Global Briefs: Presidential immunity in Belarus

Belarus

President Alexander Lukashenko, 69, has signed new legislation granting himself lifelong immunity from criminal prosecution. The law also prevents political opposition leaders in exile from filing as candidates. Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to Lithuania in 2020, called the new law a response to Lukashenko’s “fear of an inevitable future.” Lukashenko took office in 1994 and faced his first serious challenge in 2020. He is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally, and recent evidence showed Belarus helped deport children from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia. —Jenny Lind Schmitt

Mexico

State prosecutors determined that a group of farmers who killed 10 members of the Familia Michoacana cartel acted in self-­defense. Villagers from Texcapilla, a rural farming community, faced off with cartel members Dec. 8 after refusing to pay “protection fees” for their land. The fight took place on a soccer field in front of the local elementary school. The cartel members fired first. Armed with shotguns, machetes, and sickles, the farmers fought back, killing 10 gangsters and losing four of their own in a showdown locals dubbed the “football field massacre.” Among those killed was “el Payaso,” or the Clown, the local leader of the Michoacana cartel. But the ­cartel may have taken revenge already: 14 villagers, including four children, have disappeared since the battle. Three of the abducted adults are police officers, and one taken from a hospital suffered injuries in the initial battle. —Elizabeth Russell

Sweden

Temperatures plummeted to minus 46 degrees Fahrenheit in early January, the country’s coldest on record in 25 years. Heavy snowfall closed bridges and schools and interrupted transportation. At least 1,000 stranded drivers had to be rescued, some waiting 20 hours to be freed. The Siberian cold snap caused havoc as it spread across northern Europe. Moscow recorded minus 22 F, a temperature well below the January average, and an avalanche in Finland killed a boy and his mother. In Western Europe, the storm caused flooding in areas of Germany and France previously flooded in November and December. —Amy Lewis

Uruguay

Lawmakers passed a bill allowing criminals over 65 to be released into house arrest. That angered organizations seeking justice for crimes committed by the dictatorship that ruled the country in the 1970s and ’80s. Under the ­proposed law, military officers found guilty of human rights abuses during the dictatorship would be ­eligible to serve out sentences at home. From 1973 to 1985, 197 ­people disappeared and the military regime tortured thousands more, but only 28 people have been convicted of dictatorship-era crimes. Patricia López, a spokeswoman for the Association of Mothers and Relatives of Uruguayan Disappeared Persons, called the law “morally unacceptable.” It must still pass the lower house of congress. —Jenny Lind Schmitt

Bangladesh

A judge sentenced 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus to six months in prison on Jan. 1 for allegedly violating labor laws. Since 1983, millions have credited Yunus’ microloans with helping them escape poverty. But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed sees Yunus as a threat: Her political party filed 199 cases against him after he planned to start a party aimed at rooting out corruption. Global leaders and 100 Nobel laureates have expressed concern over his harassment. (Yunus is free on bail pending an appeal.) The ruling party, Awami League, arrested 10,000 opposition leaders and supporters two weeks before national elections on Jan. 7. The opposition party boycotted the vote, which gave Hasina her fourth straight win. —Amy Lewis

Zimbabwe

Rescuers on Jan. 7 helped 15 mine workers out of an underground shaft where they were trapped for four days. Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Mines and Mining Development said earth tremors likely caused the ground collapse that trapped them at the Redwing Mine. Unsanctioned subsistence miners have carried out operations at the mine since 2020. Zimbabwe has suffered several recent mining accidents, as residents in gold-rich areas work in unregulated mines without proper safety measures. Late in September, at least nine miners died after a shaft collapsed in the disused Bay Horse gold mine (below). —Onize Ohikere