Latin America

On Saturday, the Reuters news agency published an exclusive report claiming that the United States is “poised to launch a new phase of Venezuela-related operations in the coming days”. The report cited four US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Two of the officials said covert operations would likely be the first step in this “new action” against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

This was less than shocking news given that more than a month ago, US President Donald Trump himself announced that he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela – a rather unique approach since one does not normally broadcast actions that are supposed to be, um, secret.

Anyway, it’s no secret that the US has been overseeing a massive military build-up in the region with about 15,000 US troops currently stationed there under the guise of fighting “narcoterrorism”. Since early September, Trump has also presided over wanton extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean Sea, repeatedly ordering the bombing of what he claims are drug-trafficking boats.

In addition to violating both international and US law, the strikes have produced little to show for themselves beyond terrorising local fishermen.

To be sure, the US has never met a “war on drugs” it didn’t love, given the convenient opportunities the whole drug-war narrative offers for wreaking havoc worldwide, militarising the Western Hemisphere, criminalising poor Americans and all sorts of other good stuff.

Never mind that US financial institutions have for decades reaped profits from the international drug trade – or that “The CIA Drug Connection Is as Old as the Agency,” as an article on The New York Times website puts it.

It should come as no surprise by now that the president who campaigned on keeping the US out of wars and then promptly bombed Iran has now found another conflict in which to embroil the country. And as is par for the course in US imperial belligerence, the rationale for aggression against Venezuela doesn’t hold water.

For example, the Trump administration has strived to pin the blame for the fentanyl crisis in the US on Maduro. But there’s a slight problem – which is that Venezuela doesn’t even produce the synthetic opioid in question.

As NBC News and other hardly radical outlets have pointed out, Venezuelan drug cartels are focused on exporting cocaine to Europe, not fentanyl to the US.

Nevertheless, on November 13, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – pardon, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, as per administrative rebranding – took to X to assure his audience that the massive US military build-up off the Venezuelan coast is a mission that “defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people”.

This is the same administration, of course, that was just threatening to starve impoverished Americans by withholding essential food assistance, which suggests that the wellbeing of “our people” isn’t really of utmost concern.

Consider also the fact that Trump slashed federal funding for gun violence prevention programmes in a country where mass shootings have become a way of life. Obviously, massacres in elementary schools are “killing our people” in a way that has nothing whatsoever to do with Venezuela.

But it’s so much more fun to blame Maduro for everything, right?

Poverty itself is a major killer in America – as is the domestic pharmaceutical industry (speaking of opioids). However, none of these full-blown crises has merited a remotely gung-ho response from the valiant defenders of the Homeland.

Like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, Maduro has long been a thorn in the side of US empire – hence the current campaign to discredit him as a “narcoterrorist” and thereby set the stage for regime change. He also happens to be a pet target of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is seen as the main architect of Washington’s war plans in Venezuela. Potentially eyeing a presidential bid in three years, Rubio is seeking to curry favour with his Florida constituency, which includes fanatically right-wing members of the Venezuelan and Cuban diasporas.

According to the Reuters report on impending “Venezuela-related operations”, two of the US officials consulted told the news agency that “the options under consideration included attempting to overthrow Maduro”. If the plans succeeds, Rubio would join the lengthy roster of US politicians who have propagated deadly havoc abroad in the interest of political gains at home.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the White House had “proposed an idea for US military planes to drop leaflets over Caracas in a psychological operation” to pressure Maduro.

Sounds like a page – or a leaflet – out of the old Israeli military playbook.

And as the Trump administration barrels on with its not-so-covert plans for Venezuela, such hemispheric recklessness will secure neither the US homeland nor anyone else’s.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Self-centered news anchor Tulio Triviño and his reporter best friend Juan Carlos Bodoque, who has a gambling problem, have amused audiences for 22 years. Neither has aged a day. That’s because they are hand puppets — a monkey in a suit and a red rabbit in a striped shirt, respectively — at the forefront of the beloved Chilean TV show “31 Minutos.”

First conceived as a children’s program for Chile’s public television, “31 Minutos” debuted in March 2003, and now spans four seasons. A parody of a traditional newscast, the irreverent concept features dozens of peculiar puppets who populate the fictional town of Titirilquén. Their sharply absurdist misadventures and reportages are accompanied by pun-heavy, humorous original songs.

“The Muppets and ‘Sesame Street’ have been great inspirations for us,” says co-creator Pedro Peirano speaking in Spanish from Santiago, Chile, during a recent Zoom interview. “But we mixed that with a more Latin American idiosyncrasy, so it’s familiar but very different.”

Peirano voices and puppeteers Tulio, while Álvaro Díaz, the show’s other co-creator, gives life to Bodoque (who started out as a green toad before taking on his rabbit form). Among their fabric-made pals are Patana, Tulio’s niece who is a duck, field reporter Mario Hugo, a Chihuahua in a suit, and Juanín, a fuzzy white creature with no visible eyes, the newscast’s producer.

“What we set out to do, I don’t know if consciously, was to create characters who are not role models of anything,” says Peirano. “They have their flaws and their virtues; in fact, they have more flaws, especially Tulio, who is a villain, but he’s also the face of the show.”

Over the years, as the show’s popularity grew across Latin America, “31 Minutos” has transcended the small screen and spilled into other formats. Through Aplaplac, their production company, Díaz and Peirano have created “31 Minutos” live shows that tour the region, a theatrically released feature film, and even an ambitious museum exhibit.

This fall, “31 Minutos” sets its sights on the global market with the release of “Calurosa Navidad” (One Hot Christmas), their first special for Prime Video, streaming on Friday. The Spanish-language film comes on the heels of another big moment for the puppet troupe, when they performed some of their hits on NPR’s “Tiny Desk” last month.

Co-creators Álvaro Díaz, left, and Pedro Peirano on the set of “31 Minutos: Calurosa Navidad.” (Sebastian Utreras)

Although “31 Minutos” emerged as kids’ programming, Díaz and Peirano sidestepped expectations for message-driven storylines.

“In Latin America we tend to confuse children’s television with educational television, as if everything has to be an extension of school,” says Díaz. “We wanted to quickly transform it from that into more of a family show.”

The duo met while studying journalism at the Universidad de Chile in the late 1980s, as the country transitioned from a dictatorship to a democracy. It was their compatible humor, a shared interest in film, and a desire to explore a variety of mediums that brought them together.

“We had a lot of free time to develop our interests,” says Díaz. “And you connect through those interests, even more so that’s based on your personality or your origins.”

Before “31 Minutos,” Díaz and Peirano already had experience working in written media and television, so their impulse was to parody the news world they were familiar with.

When first developing the show, which they produced after winning public funding, the puppets appeared somewhat organically, Díaz says, because neither he nor Peirano wanted to be on camera. And since the project was originally geared toward children, it seemed appropriate.

A scene from Prime Video’s “31 Minutos: Calurosa Navidad.” “We believed that by putting puppets in front of the camera — initially very simple puppets — children would immediately identify with them,” says co-creator Álvaro Díaz.

(Amazon MGM Studios)

“We believed that by putting puppets in front of the camera — initially very simple puppets — children would immediately identify with them, and we wouldn’t be forced to emphasize the children’s tone so much,” recalls Díaz. “On the contrary, the puppets were a vehicle that allowed us to tell stories that interested us.”

And while it was Díaz who first suggested puppets, Peirano, who is also a comic book author, was a lifelong fan of Jim Henson and the worlds he created, including more adult fare like “The Dark Crystal.” The first puppets they used were those that Peirano had made as a child. As self-taught puppeteers, Díaz and Peirano honed their craft along the way.

“It’s much cheaper and faster to make puppets and create this fantastical world than to produce animation,” says Peirano. “Puppets have an immediacy that also makes them fun to perform with and to improvise with.”

As is often the case with children’s shows, they needed to incorporate music. Peirano brought along his friend Pablo Ilabaca, the guitarist and composer of Chilean rock band Chancho en Piedra, who tangentially had created tracks that could work for the show.

“He showed us that music, and we immediately felt that the sound of the ’31 Minutos’ was there,” says Díaz. “There was a lo-fi quality about it. It had something candid that didn’t necessarily have an infantile tone but had a lightness. And we could add lyrics to that music.”

