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MADURO, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made a surprise appearance in Havana Thursday at the inauguration of the Fidel Castro Ruz center, which preserves the late president’s writings, five years after his death. Maduro, who had not traveled to Cuba since December 2019, accompanied his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel at the ceremony, which was broadcast by state television. With them was Castro’s brother and former president Raul Castro. © Agence France-Presse
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Chile on Thursday announced it would start vaccinating children aged three and up against the coronavirus, after successfully innoculating around 90 percent of its initial target population. Children under the new rollout will receive the Chinese CoronaVac shot already used for kids aged six to 15, the Public Health Institute said. For 16 to 18-year-olds, Chile uses the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The decision to use different shots was based on studies with […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — A tremor measuring 4.6 hit the Ecuador capital Quito on Tuesday, rattling the city of 2.7 million people but without causing any major damage, authorities said. The epicenter of the quake was a few kilometers from the city center, at a depth of some 12 kilometers, according to the Geophysical Institute of Ecuador. Hospitals and other public buildings were evacuated, and workers rushed out of office buildings as alarms sounded, to […]
by Santiago PIEDRA SILVA GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador is “seriously threatened” by drug trafficking mafias who want to “take control of all the country’s prisons,” President Guillermo Lasso said Monday, after the heads of the armed forces and the prison service quit following jail riots that left 68 people dead. Lasso said a “massive operation” was underway by the police and the army in the overcrowded prison in Guayaquil, where two days of fighting […]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — A volcano that destroyed an entire town in Colombia with the death of some 25,000 people spewed ash and gas this weekend on the 36th anniversary of that devastating eruption. The Nevado del Ruiz volcano showed “noticeable” activity starting Saturday, the Colombian Geological Service said. The Nevado del Ruiz in western Colombia is one of the many volcanoes on the Ring of Fire, a path around the Pacific basin characterized by […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — A plane-spotting radar Ecuador started operating two weeks ago to curtail drug trafficking was hit by a non-deadly explosion Sunday, according to authorities who said a “terrorist” attack could not be ruled out. The country’s defense ministry said there were no casualties from the blast that knocked out the military radar, which had been installed in the west coast town of Montecristi. “For the moment, a possible terrorist attack cannot be […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — The International Criminal Court will investigate whether crimes against humanity were committed during Venezuela’s clampdown on anti-government protests in 2017, President Nicolas Maduro and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said Wednesday. After a preliminary evaluation, Khan “has decided to move on to the next phase to seek the truth,” the president said. “As a state, we respect his decision, although we do not share it.” “I ask everyone, as we enter this […]
MALLAMA, Colombia (AFP) — Ten people died after a mudslide caused by heavy rains in southwest Colombia engulfed a hotel Tuesday, rescuers said. Nine people were pulled out alive, two of them in serious condition. The mudslide happened in the early hours of the day in Mallama, a town of 7,000 close to the border with Ecuador. Eight of the dead were women, including some Venezuelans, Jader Gaviria, director of the national disaster management body […]
by Paola Lopez and Santiago Piedra Silva / Paula Lopez and Santiago Piedra Silva QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Indigenous and rural Ecuadorans blocked roads in several provinces Wednesday on the second day of protest against soaring fuel prices amid a countrywide state of emergency. On Tuesday, 37 people were arrested, and five police officers, a journalist and at least one demonstrator were injured in the largest protests since conservative President Guillermo Lasso took office in […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Attention beach-lovers seeking a break from the pandemic: Rio de Janeiro is lifting its Covid-19 mask requirement for outdoor areas effective from Thursday, the state’s governor said, as once-pandemic-battered Brazil advances quickly with vaccinations. “We are going to relax the requirement on wearing masks outdoors, which is cause for celebration,” Governor Claudio Castro wrote on Twitter. “More than a year and a half after the state of public emergency […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — An avalanche Sunday on a snow-capped Ecuadoran volcano killed at least four climbers and injured a fifth, officials reported. The avalanche struck a group of about a dozen mountaineers while at an altitude of 6,100 meters (20,000 feet) on the dormant Chimborazo volcano, Ecuador’s highest peak, in the central Andean region, the ECU911 security service said. “The existence of four dead people (and) one injury is confirmed,” the agency said, adding […]
by Luis Jaime CISNEROS Agence France Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru, which has the world’s highest Covid-19 death rate per capita, has surpassed 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus, the health ministry said on Friday. The ministry announced 25 new deaths over the previous 24 hours, taking the South American country over the symbolic threshold with 200.003 deaths since the pandemic started in March 2020. The Andean country of 33 million has also recorded […]
