in protest – while opposition politicians questioned the legality of the move.

Citing the crisis and inability to govern, Lasso invoked the constitution’s so-called “two-way death” provision, which allows the president to call elections for both his post and the assembly under certain circumstances, including if actions by the legislature are blocking the functioning of government.

According to the constitution, he will now remain in office and rule by decree.

Ecuador’s electoral court has until May 24 to call new elections, which must take place within 90 days, Diana Ataimaint, the court’s president, told journalists, adding that Lasso is free to run.

Those voted into power in the early elections would serve until the regularly-scheduled 2025 elections take place.

Armed forces ‘uphold constitution’

Ecuador’s military and police “have and will uphold their absolute respect for the constitution and law,” Nelson Proano, commander of Ecuador’s armed forces, said in a video statement, adding that Lasso’s decision to dissolve the assembly was enshrined under the constitution.

The Ecuador Business Committee, which includes most of the country’s industry associations, in a statement said the dissolution was constitutional and called for calm.

Opposition lawmakers called the dissolution illegal, though some belonging to the party of ex-President Rafael Correa – who was convicted of corruption and is living in exile – said elections were the only way out of the crisis.

Some opposition politicians presented a motion to the country’s top court in a bid to block the dissolution.

Virgilio Saquicela, the former president of the National Assembly who was re-elected to the post just last week and had allowed the impeachment process to go ahead, demanded Ecuador’s top court immediately rule on demands brought by opposition politicians to block the dissolution.

“We demand the Constitutional Court act, they are the guarantors of the constitution, they are the ones that have to resolve (the matter),” he told journalists, adding Lasso had “tampered” with the country’s constitution.

Leonidas Iza, president of Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organization, CONAIE, said in a video message that Lasso’s decision was “dictatorial,” adding that CONAIE had called a meeting to analyze the situation.

“We call on all of Ecuador to be vigilant and reject another undemocratic act by Lasso and his ministers, which is intended to violate the democratic order,” Iza said in a video message broadcast via social media.

Last year, CONAIE led protests throughout Ecuador that almost unseated Lasso.

Lasso has repeatedly stressed the Flopec contract he is accused of turning a blind eye to was signed years before he took office and that his administration made changes to the contract on advice from Ecuador’s comptroller to benefit the state.

Ninety-two votes out of 137 in the National Assembly would have been needed to impeach Lasso. A vote to move forward with the process last week received 88 votes out of 116 legislators present. – Rappler.com

Two cases were detected in wild birds and should not trigger a ban on imports of Brazilian poultry products as per guidelines from the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), according to the Brazilian government.

The avian influenza virus can kill entire flocks of birds and cause losses for the farming sector. Brazil’s chicken exports rose by 27% last year to $9.76 billion as other countries reeled from a global outbreak of the virus, yet the South American country had never registered a case until now.

The Brazilian government confirmed the detection of H5N1 subtype of the influenza virus in two marine birds, of the Thalasseus acuflavidus species, on the coast of Brazil’s southeastern state of Espirito Santo.

Brazil’s main poultry producing states are in the far south and center-west. However, Espirito Santo is Brazil’s third largest egg producing state, according to meat lobby ABPA. It does not export eggs but sells them in the domestic market.

Epidemiological surveillance services will be intensified to detect potential cases in wild and commercial animals in the area close to where the cases were confirmed, a government source said.

The agriculture ministry said that because the cases were detected in wild animals, Brazil’s status “as a country free of HPAI” was not affected.

Miguel Gularte, CEO of Brazil-based BRF, the world’s largest chicken exporting company, told a press conference he was not surprised by the case of highly pathogenic avian influenza, adding the company was prepared for any scenario.

The executive reiterated WOAH’s recommendations that no members of that organization would impose import bans because of cases detected in wild animals.

BRF’s Gularte also noted the company relies on Brazil’s “robust” animal health services to prevent and contain any potential threats to industrial poultry farms.

The main importers of Brazil’s chicken products in April included China, Japan, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.

China has banned imports of poultry from nearly 40 U.S. states due to outbreaks of bird flu on commercial poultry farms.

Brazil’s neighbor Argentina suspended its poultry exports in late February after recording the first case of bird flu in its poultry industry in southern Rio Negro province but resumed exports from bird flu free areas in late March.

A record number of chicken, turkeys and other birds have died in outbreaks in the U.S., Europe and Britain, and the virus is spreading in South America, Africa, and Asia.

Losses of poultry flocks have contributed to record high prices for eggs and turkey meat in some places.

While humans can contract H5N1, cases remain very rare, and global health officials have said the risk to humans is low. – Rappler.com

With 95.13% of ballots tallied, Chile’s Republican Party, led by former conservative firebrand presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast, secured nearly 35% of the vote.

A separate coalition of traditional right-wing parties gained just over 20% of the vote, while President Gabriel Boric’s left-wing coalition garnered about 29%. Centrist parties took the remainder of the vote.

“Today is the first day of a better future, a new start for Chile,” Kast, who lost to Boric in 2021, said during a speech in Santiago. “Chile has defeated a failed government.”

The final results will determine the exact make-up of a 50-seat Constitutional Council that will be in charge of drafting a new constitution. Articles will need a three-fifths majority to be approved.

This is the latest step in a years-long effort to overhaul the country’s dictatorship-era text after nearly 80% of Chileans voted to draft a new constitution in 2020 following violent protests against inequality.

The constitutional advisers elected on Sunday will start drawing up a new constitution in June based on a draft compiled by 24 constitutional experts appointed by Congress in March. Voters will then approve or reject the new proposal in December.

The first rewrite was drafted by largely independent and left-wing constituents and it focused on social benefits, environmental rights, gender parity and indigenous rights.

It was considered one of the world’s most progressive constitutions, but many voters found it too polarizing and the process was mired by controversies.

Boric, who took office last March, rose to power on a wave of optimism surrounding reform, but his approval ratings have since plummeted as a struggling economy and rising crime have become the main concerns for voters.

Boric also suffered a political defeat after throwing his weight behind the first rewrite, which was rejected by nearly 62% of voters. The president has since distanced himself from the process but vowed to support it.

“The government won’t meddle with the process and will respect the entity’s autonomy in its deliberation,” Boric told reporters Sunday morning after voting, adding that the government would act as a guarantor and support requests from the new council.

After Kast’s victory speech, Boric spoke from La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago and called for unity and urged the opposition to learn from the previous failed attempt.

“I want to invite the Republican Party, that’s won an unquestionable majority, to not make the same mistakes we made,” Boric said. “This process can’t be about vendettas, but putting Chile first.” – Rappler.com

After a lengthy hearing, the court in Ciudad Juarez said there was sufficient evidence to charge Francisco Garduno, head of the National Migration Institute (INM), for unlawful exercise of public office, the Federal Judicial Council said.

Garduno, an ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is not under arrest, but must report to authorities every two weeks. The investigation is set to conclude within four months.

After the announcement, Garduno told reporters he could not comment on details of an ongoing case, and that he would be paying close attention to efforts to provide reparations.

The fire, which authorities say began after one or more of the migrants set alight mattresses as a protest, killed 40 male migrants, most of them from Central America.

A video published online after the incident, apparently of security footage from the holding center during the blaze, showed men kicking on the bars of a locked door as uniformed people walk past without trying to open the door. – Rappler.com