The editorial line for the songs was to validate childhood experiences without trying to impart any life lessons, acknowledging those feelings through comedy.

“There is a song called ‘Diente Blanco’ [White Tooth], for example, which is not about the importance of brushing or taking care of your teeth but, rather, about a child saying goodbye to a tooth he was very fond of,” explains Díaz.

As a father of three (who he hopes will eventually take on the show’s mantle), Díaz operates from a conviction that young audiences deserve quality content that’s not patronizing nor simplistic.

“The entertainment options for children in Latin America, and generally everywhere, are very poor,” says Díaz. “It’s mostly about extracting money from parents with disappointing offerings. As kind of a governing principle for ’31 Minutos,’ we want these options to improve.”

“31 Minutos” rapidly became entrenched in Chilean popular culture. Peirano remembers the exact moment when he realized its cross-generational influence.

“I heard someone whistling the show’s theme song, and it wasn’t a child — it was an adult sweeping the street,” he says. “That was the first time I said, ‘How strange, someone is actually watching it!’ ”

Pedro Peirano remembers the moment he realized “31 Minutos” was becoming entrenched in Chilean pop culture. “I heard someone whistling the show’s theme song, and it wasn’t a child — it was an adult sweeping the street,” he says.

(Sebastian Utreras)

For Díaz, it was when he heard the album with the first batch of songs, released about four months after the show’s debut, playing in multiple record stores around Santiago. Not long after that, they saw the first bootleg merchandise: a toy version of Mico, el Micófono, a character that is just a microphone with googly eyes that street vendors could easily replicate.

Internationally, Mexico became a key market for “31 Minutos.” The creators first realized that country’s adoration for the show when an email address where viewers could write to Tulio was flooded with more messages from Mexico than Chile.

A tribute album, “Yo Nunca Vi Television” (I Never Watched Television), where Mexican and Chilean bands reinterpreted songs from “31 Minutos,” was released in 2009. The show’s museum exhibit, “Museo 31,” visited two Mexican cities (Mexico City and Monterrey) between 2024 and 2025 after its time in Santiago at Centro Cultural La Moneda.

Díaz believes that “31 Minutos” benefited from evolving in front of a young audience who accepted the show’s peculiarities at face value. The industry these days, he thinks, demands every narrative choice be justified with substantial meaning.

“You now have to write with an explicit intention and give everything coherence, as if life is a series of very coherent interconnections,” Díaz says. “It’s impossible to make something like ‘31 Minutos’ today.”

That’s especially true, in their eyes, of the U.S. entertainment industry where one must “understand fun down to its smallest detail” even before anything has been produced.

“Much of the fun of making ’31 Minutos’ has to do with spontaneity,” says Díaz.

Nevertheless, their “Tiny Desk” concert and the Christmas special have brought them to their closest proximity yet to American audiences.

To prepare for their “Tiny Desk” performance, which features some of the show’s most emblematic puppets, the “31 Minutos” team re-created the set in Santiago — a famously tight space where bands are sandwiched between a desk and overflowing bookshelves. “We had to reduce the idea of ‘31 minutes’ to 20 minutes in a small space, without lighting, without special effects,” explains Díaz.

Tapping into current events, the running joke of their “Tiny Desk” appearance is that their work visas will expire immediately after performing.

“We didn’t intend to make a political statement, but since we were in the United States, what’s the joke in the air? That they are going to kick us — as Latin Americans, the joke is always that the U.S. wants us out,” says Peirano. “In the end, it still ends up being a commentary, and we included this crocodile puppet [as an immigration agent] because that’s the satirical nature of ‘31 Minutos.’ ”

Meanwhile, making “Calurosa Navidad” for Prime Video fulfilled their goal of entering the streaming realm. Amazon was interested in genre films, and they opted for a Christmas one.

Fans of “31 Minutos” will recognize that the story, in which Bodoque has to search for Santa and bring him to heat-stricken Titirilquén; it’s the expansion of a story from an earlier special Christmas episode that later evolved into a Christmas live show. The cheeky charm remains intact, but now it’s going to be accessible to a global audience.

Currently, Peirano splits his time between Santiago and Los Angeles. In the U.S., away from the media empire that “31 Minutos” has built in Latin America, he works as a screenwriter. His credits include the HBO series “Perry Mason.” He’s working on a project for horror outfit Blumhouse with collaborator Mauricio Katz. The two recently signed an exclusive overall deal with Sony Pictures Television.

But don’t expect Tulio or Bodoque to speak English anytime soon or for their adventures to be crafted outside of their South American homeland. Díaz has no desire to leave Chile.

“I live five kilometers from the hospital where I was born. And that’s the farthest I can be,” he says. “Chile is the reality that I understand, and, above all, that nourishes us. I like to travel and go on tour, but I hope things always happen here, with the people we know here.”

Díaz cites director Peter Jackson’s ethos to establishing WETA FX, a world-renowned digital effects company, in his home country of New Zealand instead of moving abroad, as a mindset that resembles their own — in admittedly a smaller scale.

“What we advocate for in ‘31 Minutos’ is artistic excellence from Chile,” Díaz adds. “From Chile to Latin America first, and hopefully from Chile to the world.”

Six international airlines have suspended flights to Venezuela after the United States warned major carriers about a “potentially hazardous situation” due to “heightened military activity” around the South American country.

Spain’s Iberia, Portugal’s TAP, Chile’s LATAM, Colombia’s Avianca, Brazil’s GOL and Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean all halted flights to the country on Saturday, the AFP news agency reported, citing Marisela de Loaiza, the president of the Venezuelan Airlines Association.

TAP said it was cancelling its flights scheduled for Saturday and next Tuesday, while Iberia said it was suspending flights to the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, until further notice.

TAP told the Reuters news agency that its decision was linked to the US notice, which it said “indicates that safety conditions in Venezuelan airspace are not guaranteed”.

According to the AFP news agency, Panama’s Copa Airlines, Spain’s Air Europa and PlusUltra, Turkish Airlines, and Venezuela’s LASER are continuing to operate flights for now.

The flight suspensions come as tensions between the US and Venezuela soar, with Washington deploying troops as well as the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, as part of what it calls an anti-narcotics operation. Caracas, however, describes the operation as a bid to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of power.

The US military has also carried out at least 21 attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, killing at least 83 people.

The campaign – which critics say violates both international and US domestic law – began after the administration of President Donald Trump increased its reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Maduro to $50m, describing him as the “global terrorist leader of the Cartel de los Soles”.

President Trump, meanwhile, has sent mixed signals about the possibility of intervention in Venezuela, saying in a CBS interview earlier this month that he doesn’t think his country was going to war against Caracas.

But when asked if Maduro’s days as president were numbered, he replied, saying, “I would say yeah.”

Then, on Sunday, he said the US may open talks with Maduro, and on Monday, when asked about the possibility of deploying US troops to the country, he replied: “I don’t rule out that. I don’t rule out anything. We just have to take care of Venezuela.”

Days later, on Friday, the US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) urged all flights in the area to “exercise caution” due to the threats “at all altitudes, including during overflight, the arrival and departure phases of flight, and/or airports and aircraft on the ground”.

Ties between Washington and Caracas have been dominated by tensions since the rise of Maduro’s left-wing predecessor, Hugo Chavez, in the early 2000s.

The relationship deteriorated further after Maduro came to power following Chavez’s death in 2013.

Successive US administrations have rejected Maduro’s legitimacy and imposed heavy sanctions on the Venezuelan economy, accusing the president of corruption, authoritarianism and election fraud.

The Trump administration has hardened the US stance. Last week, it labelled the Venezuelan drug organisation, dubbed Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), a “terrorist” group, and it accused Maduro of leading it, without providing evidence.

In recent weeks, conservative foreign policy hawks in the US have been increasingly calling on Trump to topple the Maduro government.

Maduro has accused the US of inventing “pretexts” for war, repeatedly expressing willingness to engage in dialogue with Washington. But he has warned that his country would push to defend itself.

“No foreign power will impose its will on our sovereign homeland,” he was quoted as saying by the Venezuelan outlet Telesur.

“But if they break peace and persist in their neocolonial intentions, they will face a huge surprise. I pray that does not occur, because – I repeat – they will receive a truly monumental surprise.”

