Christmas brings trash to Mexico City

Mexico City authorities estimated the city would generate about 4,200 tons of trash on Christmas Eve in addition to roughly 12,800 tons the megalopolis produces daily, Excelsior reported on 25 December. Mexico City has in past years had problems disposing of its daily household waste, which includes significant amounts of plastic, very little of which is separated at source. An environmental officer from the city's Venustiano Carranza sector, Elena Cortés, observed that much of this extra waste would consist of electronic components and batteries, which she stated had to be disposed of correctly and taken to recycling centers. According to one study cited in Excelsior, every resident of Mexico City used on average 12.6 batteries a year. The city and its environs are estimated to have about 20 million inhabitants. Ahead of Christmas, the city government and its Environment office launched a campaign urging people to reduce their trash, especially by avoiding excess packaging and ribbons for presents, the Diario de México reported on 20 December, citing Notimex. The campaign pointed out that people generated 30 per cent more trash over Christmas and 35 per cent of that consisted of packaging. In normal conditions, Mexico City reportedly produces 12,816,000 tons of trash daily, according to the 2013 Solid Waste Inventory. The city's website examines in parts the reasons for "so much waste" being produced in the Mexican capital.

Venezuela's new parliamentarians set on passing an amnesty law

Venezuelan politicians opposed to the government of President Nicolás Maduro were insisting he could not block an amnesty law the opposition intends to approve in the next parliament, as he threatened to on 8 December. The president's comments were an early indication he was disinclined to cooperate with the opposition-dominated parliament, due to start working on 5 January. But Delsa Solórzano, a member-elect from Un Nuevo Tiempo, one of the parties in the opposition coalition, said the law would be approved soon after parliament starts working, the online daily TalCual reported on 10 December. She said the constitution allowed parliament - where the opposition will have a two-thirds majority - to promulgate laws rejected by the president. The amnesty, she said, would affect 80 detainees and was part of her coalition's bid to bring "reconciliation" to Venezuela; she insisted there would be careful vetting to ensure felons were not freed. The daily cited a leading government opponent, the governor of the state of Miranda Henrique Capriles as saying that the president "could not" block the law. President Maduro maintained in turn his defiant discourse. He declared on 9 December that there would be no "surrender" to the Right, and the "revolution is not over... they are threatening to deprive the people of its benefits. We are going to end this... economic war," state television reported. He also said prosecutors must investigate allegations of vote buying by the opposition, "because there is proof for it." The evidence cited was a tape recording of an opposition politician discussing money for votes with an unnamed individual, dubbed pollo (chicken). Maduro earlier accused the opposition of using "economic warfare" to win the elections, "like the bad guys."

Opposition wins decisive majority in Venezuelan parliament

Venezuela's opposition coalition Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) attributed to itself 112 of the 167 seats in parliament following its victory in the legislative elections of 6 December, though the figure had yet to be definitively confirmed. It indicated in any case an opposition victory far greater than many had dared hope for, or feared, and would in theory give MUD enough seats to vote in laws to change the Venezuelan polity. After initially accepting the opposition's victory, President Nicolás Maduro announced he would reject any law to free jailed dissidents, an initiative likely to be one of the new parliament's legislative priorities. The newspaper El Universal cited MUD's executive secretary, Jesús Torrealba as saying on 7 or 8 December that the electoral authority was confusing people by giving MUD only 107 seats, when three "indigenous" seats and two other, indeterminate seats were clearly with MUD. The opposition separately stated that its intention to pass a law to free political detainees was not just for politicians like Leopoldo López, but also indigenous and trade union personalities believed jailed for criticizing the socialist government. President Maduro said on 8 December he would oppose any such a law, saying those allegedly behind the February 2014 demonstrations had to do jail time for the harm done. "Let me say as head of state... I won't accept any Amnesty Law, because they violated human rights... they can send me a thousand laws, but those who kill the people must be judged and must pay," he said on the state-run Venezolana de Televisión.

