The number of child migrants who crossed the treacherous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama has spiked, the United Nations Children's Fund said Friday. UNICEF said that in May 2021, 500 children were detected crossing on the jungle trail. But in May 2022, that number had risen to 2,000.

The fund estimates that about 5,000 children have crossed the Darien Gap so far this year.

Plagued by wild animals, swollen rivers, rough terrain and thieves, the gap claims many lives each year. The overall number of migrants crossing the land bridge between South and North America doubled.

The overall number of migrants crossing the land bridge between South and North America doubled, with about 32,000 crossing so far this year, compared to 16,000 in 2021.

Officials said 46 people have been found dead and 16 others were taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses after a tractor-trailer rig containing suspected migrants was found Monday on a remote back road in southwest San Antonio.

Police Chief William McManus said a city worker at the scene was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6 p.m. Monday.

Officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer. Fire Chief Charles Hood said 12 of those taken to hospitals were adults and four were children. He said they were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer.

"The patients that we saw were hot to the touch," Hood said. "They were suffering, from heat stroke, heat, exhaustion, no signs of water in the vehicle. It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no, visible working AC unit on that rig"

An official had originally spoken on condition of anonymity because the information had not been authorized for public release. It may be the deadliest tragedy among thousands who have died attempting to cross the U.S. border from Mexico in recent decades.

Heat poses a serious danger, particularly when temperatures can rise severely inside vehicles. Weather in the San Antonio area was mostly cloudy on Monday, but temperatures approached 100 degrees.

Authorities said in a press conference that the incident is now under a federal investigation. Law enforcement said that at least 3 people were taken into custody, but they were not named as suspects in the matter. Police said that at least 16 of the patients were suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion and were conscious when they were taken to various local hospitals.

A dispute over a gender-neutral bathroom has endangered Peru's plan to host the next gathering of the Organization of American States' top decision-making body.

Peru's congress is dominated by social conservatives, and it has voted to deny authorization for the scheduled Oct. 5-7 OAS General Assembly. It is supposed to bring together foreign ministers from across the hemisphere under the theme: "Together against inequality and discrimination."

The OAS had requested at least one gender-neutral bathroom be available. Peru's Foreign Minister César Landa issued an appeal on Twitter Friday urging lawmakers to reconsider. He said the action "seriously damages the international image of Peru."

“If they want to go to the bathroom here, they will go the bathroom that corresponds to their sex as it is: woman and man,” said Tania Ramírez, a Popular Front legislator.

The controversy struck gay lawmaker Susel Paredes as “a complete absurdity.” A gender-neutral bathroom is just “another bathroom that has a toilet, nothing more.”

Every week, hundreds of migrants make the dangerous journey from Latin America to the U.S. border. The journey is even more concerning for a group of children.

“The stories are all the same, their parents send them north because they want them to survive," said Margo Cowan with Keep Tucson Together. "Whether it’s starvation or the horrific violence in their countries of origin.”

Cowan frequently works with unaccompanied minors to prevent deportation.

“There are legal mechanisms that allow people to present themselves at the border and apply for asylum, and it shouldn’t be a hostile environment,” Cowan said.

Latin American families are making use of this legal process. Last week, the Tucson Sector of Border Patrol processed around 107 unaccompanied migrant children.

“Smuggling organizations will bring these people and children, sometimes toddlers to these places in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere,” said Jesus Vasavilbaso, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent.

An agent at the Tucson sector says they don't usually deal with children migrants. Around 85% of migrants encountered at the tucson sector are adults that have to be tracked down and apprehended. Recent groups of children came from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, led by smugglers to turn themselves in to Border Patrol.

“The smuggling organizations sell this to the migrants saying that when you show up to the border, you just turn yourself in to Border Patrol, and they just let you in,” Vasavilbaso said.

But that’s not always how it works. The Tucson sector did a medical exam on each child then sent them to either health and human services or the office of refugee resettlement. Now those children have been sent to family members, child protective services, or back home.

This story was originally published by KGUN in Tucson, Arizona.

LONDON (AP) — In the Putumayo region of the Colombian Amazon, Segundo Meneses' daily routine took him to the Chufiya river, its banks verdant and waters alive with catfish and piranha. On one morning seven years ago, he noticed a dark film lapping the shore. Where the river turned a bend, it turned to black. It was an oil slick that he says went on to sicken his young family and poison their cows and pigs.

