Brazil has allowed Iranian warships to dock in Rio starting today
The Brazilian Navy has approved the “Makran” and the “Iris Dena”, which will call at the port of Rio de Janeiro from today until Saturday, March 4th.
The Brazilian Amazon breaks the record for deforestation
In February, satellite monitoring of the Amazon revealed 209 km2 of destroyed forest in the Brazilian part, an all-time record in the second month of Lula’s tenure, according to official data available so far, covering only the period up to February 17. The area, equivalent to more than 29,000 football pitches, already in February represents the new record of 199 km2 for the entire month of February 2021.
Ortega also bans the Via Crucis in Nicaragua
Nicaraguan police this year banned the Catholic Church from celebrating the Via Crucis processions during Lent and Holy Week, church sources said yesterday. The police order was issued after the Nicaraguan dictator called priests, bishops, cardinals and Pope Francis a “mafia”. The Bishop of the Diocese of León and Chinandega, Socrates René Sandigo, denounced that “the Via Crucis can only be performed inside or in the atrium of the church,” he said in the audio sent to his priests and released by the local press. The Bishops’ Conference of Nicaragua has not yet ruled on the ban on Via Crucis processions, although a Church source from the Archdiocese of Managua confirmed the ban to La Prensa newspaper after Ash Wednesday Mass.
The war against the Bukele maras sparks new controversy for a shocking video
The President sent 2,000 gang members to a new mega-prison. “Dawn today, in a single operation, we moved the first 2,000 gang members to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT),” the president wrote on his Twitter account, referring to the gigantic prison equipped with high-tech surveillance and was inaugurated at the beginning of February Bukele in Tecoluca, about 74 km southeast of San Salvador. In the video, which the president shared on Twitter to make the announcement, members of the maras can be seen bare-chested and shaved, wearing only white shorts and barefoot, guarded by police and in a large courtyard of another prison in lined up in a row west of the country.
They are then placed on a bus with their hands tied behind their backs and taken under tight security, including several military helicopters overflying El CECOT. “This will be their new home where they will all live together for decades without being able to do any more harm to the population,” said Bukele, whose popularity is at an all-time high of nearly 90%. The video posted by Bukele is really shocking.
Paolo Manzo, February 26, 2023
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