Author: americalatinanews.com

Chilean Ambassador to New Zealand under fire after Rapa Nui post

Ambassador Pakarati, of Rapa Nui heritage, hit a nerve with her comments about her ancestral people’s stance on self-governance

Diplomatic circles in Santiago are still shaky after last week’s comment by the South American country’s Ambassador to New Zealand, favoring self-rule by Easter Island’s native Rapa Nui community.

The Chilean government of President Gabriel Boric Font is facing mounting pressure from across the political spectrum following Manahi Pakarati’s remarks. While she has deleted the post and received a formal reprimand from the Foreign Ministry, calls for her dismissal have intensified.

Pakarati, a career diplomat and the first person of Rapa Nui descent to serve as Ambassador to New Zealand, sparked the debate with comments regarding the status of the island. Rapa Nui is an integral part of Chile’s Valparaíso Region but is located in Polynesia, approximately 3,700 kilometers from the mainland.

During a press conference on Monday, Interior Minister Álvaro Elizalde confirmed the government’s stance, labeling the diplomat’s conduct as “inappropriate.”

“It is clear that there was a mistake here, and that is why the Foreign Ministry reprimanded her, and she acknowledged her error,” Elizalde stated, noting that Pakarati withdrew the content immediately after the sanction. The minister added that the administration remains open to providing further details to congressional committees if summoned. The controversy has exposed ideological rifts within the Chilean legislature.

Representative Stephan Schubert of President-elect José Antonio Kast’s Republican Party announced he would summon Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren to the Foreign Affairs Committee. Schubert questioned why Pakarati remains in her post, suggesting her position is untenable.

Senator Paulina Vodanovic of the Socialist Party -a member of Boric’s ruling coalition- criticized the diplomat’s stance as being “incompatible” with the duties of an ambassador. “It is not compatible to be an ambassador for a country and have a position so distant from the foreign policy of one’s own country,” Vodanovic remarked.

Meanwhile, Deputy Nathalie Castillo of the Communist Party defended the Foreign Ministry’s handling of the situation but used the occasion to highlight the “multiple demands of indigenous peoples” across the country.

Manahi Pakarati Novoa is a highly decorated official in the Chilean Foreign Service. With a 27-year career, she has served in New York (United Nations), Mexico, and as the Director of Protocol for President Gabriel Boric in 2022. She previously served as the deputy director of presidential tours during the administration of Sebastián Piñera.

The current friction centers on whether a diplomat of indigenous heritage can separate personal or ancestral views from the official territorial integrity and foreign policy of the state they represent.

While the post was quickly removed, Chilean media and congressional reports indicate that Ambassador Pakarati shared a message that touched upon the concept of self-determination or Polynesian sovereignty for Rapa Nui. The post suggested that Rapa Nui’s relationship with Chile should be viewed through the lens of Polynesian decolonization rather than standard domestic administration.

As Ambassador to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands (including Fiji and Niue), Pakarati is stationed in the heart of the “Blue Pacific,” where decolonization and indigenous sovereignty are central diplomatic issues.

For the Chilean Foreign Ministry, an ambassador publicly hinting at a status other than “integral territory” is seen as a violation of the State’s unitary principle, as defined in the Chilean Constitution.

Since 2007, the Chilean Constitution has defined Rapa Nui and the Juan Fernández Islands as “Special Territories.” This allows for a specific administrative regime different from other provinces. In 2018, Chile passed a law that strictly limits the right to stay and reside on the island to protect its environment and Rapa Nui culture. It is one of the few places in Chile where a citizen’s right to free movement is legally restricted based on heritage or residency permits.

The 1888 Agreement of Wills between the Rapa Nui chiefs and the Chilean state provides for a definitive cession of sovereignty, which many Rapa Nui leaders argue was a “protection treaty” that preserved their right to the land and self-governance.

Bolsonaro undergoes new surgical procedure

Carlos Bolsonaro posted about his father’s health on Monday

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro underwent a second surgical procedure to treat persistent, chronic hiccups that have complicated his recovery from hernia surgery on Christmas Day. According to his son Carlos Bolsonaro, the family is concerned about the former head of State’s health after a spike in blood pressure and new respiratory treatments.

