International

The Brazilian Amazon relives the drama of drought: empty channels and isolated communities

The Brazilian Amazon is once again suffering an extreme drought that threatens to worsen in the coming months.

In Manaquiri, near Manaus, there are already dry riverbeds, cornered fish and about twenty isolated rural communities.

After a dramatic 2023, Brazil faces the worst drought since 1950 this year and one of the most affected parts of the country is the Amazon region, according to the National Center for Surveillance and Alert of Natural Disasters data.

In the state of Amazonas, the Government has decreed an “emergency situation” in its 62 municipalities due to drought and forest fires. The meteorological specialists had already anticipated it and it has been confirmed.

“Everything indicates that we will have a very serious drought. The rivers will go down like never before,” warned the governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima.

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The Negro River, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon, today has a level four meters lower than in the same period last year. Throughout Amazonas, the Brazilian state with the largest number of indigenous population, the drought already directly affects about 80,000 families, according to the Civil Defense.

Several hundred of them are in Manaquiri, where from the end of August you can walk along the dry bed of the river that bathes this town (Paraná Manaquiri).

The footprints are marked on the sandbanks, once covered with fresh water and today naked in the sunlight. Where boats loaded with goods used to sail and today you can ride a horse.

Hundreds of herons take advantage of the drought to feed on fish that are restricted to the little river left.

Meanwhile, Ednaldo Freitas, 35, is busy connecting all the hoses he had at home and thus be able to reach the part where there is still water, according to EFE.

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That’s not his only problem. Their children have to walk several kilometers these days to get to school, because the boat that transported them no longer arrives because there is no river.

To go to Manaus, the regional capital, it is still possible to go by another tributary, although it takes an hour longer than usual, which hinders the transport of medicines, food, etc., and harms the local economy.

And with the severe drought, fires have multiplied. This Sunday there were 3,640 active foci throughout Brazil, half of them in the Amazon, the largest tropical forest on the planet. In the state of Amazonas alone there were 237.

In other areas of the country, the flames are also advancing. A fire has burned in four days about 10,000 hectares of the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, near the Federal District of Brasilia, which this Sunday was again shrouded in smoke.

São Paulo and Minas Gerais, the two most populous states in Brazil, have also mobilized a large number of troops to fight forest fires in their territories, on which there are suspicions that many of them have been caused.

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International

Marco Rubio warns Venezuela against military action against Guyana

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Venezuela on Thursday that a military attack on Guyana would be “a big mistake” and “a very bad day for them,” expressing his support for Georgetown in its territorial dispute with Caracas.

“It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they attacked Guyana or ExxonMobil. It would be a very bad day, a very bad week for them, and it would not end well,” Rubio emphasized during a press conference in Georgetown alongside Guyanese President Irfaan Ali.

International

Ecuador oil spill worsens as containment dam collapses

The collapse of a containment dam holding back part of the 25,000+ barrels of oil spilled from a pipeline rupture nearly two weeks ago has worsened the environmental crisis in northwestern Ecuador, contaminating rivers and Pacific beaches.

The Ecuadorian government attributed the March 13 pipeline rupture—which led to the spill of 25,116 barrels of crude—to an act of sabotage. The spill affected three rivers and disrupted water supplies for several communities, according to authorities.

On Tuesday, due to heavy rains that have been falling since January, a containment dam on the Caple River collapsed. The Caple connects to other waterways in Esmeraldas Province, a coastal region bordering Colombia, state-owned Petroecuador said in a statement on Wednesday.

Seven containment barriers were installed in the Viche River, where crews worked to remove oil-contaminated debris. Additional absorbent materials were deployed in Caple, Viche, and Esmeraldas Rivers, which flow into the Pacific Ocean.

Authorities are also working to protect a wildlife refuge home to more than 250 species, including otters, howler monkeys, armadillos, frigatebirds, and pelicans.

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“This has been a total disaster,” said Ronald Ruiz, a leader in the Cube community, where the dam was located. He explained that the harsh winter rains caused river levels to rise, bringing debris that broke the containment barriersthat were holding the accumulated oil for extraction.

International

Federal court blocks Trump’s use of Enemy Alien Act for deportations

A federal appeals court upheld the block on former President Donald Trump’s use of the Enemy Alien Act on Wednesday, preventing him from using the law to expedite deportations of alleged members of the transnational criminal group Tren de Aragua.

With a 2-1 ruling, a panel from the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed previous decisions by two lower court judges, maintaining the legal standoff between the White House and the judiciary.

On March 14, Trump invoked the 1798 Enemy Alien Act, a law traditionally used during wartime, to deport hundreds of Venezuelans whom he accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization that originated in Venezuelan prisons.

The centuries-old law grants the president the power to detain, restrict, and expel foreign nationals from a country engaged in a “declared war” or an “invasion or predatory incursion” against the United States, following a public proclamation.