Bogotá begins year clearing tonnes of curbside trash..

The Bogotá municipality cleared over 9,100 tonnes of trash, mostly building material, heavy items or broken furniture left on pavements through January 2026, or some 300 tonnes of débris dumped outside every day, the broadcaster Radio Santa Fe reported on 5 February. Over 2,200 tonnes of similar refuse and 500 tyres were separately cleared in the first week of February, the broadcaster reported on 8 February. This was almost as much as the 13,000 tonnes of refuse people deposited with mobile Ecopoints or municipal collection vans (Ecopuntos móviles, run by the UAESP or Special Administrative Unit for Public Services) throughout 2025. The city's 211 collection vans move around with advance notice so people will dispose of unwanted items correctly and prevent the city's notorious trash piles.

Colombian government says it curbed deforestation in 2025

Colombia's government claimed the rate of destruction of its Amazonian rainforest fell 25% in the first nine months of 2025 compared to that period in 2024. The state body monitoring deforestation, IDEAM, noted the removal of some 36,300 hectares (or 363 square kilometres) of forest canopy between January and the end of September, compared to 48,500 hectares the previous year, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on 31 December. Almost all deforestation in Colombia happens in the departments of Meta, Caquetá, Guaviare and Putumayo, and mainly caused by the expansion of farming, cattle farming or coca cultivation into the rainforest. The report attributed the partial success to a range of initiatives including reforestation programs and collaboration with local communities.

Uber-type services squeezing out Mexico City's taxis..

Mexico City's transportation chief announced on 24 December that the Mexican capital would invest in upgrading its taxi fleet to help it meet the "unfair competition" of ride hailing services like Uber, in time for the the 2026 soccer world cup. The city's Mobility Secretary Héctor García Nieto said at an event to scrap 300 outdated vehicles that the taxi fleet had "more han halved," from 150,000 taxis to 60,000, as drivers no longer found it worth their while to even maintain their cars, La Jornada reported. The city, he said, would offer cash aid to drivers for repairs or to buy electric vehicles, create an application (Taxi CDMX), tighten regulations and security measures for drivers and passengers and replace at least 1,000 existing vehicles. The city's mayoress, Clara Brugada, speaking at the same venue, said "we're going to modernize the technology so city taxis have an application that works and is competitive." She said about 600,000 city residents used taxis every day, with about one million trips made daily.

Mexico City, Oaxaca vote to ban single-use plastics

The legislature of Mexico City voted on 10 May to ban the "use and distribution" of disposable plastics in the capital from 2020. Almost all members voted to gradually enforce the ban, intended to reduce the mountain of trash the city generates daily. Similar measures being enacted across Mexico typically affect items like bags, straws, styrofoam trays or coffee lids. Mexico City would allow shops to hand out bags if these could degrade entirely within 90 days of disposal, though it was not clear if such bags presently exist in Mexico. The measure will include coffee capsules from 2021, Milenio reported. The state of Puebla also voted on 24 April to ban disposable plastics from 2020, first enforcing the measure in the state capital Puebla, with a population of 1.6 million. Both states would complement the bans with informative campaigns. The southern state of Oaxaca and eastern state of Tabasco have also approved restrictions. Oaxaca voted a gradual ban in early April, with enforcement beginning in government offices, which could no longer buy, use or distribute throwaway plastics, the website Prensa Latina reported on 15 April. Greenpeace in Mexico estimated in early 2019 that the country produced some 10,000 tonnes of plastic trash daily.

Bogotá rolls out new, streetside trash containers

The Bogotá city government began placing new trash containers around the capital in late November, and was observing their usage in an initial adaptation phase. The containers, as shown on news websites, were very similar to those used in Spanish cities like Barcelona and Valencia, and require residents to bin their trash outside buildings. The city government believes they are cleaner and will encourage people to separate trash, and intends to place 10,744 containers around the capital. These have either white lids, for recyclables like plastic, paper and cans, or black lids, for all other trash including food remains. The broadcaster Caracol noted on Christmas Day that some residents were already confused by or indifferent to the distinction, as certain bins contained the wrong sort of rubbish. Others had been vandalized or sprayed, though "no more than one per cent," according to the head of trash collection at the Special Administrative Unit for Public Services, the office running various city services, Yanlicer Pérez.

