Tag: Colombia

Athens Democracy Forum: The Disunited States of South America

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This article is from a special report on the Athens Democracy Forum, which gathered experts last week in the Greek capital to discuss global issues. Moderator: Serge Schmemann, editorial board, The New York Times Participants: Natalia Herbst, social impact consultant and Obama Foundation Scholar alumnus; Jorge Fernando Quiroga, former president, Bolivia; and Adriana Mejía Hernández, executive director, Fundación Innovación para el Desarrollo Excerpts from the panel Disunited States of South America have been edited and condensed. SERGE SCHMEMANN In my preparatory reading, I found a dual image of the continent.…

Growing numbers of Chinese citizens set their sights on the US – via the deadly Darién Gap

Chin@Strategy

On the first day of 2023, Xu was in no mood to celebrate the new year. He had just arrived in the Colombian beach town of Necoclí along with dozens of other Chinese citizens, weary from a two-day bus trip from Ecuador. Their goal was the US via the Darién Gap, a roadless, lawless and extremely dangerous stretch of rainforest connecting South and Central America. He wanted to leave China far behind him. “After I leave the country [China], I have no plans to go back alive,” says Xu later,…

China ‘spy balloon’ wakes up world to new era of war at edge of space

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Last Friday, Enildo Altamar and his neighbours looked up into the clear morning sky above Arroyo de Piedra, near Colombia’s Caribbean coast, and saw a white orb floating above them, a smaller version of the moon. “We are used to seeing drones in the area as they monitor local mines but they fly around, whereas this thing was massive and just hung in the air,” Altamar said. Soon his phone was pinging with messages from panicked friends in surrounding towns asking what the mysterious object could be. As if in…

China Tries to Play Down Balloon Dispute With Censorship and Memes

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On Chinese social media, jokes about the suspected spy balloon have been making the rounds. People quipped that the vessel was a misunderstood attempt at wishing Americans a happy Lantern Festival, the Chinese holiday this past Sunday. Others compared it to a glutinous rice ball, a traditional food eaten during the celebrations. The wisecracking was, in part, what happens on social media anywhere in the world: current events transformed to memes to attract likes and follows. But it also dovetailed with signs of a broader government strategy to downplay an…

Another Chinese Balloon Flew Over Colombia, Officials Confirm

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A Chinese balloon floated over Latin America and the Caribbean, the Chinese government confirmed on Monday, adding that it was for civilian purposes and was being used for flight tests. “Affected by the weather and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course and entered into the airspace of Latin America and the Caribbean,” a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, Mao Ning, said at a news conference on Monday. On Friday morning, before the United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had spent the…

Hospitals under fire and hard-won abortion rights: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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Rama, a 16-year-old Syrian refugee, holds a smiley face as she sits in the office of an organisation that cares for girls who have been forced into early marriage in Saadnayel, Lebanon. Rama was married at 14, divorced a year later and is a mother to an 18-month-old baby. Photograph: Marwan Naamani/DPA The Guardian