South America

DeSantis White House launch derailed by glitches

By Frankie TAGGART WASHINGTON, May 25, 2023 (AFP) – Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s hotly-anticipated entry into the 2024 presidential campaign descended into a fiasco on Wednesday as the live Twitter event intended to announce his candidacy was all but derailed by glitches. The conversation repeatedly crashed as the platform’s servers were apparently overwhelmed, and many of the more than 400,000 users who were hoping to listen in missed the 44-year-old ultra-conservative throwing down the gauntlet […]

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Pupil started deadly Guyana dorm fire over confiscated phone

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AFP) — The weekend school dormitory blaze that killed 19 minors in central Guyana was started by a disgruntled pupil angry at having her mobile phone confiscated, a government source told AFP on Tuesday. An official police report confirmed that “a female student is suspected of having set the devastating fire because her cellular phone was taken away.” The official said the teenage pupil had admitted to the arson attack and was under […]

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19 dead in fire at Guyana schoolgirls’ dormitory

By Denis CHABROL Agence France-Presse GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AFP) — At least 19 youths were killed in a schoolgirls’ dormitory blaze in Guyana, officials said Monday, with anger growing in the tiny South American country over the tragedy. It is not yet known how the fire started Sunday in a dormitory housing girls aged 11-12 and 16-17, a person who helped the emergency services said under condition of anonymity. The building was gutted by the inferno. […]

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Paraguay confirms bird flu cases

ASUNCION, May 20, 2023 (AFP) – Cases of bird flu have been detected in backyard chickens in Paraguay, authorities said Saturday. The disease was found in the domesticated birds from the towns of Mariscal Estigarribia and Neuland in Mennonite farming areas, the National Animal Health and Quality Service (Senacsa) reported. The potential cause being investigated is chickens having contact with infected migratory birds, the office said. “The birds will be slaughtered to eliminate the source […]

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Colombia president retracts claim children found after plane crash

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AFP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday retracted his claim that four Indigenous children missing for more than two weeks after an airplane crash in the Amazon had been found alive. Writing on Twitter, Petro said he had deleted his tweet from Wednesday night in which he had announced the rescue of the four children, including an 11-month-old baby. “I am sorry for what happened. The military forces and Indigenous communities will […]

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Facing impeachment, Ecuador’s president dissolves congress

By Paola LOPEZ, Santiago PIEDRA SILVA Agence France-Presse QUITO, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso issued a decree on Wednesday dissolving the legislature as he fought for his political future following impeachment proceedings in parliament over alleged corruption. The decree released abruptly by the unpopular conservative president’s office states that Lasso is dissolving the opposition-led National Assembly “due to a grave political crisis and national commotion.” In dissolving congress, Lasso called on […]

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Four children found alive in Amazon after plane crash

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AFP) – Four Indigenous children missing for more than two weeks after a plane crash in the Colombian Amazon have been found alive, President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday, declaring “joy for the country.” Petro shared the news on Twitter, saying the children were discovered after “arduous search efforts” by the military. Authorities had deployed more than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs to search for the minors who were traveling in an airplane that […]

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Bolsonaro questioned by Brazil police in vaccination forgery case

BRASÍLIA, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro spoke to police for several hours Tuesday as part of an investigation into the alleged forgery of Covid-19 vaccination certificates for himself and his inner circle. Bolsonaro, whose house was raided as part of the same investigation earlier this month, arrived at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia around 1:40 pm (1640 GMT) in a car with tinted windows, and left four hours later […]

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Argentina ramps interest rate to 97% as inflation soars

  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Argentina’s central bank hiked its base interest rate Monday by six points to 97 percent as the government prepares to announce a spate of measures to tackle soaring inflation ahead of October’s general election. It is the second time in less than a month that the bank has ramped up interest rates as year-on-year inflation hit almost 109 percent in April. In a statement the central bank said the […]

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Argentina annual inflation exceeds 108 percent in April

BUENOS AIRES, May 12, 2023 (AFP) – Inflation in Argentina reached 108.8 percent in the 12 months to April, a more than three decade high, the Indec national statistics institute said Friday. Month-on-month, inflation in April was 8.4 percent in Latin America’s third largest economy. Argentina has one of the highest inflation rates in the world. In 2022, it reached 94.8 percent, the country’s highest annual figure since 1991, when it exceeded 171 percent. The […]

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At least 27 dead in Peru gold mine fire tragedy

YANAQUIHUA, Peru (AFP) — At least 27 workers have died in a fire at a gold mine in a remote area of southern Peru, authorities said Sunday, making it one of the worst mining tragedies in the South American country’s recent history. Grief-stricken relatives gathered near the mine looking for news of their loved ones. “Where are you darling, where are you?” cried Marcelina Aguirre Quispe, whose husband was among the victims. “We know there […]

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Colombia urges evacuation near volcano

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AFP) Authorities in Colombia on Saturday recommended that towns closest to a rumbling, notorious volcano be evacuated, ahead of a a possible eruption. The Disaster Risk Management Office said it was moving to evacuate communities that are located within 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the main crater of three that make up the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in the Colombian Andes. Seismic activity has increased at the volcano, which killed 25,000 people in […]

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