The British law firm Leigh Day is now suing Amerisur, the oil company operating in the region, on behalf of 171 Putumayo farmers, including Meneses. That spill was not the only complication with this particular oil operation. Nearby Siona Indigenous people say they reject the oil pumping and will fight it. This region is also awash in coca production and former rebel groups dispute drug territory, sometimes disrupting the flow of oil. Then there are reports by United Nations rapporteurs and an interfaith non-profit group that say the oil company, Amerisur Resources PLC, may have worked with rebels to pressure the Siona and local farmers to cease their opposition in order to keep oil flowing.

Yet none of this seemed to deter an $900 million oil and gas firm based in Chile named GeoPark Ltd. from buying Amerisur two years ago. GeoPark successfully lined up banks to help it obtain the Putumayo oilfields, indicating that even with climate changes hitting wide areas of the globe, backing for the activities that cause it is still available. Demand for crude oil continues to rise, not fall, underscoring the lure for oil companies and banks to keep operating as they have for decades.

"If banks help finance a company like GeoPark, it seems there is nothing they will refuse to touch," said Maaike Beenes, banks and climate lead at the non-profit BankTrack, an environmental advocacy group based in the Netherlands. This deal, she said, raises numerous red flags because of Amerisur's legacy, "from doing business in a conflict zone to fossil fuel expansion in sensitive ecosystems of the Amazon, to a history of violations of Indigenous peoples' rights."

The way GeoPark bought all of British-based Amerisur in January 2020, absorbing the company and keeping its brand, is a window into how some banks support fossil fuel projects even when they appear to go against their own policies.

Citibank and Itaú Unibanco offered GeoPark a bridge loan. The company then looked to banks for help issuing $350 million worth of bonds to pay for the purchase, Bloomberg data and public statements show. Brazilian Itaú Unibanco and Citibank served as "bookrunners" on the bonds, and the Bank of New York Mellon agreed to facilitate payments on them. Bookrunners advertise bonds, coordinate orders and generally use their reputation to lend confidence on bond offers.

The deal enabled GeoPark to obtain Amerisur's main asset: 11 oilfields strung across the highly biodiverse Putumayo basin. They now comprise almost a third of GeoPark's hydrocarbon fields, the rest dotted across Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru.

The next year, in 2021, U.S. and European financial institutions helped GeoPark restructure its debt, making more money available to the company. Bank of America, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan advised on issuing another $150 million in bonds, GeoPark press releases show.

Even being the client of such important banks lent GeoPark credibility, said former bond trader Jo Richardson of the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute, who analyzed data and documents from the deal.

A SULLIED RIVER

In a filing with the British High Court, Segundo Meneses called the Chufiya river "an important source of food for my family and the whole community."

But the river was changed by events that day. According to court documents, an armed group attacked five Amerisur oil tanker trucks and forced the drivers to empty their loads of crude oil into a wetland, where it flowed into the Agua Negra tributary, and from there into the Chufiya and beyond.

For the Colombian oil industry, rebel attacks on oil infrastructure have been a plague for decades. But the farmers argue this attack was foreseeable, given ongoing conflict in the area. For a long time afterwards, the cassava and plantain farmers say, their water was contaminated.

Fishing became impossible, said Meneses, the edible fish gone.

"I caught a 15-kilo fish (33 lbs.) and it tasted like oil, and I couldn't eat it," he said in an affidavit.

In the dry season, the family had no choice but to drink from and wash in the river, which gave them diarrhea, rashes and stomach aches, he said.

"For us water is life," Meneses continued. "Maybe I will die tomorrow but my children will still live here and I do not want them to live in an area with such polluted water."

GeoPark's spokesperson said the company has caused no contamination, maintains the highest standards to protect the environment, and is committed to compensation for any negative impacts. Amerisur, now Amerisur Resources Ltd, cleaned up the spilled oil, the spokesperson said, and would defend itself in the courts. Regarding liability for past acts, she said, they are "questions of law and fact on a case-by-case basis."

OIL IN A CONFLICT ZONE

For critics, the Amerisur assets should never have found a buyer, or financing. There were numerous red flags for banks considering helping with this oil deal, they say. Months before the first bond issuance, the Siona of the Buenavista reservation told GeoPark in a public statement they would not allow oil production or "extractive operations in our territory." They said Amerisur had already tried to take their natural resources through "illegal and rigged action." The tribe said it would protect its territory from "grave risks due to toxic wastes," and "impacts on our spiritual practices."

