Mira Galanova

A freelance investigative journalist covering human rights and security in Latin America

Children's home fire: 'The souls of our daughters are still there'

Vianney was determined to wrest Ashly from the hands of the gang. She told the police, and after they found Ashly, Vianney sent her to a state-run home for at-risk children so she would be far away from the boy and his gang. "She never told me what went on there," her mother Roxana Tojil recalls. "Once she said: 'I can't tell you anything, because they would beat me, lock me up in a dark room or leave me without food'." An investigation later revealed that the girls were not even allowed to le

Slovakia - the latest front in the alt-right EU infowars

On one side is the mainstream media, which presents itself as the defender of journalistic values against disinformation. On the other side, there are the so-called 'alternative media', which claim to fight against censorship. Migration has become their prime battleground, and refugees the victims. Slovakia has hardly felt the migration crisis that has affected Europe since 2015. There are only a few hundred refugees in the country. Still, many people feel uneasy about them. According to a 20

Cuba-US thaw sparks mixed media emotions

The media of Cuban exiles are suspicious of an agreement between the US and Cuba to end more than 50 years of hostility, while the Latin American press approve of the deal. In Cuba itself, however, official newspapers seem to give little importance to Wednesday's announcement. All attention on the island is focused on the release of three men from a US prison - spies according to Washington, heroes according to Havana. The men were members of the so-called "Cuban Five" group. The two other mem

The Skeleton in Chile’s Closet

On May 12, the Chilean Supreme Court upheld an 18-year-long prison sentence for Celestino Córdova, a Mapuche machi (shaman), for setting a house ablaze last year, killing an elderly couple. The case has sparked anger among his supporters since he was first sentenced by a lower court in late February. The couple, Werner Luchsinger and Vivian McKay, had been involved in a dispute with a local indigenous group over land they owned in Chile’s Araucanía region, an area historically inhabited by the M
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