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who recently won a Nobel Peace Prize, suggested that overthrowing Maduro would not amount to regime change, arguing the president lost the election last year and rigged the results.

“We’re not asking for regime change. We’re asking for respect of the will of the people and the people will be the one that will take care and protect this transition so that it is orderly, peaceful and irreversible,” she told The Washington Post on Friday.

Machado, 58, has called for privatising Venezuela’s oil sector and opening the country to foreign investments.

The annual United Nations climate conference has ended with an agreement that urges action to address global warming, but falls short of endorsing a phase-out of fossil fuels.

After two weeks of heated debates, meetings and negotiations at the COP30 summit in the Brazilian city of Belem, world leaders on Saturday agreed to a deal that calls for countries to “significantly accelerate and scale up climate action worldwide”.

The text lays out a series of promises and measures – including a call for developed countries to triple their funding to help poorer nations respond to the crisis – but makes no mention of a fossil fuel phase-out.

Dozens of states had been calling forthe COP30 deal to lay out a framework to ease away from their reliance on oil, gas and coal – the major drivers of the climate crisis – but several countries that rely on fossil fuels had pushed back.

While observers say the deal marks a step forward in the world’s effort to address climate breakdown, several have argued that COP30 fell short of expectations.

Here’s a look at how some world leaders and climate advocates have reacted to the agreement.

COP30 President Andre Aranha Correa do Lago

“We know some of you had greater ambitions for some of the issues at hand. I know that you, civil society, will demand us to do more to fight climate change. I want to reaffirm that I will try not to disappoint you during my presidency,” he said during Saturday’s closing session.

“As [Brazilian] President [Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva] said at the opening of this COP, we need roadmaps so that humanity – in a just and planned manner – can overcome its dependence on fossil fuels, halt and reverse deforestation and mobilise resources for these purposes,” he said.

“I, as president of COP30, will therefore create two roadmaps: One on halting and reverting [reversing] deforestation and another to transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

“COP30 has delivered progress,” Guterres said in a statement, including the call to triple climate adaptation financing and recognition that the world is going to surpass the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) target for global warming set under the Paris Agreement.

“But COPs are consensus-based – and in a period of geopolitical divides, consensus is ever harder to reach. I cannot pretend that COP30 has delivered everything that is needed. The gap between where we are and what science demands remains dangerously wide,” the UN chief said.

“I understand many may feel dissapointed [sic] – especially young people, Indigenous Peoples and those living through climate chaos. The reality of overshoot is a stark warning: We are approaching dangerous and irreversible tipping points,” he added.

Wopke Hoekstra, European Union climate commissioner

“We’re not going to hide the fact that we would have preferred to have more, to have more ambition on everything,” Hoekstra told reporters.

“It is not perfect, but it is a hugely important step in the right direction.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro

“I do not accept that the COP30 declaration does not clearly state, as science does, that the cause of the climate crisis is the fossil fuels used by capital. If that is not stated, everything else is hypocrisy,” Petro wrote on social media.

“Life on the planet, including our own, is only possible if we separate ourselves from oil, coal, and natural gas as energy sources; science has determined this, and I am not blind to science.

“Colombia opposes a COP30 declaration that does not tell the world the scientific truth.”

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla

“While the results fell short of expectations, the Belem COP strengthens and demonstrates the importance of multilateralism in addressing major global challenges such as combating #climatechange,” he wrote on X.

“Among its key outcomes are the call for developed countries to provide climate finance for adaptation in developing countries, at least tripling current levels by 2035; the establishment of a mechanism to support our countries in just transitions; and the commitment from developed countries to fulfill their obligations under the Paris Agreement.”

China

“I’m happy with the outcome,” Li Gao, head of China’s delegation at COP30, told the AFP news agency.

“We achieved this success in a very difficult situation, so it shows that the international community would like to show solidarity and make joint efforts to address climate change.”

Alliance of Small Island States

A group representing the interests of 39 small island and low-lying coastal states described the deal as “imperfect” but said it nevertheless was a step towards “progress”.

“Ultimately, this is the push and pull of multilateralism. The opportunity for all countries to be heard and to listen to each other’s perspectives, to collaborate, build bridges, and reach common ground,” the Alliance of Small Island States said in a statement.

Amnesty International

Ann Harrison, climate justice adviser at Amnesty International, noted that COP30 host Brazil had promised to make sure “every voice is heard and made strenuous efforts to broaden participation, which should be replicated”.

“Yet the lack of participatory, inclusive, and transparent negotiations left both civil society and Indigenous Peoples, who answered the global mutirao [working together] call in large numbers, out of the real decision making,” Harrison said in a statement.

Still, she said “people power” had helped achieve “a commitment to develop a Just Transition mechanism that will streamline and coordinate ongoing and future efforts to protect the rights of workers, other individuals and communities affected by fossil fuel phase out”.

Oxfam

Viviana Santiago, executive director of Oxfam Brasil, said COP30 “offered a spark of hope but far more heartbreak, as the ambition of global leaders continues to fall short of what is needed for a liveable planet”.

“A truly just transition requires those who built their fortunes on fossil fuels to move first and fastest – and provide finance in the form of grants, not loans, so front-line communities can do the same. Instead, the poorest countries already in debt are being told to transition faster, with fewer funds,” Santiago said.

“The spark of hope lies in the proposed Belem Action Mechanism, which puts workers’ rights and justice at the centre of the shift away from fossil fuels. But without financing from rich countries, the just energy transition risks becoming stalled in many countries.”

Division marked the COP30 climate summit in Brazil as countries struggled to reach a consensus on several sticking points, including a push to phase out fossil fuels.

As the world seeks to address the climate crisis, experts say scientists, politicians, media and business all have a role to play in keeping the public engaged.

But are they succeeding?

Presenter: Neave Barker

Guests:

Professor John Sweeney – Contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Nobel Peace Prize-winning assessment report

Professor Allam Ahmed – Leading scholar in sustainable development and the knowledge economy

Michael Shank – Climate communication expert and former director of media strategy at Climate Nexus

Leaders welcome deal reached at UN climate summit as step forward but say ‘more ambition’ needed to tackle the crisis.

World leaders have put forward a draft text at the United Nations climate conference in Brazil that seeks to address the crisis, but the agreement does not include any mention of phasing out the fossil fuels driving climate change.

The text was published on Saturday after negotiations stretched through the night, well beyond the expected close of the two-week COP30 summit in the Brazilian city of Belem, amid deep divisions over the fossil fuel phase-out.

The draft, which must be approved by consensus by nearly 200 nations, pledges to review climate-related trade barriers and calls on developed nations to “at least triple” the money given to developing countries to help them withstand extreme weather events.

It also urges “all actors to work together to significantly accelerate and scale up climate action worldwide” with the aim of keeping the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) mark for global warming – an internationally agreed-upon target set under the Paris Agreement – “within reach”.

Wopke Hoekstra, the European Union’s climate commissioner, said the outcome was a step in the right direction, but the bloc would have liked more.

“We’re not going to hide the fact that we would have preferred to have more, to have more ambition on everything,” Hoekstra told reporters. “We should support it because at least it is going in the right direction,” he said.

France’s ecological transition minister, Monique Barbut, also said it was a “rather flat text” but Europeans would not oppose it because “there is nothing extraordinarily bad in it”.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla also said in a social media post that while the outcome “fell short of expectations”, COP30 demonstrated the importance of multilateralism to tackle global challenges such as climate change.

‘Needed a giant leap’

Countries had been divided on a number of issues in Belem, including a push to phase out fossil fuels – the largest drivers of the climate crisis – that drew opposition from oil-producing countries and nations that depend on oil, gas and coal.

Questions of climate finance also sparked heated debates, with developing nations demanding that richer countries bear a greater share of the financial burden.

But COP30 host Brazil had pushed for a show of unity, as the annual conference is largely viewed as a test of the world’s resolve to address a deepening crisis.

“We need to show society that we want this without imposing anything on anyone, without setting deadlines for each country to decide what it can do within its own time, within its own possibilities,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said earlier this week.