Moira Birss, director for climate and finance at the non-profit advocacy group Amazon Watch said GeoPark is "running enormous political, legal, reputational, climate, and social risks."

Colombia's Constitutional Court recognizes the Siona as at risk of extermination. Also before the bond deal, a 2019 ruling found Amerisur left explosives on Siona land during seismic studies. The company was ordered to cease this activity. In a third, ongoing case, the Buenavista Siona, who say their lands are overlapped by two GeoPark oilfields, are seeking 52,000 hectares (128,000 acres) of disputed territory there to be added to their reservation.

GeoPark denied in an email it is working in the Siona reservation or the additional land sought by them. Relationships with Indigenous people are based on "dialogue, respect and building trust," the company said. The company says in 2021 it requested Colombia to cancel the concession to the oilfield the Siona say overlaps their land, and is waiting for this to happen.

PARAMILITARIES IN THE AREA

The Putumayo region is also a hotbed of coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking. Splinter groups of former FARC rebels fight each other for control of the trade. One faction, the Border Command, is listed with the U.S. Treasury Department as a terrorist organization. In December 2020, before the second bond deal, a respected Colombian human rights NGO's report made a strong claim. The Interfaith Justice and Peace Commission alleged the Border Command was collaborating with Amerisur to protect its oil operations.

Displaced farmers had told the commission they were ordered by the rebels not to oppose Amerisur's exploration, one rebel reportedly saying, "We have negotiated with the company and will assure the operation."

Five United Nations special rapporteurs for human rights also wrote to the chief of the U.N. Development Programme, Achim Steiner, warning: "Alleged links exist between the company (Amerisur) and the paramilitaries present in the area, which have been denounced by the Siona Peoples before the Constitutional Court."

The U.N. rapporteurs wrote: "Economic actors have allied with irregular armed actors to generate, within the Indigenous communities, acts of violence that ... displace the Indigenous people from their ancestral territories, thus clearing the way for ... these projects."

Colombian investigative news outlet Cuestión Pública, working with the news organization Mongabay, said two independent sources said paramilitaries had forced a farming community to attend meetings where they were ordered not to obstruct Amerisur and should accept any offers it makes. Two other independent sources confirmed an alliance between Amerisur and the rebel group, their report said.

And the Ombudsman's Office of Colombia, the country's human rights agency, published a risk alert on its website saying community complaints have been received about pressure exerted by "illegal armed actors" to allow oil extraction. Amerisur was not named in that alert. But the report did note Amerisur is the one of the two largest operators in the area of Putumayo.

GeoPark rejected any allegation of collaboration with Border Command as "100% false."

"GeoPark has never had any relationship with illegal armed groups and demands the same of its employees and the entire supply chain," a spokesperson said.

BANK SUPPORT

The backing by the banks buoyed GeoPark. In April 2021, James F. Park, then CEO, said in a press release the deal "demonstrates the support and credibility we have earned in international capital markets." This puts the company in a "stronger, more flexible, less risky and less costly position," he said.

Citibank, Itaú Unibanco, and the Bank of New York Mellon all said environmental issues were of great importance to them. BNY Mellon said it provided no direct financing or loans. Citibank and Itaú also emphasized they seriously consider social risks and conduct due diligence. Citi said it is strengthening these policies. JPMorgan said it reviews all sensitive deals with clients.

Bank of America and Credit Suisse declined to comment.

Meanwhile, in the rainforest, oil pumping continues. Meneses and his fellow farmers hope for a judgement before Christmas; British courts have ordered GeoPark to set aside 3.2 million pounds (U.S. $3.8 million) to pay if the farmers win.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP's climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday authorized including former president Jair Bolsonaro in its investigation of who incited the Jan. 8 riot in the nation's capital, as part of a broader crackdown to hold responsible parties to account.

According to the text of his ruling, Justice Alexandre de Moraes granted the request from the prosecutor-general's office, which cited a video Bolsonaro posted on Facebook two days after the riot. The video claimed Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wasn't voted into office, but rather was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil's electoral authority.

Prosecutors in the recently formed group to combat anti-democratic acts argued earlier Friday that, although Bolsonaro posted the video after the riot, its content was sufficient to justify investigating his conduct beforehand. Bolsonaro deleted it the morning after he first posted it.

Otherwise, Bolsonaro has refrained from commenting on the election since his Oct. 30 defeat. He repeatedly stoked doubt about the reliability of the electronic voting system in the run-up to the vote, filed a request afterward to annul millions of ballots cast using the machines and never conceded.

