In 2024, Brazil took a bold step toward cannabis reform. The country’s Supreme Federal Court ruled that adults can legally possess up to 40 grams of cannabis and cultivate six female plants for personal use. While this landmark decision doesn’t amount to full legalization, it
In Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous Territory and across other parts of the Amazon Basin, illegal gold mining has metastasized into a transnational criminal enterprise. What starts with illegal deforestation and mercury poisoning ends with laundered gold flowing into global supply chains. The trade finances organized crime, corrupt officials,
Haiti is sliding into the abyss. Violence has intensified since the beginning of the year as gangs continued to overrun communities and paralyze basic services. The capital, Port-au-Prince, and several other cities are now largely controlled by powerful gang coalitions, most notably Viv Amsanm and Gran Grif. The country’s Transitional Presidential Council (TPC), formed with CARICOM over a year
President Donald Trump has suggested that minerals beneath Ukraine could be worth trillions of dollars and that they could help shore up vital U.S. supply chains. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country’s mineral wealth is “priceless.”
Brazil’s federal police recently pulled back the curtain on a criminal web that had infiltrated the country’s fuel distribution chains. What looked like ordinary gas stations were, in fact, outposts of a vast laundering machine, washing dirty money with diesel and ethanol. According to Justice Minister Ricardo
Earlier this month, Juliette Dorson, a 50-year-old Haitian caterer, was shot while working an event in Port-au-Prince. Her business partner, Luc, died in the attack. She survived, but barely. For residents of Haiti’s capital, such horrors are tragically routine. Gangs now control four-fifths of the city, wielding not
The global development industry is facing a reckoning. Long reliant on Western donors, the sector is grappling with deep and sudden cuts to official development assistance. The crisis in aid affects tens of thousands of workers and service users with cascading effects on food security, poverty reduction, health and education provision,
A world in crisis needs a functioning civil society. But today, three out of four people live under authoritarian regimes that are determined to stifle civil society – and even those in liberal democracies are witnessing alarming efforts to dismantle the sector. What should philanthropy do? A panel
A new report by the FACT Coalition found that many investigations into environmental crimes do not follow the money. Of the 230 cases analyzed, 76% involved the use of front and shell companies, likely due to flaws in the anti-money laundering systems of foreign countries, researchers said.
Political violence is hardly new to America. Since the country’s inception, gunmen have shaped its political landscape, from the Civil War to the Ku Klux Klan, to high-profile assassinations and the bombing of federal buildings. Yet the threat of political violence has deepened in recent years and
I am writing from Cali, Colombia, where COP16, the UN Biodiversity Conference, is taking place. Among the various goals of those here to advocate for nature, one significant milestone has been achieved: the launch, this past Monday, of the Framework for the International Advisory Panel
This Monday (28th), the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB), composed of 25 organizations and experts from various countries, will present a global framework at COP16, the UN Biodiversity Conference. This framework provides guidelines to ensure the integrity of biodiversity preservation and restoration projects.
Under Brazil’s presidency, the social agenda of the G20 has gained significant focus this year, with proposals addressing three key priorities of the country’s leadership: poverty alleviation, reform of global governance, and sustainable development. Participation from organizations extended beyond engagement groups, with formal contributions made
Homicides in the metropolitan area with Argentina’s highest crime rate have decreased this year as local police presence has increased and President Javier Milei implements a crackdown on crime to fulfill one of his main campaign promises. Homicides in the city of Rosario, an agricultural
The Ministry of Justice, through the Drug Policy Directorate, reported that 54 species in Colombia are at critical risk and two ecosystems are under total threat due to illicit cultivation and the convergence of other environmental crimes.
For the second year in a row, record-breaking drought in the Amazon has caused environmental havoc and left entire communities stranded. Water levels in the major Amazonian rivers have dropped to historical lows. And because they serve as the main transport conduit in the region, the consequences of
This is the second article in a series on the challenges and opportunities of the urban Amazon. Read the first one here. Framed by an elegant riverside promenade and a modest skyline with streets enviably free of gridlock, Macapá is that rare major Brazilian city with
Robert Muggah: “El crimen organizado está haciendo metástasis y América Latina está pagando el costo” La violencia y la inseguridad se han tomado la agenda de la mayoría de los países latinoamericanos, pero la polarización de los mundos políticos ha hecho difícil encontrar maneras de
BOGOTA/RIO DE JANEIRO Aug 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A new U.S.-backed initiative to disrupt illicit financial flows from nature crimes such as illegal logging and mining in the Amazon rainforest has been welcomed by security experts, but the effort could be hampered by lawlessness
With the announcement by the US of a new initiative to counter the illicit financing of environment crime in the Amazon, there are signs the issue is finally an international priority. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen launched the Amazon Regional Initiative Against Illicit Finance last month with the stated
Alejandro Eder llegó a la Alcaldía de Cali con la promesa trabajar por la seguridad. La propuesta que presentó en campaña tenía una visión integral, más allá de la mano dura o el “azote a los bandidos”. Eder se propuso una estrategia de seguridad equilibrada,
Las ciudades son un referente del progreso de las naciones. Cuando ellas prosperan, también lo hacen sus países. Y cuando son frágiles, es más probable que sus naciones sufran una amplia variedad de males, desde el deterioro de la calidad de vida hasta la disminución
Colombia es un país rico en biodiversidad y con una historia marcada por conflictos, hoy se encuentra en una encrucijada crítica en la búsqueda de una paz duradera. En este contexto, las mujeres que lideran la defensa de los derechos humanos y la protección ambiental
Relentless climate change and biodiversity loss are pushing the world’s ecosystems to the brink of collapse. The planet may have already surpassed at least six of nine planetary boundaries crucial for maintaining a safe operating environment for humanity. The only way to slow and eventually reverse course
“Behind this destruction there are out-of-control forest fires, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, rampant gold mining, and the construction of airports and drug laboratories in the middle of natural parks and protected areas,” indicated the recent report The Plundered Amazon: The Roots of Environmental Crime
Since PORTUGUESE colonisers first appeared, the story of indigenous Brazilians has been littered with horror. Disease and violence killed many after the conquest. Slavery on rubber plantations existed into the 20th century. Today wildcat miners, ranchers and loggers are the threat to the indigenous peoples of
RIO DE JANEIRO – Transnational organized crime is a paradox: ubiquitous yet invisible. While criminal tactics evolve rapidly, government-led responses are often static. When criminal networks are squeezed in one jurisdiction, they rapidly balloon in another. Although the problem concerns everyone, it is often considered
As Haiti has again plunged into violent chaos, images of gang members bearing high-powered rifles, pump-action shotguns or automatic weapons in the streets of Port-au-Prince have become ubiquitous. But this weaponry is not made in Haiti, a country with no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities. It is
La decisión fue adoptada tras una reunión en Jamaica con representantes de otros socios internacionales como Estados Unidos y Francia, así como de la ONU. Sin embargo, Henry no asistió al encuentro, dado que lleva una semana varado en Puerto Rico, a causa de la escalada
Armed gangs in Haiti demanding the prime minister’s resignation have attacked two prisons, allowing thousands of inmates to escape, leaving dozens dead and wounded.
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