FARC provoke massive oil spill in south-western Colombia

Colombians were outraged in late June by the consequences of a 22 June guerrilla attack on a pipeline, which caused thousands of barrels of oil to pour into the river Mira in the district of Tumaco. The hashtag Environmental Holocaust was created on Twitter to show pictures of oil streaming down the river toward the Pacific coast, after two suspected fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) bombed part of the Transandino pipeline. The explosion was estimated to have spilled the equivalent of some 10,000 barrels of crude into the area, as the review Semana observed on 27 June that the harm done was "irreparable" in spite of efforts by locals and the firm Ecopetrol to clean up and repair the pipeline. The spill was bad enough to prompt Colombian environmentalists, whom Semana described as usually reluctant to condemn FARC actions for their own left-wing sympathies, to publicly urge the sides in the civil conflict to leave the environment alone. President Juan Manuel Santos separately told El Tiempo newspaper that the FARC had provoked "possibly the worst" environmental disaster in Colombia's history. He visited the area on 26 June with ministers including the environment minister who reportedly wept on seeing the landscape. Separately, the army arrested eight suspected FARC fighters in the districts of Ipiales and Roberto Payán in the Nariño department, Semana reported on 28 June, citing Agence France-Presse. The report did not mention the detained as suspects in the pipeline attack.

Bogotá police to confiscate sharp items on streets, to curb attacks

Authorities in Bogota will confiscate knives and sharp items found in public, and admonish and possibly fine people found with potentially harmful items, in response to a reported rise in armed attacks in Bogotá. The city issued a decree on 11 June instructing police to detain anyone found with such items for six hours and explain to them how these could be dangerous even if carried in self-defence, El Tiempo reported on 12 June. Detained persons would have to sign a pledge of good conduct up to two times, then face a fine if found a third time with such items, Radio Santa Fe reported. The Metropolitan Police chief Humberto Guatibonza was cited as saying that police were seeing more attacks with blunt instruments in the capital, attributed to the unrestricted sale of potentially dangerous artefacts and a clampdown on carrying firearms since 2012. That had effectively forced criminals to use blunt weapons in violent thefts, he said. Police declared they had confisctated 180,000 blunt weapons of various types so far this year, and would proceed to look for such items in parks and public transportation, El Tiempo reported. The city government separately reported on 12 June that it was carrying out security checks on the city's Transmilenio bus network, and had so far detained 10 people for thefts and 18 for jumping onto buses without paying.

Drought forces Puerto Rico to cut off water in capital most days

Puerto Rico imposed strict water rationing in the capital San Juan from 10 June, following months of drought that had already provoked intermittent cuts in the water supply. Several papers were urging people to stop wasting water. The "greater part of the" capital now had water every three days, or household water was to be cut off for 48 hours every three days, for "up to several months," Spain's EFE news agency cited the head of the water authority Alberto Lázaro as saying. He warned that current shortages could be as bad as 1994, when they lasted for five months. Restrictions were to affect 200,000 users or households whose water came from the Carraízo dam outside the capital, while similar restrictions were to be imposed on "several districts" in the northern part of the island, which has a total population of 3.6 million, Colombia's El Espectador and EFE reported. The drought was said to be possibly due to the El Niño effect, a regional weather condition, and shortages were attributed to failure to properly dredge and maintain dams, which had reduced their storage capacity, EFE observed. The website Primera Hora cited a deputy-head of the water authority as saying on 11 June that some dredging of Carraízo was envisaged by the end of June. He said he hoped the 48-hour restrictions would balance water leaving and entering the dam, which he said was about 40 million gallons a day presently. He contrasted this with amounts entering dams in the western part of Puerto Rico, which were now in excess of 200 million gallons a day, mainly because "it keeps raining" in that part of the island. The daily El Vocero de Puerto Rico carried on 12 June tips on using water responsibly, advising people in the capital not to throw polluting chemical substances into the sink or toilet, not use water to defrost foods and to turn off the tap when brushing teeth. Just rinsing in a shower, it observed, could typically use between two and five gallons (7.5-18 litres) of water.