Industrialist says anti-plastic campaigns in Mexico "hitting" sector

Public campaigns in Mexico against straws and plastic bags were changing consumption patterns and "hurting" the industry, a sector spokesman was reported as saying on 22 December. Aldimir Torres Arenas, head of the National Association of Plastic Industries (ANIPAC), said campaigns like the Environment Ministry (SEMARNAT)'s "Fine Without a Straw" were hitting firms' revenues "by 10 and up to 30 per cent" and one firm had already shut, the daily Publimetro reported. He said "we recognize there is a solid waste problem reaching our forests, streets and seas," referring to massive worldwide accumulation of trash on land and seas. But he warned curbing consumption would affect jobs, and said packacing represents "47 per cent of the national GDP." Plastic, he said, was a "technological marvel" and costly resource that should not be wasted. The daily gave 650 as the average number of plastic bags a Mexican uses every year, and reported sales of plastics to be worth $30 billion a year.

Ban curbs plastic bag use in Mexican city

Restrictions on the use of carrier bags in Querétaro, a district north-east of Mexico City, have caused a drop of "up to 30%" in business for regional manufacturers, the local Diario de Querétaro reported on December 19, citing an industry spokesman. Venancio Pérez Gómez said a municipal ban had "hit" the five or so firms making bags in the state of Querétaro "by 20 or 30%" in 2018, as "shops have stopped buying." Gómez, head of the plastic makers' association Clúster de Plásticos Querétaro, observed however that the sector as a whole had grown by six to seven per cent over 2018. The same newspaper had reported in early September an 80% drop in bag distribution in shops following the ban. It cited the city's chief environmental officer Martha Patricia Vargas Salgado as giving the previous level of bag consumption in the city as "two million bags," without further details. The city, she said then, was discussing with industry improving environmental norms for permitted bags like trash or bin bags.

Peru legislates to curb plastics

Parliament in Peru voted on 5 December to gradually curb the use and sale of plastic bags and disposable items to reduce plastic pollution, Agence France-Presse and local media reported. The Plastics Law, approved almost unanimously in Congress, would cut bag use by 35% in its first year, and targets other items like straws, to be banned within a year, packaging, thin plastic bags and wrappings for brochures. The law forbids the manufacture of non-degradable, plastic bags and packaging after 28 July, 2021, La República reported on 5 December. It cited the Environment Ministry as putting Peru's annual plastic consumption at 947,000 tonnes, 75% of which was dumped as trash, "with only 0.3% being recycled." Other sources gave different figures here but broadly speaking, most plastic used in Peru accumulates as trash. El Peruano reported on 28 December that the government wants shops to start charging 10 Peruvian cents (about 0.02 euros) per bag in 2019, with the fee rising to 50 cents in 2023 and more thereafter.

Medellín recycling machines to multiply after initial success

A pilot scheme in Medellín to encourage residents to recycle cans, glass and plastic bottles by giving them transport credit gathered thousands of containers within four months of starting in September 2017, and was set to expand from one machine, organizers said in March 2018. Ciclo, the firm founded by local engineering students, stated that its container in the Universidad metro station gathered almost 5,000 bottles and cans just on April 24, designated a car-free day in Medellín. From September to late December 2017, over 4,500 commuters used the machine to recycle 440,000 bottles and cans, earning enough credit for over 11,000 metro trips in that time. That amounted to taking 200 cars off the road and not emitting 22 tonnes of CO2, El Espectador reported on March 22. With the scheme's success, the metro authority stated in early April that the city would have five machines in the city by the end of 2018.

Chile mulling general ban on plastic bags

Chile's government presented its proposals to parliament on 8 May for a nationwide ban on "the use of plastic bags in shops," media reported. President Sebastián Piñera wrote on Twitter that "we do not want more bags polluting our cities, countryside, beaches and seas." The initiative is meant to substitute the earlier 2017 ban on plastic bag distribution in 102 seaside districts. The Government states that Chile currently produced 3.4 billion plastic bags a year and that residents of Santiago alone used 62.2 million bags a year, CNN reported. Some eight million tonnes of plastic are stated as ending up in the world's oceans every year, according to NGOs like Plastic Oceans, with increasing reports of wildlife choking on them. In late April, the Environment Minister Marcela Cubillos specified that the measure would include "so-called biodegradable" bags, and go into force within a year of approval and publication in the official gazette, or two years for smaller businesses. Meanwhile, she added, businesses could hand customers a maximum of two plastic bags for every purchase, the national daily El Mercurio reported on 27 April.

