International
Migrants, cheap labor to work in the fields in the south of Rome

Before dawn, Shoda, a 29-year-old Indian, goes out by bike to go to work in the countryside in Latina, an important agricultural province in the south of Rome and one of the most productive in Italy. It is one of the many migrants exploited as cheap labor in the area, the vast majority, according to the unions.
This young Indian from the Punjab region – like a large part of the migrants in Latina – travels every day the 20 kilometers between his rural neighborhood of the town of Aprilia and the green fields of Latina, where he collects seasonal fruit and vegetables since his arrival in Italy two years ago.
Shoda, one of the 30,000 members of the Indian community in the area, claims to be happy with his work, although he only charges about 6 euros an hour – below the about 10 that the agricultural agreement marks – but is outraged by the death last week of his compatriot Satnam Singh after a serious accident on a farm in the region.
After being run over by a machine that cut his arm, Singh was abandoned on the street next to his member amputated by his boss, who let him die from a hemorrhage that would have been contained if he had received the necessary medical attention.
“They treated him like an animal,” he denounces to EFE Shoda, who in recent days went out to protest a tragedy that has once again focused on the labor exploitation of migrants, very common in Latina, an area with about 30,000 agricultural workers, 70% of them foreigners and many irregular and without a contract.
Andrea Coinu, a member of the CGIL union, the largest in Italy, leaves these early morning days to talk to the migrants who leave at dawn to go to work.
In a van with a dozen more trade unionists, he walks through the fields and villages full of fruit trees and crops to inform them of their labor rights in the face of the “extended impunity” of agricultural owners and entrepreneurs that, he says, culminated in Singh’s tragic death last week.
Since that incident, in the area “there is a lot of tension and fear, both on the part of workers and entrepreneurs,” says Coinu, who distributes pamphlets and talks to Indian day laborers of the Sikh religion with the support of a translator shortly before they are picked up to go to the countryside.
Even in the early hours of the morning, other vans with more workers pass by. According to the CGIL, they go to work accompanied by foremen, one more sample of the ‘caporalato’, a system very widespread in Italian agriculture – it would affect 40% of employees in the center and south of the country – and that has been prevailing in Latina despite being vetoed by law for years.
It is based on employing cheap labor through foremen – part of them from the migrant community – who choose the workers and keep part of the money that the employer offers as a daily wage.
Faced with the controversy over the death of the Indian day laborer, a new victim of the ‘caporalato’, the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni insisted in recent days on its rejection of that system, while unions, part of the migrant community and the political opposition accused the Executive of inaction.
“There are people who only charge four euros an hour despite the strenuous work in the countryside,” says Coinu, who hopes that, after Singh’s tragedy, “the authorities will really invest time in changing things” in a sector “very based on exploitation.”
According to the complaint, the bosses of Latina profit from all this, an area of fascist tradition populated by settlers from northern Italy in a project launched by Benito Mussolini in the 1930s.
The area has many water resources, which makes Latina one of the large areas of kiwi production in Europe, as well as vineyards and crops of melons, tomatoes or cucumbers.
“It’s a tiring job, but it needs to be done to support the family,” another Indian migrant of about 50 years old who goes by bike to work and complains about the bad conditions.
As he explains, he changes crops and pattern according to the seasonal harvest, although unlike many others who must work clandestinely, he has a work permit and a stable situation.
That’s what three young Tunisians are looking for, hoping to improve their future in Italy, while the sunlight rises and they wait on the corner of a rural road for a vehicle to pick them up to go to work on a foreign land.
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.”
International
Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?

This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.
The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.
While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.
Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.
Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.
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