Latest news with #Chilean

Bangkok Post
5 hours ago
- Business
- Bangkok Post
Santiago nightlife suffers as crime curbs Chile's economy
La Piojera in downtown Santiago has been a lively bar for over a century, drawing locals and tourists with typical Chilean foods, drinks and music, but now its doors are shutting earlier and sales are plummeting as rising crime has strangled the country and the economy. - REUTERS


Irish Daily Mirror
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Daily Mirror
Chilean club with link to Celtic fans offer hope against horrors in Gaza
JOSÉ Nabzo turns his laptop around. The view switches from a small club office to the empty stands of the Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna near Santiago and the Andes Mountains. 'Now it's very quiet, it's Monday, but on match day the Palestinian flags are everywhere, people eating shawarma and falafel, it's noisy,' says Nabzo. 'It's about the message. Solidarity and peace. 'We don't want to enter into politics, religion… we don't speak about that. This club just speaks about solidarity with Palestinian people and about peace.' Nabzo is the communications officer for Club Deportivo Palestino, one of the leading teams in Chilean top flight football. In the past they have been coached by the likes of former Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini and Fernando Riera, the godfather of Chilean football who led the country to third place at the 1962 World Cup. But it's the club's links to Palestine that have brought them to international prominence in recent years and even prompted a link-up with Celtic fans. 'To work here is a dream. I have Palestinian origins on both sides — grandfather and grandmother,' says Nabzo. 'Palestino have been an ambassador for Palestinians in Chile for a long time, but now it's not just in Chile, it's the world.' He shows a photo of children queuing for food in Gaza. 'A photo journalist for Al Jazeera sent me the picture,' he says. 'One of the kids is wearing a Palestino jersey. 'I sent that photo to all workers and players and directors of this club. I said them, 'Look, this is Palestino.' 'The Palestine national team is very important, but we feel like another national team for Palestine.' Conflict in Gaza has changed everything at the club. On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants entered Israel from Gaza, killing over 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Since then, Israeli forces have killed in excess of 56,000 Palestinians — more than half of them women and children. Gaza has been obliterated, with buildings and infrastructure destroyed and civilian areas regularly hit by missile strikes. Nearly all of the area's two million-plus population have been displaced. 'From October 2023, the club changed,' says Nabzo. 'In the past we are sending messages, putting the map of Palestine on the jersey, we are close to Palestine. 'But from this moment in October 2023, the club changed and the link with Palestine changed.' No international journalists have been allowed to enter Gaza for 20 months and more than 200 local journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli military attacks. The details that have emerged are beyond bleak. Last month, a leading Red Cross official described conditions as 'worse than hell on earth' and limited aid has led to starvation amid the debris. Reaching that aid has also become increasingly more and more dangerous. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Israeli forces opened fire towards hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks, killing 25 and wounding another 146. There were 44 people killed in total in two separate incidents. Palestino, a football club 13,000kms away in Chile, have become a symbol of hope for Palestinians. 'When the Palestine national team played a World Cup qualifier in Kuwait, we saw pictures of many fans with Palestino jerseys,' he says. 'The club has three academies in Palestine. One is in Gaza and is obviously not working now. Two in Ramallah are working and that is very good news. 'It's important for kids to change their reality.' Chile has the biggest Palestinian community outside of the Arab world and the Santiago club was founded in 1920 by Palestinian immigrants. 'It's very important that date because it's 28 years before the creation of the state of Israel,' he says. 'Club Deportivo Palestino is a good point in history to say, okay Palestinian identity existed previously. 'These Palestinian immigrants in Chile created this club with the objective to conserve and keep the tradition and culture and to be a house of Palestinians in Chile.' The club turned professional in 1952 and won the Chilean men's Primera Division in 1955 and 1978. Nabzo's father was a director of the club in the past and witnessed the emergence of Pellegrini as a coach during his time at the club before he went on to manage the likes of City and Real Madrid. Palestino made headlines in 2014 for a jersey that featured the map of Palestine before the creation of the state of Israel in the design. The club were fined and the jersey was eventually banned. More recently, the club adopted a green and white hooped shirt for their third kit as a tribute to Celtic's Green Brigade supporters' group. 'Green Brigade make a lot of actions to show solidarity with Palestine,' he says. 'And they don't do it in a small Scottish Cup match, they do it in the Champions League against the biggest names, the biggest teams. 'In very important matches they give a strong message: 'Stop the genocide'. 'As a way of showing we are grateful, the club contacted the Green Brigade and made the jersey with the colours and design of Celtic. 'On the back, they have the slogan of Palestino: 'More than a team, a whole people'. 'We're happy to see that jersey in a lot of protests and a lot of countries, in different stadiums, in different continents.' This season the Palestino men's team have been competing in the Copa Sudamericana — South America's equivalent of the Europa League — and last season featured in the Copa Libertadores — the equivalent of the Champions League. They currently lie third in Chile's Primera Division, while the women's team are in eighth. Men's coach Lucas Bovaglio regularly wears a keffiyeh during matches and the Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna has become a place for fans to show solidarity with those suffering in Gaza. The club have two players of Palestinian origin in the first teams — Alejandro Hales in the men's team and Rania Sansur for the women's team. Nabzo is confident for the remainder of the season on the pitch. But what's happening off it has become just as important now. 'Rania also plays for the Palestinian national team,' he says. 'She travels from Chile to Jordan each FIFA date. It's very hard for her, but very beautiful for Rania and for us. 'We are Palestino, a club founded by and for Palestinian immigrants and we have a player in the national team of Palestine. 'It's a connection. It's very important.' Right now, more than ever.