To stop the involuntary contractions of the diaphragm, physicians at Brasilia’s DF Star Hospital performed a phrenic nerve block on the left side of the patient’s neck on Monday, following a similar, non-invasive ultrasound-guided intervention carried out on his right side this past Saturday.

The phrenic nerves are the only structures in the body that control the diaphragm’s contraction and relaxation. Using ultrasound for precision, doctors inject anesthetics to temporarily “short-circuit” the nerve impulses that trigger hiccups, to provide the muscle with a period of rest, allowing contractions —often caused by post-surgical irritation in the abdominal region— to cease.

“The early hours of today were very worrying as I monitored my father,” Carlos posted on X. “There are many challenges, and we all know that without constant medical monitoring and rigorous care, his life is seriously threatened.”

According to the family, Bolsonaro experienced “very high” blood pressure during the night, requiring immediate medical intervention. Additionally, the former president has officially begun treatment for sleep apnea, a condition that can further strain the cardiovascular system.

Bolsonaro has been hospitalized since Wednesday, December 24, when he was transferred from Federal Police headquarters to the hospital for a bilateral inguinal hernia surgery the next day. The procedure was authorized by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre De Moraes.

Medical experts suggest that Bolsonaro’s history of abdominal surgeries, dating back to his 2018 campaign stabbing, has made his digestive and respiratory systems particularly sensitive to post-operative complications like hiccups.

As of Monday evening, Bolsonaro was reported to be stable and continuing rehabilitation therapy while receiving preventative treatment for venous thrombosis.

Composed of representatives from the country’s three major political parties (National, Liberal, and Libre), the CNE has until midnight tomorrow to issue the final declaration of the elections held four weeks ago, which were marred by numerous irregularities.

Ochoa, of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), denounced that his colleagues from the two-party system on the electoral body, Ana Hall (Liberal) and Cossette Lopez (National), are deliberately delaying the special recount of thousands of ballots containing inconsistencies.

He accused both council members of having no intention whatsoever of counting the more than 400 tally sheets from the Central District, the municipality that includes Tegucigalpa—the one with the largest electorate in Honduras—given the virtual victory of the Libre mayor and candidate for reelection, Jorge Aldana.

Although he admitted that the winning candidate goes by a narrow margin, the mayor of the capital city asserted that the right-wing National Party’s “tough hand” intends to impose its candidate, Juan Diego Zelaya, through fraud, without finalizing the recount from all the polling stations.

“Proceeding with the general declaration of elections without processing the 435 pending tally sheets from the Central District is fraud, an act of corruption and violence that usurps and steals the popular will of our capital, Tegucigalpa,” the Libre council member emphasized on his X account.

“They are pushing this process to the limit to do what was done at the presidential level. A declaration without all the tally sheets is illegal,” Ochoa pointed out.

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In Mexico’s Michoacán highlands, Mazahua artisans stitch Day of the Dead regalia as monarch butterflies shift routes with climate change. A new Casa de la Cultura Mazahua aims to turn heritage into community tourism, despite cartel warnings and fragile forests.

Threading Memory into Cloth

On the outskirts of Crescencio Morales in Michoacán, Lucila Marín García works an old Singer sewing machine while her daughter and niece embroider sashes by hand. Their stitch, the fine cross-stitch called lomillo, belongs to the Indigenous Mazahua community, whose roots in this region reach back to the 12th century.

The work is communal. The Garcías, along with three other families, are responsible for traditional shawls, skirts, and sashes for roughly 8,000 people in town, and each outfit takes about three hours. Mexico City is a three-hour drive east, but the U.S. paid better, drawing men north. Antonio Zendeja recently spent a year commuting from New Jersey to a chicken factory in Philadelphia.

Butterflies That Move the Market

Since at least the 1970s, millions of monarch butterflies have wintered in the surrounding forests after migrating from the U.S. and Canada. About 600,000 people trek to sanctuaries across Mexico’s Central Highlands, most of them in Michoacán. The Mazahua understand the monarchs as returning souls, arriving around Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. Yedani Paola Hernández Vasquez says colonies once blanketed more than 40 acres in the 1990s and have dipped to 2.2 acres in recent years.

