Inside the Americas

In keeping with a campaign promise, President Trump has been inspecting prototypes for a wall he wants built along the US border with Mexico.

His visit to the site saw protests in both California and Mexico.

Funding and other plans for the final wall remain uncertain, but families and couples separated by the border say the prototypes add to their worries. Also, President Donald Trump has named CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the new US Secretary of State. Replacing Pompeo is Gina Haspel, who's set to be the agency's first female head. The changes come in the wake of Trump's unceremonious firing of Rex Tillerson via Twitter.

Meanwhile, fearing mass shootings, some US schools have turned to armoured equipment. A number of classrooms across the country are now being equipped with bulletproof gear.

And Cubans cast their votes last Sunday in a one-party vote, the last step before a new president is selected next month when 86-year-old Raul Castro steps down. It will be the first time since the 1959 revolution that the island will be led by someone whose last name is not Castro.

In Colombia, elections are fast approaching and for the first time ever, the vote will see members of the ex-guerrilla movement FARC run for Congress. The FARC rebels fought the government for over 50 years in a conflict that left more than 260,000 people dead. But a peace deal two years ago helped turn the FARC into a political party that now has dozens of former fighters running for office. Also, there were a lot of sad Parisian football fans as PSG got shut out of Europe's Champions League for the second year in a row. Some say the loss was due to the absence of star player Neymar, who watched the game from his home country of Brazil, where he's recovering from surgery for a broken toe. But the media frenzy over Neymar's stay in an ultra-modern clinic has got many Brazilians angry that the attention is focused on the wrong place - we tell you more.

Meanwhile, in the US, the revolving door spun again this week at the Trump administration. The turnover of Trump's staff has been higher than any White House in decades.The latest departure was that of top economic advisor Gary Cohn. He quit after Trump threatened new trade tariffs on imports of aluminium and steel.

And two years ago, the environmental activist Berta Caceres was killed in Honduras. She was murdered for taking a stance against the building of a hydraulic dam. On the very day of the second anniversary of her death, her alleged assassin was arrested.

Pupils and teachers in Florida have returned to their classrooms at their high school in Parkland, where 17 people lost their lives in a mass shooting on February 14. As students take their calls for tighter gun laws to the highest offices of power, the NRA's standing is slipping, with dozens of companies cutting ties with America's biggest gun lobby. Also, it's now ten years since we first heard of the concept of cryptocurrencies. Over this first decade, the craze has seen jobs created and new businesses set up. The Canadian province of Quebec is flying the flag when it comes to so-called cryptocurrency mining - our correspondents report.

Finally, the film industry continues to reel from the fallout of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. That barrage of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment from dozens of leading actresses has led to a change in attitudes and perspectives among those hoping to make a break on the silver screen.

Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of last week's Florida school shooting, has become a symbol. She is just one of many high school students forced into becoming an activist for gun control. Survivors of the Florida massacre have been particularly critical of US President Donald Trump's reaction to the attack. But that criticism seems to have hit a nerve. Trump has now thrown his support behind moves to ban devices like bump stocks. Meanwhile, last week, special counsel Robert Mueller made a surprise indictment in his wide-ranging Russia investigation, charging 13 Russian citizens with meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. And while Russian officials are dismissing the charges as nothing, several people who worked at the same St. Petersburg "troll factory" say they think the charges are well-founded.

And in Peru, a court has ordered former president Alberto Fujimori to stand trial for the killings of six farmers in 1992. That comes just a month after the former president was released from prison. He was serving a 25-year-sentence for human rights abuses but given a pardon on health grounds. The court now says that with this new case, the pardon doesn't apply.

This week we head to Mexico, where a new mobile phone co-op has transformed rural communities without any other network. It's up and running thanks to a legal triumph by indigenous activists which cracked the monopoly of Mexico's powerful phone magnates. That opened the door to new services which have slashed the cost of communication, as our team in Mexico reports. Next, we head to Canada with the sordid story of a serial killer in Toronto. The suspect is a landscape gardener who's been charged with the murder of five homosexual men. Dismembered remains of at least six bodies have been discovered since then. Investigators uncovered some of the human remains in potted plants and fear even more victims may be found.

