CNN
 — 

A floating village now lies stranded on a lakebed in Brazil’s Amazon as severe drought leaves communities struggling to access food, fresh water and fuel.

Dramatically receding water levels in Lake Puraquequara, east of Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, have left boats and floating buildings marooned in the mud.

It is the latest example of the devastating impacts of heat and drought on this part of Brazil – earlier this month more than a hundred river dolphins washed ashore dead as water temperatures soared – and authorities say the situation is set to get worse.

Lake Puraquequara is part of the Rio Negro river system, which has been near record-low since the end of September, according to the state’s civil defense authority. “Declining water levels are having a profound impact,” a spokesperson for the authority told CNN.

Some residents have resorted to digging wells in the cracked lakebed in an attempt to reach water.

“Our shops have no customers. We are isolated, boats cannot enter or leave the lake,” local resident Isaac Rodrigues told Reuters. “We’re going to be here until God sends us water.”

The severe drought extends across the state. Forty-two municipalities of the 62 in the state were in an emergency situation with more than 300,000 people affected, the civil defense authority told CNN Monday.

And the situation is expected to get worse. Around 500,000 people and 50 municipalities are likely to be affected over the next several weeks, “since we are still predicting a few months with reduced rain levels,” the spokesperson for the state authority said.

In late September, Amazonas Gov. Wilson Lima declared a state of emergency and announced a package of assistance measures, including providing food to those most affected by the drought.

“There are many people already having difficulty accessing food, food security, drinking water and other important inputs,” he said in a statement at the time.

The drought is also devastating wildlife in the state’s rivers.

Scientists believe the unusual deaths of more than 100 dolphins in Lake Tefé, west of Manaus, at the beginning of October may be linked to the searingly high water temperatures.

“It’s still early to determine the cause of this extreme event but according to our experts, it is certainly connected to the drought period and high temperatures in Lake Tefé, in which some points are exceeding 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit),” the institute said in comments carried by CNN affiliate CNN Brasil.

It is currently the dry season in the Amazon, but the drought has been exacerbated by El Niño, a natural climate pattern that originates in the tropical Pacific Ocean and affects weather around the world.

Underlying El Niño is the long-term trend of global warming that is leading to more frequent and more severe extreme weather events, like drought and heat.

Swaths of South America, including Brazil, have been gripped by severe and deadly heat as the region moves from winter into spring.

This heat in August and September – during which Brazil experienced temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) – was made at least 100 times more likely by the human-caused climate crisis, according to a study published Tuesday by the World Weather Attribution initiative.

CNN
 — 

A bus crash in the Mexican state of Oaxaca killed 16 people on Friday, according to local authorities, who say most of the passengers were migrants.

Three children and two women are among the victims, all of whom are from Venezuela and Haiti, the Oaxaca state attorney general said. At least 27 people were injured and transported to nearby hospitals.

Pictures posted by authorities on Facebook show the large bus flipped over and heavily damaged on a curve of the mountainous Oaxaca-Cuacnopalan highway.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the accident, which took place at 5 a.m. local time (7 a.m. ET). The Oaxaca state attorney general’s office had first said 18 people died in the crash, then revised its count late on Friday evening.

The tragedy follows the deaths of at least 10 Cuban migrants, including a child, on Sunday, when the truck they were traveling in also overturned in southern Mexico, according to local authorities.

Venezuela and Haiti are sources of large numbers of migrants traveling northward, fleeing insecurity and economic crisis at home.

US and Mexican officials have struggled to respond to the arrivals, with Washington putting increasing pressure on Mexico City to shoulder more responsibility for people crossing its territory.

Food shortages and limited access to health care have driven more than 7.7 million people from Venezuela alone – a scale of displacement that outpaces Ukraine, where there’s an active war.

On Thursday, senior officials in the Biden administration said the US would restart deporting Venezuelans directly to Venezuela in an attempt to curb the record influx, marking a major shift in policy.

Haiti meanwhile is waiting for a new multinational mission to help bring order to the country, currently roiled by unchecked gang violence, kidnappings and food insecurity.