Venezuelan regime arrests Caracas mayor, for "subversion"

Venezuelan security forces arrested on 19 February one of the country's leading opponents, the mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma, whom President Nicolás Maduro accused immediately of involvement in subversive plots. A "massive" group of policemen and security agents were reported to have broken into Ledezma's office and "hit" him before leading him away without letting him speak, Radio France Internationale cited his wife as saying. President Maduro had in recent days cited arrests in the armed forces for unspecified plotting, and reportedly accused Ledezma of connivence, in the latest of a string of such charges since he became president in 2013. On 19 February he said Mr Ledezma was using his position as mayor to "seek violence, coup plotting and destabilization." He said many opposition politicians did the same - "a mayor here, a governor there or a member of parliament" - to plot against the state and sabotage the economy, and warned subversives would go to court, the official AVN agency reported. The arrest came close to the anniversary of the arrest of another opponent closely connected to Ledezma, Leopoldo López. Two former regional presidents, Sebastián Piñera of Chile and Andrés Pastrana of Colombia, who have sought to have Mr López freed, denounced the latest arrest. Piñera called it "brutal, illegal and abusive," Venezuela's El Nacional reported, citing his Twitter account. A spokesman for the US State Department also rejected Maduro's charges that the United States was sabotating Venezuela's economy; Venezuela's economic problemss were the fruit of its government's policies, CNN quoted spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying.

Bike rentals expand in Mexico City, now fourth network worldwide

The mayor of Mexico City praised the city's bicycle rental system on its fifth anniversary on 16 February, and boasted that the network was now the fourth biggest in the world, after Hangzhou, London and Paris. The city has taken a range of measures in past years to cut traffic and pollution, including boosting public transport and promoting residential property in the city center, which would reduce commuting. Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera was speaking at the ECOBICI rental system's expansion into a third, southern sector of the city, Benito Juárez. He said the city now had 444 bike stations and 6,500 bicycles operating in 42 neighbourhoods or colonias. "We are going to keep reinforcing and pushing for bicycle use in Mexico City," Milenio cited him as saying. The ECOBICI rental system estimated that use of its bicycles in 2010, 2011 and 2012 had in total saved 232 tonnes of CO2 emissions, equivalent to planting 697 trees. Yet cycling remains hazardous in this car-dominated megalopolis, and biking associations earlier asked the city's Environment Secretary Tanya Müller to act to ensure safer cycling, including by forcing the city's sometimes ramshackle, and often intimidating, minibuses to drive sensibly. The newspaper Excelsior separately reported the first act of vandalism against a bicycle station inaugurated in Benito Juárez, suspected to have been the work of local residents who had lost their habitual "parking space" to bicycles.

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."

Mexico City recycles asphalt to cut pollution, costs

They used to throw it out, but now the Mexico City government is recycling the asphalt and pavement material it removes from roads, to produce a cheaper, less polluting and more abundant "asphalt mix" to repave and repair city roads. The head of the recycling plant making the material in the district of Coyoacán, Mariano Plascencia, said the mix produced 90 per cent less dust and pollutants, without elaborating, Milenio newspaper reported on 22 July. It consisted of a mix of crushed stones, cement and "additives," merged in temperatures of 120-151 degrees celsius. The plant had most recently produced 57,900 tonnes of the asphalt mix, which the city government distributed between the capital's delegaciones, the larger city sectors or districts, to meet their stated needs. The use of the new asphalt was made obligatory in 2010. The new material was described as requiring little maintenance, which produced a further "40 per cent savings," the daily cited city authorities as saying.

