International
Workers in Peru race to reopen Machu Picchu after floods

AFP
Teams of workers raced Wednesday to clear mud and debris from the only transport access to the jewel of Peru’s tourism sector, Machu Picchu, following torrential rain in the Andes.
Heavy downfalls on Friday caused the Alcamayo river that runs through the small tourist town of Machu Picchu Pueblo — at the foot of the mountain that boasts the world famous Inca citadel — to burst its banks.
Almost 900 tourists were evacuated from the town after flooding destroyed many homes and left one person missing, the tourism ministry said.
Damage to the train tracks that serve as the main transport access to the town has made it very difficult for tourists to reach the site.
“This will last a few more days because after the clean-up we have to prepare a bridge so that tourists can enter Machu Picchu, and the local population too,” said the town’s mayor Darwin Baca.
“We are asking the regional and central governments to help us with this project because we feel it when Machu Picchu closes. Because it’s not just one region that lives off tourism, many regions do,” said Baca.
The vast majority of visitors to Machu Picchu usually arrive at the town by train, either from Ollantaytambo, 32 kilometers away, or the former Inca capital of Cusco city, 72 kilometers away.
The site of the citadel is not closed but with the train tracks damaged, the only way to access the town is to take a bus to a place called Hidroelectrica — more than six hours from Cusco city — and then walk eight kilometers through the jungle along the Ruta Amazonica.
Just 300 to 400 people a day have managed to access Machu Picchu that way, compared to the 1,200 daily visitors when the train service is working.
Hotels and restaurants throughout the Cusco region have been affected.
Even as far away as in the capital Lima, tourism has been hit.
When access to Machu Picchu is affected “there are unfortunate repercussions on the economy and tourism sector” in the whole country, said Baca.
Peru Rail, one of the two railway companies serving the town of 5,000 people, said services would remain suspended until Thursday.
Some 447,800 people visited the citadel in 2021, a fraction of the 1.5 million yearly visitors before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
The citadel was closed for almost eight months in 2020 due to the pandemic, costing the Cusco region $1.4 billion due to the loss of tourism revenue.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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