Tag Archives: South America

Axios reports: LATAM Airlines Group SA said in a statement early Tuesday the firm and its affiliates in in the United States, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Why it matters: Latam is Latin America’s largest airline and its shareholders include Delta Air Lines. CEO Roberto Alvo noted in the statement …

Reuters reports: Brazil’s daily coronavirus deaths were higher than fatalities in the United States for the first time over the last 24 hours, according to the country’s Health Ministry. Brazil registered 807 deaths over the last 24 hours, whereas 620 died in the United States. Brazil has the second worst outbreak in the world, with 374,898 cases, behind the U.S. …

The Washington Post reports: World Health Organization officials declared Friday that South America is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, citing the rapid rise in cases in Brazil but in a slew of other countries across the region. The disease has been gaining momentum ion the continent for several weeks, but in recent days the number of cases has …

The Associated Press reports: Catholic bishops from across the Amazon called Saturday for the ordination of married men as priests to address the clergy shortage in the region, an historic proposal that would upend centuries of Roman Catholic tradition. The majority of 180 bishops from nine Amazonian countries also called for the Vatican to reopen a debate on ordaining women …

CNN reports: CNN has been taken off the air in Venezuela by the government. DirecTV, Net Uno, Intercable, and Telefónica all received orders from Venezuela’s government regulator Conatel to block CNN. CNN en Español was blocked in Venezuela in 2017. CNN obtained a video that appears to show the exact moment it was taken off the air by the Venezuela …

The Associated Press reports: Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido [photo] has taken to the streets with detained activist Leopoldo Lopez and a small contingent of heavily armed soldiers in a military uprising. “This is the moment of all Venezuelans, those in uniform and those who aren’t,” said Lopez in his first public appearance since being detained in 2014 for leading …

Reuters reports: Peru’s former president Alan Garcia shot himself in the head early on Wednesday after police arrived at his home to arrest him in connection with a bribery investigation, the interior ministry said. Garcia, 69, underwent emergency surgery at the Casimiro Ulloa hospital and suffered three cardiac arrests, Health Minister Zulema Tomas said in broadcast comments. Garcia was one …

Bloomberg reports: A second blackout in less than a week occurred in Venezuela on Wednesday, leaving the vast majority of the country’s residents without internet connections or other electrical needs. A graph tracking disruptions to the country’s internet connectivity by NetBlocks.org showed about 91 percent of the country offline just before 6:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday, the worst outage the …

ABC News reports: The U.S. is withdrawing its remaining diplomatic personnel from the embassy in Venezuela, citing the “deteriorating situation” given days of blackouts, increased water shortages, and the threat of further protests. The decision also comes amid growing concern that American diplomats could become a pawn in the battle with President Nicolas Maduro as the U.S. tries to push …

Reuters reports: Furious Venezuelans lined up to buy water and fuel on Sunday as the country endured a fourth day of a nationwide blackout that has left already-scarce food rotting in shops, homes suffering for lack of water and cell phones without reception. Authorities have managed to provide only patchy access to power since the outage began on Thursday in …

The Associated Press reports: Venezuela’s National Guard fired tear gas on residents clearing a barricaded border bridge to Colombia on Saturday, as the opposition began making good on its high-risk plan to deliver humanitarian aid to Venezuela despite objections from President Nicolas Maduro. By midday, opposition leader Juan Guaido pulled himself onto a semi-truck and shook hands with its driver …

The Associated Press reports: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro is ordering the border with Brazil closed as opposition leaders plan to bring in foreign humanitarian aid from neighboring nations. Maduro said on state television Thursday he’s also considering a closure of Venezuela’s border with Colombia. Opposition leaders say they plan to mount caravans to bring aid into Venezuela from Colombia and …

Reuters reports: The United States is holding direct communications with members of Venezuela’s military urging them to abandon leader Nicolas Maduro and is also preparing new sanctions aimed at increasing pressure on him, a senior White House official said. The Trump administration expects further military defections from Maduro’s side, the official told Reuters in an interview, despite only a few …

Reuters reports: U.S. President Donald Trump said that sending the military to Venezuela was “an option” and that he had turned down President Nicolás Maduro’s request for a meeting. “Certainly it’s something that’s on the – it’s an option,” Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday on the CBS “Face the Nation” program. “Well he has requested a meeting …

The Associated Press reports: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro is giving American diplomats 72 hours to abandon the country after breaking diplomatic relations with the U.S. over its decision to recognize an opposition leader as interim president. “Before the people and nations of the world, and as constitutional president…..I’ve decided to break diplomatic and political relations with the imperialist U.S. government,” …

Reuters reports: Brazil’s newly inaugurated President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday his election had freed the country from “socialism and political correctness,” and he vowed to tackle corruption, crime and economic mismanagement in Latin America’s largest nation. Bolsonaro, a former army captain turned lawmaker who openly admires Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, promised in his first remarks as president to adhere …

The Guardian reports: Jair Bolsonaro has been elected as the next president of Brazil, winning 55.1% of the vote in the second-round vote between himself and PT candidate Fernando Haddad. The far-right candidate was leading in the polls after he fell just short of achieving a majority in the first round of voting three weeks ago. His win on Sunday …

The New York Times reports: A far-right candidate who has spoken fondly of Brazil’s onetime military dictatorship came close to an outright victory in the country’s presidential election on Sunday, as Brazilians expressed disgust with politics as usual and endorsed an iron-fisted approach to fighting crime and corruption. Voters delivered a first-round victory to Jair Bolsonaro, who had stunned the …

The BBC reports: Officials in Brazil have blamed lack of funding for a huge fire that has ravaged the country’s National Museum. One of the largest anthropology and natural history collections in the Americas was almost totally destroyed in Sunday’s fire in Rio de Janeiro. There had been complaints about the dilapidated state of the museum. “We never had adequate …

The Guardian reports: Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has survived an apparent assassination attempt after what officials described as drones armed with explosives detonated overhead during a speech he was making at a military event. The drones, according to officials, were flown towards Maduro as he addressed soldiers in Caracas on Saturday. Mid-speech, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up …