Colombians reelect their President

Juan Manuel Santos Calderón was reelected on 15 June as President of Colombia with just under 51 per cent of all votes cast, and vowed to pursue peace talks with the country's two communist guerrilla forces to end decades of civil war. With just over 99.2 per cent of votes counted late that day, the state registry counted 7,776,200 votes for Mr Santos and 6,881,490 for his conservative rival, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, El Colombiano reported. The daily observed that the President won a clear victory in the capital Bogotá and in northern regions on the Caribbean coast. The broadcaster Caracol provided a colour-coded map of the country, indicating the two candidates' respective votes in different departments. While the defeated candidate congratulated the President, his ally and mentor, the former president and Senator-elect Álvaro Uribe, alleged there had been fraud. He said in Medellín that the victory was the result of the "biggest fraud in history" including monies being given out to local officials, mayors and parliamentarians as incentives or to hand out to voters. In unspecified cases Mr Uribe said, communist guerrillas had threatened to kill those voting for Zuluaga, the broadcaster Caracol reported. Like similar electoral fraud claims on the American continent, his claims would be difficult to prove. Foreign dignitaries and heads of state swiftly congratulated the President in any case and wished him well in his efforts to end conflict in Colombia. Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, whose government is aiding the Colombian peace talks, said the choice on 15 June had been between "peace and no peace" and Colombians had "clearly taken the path of peace," Caracol reported.

Colombia's premier novelist dies in Mexico City

The Colombian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez died in Mexico City on 17 April, at the age of 87. His relatives had in preceding days been preparing the press and the public for his possible and imminent death, due in part to a recurring cancer. García Márquez had been living in Mexico since the 1960s, and the country would pay him a public homage on 21 April in the capital's Palace of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes), the daily Excelsior reported. Latin American heads of state, writers and personalities expressed their sadness at the writer's death. The author's famous novels included One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

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.

Puerto Rico town bans plastic bags

The resort of Rincón in Puerto Rico was reported on 7 April to be the island's first district to ban the distribution of plastic bags by shops, responding to the visible pollution of local waters, the Associated Press reported. The municipal website put Rincón's population at just over 14,700, with a much larger "floating" population of tourists. The ban was to enter into force in February 2015, after which shops would have to sell recycled paper bags and face fines of between USD 100 and 500 for giving out plastic bags. The mayor of Rincón, Carlos López Bonilla, was cited as urging other districts to follow suit, though the island has yet to approve a territorial ban or restrictions on plastic bags, AP reported. Mr López said the move was part of the "hard work" being done to preserve the district's "14 miles of" beaches and the local Tres Palmas reserve. "Plastic bags last hundreds of years...and represent a potential source of dangerous chemicals when they deteriorate. They...do not degrade but break into little pieces that penetrate our soil or are washed into our rivers, lakes and oceans," El Nuevo Día cited Mr López as saying.

Bogotá to start charging cars in busy hours, streets

Bogotá's city government hopes to reduce traffic congestion and considerable air pollution with plans to charge motorists driving in some of its more congested streets, following the payment model begun in cities like London, El Espectador reported on 1 April. The Colombian Transport Ministry determined in December 2013 that this could be done in cities with more than 300,000 residents, after city authorities had presented pertinent studies. The mechanics of charging in Bogotá were not yet clear, but monies collected were to finance public and non-motorised mobility. Bogotá's acting mayor Rafael Pardo recently instructed the city's transport secretary to hasten relevant studies, which were to be presented to the city council on 2 April. He was cited as saying that cars with a single occupant would pay to drive on "high-congestion days, hours, zones and streets," and this was to begin on two of the capital's traffic arteries, 72nd and 116th streets. The daily observed the measure was initially intended to complement the pico y placa program, that restricts cars on the basis of number plates, but would at some point replace it.

Putin calls to thank Argentina for "support" on Ukraine

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner held a "friendly" telephone conversation on 25 March with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, hearing his appreciation over "supportive" remarks made on the crisis in Crimea. The conversation was reported to have irked Ukraine's ambassador in Buenos Aires, belying his earlier impression that Argentina supported his country's territorial integrity, La Nación reported on 26 March. While Argentina has not backed Crimea's secession from the Ukraine, Russia was apparently grateful for recent comments by Mrs Kirchner on the "double standards" of some Western powers toward UN resolutions and territorial integrity. Argentina is in a dispute with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands. Mrs Kirchner wrote on Twitter that Western sanctions on Russia would merely impede "constructive dialogue" and her country favoured the "peaceful resolution" of conflicts, Télam agency reported. The conservative daily La Nación qualified the call as another instance of the Kirchner government's foreign policy double standards. Why send "positive" signals to Russia it asked, when Argentina condemned Crimea's secession in the UN Security Council. It stated that Ukraine's ambassador in Buenos Aires, Yurii Diudin, was "shocked" by the reportedly "friendly tone" of the conversation, when a week earlier a deputy-foreign minister had given him "Argentina's total support" over Crimea.