He has taken up residence in an Orlando suburb since leaving Brazil in late December and skipping the Jan. 1 swearing-in of his leftist successor, and some Democratic lawmakers have urged President Joe Biden to cancel his visa.

Following the justice's decision late Friday, neither Bolsonaro nor any of his three lawmaker sons had issued comment on social media.

Brazilian authorities are investigating who enabled Bolsonaro's radical supporters to storm the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace in an attempt to overturn results of the October election. Targets include those who summoned rioters to the capital or paid to transport them, and local security personnel who may have stood aside to let the mayhem occur.

Much of the attention thus far has focused on Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister, who became the federal district’s security chief on Jan. 2, and was in the U.S. on the day of the riot.

De Moraes ordered Torres’ arrest this week and has opened an investigation into his actions, which he characterized as “neglect and collusion.” In his decision, which was made public Friday, de Moraes said that Torres fired subordinates and left the country before the riot, an indication that he was deliberately laying the groundwork for the unrest.

The court also issued an arrest warrant for the former security chief, and he must return within three days or Brazil will request his extradition, Justice Minister Flávio Dino said Friday.

“If by next week his appearance hasn’t been confirmed, of course we will use mechanisms of international legal cooperation. We will trigger procedures next week to carry out his extradition,” Dino said.

Torres has denied wrongdoing, and said Jan. 10 on Twitter that he would interrupt his vacation to return to Brazil and present his defense. Three days later, that has yet to occur.

The minister pointed to a document that Brazilian federal police found upon searching Torres' home; a draft decree that would have seized control of Brazil's electoral authority and potentially overturned the election. The origin and authenticity of the unsigned document are unclear, and it remains unknown if Bolsonaro or his subordinates took any steps to implement the measure that would have been unconstitutional, according to analysts and the Brazilian academy of electoral and political law.

But the document “will figure in the police investigation, because it even more fully reveals the existence of a chain of people responsible for the criminal events,” Dino said, adding that Torres will need to inform police who drafted it.

By failing to initiate a probe against the document's author or report its existence, Torres at very could be charged with dereliction of duty, said Mario Sérgio Lima, a political analyst at Medley Advisors.

Torres said on Twitter that the document was probably found in a pile along with others intended for shredding, and that it was leaked out of context feed false narratives aimed at discrediting him.

Dino told reporters Friday morning that no connection has yet been established between the capital riot and Bolsonaro.

The federal district’s former governor and former military police chief are also targets of the Supreme Court investigation made public Friday. Both were removed from their positions after the riot.

Also on Friday night, the popular social media accounts of several prominent right-wing figures were suspended in Brazil in response to a court order, which journalist Glenn Greenwald obtained and detailed on a live social media broadcast.

The order, also issued by Justice de Moraes, was directed at six social media platforms and established a two-hour deadline to block the accounts or face fines. The accounts belong to a digital influencer, a YouTuber recently elected federal lawmaker, a podcast host in the mold of Joe Rogan, and an evangelical pastor and senator-elect, among others.

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AP writer Bridi reported from Brasilia.

GUATEMALA CITY —

With Kamala Harris visiting Guatemala and Mexico on her first foreign trip as vice president, the Biden administration is expected to announce new measures to fight smuggling and trafficking, and hopes to announce additional anti-corruption efforts as well on Monday, a senior administration official said.

The official, who briefed reporters traveling with Harris on Sunday, spoke on condition of anonymity to preview announcements before they have been made public. No further details were provided.

Harris has been tasked by President Joe Biden with addressing the root causes of the spike in migration to the U.S.-Mexico border, and her aides say corruption will be a central focus of her meetings with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday and Mexico's Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday.

"Corruption really does sap the the wealth of any country, and in Central America is at a scale where it is a large percentage of GDP across the region," said special envoy Ricardo Zuniga.

"We see corruption as one of the most important root causes to be dealt with," Zuniga added.

The trip got off to a rocky start when Harris' plane returned to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland about 30 minutes after takeoff because of what her spokesperson said was a problem with the landing gear. She departed on another plane and landed late Sunday in in Guatemala City, where she was met by Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo.

Harris is seeking to secure commitments from Guatemala and Mexico for greater cooperation on border security and economic investment, and aides say she will also discuss vaccine sharing during her meetings. But corruption in the region — a far more intractable challenge — will complicate her efforts.