Bogota
CNN
 — 

Venezuelan authorities on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader and former interim president Juan Guaido, who dismissed the move as politically motivated.

During a press conference in the capital Caracas, Attorney General Tarek William Saab alleged that Guaido had used the state-owned oil company PDVSA’s resources to finance himself and pay his legal expenses.

“Juan Guaido used PDVSA resources to finance himself, pay his legal expenses, and forced PDVSA to accept his financing terms. These decisions caused losses to the nation of $19 billion, resulting in the almost definitive loss of Citgo,” Saab said, adding that Venezuela will request a red notice from Interpol.

“For this reason, we have opened a new investigation against former deputy Juan Guaido, and we have requested an arrest warrant against him,” he said.

Guaido served as the interim president of Venezuela’s transitional government from 2019 until late 2022 – when he was ousted from his leadership role after struggling to make significant gains against the authoritarian regime of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

This spring, Guaido traveled to Miami, where he has remained. Speaking to CNN on Friday, he said, “Of course, I want to be back in Venezuela, but at least here I am alive and free, which is not the same for many Venezuelans who are behind bars or have been murdered by the dictatorship.”

Saab said the arrest warrant against Guaido will be for the alleged crimes of treason; usurpation of functions; profit or extraction of money, securities and public goods; money laundering; and association.

He also said that least 28 investigations are ongoing in the country against Guaido for a raft of alleged crimes including usurpation of functions, money laundering, terrorism, arms trafficking, and treason.

“Those who at some point believed in this guy and went out to march; they see that they found it to be a vulgar criminal of the worst caliber, robbing and kidnapping,” Saab said.

Guaido’s spokesperson declined to comment on the allegations, but during a live transmission on his Instagram account, Guaido described them as “false” and challenged President Maduro to submit to justice himself.

“This message goes to you, Maduro, tomorrow let’s meet at any prosecutor’s office in the US or, if you prefer, another jurisdiction, The Hague. We can then go directly to the jurisdiction that also points (to) you directly,” Guaido said.

In June, the International Criminal Court ruled that prosecutors should resume investigating alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela by security forces under President Maduro.

“The question is, why now? Why did the dictatorship not do it before?” he said of the arrest warrant. “So no, Maduro, I did not allow you to kidnap me, I will not allow you to take away my voice, and I will continue to denounce you in all places where possible, as a criminal.”

Venezuela is due to hold a presidential vote in 2024, though critics have cast doubt on whether elections can be free and fair in the country’s repressive political climate.

Guaido called on his followers to vote in the upcoming opposition primary election on October 22, saying, “today the vote is kidnapped in Venezuela, but we have an opportunity to mobilize again to confront Nicolas Maduro.”

The US, which had long been a supporter of Guaido, has somewhat softened its stance toward Caracas as the region struggles with rising energy costs and hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants.

On Thursday, senior officials in the Biden administration said the US will restart deporting Venezuelans directly to Venezuela in an attempt to curb the record influx of crossings at the US-Mexico border, marking a major shift in policy.

Venezuelans who cross the US-Mexico border unlawfully and lack a legal basis to remain in the US will be eligible for removal, the senior administration officials said, adding that Venezuela had agreed to accept back its nationals.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the new policy “a key piece” of the administration’s approach to migration. Advocacy groups however have slammed the shift as dangerous for deportees; the policy will “likely lead to unsafe returns,” Refugees International warned in a statement.

In his interview with CNN on Friday, Guaido said he didn’t believe that the deportation deal was connected to his arrest. However, he did say that it underlined Maduro’s interest in gaining international recognition as Venezuela’s head of state.

“They are not going to stop the migration situation just by stopping migration or connect flights. We need to put a stop to the regime and recover rights in Venezuela,” Guaidó said.

“The only thing Maduro is looking for is recognition, and even with these deportation flights, he’s going to spin them as de facto recognition for his regime. That’s what he gets from this,” he continued.

“We never expected that Venezuelan migrants would reach the US directly, on foot, from Venezuela. Those are thousands of miles of desperation through the jungle. But we need to change the situation in Venezuela, bringing the country back to democracy, if we want to solve the migration crisis.”