A Culture House Under Warning Signs
The Casa de la Cultura Mazahua, which opened in September, was created by Chris Rainier and Olivia McKendrick through Cultural Sanctuaries. Visitors pay 150 pesos—about $8.20—to fund local services and workshops. Operators are testing routes, including Journey Mexico, whose Matteo Luthi introduced 30-minute helicopter transfers from Mexico City in 2025. Nearby, Jésus González Villareal—Don Chuy—blesses the forest with a conch shell and leads a temazcal where bienvenidas abuelitas frames gratitude as practice. Adapted from Bloomberg Businessweek reporting and interviews by Jen Murphy.

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Back in Venezuela, survivors of El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison prepare for New Year’s rituals while living with stigma from Trump-era gang accusations. Their release in July 2025 ended confinement, but not the nightmares, job losses, or politics that followed them home.

Año Viejo, New Wounds

In 2025, a Venezuelan family circle bends over scrap wood and rags, shaping an año viejo—a life-size doll stuffed with fireworks and old clothes. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, they will set it ablaze. Andry Hernández Romero smiles at the thought. “This is our way of welcoming the new year with joy,” he said, insisting the year can still restart.

Only five months earlier, Hernández Romero, 32, was released from El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, Cecot. He had been one of 252 Venezuelan men the Donald Trump administration accused—without due process—of belonging to Tren de Aragua. Many were asylum seekers; most had no criminal records. Human Rights Watch and Cristosal later said the men faced near-daily physical and psychological abuse, including beatings and, in some cases, sexual assault.

In July 2025, a diplomatic deal between Venezuela and the US freed them abruptly. The Guardian stayed in touch with Hernández Romero and three other men as they returned home. “There were so many mixed feelings on the way home,” he said—joy at hugging his father and brother, and the shock of realizing everything had changed.

Cecot’s Afterimages

The others struggled to name what freedom felt like. Jerce Reyes Barrios, 36, called it a jumble of “happiness? Sadness?” José Manuel Ramos Bastidas, 31, said: “I never thought I would get out.” Edicson David Quintero Chacón, 29, tried to savor ordinary pleasures—time with his kids, TikTok restored, a two-hour motorcycle ride. “Freedom is the most beautiful thing in life,” he said. Then the memories returned: “It’s like a movie that keeps playing in my head.”

Quintero said guards beat detainees for talking and medical visits felt like mockery. Guards used La Isla, a dark isolation room. Hernández Romero has said he was dragged there and sexually abused; he prays for justice “from Father God.” Ramos recalled hunger strikes, a “blood protest,” and days of “blow after blow.”

Freedom Under Suspicion

Back in Venezuela, desperation remains. Ramos left in January 2024 to pay bills for a newborn son with severe respiratory issues; now he hunts repair jobs to earn “something.” Quintero, who had worked since 12, left in April 2024. At the US southern border, he was given an ankle monitor and ICE check-ins; in June, he was detained during one. He spent more than a year in custody—at Stewart in Georgia, then Cecot—and returned to scarce work and a family waiting.

Detention also made them famous. “We became almost famous,” Hernández Romero said. During Pride month in Washington DC, the Human Rights Campaign rallied for him, and New Queens Pride in New York honored him. The Trump administration called them “ruthless terrorist gang members.” In late March, Kristi Noem toured Cecot, while Nayib Bukele posted a video of deportees being frog-marched into the prison.

Back home, suspicion sticks. “No hair salons in Venezuela want to give me a job,” Hernández Romero said. Even opponents of Nicolás Maduro eye him as swap bait. What steadies him is the bond: “We entered 252 strangers, and we left 252 brothers.” He stays close to Carlos Uzcátegui, 32, and recently did makeup for Uzcátegui’s bride, Gabriela Mora, who is now expecting a baby. Adapted from The Guardian reporting, quotes, and interviews by Maanvi Singh.

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