Latin America in Short: Elections in Nicaragua and COP26 Advances

This week COP26 began, in which world leaders discuss how to curb climate change. Meanwhile, in Latin America, the ICC begins investigations in Venezuela and the elections in Nicaragua are moving forward. In sports, James Rodríguez is once again called up by the Colombian National Team. All summarized and explained here.

Venezuela: ICC begins investigation for possible crimes against humanity

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced that after the preliminary visit, he decided to formally open a case to investigate whether crimes against humanity have been committed in the Caribbean country during the political demonstrations of 2017. Khan must determine if there were any violations of the Rome Statute and to be able to identify possible culprits.

For his part, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stated that he "respects, but does not share" this decision of the official, since he believes that the necessary institutions exist in the country to carry out the investigations. This is the first official investigation carried out by the ICC in Latin America.

Nicaragua will hold questioned presidential elections

This next Sunday, November 7, Nicaragua will experience a new election day in which the top favorite is the current president, Daniel Ortega, who has already been in power for almost 15 years.

International organizations have denounced that voting in the Central American country does not enjoy a true democracy, due to the political persecution of opponents in recent months. The observatory called Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners counted 159 political prisoners, including presidential candidates, opposition politicians and journalists critical of the Ortega government, among others.

Also read: Facebook Tries To Balance Elections In Nicaragua

More than 5 million deaths due to COVID-19

Last Monday, November 1, the world woke up with the news that 5 million deaths have been exceeded in relation to COVID-19. According to the John Hopkins Institute, which conducted the study to determine this figure, there have also been more than 246 million infections around the world. It also concluded that the United States, Brazil and India are the countries that have reported the most deaths and that, consequently, the American continent is the one that registers the highest number of deaths.

The WHO drew attention to the different peaks that have occurred in different parts of the world and the relationship they have with the vaccination processes that are scarce and far from being fully fulfilled in several of these places due to the inequity in the distribution of vaccines.

77 countries seek to eliminate coal production in COP26 agreements

On November 4, during the fifth day of COP26, Alok Sharma, president of the summit and belonging to the United Kingdom, host of this event, announced that 77 countries have already joined the agreement to gradually eliminate both the use of like carbon production. It is also expected that a total of 190 countries will join this agreement. This commitment would mean that by 2030 the rich countries will have completely given up this fuel and that by 2040 the poor countries will have joined.

James was called up again in the Colombian National Team

James Rodríguez was called up again by the Colombian National Team, to play the remaining knockout matches to be played in November. On the 10th he had not played with the National Team of his country for more than a year, since the last match he played was a painful 6-0 against the Ecuadorian National Team, on November 17, 2020. Colombia is fourth in the qualifying rounds with 16 points and urgently needs reinforcements, as they tied all their matches 0-0 on the last knockout date.