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1 theme to highlight: A train with a stop in the environmental disaster
The future of a tourist train through the Caribbean and the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico, is partially in the hands of a judge who will decide this Friday if the construction of the railway can continue.
Many assure that the so-called Mayan Train is devastating habitats and endangering archaeological treasures as well as the homes of indigenous peasants.
Why It Matters
: The area of ââthe Selva Maya, where trees and plants have been razed to make way for the railway, is one of the few natural habitats for the jaguar, an endangered species.
It is also home to the largest underwater cave system in the world, which is also filled with artifacts from the Mayan civilization.
Most of the half million people who live there belong to indigenous communities, some of whom have warned about the great impact that the tourist train could have on their traditional livelihoods and their homes, from which several people have been displaced. .
Since construction began in mid-2020, thousands of Mayan artifacts and other archaeological remains have also been found that experts fear will be looted as they are exposed while the train is being built.
The Big
Picture: Activists and environmentalists say the project â which will cost some $10 billion and stretch more than 900 miles (1,460 kilometers) across five states â is already wreaking serious environmental havoc.
A woman walks among the devastated trees in a part of the Yucatan peninsula where the fifth section of the Mayan Train is being built. Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
Advocacy groups filed special lawsuits, called amparos, to stop construction of the train;
They say that the government of AndrĂ©s MarĂa LĂłpez Obrador did not carry out environmental impact studies before taking heavy machinery to the jungle.
The matter to be resolved this Friday is due to one of those protections, against the fifth section of the train that will run between Cancun and Tulum, Quintana Roo.
That section of the train was originally going to pass near the beach, but hotel groups protested and the construction was moved into the jungle, where it poses a threat to biodiversity and archaeology.
Environmental advocacy groups, indigenous community groups and others have filed another 25 lawsuits in different states so far.
Seven have resulted in temporary precautionary measures that suspended the construction of the Mayan Train.
However, President LĂłpez Obrador
has said that he will not "take a single step back" in his plans for the train, which is one of his flagship projects and which, according to him, will result in development and jobs.
In his own words
: âThe project is threatening this [jaguar] species and many more, and we could be talking about regional extinction,â environmentalist RaĂșl Padilla Borja, from the Jaguar Wildlife Center group, told Noticias Telemundo.
"Add the weight of a train going over these caves, and it's a recipe for catastrophe," he added.
2. Unaccounted for deaths
Photo courtesy of Michael Izquierdo.
Dozens of Latinos who have died from complications of COVID-19 were misclassified as non-Hispanic white and were not counted in official Chicago statistics, according to new research from the magazine word.
in collaboration with Cicero Independiente.
Why It Matters
: Accurately documenting mortality rates among Latinos is critical to assessing community access to COVID-19 treatment and other resources related to the pandemic.
Big Picture
: Latinos have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.
The death rate is nearly twice that of non-Hispanic whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latinos are also 2.3 times more likely to be hospitalized if they contract COVID-19.
Among the findings of the report reported by word.
is that there were âan additional 372 misclassified Latino deaths in 2020 and an additional 108 in 2021.â If those numbers had been taken into account, the average number of Latino deaths from COVID in Chicago would be nearly a quarter of all deaths.
Further:
Up to 3% of Latino deaths from any cause are often misclassified in the US, according to the CDC.
"They are counted, but as part of the white population in general," said Elizabeth Arias, a researcher who has analyzed national death data since 1980.
What's Next
: Illinois state Sen. Celina Villanueva, who represents part of the area reporters surveyed, said the federal government alone can't fix the problem.
Villanueva argued that Cook County needs to bring the medical community, data analysts and citizens together to discuss how the data should be properly collected.
3. In prison after seeking medical help
A Salvadoran woman accused of having an abortion after suffering vaginal bleeding and miscarriage in 2019 was sentenced to 30 years in prison this week.
A 30-year prison sentence is imposed on a woman who suffered a miscarriage in El Salvador
May 12, 202201:39
Why it matters
: The sentence against the woman, nicknamed Esme for privacy reasons, is the first of its kind in seven years in the Central American nation.
The country has one of the toughest abortion laws in the world, with a total ban and also penalties of up to 50 years in prison.
More than 250 women have been charged in the last two decades and at least 49 have been convicted.
Many of them were reported for alleged homicide after seeking medical help amid pregnancy-related health emergencies, such as miscarriages and stillbirths, according to civic advocacy groups.