Earlier on Saturday, COP30 President Andre Aranha Correa do Lago said the presidency would publish “roadmaps” on fossil fuels and forests as there had been no consensus on those issues at the talks.

Speaking to Al Jazeera before the draft text was released, Asad Rehman, chief executive director of Friends of the Earth, said richer countries “had to be dragged – really kicking and screaming – to the table” at COP30.

“They have tried to bully developing countries and have weakened the text … But I would say that, overall, from what we’re hearing, we will have taken a step forward,” Rehman said in an interview from Belem.

“This will be welcomed by the millions of people for whom these talks are a matter of life and death. However, in the scale of the crisis that we face, we of course needed a giant leap forward.”

The former president is taken in the capital Brasilia days before starting his prison time for leading coup attempt.

Brazil’s federal police have arrested former President Jair Bolsonaro, days before he was set to begin his 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt, according to his lawyer and a close aide.

Bolsonaro, who has been under house arrest since August, was transferred to detention on Saturday, his lawyer said.

“He has been imprisoned, but I don’t know why,” Celso Vilardi, one of his lawyers, told the AFP news agency.

A close aide told The Associated Press news agency that the embattled former leader was taken to the police headquarters in the capital, Brasilia.

Bolsonaro’s aide Andriely Cirino confirmed to AP that the arrest took place at about 6am (03:00 GMT) on Saturday.

The force said in a short statement, which did not name Bolsonaro, that it acted on the request of Brazil’s Supreme Court.

Neither Brazil’s federal police nor the Supreme Court provided more details at the time of publication.

Sentenced for coup attempt

The 70-year-old former president was taken from his house in a gated community in the upscale Jardim Botanico neighbourhood to the federal police headquarters, Cirino said.

Local media reported that Bolsonaro, who was Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022, was expected to begin serving his sentence sometime next week after the far-right leader exhausted all appeals of his conviction for leading a coup attempt.

The 70-year-old Bolsonaro’s legal team had previously argued that he should serve his 27-year sentence for a botched coup bid in 2022 at home, arguing imprisonment would pose a risk to his health.

Bolsonaro was convicted in September over his bid to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power following the 2022 election, which he lost.

The effort saw crowds of rioters storm government buildings a week after Lula’s inauguration, evoking comparisons with the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol after his close ally, President Donald Trump, lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Trump has branded the prosecution of his far-right ally a “witch-hunt” and made it a major issue in US relations with Brazil, imposing stiff tariffs on the country as a form of retribution.

Trump and Lula held what Brazil described as a constructive meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur last month, raising hope for improved relations after stinging US tariffs.

Lula said the meeting with Trump was “great” and added that their countries’ negotiating teams would get to work “immediately” to tackle tariffs and other issues.

The ongoing US actions are ‘suffocating the social fabric of Cuban society’, according to the expert.

The United States must lift unilateral sanctions imposed on Cuba as they are “causing significant effects across all aspects of life” more than six decades after they were imposed during the early part of Fidel Castro’s leadership, according to a senior United Nations expert.

The “extensive regime of economic, trade and financial restrictions” against the island nation marks the longest-running unilateral sanctions policy in US history, said Alena Douhan, special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights.

Only the US Congress can lift the Cold War-era embargo on communist-run Cuba, whose government has maintained that the country “will not surrender” to Washington’s “policy of collective punishment”.

“As a result, generations of Cubans have lived under unilateral coercive measures, which has shaped the country’s economic and social landscape,” Douhan said in a statement released on Friday.

The UN official cited reports that Washington’s imposed measures have progressively tightened since 2018, with further sanctions imposed on the already existing ones and a significant intensification in 2021 following Cuba’s re-designation as a so-called “state sponsor of terrorism”.

Other countries and international companies also over-comply with the embargoes in an effort to steer clear of being targeted with secondary sanctions, which Douhan said affects the government and the people’s ability for long-term planning, “suffocating the social fabric of Cuban society”.

US governments have for decades ignored international calls to remove the sanctions on Cuba, including the overwhelming UN General Assembly vote at the end of October that showed global support for an end to the embargo for a 33rd year.

According to the UN rapporteur, there are shortages of food, medicine, electricity, water, essential machinery and spare parts in Cuba, while a growing emigration of skilled workers, including medical staff, engineers and teachers, is further straining the country.

The accumulative effect has “severe consequences for the enjoyment of human rights, including the rights to life, food, health and development”, Douhan said.

Cuba has suffered a series of electricity blackouts, grid collapses that have rocked the island of 10 million over the past year.

Even when the US issues very limited licences and exemptions, the UN expert said investors remain wary of committing to long-term projects since there could be a policy shift in Washington.

“I urge all states to adhere to international law principles and norms and ensure that humanitarian concerns are fully respected, grounded in principles of mutual respect, solidarity, cooperation and multilateralism,” she said.

Douhan will present a thorough report to the UN Human Rights Council on the effect of the US sanctions in September 2026, following meetings with government officials, international agencies, church representatives, members of academia, medical personnel and the private sector.

COP30 negotiations drag on in Brazil amid divisions over draft proposal that does not include fossil fuel phase-out.

United Nations climate talks in Brazil have gone past their scheduled deadline as countries remain deeply divided over a proposed deal that contains no reference to phasing out fossil fuels.

Negotiators remained in closed-door meetings on Friday evening at the COP30 summit in the Brazilian city of Belem as they sought to bridge differences and deliver an agreement that includes concrete action to stem the climate crisis.

A draft proposal made public earlier in the day has drawn concern from climate activists and other experts because it did not contain any mention of fossil fuels – the main driver of climate change.

“This cannot be an agenda that divides us,” COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago told delegates in a public plenary session before releasing them for further negotiations. “We must reach an agreement between us.”

The rift over the future of oil, gas and coal has underscored the difficulties of landing a consensus agreement at the annual UN conference, which serves as a test of global resolve to avert the worst impacts of global warming.

“Many countries, especially oil-producing countries or countries that depend on fossil fuels … have stated that they do not want this mentioned in a final agreement,” Al Jazeera’s Monica Yanakiew reported from Rio de Janeiro on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, dozens of other countries have said they would not support any agreement that did not lay out a roadmap to phasing out fossil fuels, Yanakiew noted.

“So this is a big divisive point,” she said, adding that another major issue at the climate conference has been financing the transition away from fossil fuels.

Developing countries – many of which are more susceptible to the effects of climate change, including more extreme weather events – have said they want richer nations to shoulder more of the financial burden of tackling the crisis.

“So there is a lot being discussed … and negotiators say that this might likely continue throughout the weekend,” Yanakiew said.

The deadlock comes as the UN Environment Programme warned ahead of COP30 that the world would “very likely” exceed the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7-degree Fahrenheit) warming limit – an internationally agreed-upon target set under the Paris Agreement – within the next decade.

Amnesty International also said in a recent report that the expansion of fossil fuel projects threatens at least two billion people – about one-quarter of the world’s population.

In a statement on Friday, Nafkote Dabi, the climate policy lead at Oxfam International, said it was “unacceptable” for any final agreement to exclude a plan to phase out fossil fuels.

“A roadmap is essential, and it must be just, equitable, and backed by real support for the Global South,” Dabi said.

“Developed countries who grew wealthy on their fossil fuel-based economies must phase out first and fastest, while financing low‑carbon pathways for the Global South.”

The right-wing leader has sought to appeal his 27-year sentence for allegedly fomenting a coup after his 2022 defeat.

Lawyers for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have asked Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to allow him to serve his 27-year sentence under house arrest, citing health concerns.

According to a document reviewed by the Reuters news agency on Friday, Bolsonaro’s lawyers said the 70-year-old former president’s recurring intestinal issues would make imprisonment life-threatening.

He had been stabbed in the stomach while campaigning in the state of Minas Gerais in 2018.

“It is certain that keeping the petitioner in a prison environment would pose a concrete and immediate risk to his physical integrity and even his life,” the document said. It asked for house arrest on humanitarian grounds.

In September, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison by a five-judge panel from Brazil’s Supreme Court. He was convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The former right-wing leader has already been under house arrest for violating precautionary measures in a separate case, in which he allegedly courted United States interference to halt the criminal proceedings against him.

Court sources said Bolsonaro’s arrest appeared imminent after the Supreme Court panel earlier this month unanimously rejected an appeal filed by the former president’s legal team.