Colombia lost over two million hectares of forests since 1960s

Millions of hectares of woodlands equivalent to the size of a province, were destroyed in Colombia between 1967 and 2012 thanks to farming, war, mining and a range of criminal activities. The Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute (IGAC) and IDEAM, two public research bodies, found in the recently published Suelos y tierras de Colombia, a paper on the state of the Colombia's natural landscapes, that the country lost just over 2.4 million hectares (24,000 square kilometres) of forest cover in that period, about equivalent to the size of the central department of Cundinamarca that includes Bogotá, El Espectador reported on 30 August. The bodies found that in 1967 the country had 68, 223,717 hectares of forests - or 60 per cent of its entire area - and this dropped to 65,767,667 hectares in 2012, or 58 per cent of the country's surface. About 60 million hectares consisted of primary or secondary forests and the rest, woodlands interspersed with farmed land. The worst damage was done from the 1960s to the 1980s, the IGAC found. Caracol radio cited its head, Juan Antonio Nieto Escalante, as urging more efforts to protect the forest now, as the country's civil war winds down.

AIDS infections rise in Bogotá, 18 infected daily in Colombia

Between 50 and 70,000 Colombians were thought to be unwitting carriers of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, while authorities estimated the daily rate of infection nationwide to be 18, media reported on 1 December, World Aids Day. While Colombian authorities gave 67,000 as the number of infected individuals yet to be tested, the head of the UNAIDS in Colombia told Caracol radio that some 50,000 people were likely HIV-positive who "do not know or do not want to know" their status. Of the 18 thought infected every day, five were in Bogotá, which showed a 14 per cent increase in infections from the previous year, the broadcaster RCN La Radio reported, citing the city's chief health officer Mauricio Bustamante. Mr Bustamante said some 1,411 people were registered as infected in Bogota in 2014 - 85 per cent of them being men - though he said the figure was likely twice that. The Colombian Health Ministry stated on that day that since the first diagnosis in 1985 to 1 December 2013, there were 92,379 registered cases of AIDS, 71 per cent of these among men. The greatest number of infections occurred in the 25-29 age group, followed by the 20-24, then 30-34 years age groups, El Espectador cited the Health Ministry as stating.

Bicycle use increases in Bogotá

A small, but increasing proportion of residents of Bogotá are reportedly using bicycles to move around the Colombian capital - a city particularly affected by car fumes - braving a range of dangers including getting run over. The proportion of residents who "use a bicycle" has reportedly increased from one per cent of the population in the 1990s to currently 19 per cent, while Bogota's Radio Santa Fe has cited a 177 per cent rise in daily bike trips from 281,000 in 2005 to 500,000 today; yet cycling remains occasional and far from generalised. A survey from 2011 showed that only four per cent of daily trips were made on bicycles.  The city government has promoted cycling through schemes like Bicicorredores, a lending system similar to those of many cities like Paris or Mexico City, and the more established Ciclovía. But persistent problems were said to include insufficient facilities to allow all those interested to use city bicycles, bike thefts and related violence, and danger from cars, El Tiempo reported on 16 November. The daily reported that the municipality intended to spend the equivalent of just over USD 16 million to expand the network of bike paths, which currently stretch 195 km. The city's transport secretary, María Constanza García was cited as saying that changing attitudes on transportation was essential, and "drivers should put themselves in bike users' shoes and respect the space provided for them." Bogota she said, was a "laboratory for creating awareness in other cities."

Argentines "use eight billion" plastic bags a year

Argentines use "at least" eight billion plastic bags a year, around 200 per person, roughly half of that to hold household rubbish, the northern daily La Voz del Interior reported on 9 April, citing a study by the National Institute of Industrial Technology, INTI. The daily reported that residents of Córdoba, where La Voz is published, used 266 million plastic bags a year of which 40 million - or 300 tonnes of plastic - were thought to end up as floating trash for "being badly disposed of." La Voz depicted the relative impact of pollution from a year's consumption of bags in Córdoba as equivalent to three days of driving by all its cars, although its opinion was that the environmental impact of plastic pollution in Córdoba was "limited" compared to car pollution or the unspecified amount of food wasted there. Córdoba and its suburbs have a population of a little over 1.3 million. The municipal council of Rosario in the province of Santa Fe was separately to discuss whether to ban or charge for plastic bags. The Socialist council president Miguel Zamarini was urging a ban following the example of other cities, the website Infonews reported on 6 April. Zamarini cited Córdoba as one city where supermarkets were no longer handing out plastic bags. "We welcome the debate, but we do not believe in partial solutions and palliative measures. Pollution of supermarket plastic bags is proven and we do not want a less harmful bag, but to eliminate pollution outright," La Capital cited him as saying.

