South America

Rival demos fill Venezuela streets in test of power

  CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) – by Maria Isabel SANCHEZ Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators crowded the streets of volatile Venezuela Thursday in a test of strength between its government and opponents seeking a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro. Police deployed in their hundreds to keep apart anti-government protesters angry at food and medicine shortages from Maduro’s supporters who vowed to defend his “socialist revolution.” Demonstrators dressed in white marched in the east of the capital, […]

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Brazil’s Senate removes President Dilma Rousseff from office

  (REUTERS)   Brazil’s Senate removed leftist President Dilma Rousseff from office on Wednesday for breaking budgetary laws, in an impeachment process that has polarized the Latin American country and paralyzed its politics for nine months. Senators voted 61-20 to convict Rousseff for illegally using money from state banks to boost public spending. Her conservative former Vice President Michel Temer, who has run the country since her suspension in May, will be sworn to serve out […]

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Strong 6.9 quake strikes in mid-Atlantic: USGS

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A strong 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck north of Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic early Monday, the US Geological Survey said, though there were no immediate reports of damage. The shallow quake struck at the equator north of the remote islands at 0429 GMT, with no people likely to have been affected by shaking, USGS said. The National Weather Service Tsunami Warning Center said a damaging tsunami was not expected. © 1994-2016 […]

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Bolivian government confirms beating death of deputy interior minister by miners

PANDURO, Bolivia (Reuters) — The Bolivian government confirmed on Thursday (August 25) that Bolivian Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes was beaten to death by striking mineworkers after being kidnapped. “Everything indicates that our Vice Minister of the Interior, Rodolfo Illanes, was killed in a cowardly and brutal way. We are organizing to receive the body. We are deeply pained. We pray for the pain of the family,” said Government Minister Carlos Romero on state television. […]

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Colombia announces historic peace deal

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) – by Hector Velasco Colombia’s government and FARC rebels announced Wednesday that they have reached a historic peace accord to end their half-century civil war, the last major armed conflict in the Americas. After nearly four years of peace talks in Cuba, the two sides said they have successfully concluded negotiations and reached a final deal. “The Colombian government and the FARC announce that we have reached a final, full and definitive […]

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Venezuela to sack officials who backed Maduro recall

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) – Venezuelan civil servants who signed a petition for a referendum on removing President Nicolas Maduro from power must be sacked within 48 hours, a top aide to the president said. Five ministries have been given lists of employees in managerial posts who signed the petition in favor of a recall vote against Maduro, said Jorge Rodriguez, the embattled leftist leader’s designated aide to monitor the opposition’s referendum drive. “They have 48 […]

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Fireworks light up the sky at Olympics closing ceremony

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) — A blustery storm, a touch of melancholy and a sense of pride converged at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Olympics on Sunday (August 21) as Brazil breathed a collective sigh of relief at having pulled off South America’s first Games. Fireworks marked key moments during the evening and brought an end to over two weeks of sporting action. It was far from a perfect execution by Brazil, which […]

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Colombia urges UN to supervise ceasefire with rebels

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – Bogota pushed Friday for the United Nations to supervise Colombia’s ceasefire with the FARC rebels, even before the country votes on a peace deal to end the long-running civil war. The government and the country’s biggest rebel force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), laid the groundwork for a full peace deal when they signed a definitive ceasefire in June. That deal will be followed by a full peace accord only […]

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Haiti cholera victims welcome UN recognizing role in outbreak

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) – by Amelie BARON The United Nations’ belated acknowledgement it played a role in a cholera epidemic in Haiti that has killed nearly 10,000 people was hailed by victims’ advocates Thursday as vindication of their efforts to hold the world body accountable. The epidemic broke out in 2010 in the vicinity of a base housing UN peacekeepers, in an impoverished Caribbean country that previously had been considered cholera-free. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s […]

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Shallow 5.3 quake in southern Peru kills at least four

  (REUTERS)  A 5.3 magnitude shallow earthquake killed at least four people, including a U.S. tourist, and injured dozens when it rocked a copper-producing region popular with trekkers late on Sunday, authorities said. The quake struck just 8 kilometers (5 miles) deep in the Caylloma province of the Andean region Arequipa and at least five aftershocks shook the region anew on Monday, the Geophysical Institute of Peru said. The USGS reported the earthquake as having […]

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Ryan Lochte says gun held to head in taxi hold-up

  (Reuters) Armed robbers posing as police officers held a gun to the forehead of U.S. gold medalist swimmer Ryan Lochte in a taxi hold-up in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, feeding concern over safety at the first Olympic Games in South America. Lochte was returning to the Athletes’ Village from a party hosted by the French Games delegation, with swimming team mates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen, when armed men carrying police […]

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U.S. declares state of emergency in Puerto Rico over Zika

  CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services on Friday declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico because of the widespread transmission of the Zika virus, which poses a “significant threat” to public health. The statement came at the request of Alejandro García Padilla, governor of the U.S. commonwealth, where the Zika virus is spreading rapidly, threatening hundreds of pregnant women and their unborn babies and women of childbearing age. […]

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