Three Venezuelan generals held over "coup" plans, opposition mayor jailed

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro said in Caracas on 25 March that three air force generals were arrested the night before, suspected of plotting an "uprising" against the Government. He revealed this at a meeting with foreign ministers of the regional association UNASUR, adding that the officers were "linked to the opposition," Europa Press reported. Colleagues reportedly denounced them, though Mr Maduro said they were being observed for an unspecified period. Separately, Venezuela's Supreme Court sentenced the detained mayor of San Cristóbal in the state of Táchira, Daniel Ceballos, to a year and 15 days in jail and ordered him dismissed for failing to remove protesters' barricades from the streets of San Cristóbal. The mayor is a member of the opposition and San Cristóbal was one of the first centres of anti-Government protests in early February. The court convicted Ceballos after hearing the testimonies of eight witnesses, in a verdict his wife later said was "expected," the newspaper 2001 reported. While Mrs Ceballos said the magistrates were "waiting for a phone call," presumably instructing them to issue a verdict, President Maduro qualified the sentence as "justice." He told a radio program on 25 March that "you fight fascism with justice," referring to his conservative and liberal opponents, the broadcaster NTN24 reported. The socialist majority in Venezuela's parliament also voted on 25 March to confirm the expulsion of the conservative member María Corina Machado, a day after its praesidium accused her of breaking the law over a recent trip to Panama. A representative of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Andrés Eloy Méndez, was cited as warning that she could be prosecuted for treason, now that she lacked parliamentary immunity. He said associating with hostile powers could lead to a 30-year prison term, Europa Press and El Universal reported. Opposition MPs challenged Ms Machado's "overthrow," filing an appeal with the Supreme Court, EFE reported.

Michelle Bachelet becomes Chile's President again

The socialist Michelle Bachelet Jeria formally became Chile's President on 11 March, after winning her second term in the second round of presidential elections held in Chile in December 2013. She was as media observed the first woman to be elected Chilean President twice. Spain's El Mundo observed that her second mandate was expected to usher in changes and policies to reduce the social inequalities that have accompanied Chile's economic growth in recent years. She was immediately introducing an emergency program of 50-56 measures to be implemented within the first 100 days of her administration and intended to provide financial help to some Chilean households, Europa Press reported. Government spokesman Álvaro Elizalde Soto said on 12 March that these first measures were a "clear signal" of its intention to fulfill election promises and the President's promise after her inauguration that she would work to improve the lives of Chileans, El Mercurio reported on its website. The President had already signed a "March bonus" bill to be presented to parliament, intended to help lower-income families, and the Government would also restore a "winter bonus" to some families, Mr Elizalde said. Ms Bachelet was President in 2006-10 and beat the conservative Evelyn Matthei Fornet in December to win her second presidential term. She revealed her cabinet members in January 2014.

Homicides said at "alarming" levels in Venezuela

Venezuela's El Universal newspaper gave on 7 March the figure of 2,841 homicides across Venezuela for the first two months of 2014, citing unofficial and unspecified sources of the state criminal investigation agency CICPC. The daily observed this was 265 criminal killings more than the 2,576 reported for the same months in 2013. Venezuela and its capital have some of the world's highest crime rates, though the Government has increasingly restricted the revelation of crime statistics. The newspaper 2001 reported on 8 March that "at least" 92 bodies had been taken to the main Caracas morgue, Bello Monte, in the first seven days of March. The figure is taken as an indicator of the number of criminal or violent deaths occurring in the Caracas Metropolitan District.