And the mayor of Rio may have rained on the annual Carnival parade, but that hasn't kept some Samba lovers from fighting back. Our correspondents explain.

This week we head to the United States, where Donald Trump has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration. It's led to an increase in the number of arrests by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Immigrant families are leaving nothing to chance and continue to live in fear. Next, we head to Costa Rica, where Fabricio Alvarado has won the first round of the presidential election. The 43-year-old evangelical Christian singer shot to prominence after he denounced a court ruling calling on the country to give civil marriage rights to same-sex couples. The ruling party's candidate, meanwhile, supports gay marriage - making the run-off vote on April 1st a virtual referendum on the issue.

And if you're wondering why it's taken so long for Hollywood to bring black superheroes to life, the wait is finally over as Disney gets set to release its long-awaited Marvel action adventure "Black Panther". Film critics say director Ryan Coogler touches on deeper subjects like race while entertaining a mass audience.

As Venezuela's political and economic woes deepen, more and more residents are choosing to throw in the towel. Tens of thousands have already packed their bags to escape a humanitarian crisis that the Maduro government denies even exists. Many have headed over the border to Brazil. But that mass exodus is clogging up the asylum system and causing a headache for Venezuela's neighbour. Meanwhile, when he came to office a year ago, he said he was inheriting an America that was in the gutter. Twelve months on, Donald Trump says his administration has radically turned things around. In his first ever State of the Union address, the US president said he'd ushered in a "new American moment" in which things are booming. But his Democratic rivals say Trump's a bully, and that the White House is more chaotic than productive.

And finally, when Haiti makes the headlines, it's usually because of its chronic levels of poverty or because of natural disasters. But for this week's show, we've been to the island's jazz festival to offer you something a little more upbeat. The event is already making waves on the international music scene. Our team reports from the capital.

Since he came to office one year ago, US President Donald Trump has posted an average of seven messages on Twitter per day. It's a year that's been filled with not just tweets, but also outrageous live comments unlike any heard from a US president before. We take a look back at Trump's major tweets and blunders. Also this week, reports broke that former Trump strategist Steve Bannon had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury. That's the latest in the ongoing investigation into whether or not there was collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. And while the official investigation continues, regular Americans are also making their own case in hopes of ousting the 45th President of the United States.

Meanwhile, for his sixth trip to Latin America, Pope Francis is visiting Chile and Peru. It's a controversial trip, where members of the clergy are engulfed in a child sex scandal dating back decades. The Catholic Church's approval rating in Chile is just 36 percent, the lowest of any South American country.

Finally, we'll take you to a regular house on a regular street in California that turned out to be a place of horror. Authorities say parents David and Louise Turpin tortured and held captive their thirteen children, aged from two to 29 years old.

American TV star Oprah Winfrey won a prestigious lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. The first big awards show of the season was overshadowed by the recent protests against sexual harassment - and Oprah's acceptance speech has got many people begging her to run for president. Staying in the United States, the Trump administration has sparked anger by announcing plans to end the temporary protected status that allows 200,000 Salvadorans to live and work in the country. They could now face deportation. Protests have been held outside the White House against the decision.

Also, thousands of Mexicans saw their homes crumble into ruins last September after two earthquakes. Dozens of villages have been left to fend for themselves. Our Mexico team, Ximena Ampudia and Matthieu Comin, report on the innovative ways people there are trying to rebuild their homes.

And the annual Consumer Electronics Show has kicked off in Las Vegas. The CES is a mega tech fest of what's trending and heading our way. Our correspondent Loic Pialat gives us a tour of the show.

Canada is celebrating 150 years since the British North America Acts united the country as we know it today. But although Canada is internationally renowned for its multicultural model, the country’s indigenous community has a very different take on Canada's history. Today, the country’s 1.4 million aboriginal population is also more subject to poverty and violence. And as Canada becomes more and more diverse, some parts of the country are seeing a rise in hate groups. Our correspondents report.