His lawyers said they would file a new appeal, but they argued that, if it is also rejected, Bolsonaro should begin serving his sentence under house arrest once all appeals are exhausted.

They noted that, earlier this year, the top court let 76-year-old former President Fernando Collor de Mello serve house arrest due to his age and health issues, including Parkinson’s disease, after he was sentenced to almost nine years in prison on corruption and money laundering charges.

Recent medical tests on Bolsonaro show that “a serious or sudden illness is not a question of ‘if’, but of ‘when’,” his legal team said.

One of Bolsonaro’s sons, Carlos, said on Friday that the former president was facing severe hiccups and vomiting constantly. “I’ve never seen him like this,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was convicted of five crimes, including participating in an armed criminal organisation, attempting to violently abolish democracy and organising a coup.

On Friday, the former president made a brief appearance in the doorway of his house while receiving a visit from federal lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira.

A 1940 self-portrait titled ‘The dream’ by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has sold for $54.7m, making it the most expensive work by a female artist to sell at auction.

A 1940 self-portrait by Frida Kahlo has sold for $54.7m and made auction history at Sotheby’s in New York.

A haunting 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has sold for $54.7m, making it the most expensive work by a female artist to sell at auction.

The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed, titled El sueno (La cama) – or in English, The Dream (The Bed) – surpassed the record held by Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1, which sold for $44.4m in 2014.

The sale at Sotheby’s in New York on Thursday evening also topped Kahlo’s own auction record for a work by a Latin American artist.

The 1949 painting, Diego and I, depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, went for $34.9m in 2021.

Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more.

The self-portrait that broke records on Thursday is among the few Kahlo pieces that have remained in private hands outside Mexico, where her body of work has been declared an artistic monument.

Kahlo’s works in both public and private collections within Mexico cannot be sold abroad or destroyed. Because the painting sold on Thursday comes from a private collection, it is legally eligible for international sale. Sotheby’s said the owner who put the painting up for auction – and whose identity has not been disclosed – “astutely” purchased the piece also at auction in New York in 1980.

The buyer’s identity was also not disclosed.

‘El sueño (La cama)’ by Frida Kahlo soars to $54.7 million, becoming the most valuable work by a woman artist ever sold at auction.

Painted in 1940 during a pivotal decade in her career, marked by her turbulent relationship with Diego Rivera. pic.twitter.com/t6Sni7fIKT

— Sotheby’s (@Sothebys) November 21, 2025

Some art historians had scrutinised the sale for cultural reasons, while others had raised concerns that the painting, which was last exhibited publicly in the late 1990s, could again disappear from public view after the auction.

It has already been requested for upcoming exhibitions in cities including New York, London and Brussels.

The piece depicts Kahlo asleep in a wooden, colonial-style bed that floats in the clouds. She is draped in a golden blanket and entangled in crawling vines and leaves. Above the bed lies a skeleton figure wrapped in dynamite.

Kahlo vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, which was altered by a bus accident at 18.

She started to paint while bedridden, underwent a series of painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis, and then wore casts until her death in 1954 at age 47.

During the years Kahlo was confined to her bed, she came to view painting as a bridge between worlds as she explored her mortality.

“I’m very proud that she’s one of the most valued women, because really, what woman doesn’t identify with Frida, or what person doesn’t?” her great-niece, Mara Romeo Kahlo, told The Associated Press news agency before the auction.

“I think everyone carries a little piece of my aunt in their heart.”

Kahlo resisted being labelled a surrealist painter, a style of art that is dreamlike and centres on a fascination with the unconscious mind.

“I never painted dreams,” she once said. “I painted my own reality.”

The new record for Kahlo’s painting came hours after a Gustav Klimt portrait sold for $236.4m, setting a new record for a modern art piece.

Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold after a 20-minute bidding war, also at Sotheby’s in New York, on Tuesday.

Officials at the climate conference say the fire was contained within six minutes, and 13 attendees were treated for smoke inhalation.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Attendees have been forced to evacuate the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP30, after a fire broke out at the venue in Belem, Brazil.

There were no injuries in Thursday’s blaze, according to Brazil’s Tourism Minister Celso Sabino. In a news conference afterwards, he downplayed the seriousness of the fire.

“There was a small fire here, which is possible at any large event,” he told journalists. “This small fire could happen anywhere on planet Earth.”

Organisers reported that the evacuation was “fast” and the fire was controlled within six minutes, leaving only minor damage.

Thirteen people were treated for smoke inhalation, according to a joint statement from the UN and COP30 leaders.

The affected area, known as the Blue Zone, is expected to remain closed until 8pm local time (23:00 GMT).

The cause of the fire remains unclear. But Helder Barbalho — the governor of the state of Para, where the summit is taking place — told the Brazilian channel GloboNews that authorities believe a generator failure or short circuit might have sparked the incident.

On social media, Barbalho assured the public that other parts of the COP30 conference zone continued to be in operation.

“We will find out what caused it, whether we can restart work here in the Blue Zone today or not,” he wrote. “The Green Zone is operating normally.”

Reports emerged about 2pm local time (17:00 GMT) of flames in the Blue Zone pavilion, a restricted area for negotiators and accredited media.

Videos on social media showed scenes of panic and security officials ordering attendees to exit the venue.

caralho, fogo na zona azul aqui da COP 30. uma loucura de gente correndo. meu deus! pic.twitter.com/ebXubnHwiR

— ralfer (@ralferr) November 20, 2025

Al Jazeera spoke to Fernando Ralfer Oliveira, an independent journalist who was in the Blue Zone when the fire broke out and shared footage of the flames.

“I was in the big corridor that leads to the meeting rooms when a commotion of people started running. I had my phone in my hand and immediately started recording,” said Ralfer.

“When I got close to the pavilion, someone ran past me shouting, ‘Fire, fire, fire!’ So I ran a little and managed to record that bit of the fire. But at that moment, security was already coming towards us in force, saying ‘Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate.’”

Ralfer and other evacuees were then directed to the COP30’s food court area, located outside the pavilion.

Roughly an hour after the fire broke out, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which organises the conference, sent an email to attendees saying that the local fire service would conduct “full safety checks” at the venue.

They then announced the Blue Zone’s continued closure: “Please note that the premises are now under the authority of the Host Country and are no longer considered a Blue Zone.”

The Blue Zone fire happened a week after Brazil responded to the UN’s concerns around safety at COP30.

On November 13, Simon Stiell, the executive secretary with the UNFCCC, sent a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his government, raising issues ranging from faulty doors to water leaks near light fixtures.

That same day, the Brazilian government published a statement saying that “all UN requests have been met”, including the repositioning and expansion of police forces between the Blue and Green Zones.

One month before he opened this year’s United Nations climate summit, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva helped open a new mega-factory at the site of a former Ford car manufacturing plant.

The new plant, in Brazil’s Camacari, Bahia, is one of many being built around the world by China’s BYD, the world’s largest manufacturer of electric cars.

BYD’s presence is also being felt at the ongoing COP30 climate summit in Brazil’s Belem, where it is a cosponsor alongside GWM, another Chinese electric carmaker.

The sponsorship is just one of many ways that China’s investments in green technology are being felt at the UN’s top climate meeting, where the Chinese official delegation of 789 people is second only to Brazil’s 3,805.

It is a stark contrast to the United States, whose federal government has not sent an official delegation. California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has accused US President Donald Trump of “handing the future to China” and leaving states like California to pick up the slack, in a speech at the summit.

“ China is here. Only one country’s not here: United States of America,” Newsom said. Trump has called concerns over climate change a “hoax” and a “con job”.

But the UN Climate Change Conference COP30 is not the only event where the diverging paths that China and the US are taking on addressing the climate crisis are being felt.

Back in the US, and in neighbouring Canada, trade barriers aimed at punishing Chinese electric vehicles have made them far costlier than what the manufacturers want to sell them for.

These tariffs are a legacy of former US President Joe Biden’s administration, and place North America as an outlier at a time when Chinese EVs otherwise dominate the global market.

How dominant is China in EVs?

Joel Jaeger, a senior research associate with the World Resources Institute, told Al Jazeera that Chinese EVs have “really upended the car market” in recent years.