Mexico's Interjet begins flights between Bogotá and Mexico City

The Mexican airliner Interjet, which covers routes inside Mexico and the American continent, began from 11 July direct flights between Mexico City and Bogotá, moving to exploit an anticipated increase in travel between the two states, members of the Pacific Alliance trading block. Interjet was to fly once every day, leaving Mexico City before 10:00 a.m and returning from Bogotá at 15:25, Mexico's El Universal newspaper reported, citing comments by the Interjet CEO José Luis Garza. The Interjet website was initially promoting tickets "from" a little over 520 USD, which at first glance seemed cheaper than similar flights operated by the Colombian airline Avianca. Interjet moved some 7.2 million passengers on all its routes in 2012, El Universal reported. It separately cited Mexico's travel monitoring system as counting a 30 per-cent increase in the number of Colombians who flew into Mexico, from 125,882 in 2011 to 163,072 in 2012.

Colombian President delighted with results of year in trade pact with US

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in the northern port of Cartagena on 15 May that a year after the application of a free-trade pact with the United States, Colombian exportation to the United States had risen and 775 firms made the United States their first export market. These firms "exported to the United States for the first time," a year after the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) began, when they "had not exported any product between 2010 and 2012," the Presidential website reported on 15 May. Mr Santos observed on an 18-per-cent rise in exports of farming products excluding coffee and flowers - two of Colombia's best known and established exports - while 200 products arrived in the United States for the first time, most notably he observed, exotic fruit, but also ceramic tiles, packaging machines, stainless steel sinks and sowing machines. "Behind this are more jobs for Colombians...if this is how we did in a year of global contraction, imagine what we can achieve in a stabilised global economy." He said agro-industrial exports to the United States rose 5.7 per cent that year and industrial exports 6.2 per cent, providing "many motives for us to feel optimistic."

Extortion rife in Honduras as government "fails" on security

The Honduran daily La Prensa reported on 7 May on the apparent ease with which street gangs extort money from thousands of businesses and individuals in Honduras - even the Church - raking in the equivalent of over 62 million USD or over 47 million euros a year to finance their organizations. It observed in a separate report on 6 May that certain observers estimated extortion could be earning the gangs twice that amount annually, though this was difficult to measure as most acts of extortion went unreported. Those forced to pay include bus drivers, taxi drivers, shopkeepers, owners of stalls and kiosks and businessmen from whom money was demanded in person or by phone; money was paid in forms including cash, bank transfers and re-charged mobile phones. In Tegucicalpa, members of the Mara gangs were said to collect money in the capital's 16 covered food and grocery markets, and in bus and taxi stops and small shopping centres. In the northern city of San Pedro Sula - one of the most violent cities in the Americas - likewise "all taxi and bus stops" pay, the daily observed. The country formed a National Anti-Extortion Force (Fuerza Nacional Antiextorsión) in March 2013, but the daily observed many individuals did not report extortion, fearing reprisals from gangsters who might or might not be caught and punished. La Prensa cited a driver from San Pedro Sula as saying that "members of the Maras and gangsters have killed hundreds of bus drivers, assistants and taxi drivers since 2009. We do not report because you do not know if the person you are reporting to is part of the extortion or a hired killer." A study cited claimed that some 17,500 small businesses closed in 2012 under the pressure of extortion, La Prensa reported on 6 May. Separately a coalition of Honduran rights bodies concluded on 7 May that the government of President Porfirio Lobo Sosa had failed to assure public security since taking power in 2010, in spite of its pledges, actions and claims. The Human Rights Alliance (Alianza por los Derechos Humanos) including several rights bodies held a press conference that day and issued a communiqué to denounce this failure, but also the alleged complicity of certain officials, which assured the impunity of criminals, EFE reported.