Sydney Morning Herald
18 hours ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Found! Melbourne's best vanilla slice is at a suburban bakery in the north-west
There are three styles of croissants. The Uruguayan horn-shaped cuernito, made with a filo-like lard pastry, is sweet, flaky and sturdy. Plump, buttery, dense Argentinian croissants are made with honey and vanilla-laced dough – have them plain or stuffed with quince jam or custard. The classic French croissant stands up to Melbourne's best with its shatter-crisp shell and whorled interior. Meanwhile, the marraqueta is a Chilean yeasted white roll with a crunchy crust and soft centre. Formed in a long, pull-apart loop shape, it's like a hot dog roll given a schmick makeover, great for sandwiches and dunking into dips, soups or stews. They're baked all day, too – if you're hanging about at one of a handful of outside perches, you may see (and smell) them carried straight from the oven to the shelf. You must also try the empanadas. I love the beef version, with braised, paprika-spiced topside wrapped in lard pastry, along with the quirky and satisfying Chilean-style inclusions of one black olive, two sultanas, and a slice of boiled egg. In an effort to look after halal customers, Dulce will soon swap pork lard for beef – just one example of local community outweighing recipe lore. There's often a queue, and it can be intense when you get to the front of the line with so much to choose from, many items unknown in mainstream Melbourne baking, and staff not always equipped for a detailed rundown. If it helps, I've eaten most of the offerings and haven't struck any duds.

The Age
18 hours ago
- General
- The Age
Found! Melbourne's best vanilla slice is at a suburban bakery in the north-west
There are three styles of croissants. The Uruguayan horn-shaped cuernito, made with a filo-like lard pastry, is sweet, flaky and sturdy. Plump, buttery, dense Argentinian croissants are made with honey and vanilla-laced dough – have them plain or stuffed with quince jam or custard. The classic French croissant stands up to Melbourne's best with its shatter-crisp shell and whorled interior. Meanwhile, the marraqueta is a Chilean yeasted white roll with a crunchy crust and soft centre. Formed in a long, pull-apart loop shape, it's like a hot dog roll given a schmick makeover, great for sandwiches and dunking into dips, soups or stews. They're baked all day, too – if you're hanging about at one of a handful of outside perches, you may see (and smell) them carried straight from the oven to the shelf. You must also try the empanadas. I love the beef version, with braised, paprika-spiced topside wrapped in lard pastry, along with the quirky and satisfying Chilean-style inclusions of one black olive, two sultanas, and a slice of boiled egg. In an effort to look after halal customers, Dulce will soon swap pork lard for beef – just one example of local community outweighing recipe lore. There's often a queue, and it can be intense when you get to the front of the line with so much to choose from, many items unknown in mainstream Melbourne baking, and staff not always equipped for a detailed rundown. If it helps, I've eaten most of the offerings and haven't struck any duds.