China has gone “from basically not a major player five years ago” to becoming “the number one exporter of cars globally in terms of the units”, says Jaeger.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China manufactured 12.4 million electric cars in 2024, more than 70 percent of the 17.3 million electric cars manufactured globally last year.

Of these, China exported about 1.25 million cars, representing 40 percent of global exports, while the remaining Chinese-made cars — the vast majority — were sold domestically.

This dominance has been built on the back of “subsidies that China’s put in place to develop its industry, which I think is a very strategic thing that China has done, both for its own economic growth as well as decarbonisation”, Jaeger said.

But on the streets of the US or Canada, Chinese EVs are still relatively rare.

Why are Chinese EVs less affordable in the US and Canada?

According to Jaeger, “prohibitive” tariffs mean that Chinese EVs are almost impossible to buy in the US and Canada.

“In the last year, the US and Canada both put on basically completely prohibitive tariffs on EVs [of] over 100 percent in both places,” he added.

Notably, the steep import taxes on Chinese EVs in the US were introduced under Biden, a Democrat, who championed renewable energy, in contrast to Trump, who has pledged to fight it and “drill, baby, drill” for oil.

A month after the US introduced 100 percent tariffs on Chinese EVs in September 2024, Canada brought in identical tariffs of its own.

It means that a car that a Chinese EV manufacturer might be selling at $30,000 actually costs at least $60,000 in the US or Canada. This makes it hard for even cheaper Chinese models to compete with the higher-end US electric models, which on average retail for approximately $55,000.

These tariffs, along with other US policies, have meant that Chinese manufacturers have yet to set up shop in the US.

In Canada, Addisu Lashitew, an associate professor of business at McMaster University, told Al Jazeera that the steep tariffs conflict with targets set to transition fully to electric cars by 2035, but are also complicated due to Canada’s close trading ties with the US.

“The problem is that one, we are going through a very complex trade talk with the US now,” said Lashitew. “And two, our supply chain has also [been] very much integrated. Many of the American manufacturers are here, and Canadian firms are mainly suppliers.”

But while it is almost impossible to buy a cheap Chinese electric car in the US, Jaeger says this does not mean that North America is completely missing out on importing new Chinese technology.

“The US, for example, imports a lot of batteries from China. It’s actually the second-biggest importer of lithium-ion batteries behind Germany in the world, from China. So, they’re using them in US-made EVs,” he said.

Where can you buy cheap Chinese electric cars?

In contrast with the US and Canada, said Jaeger, many other countries have been more open to China’s EV market.

“You see different reactions from different countries, depending on their relationship with China, but mostly depending upon their domestic auto manufacturing presence,” he said.

Lashitew told Al Jazeera that Chinese exporters, including BYD as well as some smaller firms, are “targeting many emerging and developing countries”.

“Ironically, we’re in a situation where in the transportation sector, the energy transition is happening much faster in the Global South than in North America, at least.”

Chinese electric cars have also continued to sell well in many European countries, says Jaeger, despite those countries also imposing some tariffs, though lower than the US and Canada, “for what they see as unfair competitive practices in China”.

Still, while BYD has built factories in Japan, Hungary and India, as well as Brazil, its biggest presence remains in China, where the company was founded in Shenzhen in 1995. A majority of the 4.27 million electric cars that BYD sold in 2024 were bought by Chinese consumers. BYD also has a manufacturing presence in Lancaster, California, where it builds electric buses and batteries, but not cars.

In China, the local market has grown in part due to incentives from the government, which also saw electric cars as part of its strategy to bring down air pollution in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Customers in China have benefitted from the government’s approach, including through access to new technology. For example, a new battery, which BYD announced in March with the promise of charging for 400km (about 250 miles) of travel in just five minutes, is first being made available for preorder to customers in China only.

How expensive are EVs?

They used to be costlier than cars that run on petrol or diesel. But according to the IEA, the cost of owning an electric car over the vehicle’s entire lifetime is now less than fossil fuel-powered cars, due to the reduced costs of fuel and maintenance.

Buying an electric car is still often more expensive, though.

That is where China’s subsidies to manufacturers help. The IEA has found that prices for electric cars in China are similar to petrol and diesel cars, with half of all electric cars being sold for less than $30,000 and a wide range of lower-priced models available.

By contrast, in the US and Europe, “the range [of available EVs] was skewed towards higher-end models with higher prices”, according to the IEA.

Under Biden, the US tried to boost its domestic electric vehicle industry, while also trying to get the sector to reduce dependence on China.

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) introduced incentives for US manufacturers that did not use any Chinese parts. The IRA also introduced subsidies for consumers who bought EVs, though these have largely been overturned by Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which became law in July.

Nevertheless, even with the Biden-era incentives, only one in 10 cars sold in the US in 2024 was electric, while more than half of all new cars sold last year in China were electric.

Not just cars

While electric cars grab most headlines on sustainable transport, people are also increasingly turning to electric bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, buses and even trains in many parts of the world.

Even in the US, says Jaeger, there has been a significant growth in the number of electric scooters and two-wheelers imported from China.

According to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), the US imported $1.5bn worth of electric two-wheelers from China in the 12 months up to September 2025, an increase of $275m — or more than 20 percent — from the previous year. Experts say that is because scooters are cheaper than cars, and because US tariffs on Chinese electric scooters are also lower than on electric cars.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the government has said it will ban petrol-powered motorbikes in the centre of its capital, Hanoi, from July next year, as part of a plan to tackle local air pollution.

According to the IEA, some 40 percent of bus sales are now electric in European countries, including Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway.

There have also been increases in electric bus sales in Central and South America. In Mexico, for example, “close to 18 percent of all bus sales were electric in 2024, up from just above 1 percent in 2023”, according to the IEA.

Still, the US continues to struggle here, too. Electric bus sales declined in 2024, according to the IEA, after the leading electric bus manufacturer went bankrupt and a second company stopped manufacturing in the US market after suffering sustained financial losses.

Brazil’s proposal

The issue is set to come to a head next week, as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) holds its 20th meeting.

Heightened restrictions on brazilwood are scheduled to be raised for a vote at the conference.

Since 1998, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the tree as endangered.

But a proposal authored by the Brazilian government would increase CITES protections for brazilwood, placing it in the highest tier for trade restrictions.

CITES regulates the international trade of endangered species, and it classifies animals and plants in three appendices.

The third is the least restrictive: If a species is endangered in a given country, then export permits are required from that country.

The Appendix II has tighter standards: Export permits are required from wherever the species is extracted. Most endangered species, including brazilwood, fall into this category.

But Brazil hopes to bump brazilwood up to appendix one, a category for species faced with extinction.

Trade of plants and animals in that appendix is largely banned, except for non-commercial use. But even in that case, both import and export licences are required.

In its proposal, Brazil argues the upgraded restrictions are necessary to fight the plant’s extinction.

Only about 10,000 adult brazilwood trees remain. The population has shrunk by 84 percent over the last three generations, and illegal logging has played a dominant role in that decline, according to the proposal.

“Selective extraction of Brazilwood is still active, both inside and outside protected areas,” the proposal explains.

“In all cases recently detected, the destination of these woods is the bow-making industry for musical instruments.”

It adds that “520 years of intense exploitation” have led to the “complete elimination of the species in several regions”.

One operation launched by Brazilian police in October 2018 resulted in 45 companies and bowmakers being fined.

Nearly 292,000 bows and blanks — the unfinished blocks of wood destined to become bows — were seized.

Another investigation, between 2021 and 2022, led police to conclude that an estimated $46m in profits had come from the illegal brazilwood trade.

“The majority of bows and bow blanks sold by Brazilian companies over the past 25 years probably originated from illegal sources,” Brazil wrote in its proposal.

SANTIAGO, Chile — A hard-right former lawmaker and admirer of President Trump held the upper hand as Chile headed to a polarizing presidential runoff against a member of Chile’s Communist Party representing the incumbent government.

José Antonio Kast, an ultraconservative lawyer opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage, appears to be in pole position after nearly 70% of votes went to right-wing candidates in Sunday’s first round. Many Chileans worry about organized crime, illegal immigration and unemployment in one of Latin America’s safest and most prosperous nations.