Esme is the first woman convicted
of an abortion case since the Inter-American Court of Human Rights said that El Salvador had violated the reproductive rights of its citizens in a decision issued in November.
In response, the Nayib Bukele government has commuted the sentences of six women.
This is also the first abortion sentence since President Bukele came to power in 2019.
Advocacy groups have called on him to go further and strike down the law.
Last year his party, which has a majority in the Legislative Assembly, filed a reform that would have decriminalized abortion in the event of rape, when the woman's life is in danger or if the fetus cannot survive outside the womb.
In his own words
: âEveryone in the United States should have their eyes on El Salvador right now to understand exactly what a future without Roe entails [v.
Wade] â, said in a statement the lawyer Paula Ăvila-GuillĂ©n, director of the group Women's Equality Center, who campaigns to free Salvadoran women imprisoned for this reason.
4. Looking for money for environmental justice
Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Alex Padilla.Getty Images
Democratic Senators Alex Padilla of California and Dick Durbin of Illinois want Congress to give the Department of Justice (DOJ) $9 million to strengthen its new environmental justice division.
Big picture :
DOJ announced last week that it would create the Office of Environmental Justice and put in place a strategy to protect minorities from environmental setbacks.
Details:
Padilla and Durbin are leading the effort to allocate $1.4 million to the Office of Environmental Justice and allocate an additional $6.5 million to the Division of Environment and Natural Resources.
The senators on Wednesday wrote a letter to a subcommittee signed by other lawmakers requesting the funds.
Between the Lines
: Several studies claim that non-white communities are more exposed to air and water pollution, lead poisoning, and toxic waste than more affluent non-Hispanic white neighborhoods.
A study published last year in
Science Advances
found that Black, Latino and Asian citizens face higher levels of exposure to hazardous particles than white Americans, regardless of income.
This is because they usually live closer to industrial zones, construction sites and are more exposed to emissions associated with diesel cars and trucks, according to the researchers.
Overall, this pollution causes up to 200,000 deaths annually, according to the researchers, and with a disproportionate impact among diverse communities.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
The Paraguayan prosecutor for organized crime cases
was shot to death while on his honeymoon in Colombia on Tuesday.
Marcelo Pecci was killed on a beach by two men who fled on jet skis, according to Paraguayan authorities.
The killers could be members of the Clan InsfrĂĄn criminal group, according to investigations.
Paraguay launched a major anti-narcotics operation in March, which wiped out a handful of politicians accused of criminal association.
Pecci was part of the team running that operation.
They are looking for the murderers of the Paraguayan anti-mafia prosecutor in Colombia
May 11, 202200:38
Cases of torture linked to the armed and police forces in Venezuela increased
148% in 2021, with more than 240 victims, according to a human rights report by the local NGO Provea.
Those who have accused torture are people who have protested in that country and also Venezuelans who were deported to the South American nation from the US, despite trying to request asylum in US territory for protection.
Hunger and poverty have also continued to grow in the South American country, according to the Provea report that was released yesterday.
6. đș Farewell Smile: Police Chords
Sheriff's deputy Carlos Mutti with his two uniforms: musician and officerStoryful via Noticias Telemundo
This Mexican-American cop has a secret: a powerful voice that he accompanies on guitar in his spare time.
Details
: Carlos Mutti, who works for the San Diego Sheriff's Department, is also a professional mariachi singer.
Mutti, originally from Tijuana, honed his musical skills while in high school.
Before becoming a deputy sheriff, he was part of several mariachi bands in Chula Vista and Los Angeles.
In her own words
: "I feel like through mariachi music I can give back to people and celebrate my community's heritage," Mutti says in a sheriff's department video.
Pachanga Thursday:
Courtesy of Ricardo L. Ortiz.
In this edition we congratulate Ricardo L. Ortiz, who came to the US from Cuba when he was 5 years old and went from not knowing a word of English to being the president of the National Association of Departments of English.
Ortiz is a professor of
Latinx
literature and culture in the English Department at Georgetown University, which he also chaired from 2015 to 2021.
If you want to be included in the Pachanga, where we highlight the achievements of our readers every Thursday,
send us an email.
Thanks for reading us!
We return on Tuesday.
Do you want to see any of the previous editions?
Why More and More Latinos Buy Guns
State-of-the-art pre-Hispanic technology: this system can rescue us from the drought
Afro-Latinos: new data on the changing identity among the community
Losing religion: Many Latinos are turning away from Catholicism
First Latino Census Director Discusses Plans to Improve Count
