Keyword: Latin America

The Paris-Dakar car rally gets lost in the sands of Saudi propaganda

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Preparations for the Paris-Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia on January 2nd 2020. © REUTERS Preparations for the Paris-Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia on January 2nd 2020. © REUTERS

The Paris-Dakar Rally, often now known simply as the Dakar Rally or Dakar, has been held most years since 1979, and this rally through desert sands is one of the most high-profile motor sports events on the planet. The 2020 rally, which began on Sunday January 5th, is taking place for the first time in Saudi Arabia. Mediapart's Middle East correspondent René Backmann argues in this opinion article that underneath the media din and razzmatazz, the event is nothing more than a PR exercise by the Saudi regime to persuade people to forget its despotic, fundamentalist and brutal nature, as well as the scale of its crimes.

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Why Latin American migrants have been sleeping rough in a Paris suburb

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Around 150 migrants from Latin America – Colombia, Cuba, Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic – are living in a makeshift street camp in a Paris suburb having recently been evicted from a disused warehouse in which they were squatting. Some came to France for a better life for their family, others for political reasons. But as Irene Casado reports, all the migrants, who include children and pregnant women, face an uncertain future faced with the indifference of the local mayor and the lack of suitable housing.

In Mexico 'you can die just for being a woman'

By Marie Hibon
In April 2013 a man displays the photos of women who have died or disappeared in Ecatepec, Mexico. © Henry Romero (Reuters) In April 2013 a man displays the photos of women who have died or disappeared in Ecatepec, Mexico. © Henry Romero (Reuters)

Figures show that in the month of January more than ten women a day were murdered in Mexico. In some areas of the country, say women's rights campaigners, women are disposed of like “a piece of garbage”. Meanwhile to the dismay of local associations the new left-wing government in the country is not treating the issue as a priority. Marie Hibon reports on the appalling situation facing many women in Mexico.