Los Angeles Times
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
The ICE raids show what state-sponsored terror looks like
A photograph of a paletero cart abandoned on a quiet neighborhood sidewalk has popped up repeatedly on my social media feed since Monday. The cart belongs to Ambrocio 'Enrique' Lozano, an undocumented immigrant who sold ice cream in Culver City for nearly two decades before he was detained and placed inside an unmarked vehicle by masked federal agents, part of the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that have targeted Southern California. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 1,618 immigrants were arrested in the region from June 6 to Sunday. Lozano was going about his business one moment, and was vanished the next — his ice cream cart serving as the only evidence that he was there in the first place. KTLA reported that his family did not know of his whereabouts until Wednesday night. This haunting image has become emblematic of the climate of fear created by the Trump administration and its hardline immigration policies. All pretense that ICE is targeting immigrants with criminal records has gone out the window. Nowadays, the directive is to snatch anyone they can wherever they may be. And they're doing so with impunity. 'If they point a gun or take someone in, local police cannot step in and interfere regardless of the circumstances,' Ed Obayashi, a use-of-force expert, recently told The Times. 'If Homeland Security says this is what we want, the policy guidelines when it comes to gun and force doesn't matter.' In recent weeks, we've witnessed masked federal agents violently beat an immigrant father of three U.S. Marines. We've seen them arrest U.S. citizens and question individuals about where they were born, all without warrants. In Pasadena, a federal agent was caught on video jumping out of his car at an intersection and pulling a gun at someone who was trying to take a picture of his car's license plate. They've targeted churches and courthouses. If you're wondering what state-sanctioned terror looks like, this is it. Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet would be so proud. 'It is an attack, not just on our immigrant community, but [on] people of color,' L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis recently said in an interview. 'I know there are many people, including folks I'm associated with, friends, colleagues, who have families who are mixed status, and people are petrified to even show up to work, to send their kids to school. And this is harming our economy.' It's also hard to ignore where many of the ICE raids have taken place — Boyle Heights, Bell, Huntington Park — the common denominator being that they're all areas with large Latino populations. 'It's quite revealing that no one from Ukraine, no one from Russia is being detained and deported — and they shouldn't be. They also came here fleeing war and seeking opportunity,' Martin Chairez, a minister at a church in Santa Ana, recently told my colleague Brittny Mejia. 'I think it's revealing that people from Central and South America are being targeted but people from Europe are not. And again, they shouldn't be, but neither should the people from South and Central America.' For its part, the Department of Homeland Security has denied that its agents are targeting people based on their skin color. But that hasn't stopped Latinos from feeling like they're communities are being singled out. 'You're scared to be brown,' said Jackie Ramirez, a Los Angeles radio host for 'The Cruz Show' on Real 92.3. 'You're scared to look a certain way right now.' Over the last week, Diego Luna has been moonlighting as late night guest host for 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' The Mexican actor, who most recently portrayed Cassian Andor in the critically acclaimed (and very Latino-coded) 'Star Wars' series 'Andor,' used Monday's monologue to deliver a full-throated defense of L.A.'s immigrant community in the wake of the ongoing ICE raids. 'Earlier this year when L.A. burned — immigrant workers risked their lives to stop the flames,' Luna said. 'They're the ones who build this country, they feed it, they nurture and teach its children, they care for the elderly, they work in construction and hospitality, they run kitchens.' During his powerful speech, Luna also highlighted the contributions of immigrants that go beyond their labor. 'All the people that I met shared an unspoken gratitude to this country, a country that opened its doors to them. And the most beautiful thing of all, is that all these immigrants brought their stories with them, they brought their loyalties, their love and their traditions, always with the openness to adopt new ones, to grow and to complement each other in this vast cultural exchange,' he added. You can watch the whole 12-minute segment here. It is very much worth your time. Samuel Brown-Vazquez and the Avocado Heights Vaqueros led demonstrators from Avocado Heights to La Puente city hall in support of immigrant's rights on Father's Day (June 15). LAPD says it didn't help ICE during downtown L.A. raid; immigration rights groups disagree Immigrant rights activists are denouncing the Los Angeles Police Department after officers were videotaped separating an angry crowd from a group of masked federal agents as they loaded a woman into the back of an SUV. L.A. immigration raids force the undocumented to trade their freedom for safety Afraid to leave their homes, some immigrants are digitizing major aspects of their lives while others attempt to go off-grid. These L.A. immigrants keep coming to work, risking arrest, family separation. 'We're easy targets' Every day, thousands of street vendors set up shop on a piece of pavement in Los Angeles and beyond to make a living and create a path out of poverty or to have their own bricks-and-mortar one day. But the immigration raids that are taking place across the city have brought economic hardship, forcing vendors who are illegally in the country to choose between staying home safely or risking deportation to provide for themselves and their families. Mother of 6-year-old L.A. boy battling leukemia files lawsuit to stop immediate deportation A Honduran woman filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of her and her family's detention at a Texas facility. She is also asking for a preliminary injunction that would prevent her family's immediate deportation to Honduras as her 6-year-old son battles acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 'We are not alone!' San Gabriel Valley residents gather at candlelight vigil to protest ICE raids The vigil was held by LA Voice, a multi-faith activist organization that said it wants to connect and mobilize San Gabriel Valley towns to stand together against ICE raids. Asian American leaders urge their communities to stand by Latinos, denounce ICE raids Asian American leaders on Thursday rallied their communities to speak out against the federal immigration sweeps that have largely targeted Latino neighborhoods, warning that areas frequented by Asian immigrants could be next. Column: What an L.A. County politician meant when she hit up 'cholos' to fight ICE Her delivery was terrible, but the message stands, to gang members and really to anyone else who hasn't yet stood up for immigrants: if not now, when? If not you, who? Column by Gustavo Arellano. What is the state of Latin music today? These hitmakers have ideas A panel of Latin America's boldest and brightest stars, from Juanes to Mon Laferte, weigh in on a rapidly globalizing genre Cristina Saralegui returns to talk-show scene with wide-ranging Karol G interview Cristina Saralegui returned to the talk-show stage Monday for a sit-down interview with Karol G, which aired on Univision, following the release of her latest album, 'Tropicoqueta.' Want to learn more about the Latino immigrant experience? These 5 films capture the journey Films like 'El Norte' and 'Una Noche' highlight how the decision to migrate to the U.S. is not as simple as it might appear. Pedro Pascal wanted to quit acting. His community didn't let him. In an interview with Vanity Fair, the Chilean American actor gave credit to his friends, family and even his dog for his success. Camilo shares a healthy skepticism of AI in his new single 'Maldito ChatGPT' The Colombian singer urges listeners to trust their hearts over the supposed omniscience of artificial intelligence.