The father of nine, who pushed his traditional Catholic beliefs and nostalgia for aspects of Chile’s brutal dictatorship into the political mainstream after founding his own Republican Party in 2019, came in second with nearly 24% of the vote. He campaigned on plans to crack down on gang violence, build a giant border wall and deport tens of thousands of immigrants.

Jeannette Jara, a former labor minister in President Gabriel Boric’s left-wing government, eked out a narrower-than-expected lead with 27% of the vote. She wants to expand Chile’s social safety net and tackle money laundering and drug trafficking to stem organized crime.

Neither contender received more than 50% of the overall vote count, sending the poll to a second round of voting on Dec. 14.

‘Voters are upset’

The mood was ebullient at Kast’s campaign headquarters early Monday, where young Chileans wrapped in national flags drank beer and rolled cigarettes as workers took down the stage where Kast had pledged a radical transformation in the country’s security.

“We needed a safe candidate, someone with a firm hand to bring economic growth, attract investment, create jobs, strengthen the police and give them support,” said Ignacio Rojas, 20. “Chile isn’t safe anymore, and he’ll change that.”

The results seemed set to extend a growing regional shift across Latin America, as popular discontent with the economy simmers and right-wing challengers take over from leftist politicians who shot to power in the wake of the pandemic but largely failed to deliver on their lofty promises of social change and more equitable distribution of wealth.

“Economies are not growing, there are no new jobs, and people remember that 10 years ago they used to pay lower prices for almost everything,” said Patricio Navia, a Chilean analyst and professor at New York University.

“Voters are upset with governments all over the region,” he added.

Conservatives led the pack in Chile’s eight-candidate field, with populist businessman and celebrity economist Franco Parisi surprising pundits by securing 20% of the votes and third place, reflecting the power of his anti-establishment message.

He also ran a tough law and order campaign, vowing to plant land mines along Chile’s porous northern border to prevent people from crossing.

Another 14% of the votes went to Johannes Kaiser, a libertarian congressman and a former YouTube provocateur who campaigned as an even more radical alternative to Kast.

Chile’s traditional center-right coalition landed in fifth place, with establishment candidate Evelyn Matthei winning 12.5% of the vote.

Conservative runners-up endorse Kast

Not all of the divided right is guaranteed to go to Kast, whose conservative moral values have previously alienated voters concerned about the rollback of hard-won rights for women and LGBTQ+ community. His promise to cut up to $6 billion in public spending within his first 18 months has also been criticized by traditional conservative politicians as unrealistic. He has lost two presidential races before.

But it’s also unlikely that many voters who supported Kaiser’s plans to deport migrants who entered the country illegally to prison in El Salvador, or Matthei’s plans to consider bringing back the death penalty, would vote for a lifelong member of Chile’s hard-line Communist Party, which supports autocratic governments in Venezuela and Cuba.

There were no other left-wing front-runners, as all six parties in Chile’s governing coalition threw their weight behind Jara.

After learning of the election results late Sunday, Matthei rushed to Kast’s party headquarters to profess her support for her right-wing rival. “Chile needs a sharp change of direction,” she said.

Kaiser also promised to back Kast, saying his libertarian party would “ensure that a sound doctrine and defense of freedom are not abandoned.”

Parisi was coy after the results came out, saying, “We don’t give anyone a blank check.”

“The burden of proof lies with both candidates,” said the political outsider, whose voters eschew elites on the left and right. “They have to win people over.”

The region is trending right

Economic travails and fervent anti-incumbent sentiment appear to have fueled a gradual pendulum swing away from the left-wing leaders who were ascendant across the region just a few years ago.

In Argentina, radical libertarian President Javier Milei, elected in late 2023 on a vow to break with years of left-leaning populism, has doubled down on his close bond with Trump and reshaped Argentina’s foreign policy in line with the U.S.

Elections during the last year in Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama have kept right-wing leaders in office, while in Bolivia, restive voters outraged over a currency crisis punished the Movement Toward Socialism party and elected a conservative opposition candidate for the first time in nearly 20 years last month.

Gains for the right could buoy the U.S. as it competes for regional influence with China, some analysts say, with a new crop of leaders keen for American investment. Chile is the world’s largest copper producer and home to vast reserves of other minerals key to the global energy transition.

Like many hopeful leftists four years ago, Boric, a young former student activist elected on the heels of Chile’s 2019 mass protests over widening inequality, saw his ambitions to raise taxes on the rich and adopt one of the world’s most progressive constitutions run into major legislative opposition.

Analysts warned that Kast could face the same fate if he caved to his most radical allies or pushed morally conservative measures. Although early legislative election results indicated that right-wing parties would hold a majority in the 155-member lower house of Congress, left-wing parties appeared to hold a slight edge in the Senate on Monday.

“There is a path forward for Kast,” Navia said. But “if he tries to govern as a radical right-winger, he will hit a wall, just like outgoing President Gabriel Boric did.”

Debre writes for the Associated Press.

Voters in Ecuador have rejected a proposal to allow the return of foreign military bases, according to early referendum results, with a count of close to 90 percent of ballots showing nearly two-thirds voting “no” on the proposal.

The loss on Sunday was a blow to President Daniel Noboa, who has said foreign cooperation, including shared or foreign bases within the country, is central to fighting organised crime.

A separate measure to convene an assembly to rewrite the constitution also had more than 61 percent rejection, with nearly 88 percent of votes counted.

Noboa acknowledged the defeat in a post on X.

“We respect the will of the Ecuadorian people,” he wrote.

“Our commitment does not change; it strengthens. We will continue to fight tirelessly for the country that you deserve, with the tools that we have.”

The rejection blocks the United States military from returning to an airbase at Manta on the Pacific coast – once a hub for Washington’s anti-drug operations.

Ecuador banned foreign military bases on its soil in 2008.

In Sunday’s referendum, voters were also asked if Ecuador should cut public funding for political parties, and if the number of legislators in the nation’s congress – the National Assembly – should be reduced from 151 representatives to 73.

The early count showed those proposals failing by a large margin, too.

Unprecedented violence

The referendum is taking place amid unprecedented violence in Ecuador, which has become a key transit point for cocaine produced in neighbouring Colombia and Peru. Drug trafficking gangs have attacked presidential candidates, mayors and journalists, as they fight for control over ports and coastal cities.

The vote also comes as the US military conducts a series of air strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats, a divisive policy from President Donald Trump that Noboa has backed.

Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, said many voters had expressed concerns over sovereignty if foreign militaries return.

“The main issue here is the sovereignty and the fact that this country has had experience of having military bases in the past. And there have been allegations of many abuses committed by the US soldiers when they were in the country, including the sinking of fishermen’s boats, and also an increase in prostitution in the towns near the bases, as well as mistreatment of locals by these soldiers, who had immunity,” Rampietti said.

“So, it seems like a majority of people say no. They are saying we can do it with our police and our army. And that the problem is the corruption, the problem is that the laws in the country are not implemented.”

The US has previously praised Noboa as an “excellent partner” in efforts to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking, and Ecuadorean authorities said prior to the referendum that a “no” vote on the military bases question would not derail security plans.

Noboa ratified two agreements for joint military operations with the US last year. The countries also maintain an aerial interception agreement, enabling drug and weapons seizures at sea.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also recently toured military facilities in Manta and an airbase in Salinas alongside Noboa.

‘Mistrustful of the US’

Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue and an adjunct professor of Latin American Studies at Georgetown University, said the outcome on Sunday marked a “big setback” for Noboa.

“The Trump administration saw Naboa as a key ally and assumed the Ecuadorian people would go along with restoring the military base that existed before on the coast,” he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

“And this is clearly the Ecuadorans rejecting that. They prize their sovereignty, their independence… They are very suspicious, very mistrustful of the US administration, especially as they are watching what’s going on with blowing up of boats and killing people in the Caribbean and in the Pacific as well.”

In office since November 2023, Noboa has deployed soldiers on the streets and in prisons, launched dramatic raids on drug strongholds, and declared frequent states of emergency.

Still, in the first half of this year, there were 4,619 murders – the “highest in recent history”, according to Ecuador’s Organized Crime Observatory.

Just as voting began, Noboa announced that the leader of the country’s most notorious gang, Los Lobos, had been captured.

