International
Chile’s distant paradise where scientists study climate change
AFP | Alberto Peña
Hidden inside pristine forests in Chile’s deep south, known as the end of the world, lie potential early warning signs of climate change. Puerto Williams on Navarino island, which is separated from the South American mainland by the Beagle Channel, is the world’s southern-most town.
Far from the pollution that blights major urban and industrial centers, it is a paradise that provides unique conditions to study global warming.
“There is nowhere else like it,” Ricardo Rozzi, director of the Cape Horn International Center for global change studies and bio-cultural conservation in Puerto Williams, told AFP.
It is “a place that is especially sensitive to climate change” as average temperatures do not rise above five degrees Celsius. This cold and windy area is the last inhabited southern frontier before reaching the Antarctic.
The ethnobotanical Omora park is home to an immense variety of lichens, mosses and fungi that scientists study by crouching down onto their knees with magnifying glasses.
In the crystal clear Robalo river, minuscule organisms act as sentinels of the changes produced by global warming. In both the park and river, the alarm bells are ringing.
Moss and lichen on the move
At this latitude — 55 degrees south — climate change has an exponential effect on flora that react by seeking out low temperatures, said Rozzi, 61. “The most obvious aspect of climate change is the rising temperatures,” he said. “These lichens cannot survive” if a certain threshold is passed. To escape the higher temperatures, they move.
“In the case of (mosses) we’ve noticed that they have moved. Before they were between 50 and 350 (meters above sea level) and now they are between 100 and 400,” said Rozzi. He says Omora has more diversity per square meter of lichens and mosses than anywhere else in the world. They also help to absorb carbon dioxide.
Another aspect is the elevational diversity gradient, an ecological pattern in which biodiversity changes with elevation.
The 700-meter high Bandera hill’s biodiversity changes every 200 meters and there is a mammoth 1.5 degrees Celsius difference in temperature between top and bottom.
“We can see what changes happen in the high mountains and in the area close to the sea in a very short distance, and we can see how the temperature affects the biodiversity that lives in this river,” Tamara Contador, 38, a biologist at the Cape Horn International Center, told AFP.
She studies the gradients themselves. If the height difference between gradients rises or falls on the mountain, scientists can determine whether there has been a global change in temperature. They say there has been.
Avoiding ‘extermination’
“On a global level, the polar and subpolar ecosystems are the most affected by climate change, so we are in a place where climate change has a much bigger effect on biodiversity than other places,” said Contador.
River organisms also form part of the alert system.
“The organisms that live here are also indicators of water quality and global environmental change,” added Contador.
River organisms move about and have already increased their reproductive cycle, says Rozzi. This confirms there has been a small change to the climate in the area that could have been much greater elsewhere on the planet.
“Some insects that have an annual eggs to larvae to adulthood cycle are now having two cycles because the temperature has risen,” said Rozzi.
By studying these organisms and learning from them “we can avoid crossing the threshold that brings us to the extermination of humanity and other life forms,” he added.
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A glacier over Darwin's mountain range is seen during a journey through the Beagle Channel in the Magallanes region, the southernmost of Chile, on September 23, 2022. - There is a place at the end of the world, in the southernmost point of Chile, where pristine forests hide tiny systems in their depths that already give early warning of the global climate change that the planet is suffering. Beyond the place where the American continent ends, on Navarino Island, crossing the Beagle Channel, Puerto Williams stands as the southernmost city in the world, a place far from pollution and human mistreatment, with unique conditions for the study of climate change. (Photo by Alberto PEÑA / AFP)
International
79-Year-Old ICE Detainee Faces Hearing as Family Warns His Health Is Rapidly Deteriorating
Paul John Bojerski, a 79-year-old man detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida, will face a hearing before an immigration judge on Tuesday as his family warns that his health has sharply deteriorated due to detention conditions.
Bojerski was arrested on October 30 during a mandatory ICE appointment in Orlando. Although he has lived in the United States for more than seven decades, he never obtained U.S. citizenship. Born in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II, he legally immigrated with his family in 1952 at the age of five and has lived since then in the city of Sanford.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, his record includes criminal convictions from the 1960s and 1970s, which led to a deportation order that authorities did not carry out at the time.
In July, ICE warned him that he had to leave the country voluntarily. He was instructed to return on October 30 with a travel plan, but was unable to do so because he has no passport and no country willing to receive him. As a result, he was arrested and transported for eight hours to the detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” located in the middle of the Everglades west of Miami.
Immigrant rights organizations have denounced “inhumane” conditions at that facility, which opened in July, reporting issues such as spoiled food, lack of medical care, limited access to drinking water, mosquito infestations, and difficulty contacting the outside world.
His family says Bojerski has lost mobility since being detained. He previously walked unassisted, but now uses a wheelchair, has been left without his usual treatment for chronic back problems, and reportedly fell to the floor of his cell without receiving help for hours.
He is currently being held at the Krome detention center in Miami, where a judge will determine on Tuesday whether he can be released on bond.
International
Trump: “I Don’t Rule Out Anything” When Asked About Troops for Venezuela
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he may speak at some point with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and did not rule out the possibility of sending American troops to the South American nation.
Trump’s remarks come amid heightened tensions over the U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean aimed at combating drug trafficking. Venezuela views the operation as a step toward toppling Maduro, whom Washington accuses of leading a “terrorist” organization involved in narcotics trafficking.
“At some point, I will talk to him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Maduro “has not been good for the United States,” he added.
When asked whether he ruled out sending U.S. troops to Venezuela, Trump replied, “No, I don’t rule it out. I don’t rule out anything.”
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International
Armed Civilians Block Roads in Michoacán Amid Operation Targeting Criminal Leader
Armed civilians blocked several highways in the western Mexican state of Michoacán on Monday in response to a security operation targeting a criminal leader, just a week after President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government reinforced the presence of federal forces in the region.
The federal deployment was increased following the early November shooting death of Carlos Manzo, mayor of the municipality of Uruapan. His killing sparked protests and widespread demands for justice.
Michoacán is home to major drug trafficking groups such as the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and La Nueva Familia Michoacana—both designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” by U.S. President Donald Trump in February.
“Following an operation to apprehend a priority target (a criminal leader), armed civilians set up roadblocks and burned vehicles at various highway points in La Piedad, Zamora, and Pátzcuaro,” the Michoacán Public Security Secretariat reported on X.
“Our Civil Guard is already clearing the roads; two suspected individuals were killed,” the agency added, without specifying the intended target of the operation.
Organized crime groups in Mexico frequently block roads to prevent the capture of their leaders or to hinder law enforcement activities.
The blockades also occurred just hours before a new state public security secretary took office. José Antonio Cruz—a former official of the local prosecutor’s office and former National Guard executive—assumed the position, replacing Juan Carlos Oseguera.
The killing of Mayor Manzo during a public Day of the Dead event on November 1 triggered protests throughout Michoacán. During demonstrations held Saturday in Mexico City, participants also demanded justice for the crime.
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