It's already had a significant impact on her work in Central America. Harris has yet to engage substantively with the leaders of Honduras and El Salvador, who are both embroiled in corruption scandals.

Giammattei has faced criticism over corruption within his own government. Zuniga acknowledged that the U.S. government faces a challenge in working with him but argued Harris was in the country in part to have a direct conversation with the president about this and other issues.

"The best way to deal with these cases where you have a very complex relationship in a country like Guatemala is to talk clearly and plainly as partners, as countries that have to get along," he said.

Harris has laid out an approach centered on creating better opportunities and living conditions in the region through humanitarian and economic aid. She announced plans to send $310 million to provide support for refugees and address food shortages, and recently secured commitments from a dozen companies and organizations to invest in the Northern Triangle countries to promote economic opportunity and job training.

Washington won some goodwill through its vaccine diplomacy this past week. Giammattei and López Obrador both received calls from Harris on Thursday telling them the U.S. would be sending 500,000 doses and 1 million doses, respectively, of COVID-19 vaccine.

While in Guatemala, Harris also plans to meet community leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs. In Mexico, she will speak with female entrepreneurs and hold a roundtable with labor workers.

She's underscored the need to address corruption in public remarks and events. In a May meeting with a number of leading voices on Guatemala's justice system, she noted her work as a prosecutor and said that "injustice is a root cause of migration."

"Part of giving people hope is having a very specific commitment to rooting out corruption in the region," she said.

Harris has also raised the issue during virtual meetings with the leaders of both countries, and aides say she will do it again during meetings on her trip. During their past conversations, they have discussed areas of mutual interest — improving port security, fighting smuggling networks, going after corrupt actors — and the goal of this trip is to turn that talk into action, aides say.

While the vice president will make announcements concerning new efforts at cooperation and new programs, she's not expected to announce any new aid during her trip.

While in Latin America, Harris will also have to navigate the politics of immigration. Congressional Republicans have criticized both Biden and Harris for deciding not to visit the border, and contend the administration is ignoring what they say is a crisis there. April was the second-busiest month on record for unaccompanied children encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border, following March's all-time high. The Border Patrol's total encounters in April were up 3% from March, marking the highest level since April 2000.

Conservatives will be watching Harris closely for any missteps, hoping to drag her into further controversy on an issue that they see as a political winner.

In her efforts to win commitments on corruption from the region's leaders, Harris can point to a number of moves by the Biden administration last week.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the problem during his own recent trip to Central America. The White House issued a memo elevating foreign corruption to a major national security issue, and directed all federal agencies to prioritize it and modernize their foreign corruption-fighting tools.

Eric Olson, director of policy at the Seattle International Foundation, which works to promote good governance in Central America, said that addressing corruption will take particular diplomatic skill. Harris will need to hold the leaders of Guatemala and Mexico accountable while also deepening trust and cooperation with the two nations.

"The challenge that she faces is how to, on the one hand, have a conversation, keep the door open — while not seeming to ignore the obvious elephant in the room, which is this incredible penetration of the state by corrupt actors," he said.

In Mexico, López Obrador continues to face a complicated security situation in many parts of the country. Nearly three-dozen candidates or pre-candidates were killed before this weekend’s midterm elections as drug cartels sought to protect their interests. The government’s inability to provide security in parts of the country is of interest to the U.S. in an immigration context, both for the people who are displaced by violence and the impact it has on a severely weakened economy trying reemerge from the pandemic.

The number of Mexicans encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection rose steadily from December through April. Mexico remains a key U.S. ally in trying to slow immigration, not only of its own citizens, but those crossing its territory. Successive U.S. administrations have effectively tried to push their immigration enforcement goals south to Mexico and Guatemala.

Nongovernmental organizations placed Guatemala's widespread corruption at the top of their list of concerns before Harris' visit.

Last month, two lawyers who are outspoken critics of Giammattei's administration were arrested on what they say were trumped-up charges aimed at silencing them.

The selection of judges for Guatemala's Constitutional Court, its highest, was mired in influence peddling and alleged corruption. Giammattei picked his chief of staff to fill one of the five vacancies. When Gloria Porras, a respected force against corruption, was elected to a second term, the congress controlled by Giammattei's party refused to seat her.

Harris' visit comes with high expectations, but experts say clear progress on corruption may be elusive.

"These are societies built on corruption," said Olson. "You're not gonna have an impact in six months."

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Sherman reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City contributed to this report.