Voting in Mexico’s regional elections got underway without major incidents, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Sunday (June 5). The regional elections pose a major test for the ruling party’s hopes of retaining the presidency in 2018 as discontent over corruption and violence fuels support for the anti-establishment message of a resurgent leftist firebrand. Voters were choosing new governors in a dozen of Mexico’s 31 states, including bastions of President Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary […]
South America
Rio inaugurates VLT tramway two months before Olympics
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes inaugurated a stretch of the city’s new tramway on Sunday (June 5), exactly two months ahead of the start of the Olympics Games. The Very Light Tramway, or VLT as the tram is known in Rio, was inaugurated in a carnival spirit, with a samba band entertaining as the system’s first passengers. Paes stressed, however, that the Olympics were more than just a celebration. “It is a legacy for the city. […]
Quick count shows Peru’s Kuczynski slightly ahead of Fujimori
Polling firm Ipsos said a quick count of 84.5 percent of sample ballots in Peru’s presidential election showed Pedro Pablo Kuczynski won 50.9 percent of votes compared to Keiko Fujimori’s 49.1 percent in Peru’s presidential election on Sunday (June 5). Polling company GfK said Kuczynski likely won 51.5 percent of votes and Fujimori 48.5 percent with 77 percent of sample ballots counted. Kuczynski waved to supporters gathered in Lima along with his wife Nancy Lange […]
Rio police hunt gang rape suspects
by Sebastian Smith RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Rio police arrested two men Monday and hunted four others in the alleged gang rape of an unconscious teenage girl that came to light in an online video that shocked Brazil. Globo television showed footage of heavily armed police in black uniforms outside a house in a favela in the west of Rio de Janeiro, which will host the Olympics in August. They were searching for […]
Fujimori says ready for presidency in final debate
by Luis Jaime CISNEROS LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru presidential hopeful Keiko Fujimori touted her political leadership skills Sunday in a final debate with center-right rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski one week before a runoff vote. Fujimori, 41, a right-wing populist with the Popular Force party, has 46 percent of public backing going into the June 5 vote, polling firm Ipsos found in a survey also published on Sunday. Her rival, 77 year-old center-right economist Kuczynski, […]
Tropical Storm Bonnie downgraded, but still causing trouble in Georgia
GEORGIA, United States (Reuters) — Stormy weather in the Southeast and Central United States subsided on Sunday (May 29) as Tropical Storm Bonnie was downgraded to a tropical depression, but still caused major flooding in parts of the south. In Bulloch County, Georgia, the Department of Transportation put up signs and warned residents not to drive in flooded areas. Bonnie came ashore just northeast of Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday morning, bringing heavy rains, minor […]
Student protesters tussle with guards at Chile presidential palace
Around 20 students protesting the Chilean government’s education policies were forcibly removed by guards from the presidential palace on Tuesday (May 24) after they had entered disguised as tourists. Wearing orange baseball caps and backpacks, the students walked in the front entrance of the Palacio de la Moneda in downtown Santiago, cameras in hand. Upon reaching the central patio, they unfurled a banner reading, “Take note: the offensive begins today.” Interior Minister, Jorge Burgos, said […]
Analysts see Brazil government’s new economic measures as a step forward but not enough
Brazil’s interim President Michel Temer said on Tuesday (May 24) he would seek a constitutional amendment to curb public spending as his government unveiled a raft of austerity measures to reduce a record fiscal deficit and regain investor confidence. Temer, a centrist who took over from leftist President Dilma Rousseff two weeks ago after she was suspended pending an impeachment trial, told congressional leaders that the amendment would limit growth in primary government spending before […]
Venezuela opposition courts international pressure on Maduro
CARACAS Venezuela (AFP) – by Maria Isabel Sanchez and Marc Burleigh Venezuela’s opposition leader met with foreign mediators in Caracas on Thursday in a bid to up the pressure for a recall referendum against embattled President Nicolas Maduro. The closed-door meeting between Henrique Capriles and former leaders of Spain and Panama came after Maduro threatened to strengthen a state of emergency imposed this week following anti-government protests. The demonstrations that took place in two dozen […]
Haitian president calls for patience amidst stalled election
Haiti’s President Joclerme Privert on Wednesday (May 18) called on the impoverished Caribbean nation to be patient amidst election deadlock amidst public frustrations over a stalled national vote. Haiti’s election was postponed in January after sometimes violent protests over allegations of fraud in the first round. An interim government has been running the country since the last president’s term ended in February. Political battles over the formation of the interim government has meant that temporary […]
One dead as aftershocks shake quake-weary Ecuador
by Santiago PIEDRA SILVA QUITO , Ecuador (AFP) — Two strong aftershocks killed one person and injured 85 Wednesday as they shook Ecuador a month after a devastating earthquake left some 700 dead, President Rafael Correa said. Terrified Ecuadorans poured into the streets after waking up in the middle of the night to a 6.8-magnitude earthquake, which hit as the country is struggling to clean up the devastation left by a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake on […]
Ecuador struck by 6.7 magnitude quake: USGS
QUITO , Ecuador (AFP) — A strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Moment magnitude scale struck Ecuador early Wednesday, one month after a devastating 7.8 magnitude quake that killed some 660 people, the US Geological Survey said. Ecuador’s national geological institute, which measured the quake at 6.8, said it struck at 2:57 am local time (0757 GMT) in the South American country’s western Manabi region. US geologists said there was no tsunami threat from the quake. […]