The most-wanted drug kingpin known as “Pipo” had “faked his death, changed his identity and hid in Europe”, Noboa said on X.

Interior Minister John Reimberg later said Pipo had been detained in Spain in a joint operation between Ecuadoran and Spanish police.

Chile’s presidential election is heading to a run-off in December, in a showdown between leftist former Labour Minister Jeannette Jara and far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast.

With about 83 percent of ballots counted on Sunday, Jara led with 26.71 percent, followed by Kast on 24.12 percent, according to the electoral authority, Servel.

President Gabriel Boric, in a statement from the presidential office in Santiago, recognised Jara and Kast as the front-runners headed to the second round on December 14. He also congratulated both candidates, calling it a “spectacular day of democracy”.

Eight candidates appeared on Sunday’s ballot, but would have needed to get 50 percent plus one vote to win the election outright.

Despite leading in the first round, Jara, 51, faces an uphill battle in which her rivals are throwing support around Kast, founder of the far-right Republican Party.

Sunday’s election was dominated by growing public anxiety over surging murders, kidnappings and extortion in what has long been one of Latin America’s safest countries.

Jara, a minister under Boric, has promised to hire more police, lift banking secrecy to tackle organised crime and tackle cost-of-living issues.

Kast, 59, has pledged to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to keep out migrants and asylum seekers from poorer countries to the north, such as Venezuela.

Conservative candidates back Kast

Speaking from Santiago after Boric’s statement, Jara thanked supporters and urged Chileans not to let fears over rising crime drive them into the arms of the far right in the run-off.

“Don’t let fear harden your hearts,” the politician said, insisting that the answer to crime was not to “come up with ideas, each more radical than the next” and hide behind bulletproof glass.

The comments were a dig at Kast’s draconian campaign security measures.

For his part, Kast, in his address to supporters, called for unity and promised to “rebuild” Chile after four years of centre-left rule, which he termed “maybe the worst government in Chile’s democratic history”.

Maverick economist Franco Parisi caused surprise by finishing third on 19.42 percent, ahead of ultra-right lawmaker Johannes Kaiser on 13.93 percent, and former conservative mayor Evelyn Matthei on 12.70 percent.

Parisi refrained from backing either Jara or Kast in the run-off, saying that they both needed to go look for new voters “on the street”.

The next-closest contender, Kaiser, conceded defeat and announced his endorsement of Kast, while Matthei, another conservative who won about 13 percent of votes, quickly followed suit, citing the “absolutely uncontrolled arrival” of migrants and claiming Chile needed a “sharp change of direction”.

Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Santiago, said supporters at Kast’s headquarters were euphoric.

“There seems to be confidence that even though he came in second place by a slim margin, he will be the first to cross the finish line in the run-off next month. These people say that it is time for a deep change in this country,” Newman said. “They say the main problems are crime, delinquency, a slow and stagnant economy and also just the fact that there has been the same people governing this country for too long, and say that it’s time for a major overhaul.”

Law-and-order issues

The dominance of law-and-order issues in Sunday’s election has marked a drastic change from the wave of left-wing optimism and hopes of drafting a new constitution that brought Gabriel Boric, who isn’t allowed to run for re-election, to power.

The rising crime has been widely attributed to foreign criminal groups, coinciding with a doubling of Chile’s migrant population since 2017. Migrants now make up 8.8 percent of the country’s residents.

Wall-to-wall news coverage of crime has led to a clamour among voters for a “mano dura” or iron fist.

Rodrigo Arellano, an analyst at Chile’s University for Development, called the results “very bad news” for Jara and said it seemed “unlikely” she could win the December 14 run-off.

“Not only is her vote count low, but the combined total of the opposition candidates is almost more than double hers,” he told the AFP news agency, blaming anti-incumbent and anticommunist sentiment.

Jara’s candidacy is considered historic in contemporary Chilean politics, in part because of her working-class background and in part because she represents the Communist Party, which has not seen such broad support since Chile’s return to democracy.

Jara, who led an effort to reduce the work week from 45 hours to 40, has campaigned on affordability, pledging to increase Chile’s minimum wage and make housing more affordable. She has also made efforts to distance herself from Boric’s administration, even hinting at a possible break from her Communist Party if elected president.

Kast, frequently compared to United States President Donald Trump, founded Chile’s Republican Party in 2019 and is widely credited for bringing extreme right positions to the national stage. He lost to Boric in the 2021 presidential election.

He has repeatedly denied reports that his father was a supporter of the Nazi party, describing him instead as a forced conscript in the German army.

Voter turnout on Sunday was significantly higher than in the previous 2021 presidential election, as voting was mandatory for all 15.7 million registered voters.

Chileans also voted for members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate on the same day.

The governing leftist coalition currently has a minority in both chambers, and right-wing majorities in both could set the stage for Congress and the presidency to be controlled by the right for the first time since the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in 1990.

The election is being closely watched as a gauge of the broader fortunes of South America’s left, which has recently suffered setbacks in countries like Argentina and Bolivia.

Last month, a centre-right president was elected in neighbouring Bolivia after 20 years of socialist rule. Right-wing candidates look likely to win presidential elections in Colombia and Peru next year, while the left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is predicted to face a close battle to retain his office in Brazil despite ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s sentencing for leading a failed coup.

Ecuadoreans are voting on whether to lift a constitutional ban on foreign military bases as right-wing President Daniel Noboa pushes for help from the United States in confronting spiralling drug-fuelled violence.

Nearly 14 million people cast ballots on Sunday in a referendum that also asks whether to reduce the number of lawmakers.

The vote comes as Ecuador grapples with unprecedented bloodshed, with the country’s homicide rate projected to hit 50 per 100,000 people this year, the highest in Latin America.

Polls suggest more than 61 percent of voters back allowing foreign bases, which would likely see the US return to the Manta airbase on the Pacific coast.

US forces operated from Manta between 1999 and 2009 as part of anti-narcotics efforts, until leftist President Rafael Correa held a referendum on foreign troops, resulting in their constitutional ban.

Ecuador, once considered one of the more stable countries in the region, has in recent years faced a sharp rise in violence, with drug cartels, including powerful ones from Mexico, exploiting porous borders and weak institutions to expand their influence.

Noboa, a 37-year-old heir to a prominent banana-exporting fortune, who took office in November 2023, has responded with militarised crackdowns, deployed soldiers to the streets and prisons, launched raids on gang strongholds, declared states of emergency and tightened security at key infrastructure hubs.

The first half of this year saw 4,619 murders, the highest on record, according to Ecuador’s Organized Crime Observatory.

As voting opened, Noboa announced the capture in Spain of Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre, known as Pipo, leader of the notorious Los Lobos gang, who had faked his death and fled to Europe.

He was arrested in the Spanish city of Malaga after Ecuadorean authorities worked with their Spanish counterparts to track him down.

Interior Minister John Reimberg linked Chavarria to more than 400 killings and said he had run criminal networks from behind bars for eight years until 2019.

Noboa said the Los Lobos chief had overseen illicit mining schemes and maintained trafficking connections with Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel, all whilst hiding in Europe under a false identity.

The US designated Los Lobos and Los Choneros, another Ecuadorian crime syndicate, as “terrorist” organisations in September.

Critics question whether military force alone can address the crisis.

Former President Correa has described the return of foreign forces as “an insult to our public forces and an assault to our sovereignty”, adding: “We do not need foreign soldiers. We need government.”

The referendum also includes questions on a constituent assembly that opposition groups fear could allow Noboa to consolidate power.

In August, Noboa led a demonstration against Constitutional Court justices, with officials calling them “enemies of the people” after they limited expansive security laws.

Critics of the president also argue that a constitutional rewrite will not solve problems like insecurity and poor access to health and education services.

Ecuador became a major cocaine transit hub after the 2016 peace deal in Colombia demobilised guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), with international trafficking organisations quickly filling the void.

The country’s Pacific ports, proximity to coca-producing Peru and Colombia, and weak institutions have made it central to the global cocaine supply chain.

Noboa, who survived an attack in October when his car was surrounded by protesters and struck by bullets, has compared his security approach to that of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, posting images of shaven-headed inmates in orange uniforms at a new mega-prison.