Army extends firearms ban in Bogotá, shown to cut murder rate

The army extended through May a firearms ban imposed in the Colombian capital Bogotá at the mayor's request, which officials believed had led to a comparative reduction in homicides, the Bogotá city government reported on 2 May. The ban apparently in force from 1 February to 29 April 2013 affected civilians and legal entities and was renewed from midnight on 2 May to midnight on 30 July 2013; the first such ban was imposed from 1 February to 29 April 2012, the office of the city's Government Secretary coordinating security affairs reported. Figures seemingly indicated a link between banning guns and fewer homicides: there were 166 reported homicides using guns in Bogotá from 1 February to 29 April 2013, down from 196 for the same period in 2013, and in contrast with 232 homicides cited for 2011, presumably for the same three-month period that year when there was no ban. The report stated that in the February to late-April period, police caught 40 suspects in flagrante delicto and 212 whom courts had ordered detained in relation with homicides. Hundreds of guns were also confiscated or handed in since 2012, the municipality stated. The ban did no apply to the armed forces, members of the diplomatic corps, registered security personnel and officials of the judiciary. Separately, police said they had detained 1,466 people in Bogotá so far in 2013 for stealing mobile telephones or related devices, RCN La Radio reported on 7 May. Police most recently detained eight suspected of selling stolen mobile devices in the districts of Fontibón and Kennedy in south-western Bogotá; in all 3,940 stolen devices were recovered this year, RCN radio reported.

Over 50 reported killed, found dead in Mexico over weekend

At least 52 were reported killed or found dead in apparent criminal incidents around Mexico over 12-14 April, media reported. Of these, at least 23 bodies were reported found in the states of Coahuila in northern Mexico, Guerrero on its western coast and Quintana Roo on the Caribbean coast through 13-14 April. These included eight bodies found in Cancún on 14 April and 10 shot in incidents in Torreón in Coahuila, CNN reported. Authorities in Cancún suspected the eight may have been killed in a house gangsters used as a body "dump" where four suspects including a 15-year-old boy were found drinking and taking drugs. They were said detained. The 23 also included the bodies of five men aged 25-35 years, found tied in the district of Atoyac de Álvarez in Guerrero, and apparently totured then executed. A message left by them, signed by one of the cartels the Caballeros Templarios, alleged they were "kidnappers and blackmailers." Atoyac is one of the districts in Guerrero where locals have turned to community policing. The review Proceso separately counted 14 presumed victims of crime for 12 April, and 14 at least appeared to have been shot or found dead on 13 April in the northern states of Durango, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, Proceso and Milenio reported. The latter group included four dismembered, decapitated bodies found on a road in Tamaulipas on 13 April, Proceso reported, and a woman shot dead and found on 13 April in Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas. A note left beside her alleged she was an informant of the Defence Ministry, Proceso reported. Separately, a communiqué issued by Mexican authorities counted 1,101 homicides linked to federal offences in the 31 days of the month of March, which exceeded detentions, Proceso reported on 12 April. Victims included 40 state agents killed during service and 25 civilians thought killed by mistake, a communiqué signed by the interior ministry, the Prosecutor-General's office and the Defence and Navy ministries stated. Its figures were compiled by the National Centre for Planification, Analysis and Information to Combat Crime, CENAP (Centro Nacional de Planeación, Análisis e Información para el Combate a la Delincuencia), a body attached to the office of the Prosecutor-General of Mexico. The authorities stated that over 138,000 kilograms of cocaine were seized that month among other illegal substances, and 957 individuals detained.

Venezuelan president declared re-elected, opposition wants recount

Nicolás Maduro Moros was declared winner - by a narrow margin - of Venezuela's 14 April presidential elections, although his rival Henrique Capriles Radonsky said he would not recognize the results until every single vote was recounted. The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Tibisay Lucena declared that evening that with 99,12 per cent of votes counted, Maduro had won 7,505,338 or 50,67 per cent of all votes cast, and Capriles 7, 270,403 or 49.07 per cent of votes, Europa Press and Le Monde reported on 15 April. She said 78.71 per cent of electors had voted and insisted the CNE only declared results when "an irreversible trend" was evident. Capriles told a press conference in Caracas soon after Lucena's declarations that it was Maduro who had lost and he would not recognize results "until every vote is counted," Europa Press reported. He urged the CNE that "every ballot box be opened and every vote of the Venezuelans counted, one by one, manually, to corroborate the figures presented by the electoral authorities." He denied reports he had made any pact with Maduro, saying "I do not make pacts with lies or corruption. I do not make pacts with those I consider illegitimate." Several heads of states and foreign politicians, mostly of the Left, congratulated Maduro. An official of the CNE Vicente Díaz declared there would be re-count of all ballots for the narrow difference in candidates' votes this time, in contrast with a recount of 53 per cent of votes in previous polls, CNN reported on 14 April.