South America

Sao Paulo to launch vaccination campaign in January: governor

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Sao Paulo state, Latin America’s coronavirus epicenter, will launch a Covid-19 vaccination campaign in January, the governor said Monday, though a political battle with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro could derail those plans. Governor Joao Doria said large-scale immunization using Chinese-developed vaccine CoronaVac would begin with health care workers, the elderly and other vulnerable groups on January 25. “The target public for this initial phase was chosen based on the incidence […]

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Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon surges to 12-year high

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged again over the past year, hitting a 12-year high, according to official figures released Monday that drew a chorus of condemnation of President Jair Bolsonaro’s government. A total of 11,088 square kilometers (4,281 square miles) of forest was destroyed in Brazil’s share of the world’s biggest rainforest in the 12 months to August, according to the Brazilian space agency’s PRODES monitoring program, which analyzes […]

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In Brazil, Pfizer begins process to register Covid-19 vaccine

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Pfizer gave the office of Brazil’s health regulators results of the tests of their Covid-19 vaccine, a necessary step to approve and register the vaccine, the US-based pharmaceutical said Wednesday. “This is an important step so that the vaccine can be available in Brazil,” Pfizer said in a statement in Portuguese. Brazil, with a population of 212 million, has the highest Covid-19 death rate in the world after the United […]

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Heavy rains kill five in Colombia, six missing

BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — Floods caused by a particularly intense rainy season have killed at least five people and left six others missing in northwestern Colombia, authorities said Wednesday. A ravine near the city of Cucuta had overflowed and caused flooding “that devastated everything in its path,” the South American country’s disaster risk agency said. More than 200 nearby homes, mostly in poor neighborhoods, were damaged. The flooding brings the death toll from more than […]

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Venezuela to buy 10 million doses of Russian Covid-19 vaccine

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Sunday that his government has agreed to buy 10 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19. The vaccines will come in the first quarter of 2021, Maduro said at an event in Caracas broadcast on government television, adding that “Venezuela will manufacture the Russian vaccine in the Venezuelan laboratories.” In August, Russia became the first country to register a vaccine against Covid-19, which it […]

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Merino resigns as Peru president after five days in power

  by Luis Jaime CISNEROS Agence France Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s President Manuel Merino resigned Sunday, just five days after taking office, sparking celebrations in the capital Lima following street protests against him and the ousting of his popular predecessor. Merino, 59, stepped down shortly after a crisis session of Congress called on him to quit power before 6:00 pm (2300 GMT) or face censure. “I want to let the whole country know […]

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Peru’s President Vizcarra ousted in Congress impeachment vote

LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s Congress voted Monday to impeach and oust President Martin Vizcarra over allegations he took kickbacks from developers while serving as a regional governor in 2014. After an impeachment trial that lasted nearly eight hours, the motion to remove the popular president was approved by 105 votes to 19, with four abstentions — far exceeding the 87 votes needed to impeach. “The resolution declaring the vacancy of the presidency of the […]

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Eta death toll rises to 57 in hard-hit Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AFP) — Fifty-seven people have died and eight are missing in Honduras following Tropical Storm Eta, authorities said Monday, as the death toll doubled in one of the countries worst hit by the storm. Eta slammed into Central America last week as a Category 4 hurricane, leaving over 200 people across the region dead or missing. Honduras was one of the worst affected, with swathes of the country now under water and authorities […]

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Brazil halts trials of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s health regulator said Monday it had suspended clinical trials of a Chinese-developed Covid-19 vaccine after an “adverse incident” involving a volunteer recipient, a blow for one of the most advanced vaccine candidates. The regulator, Anvisa, said in a statement it had “ruled to interrupt the clinical trial of the CoronaVac vaccine after a serious adverse incident” on October 29. It said it could not give details on what […]

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Maduro hopes to resume ‘decent’ dialogue with Biden administration

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said Sunday that he will work to resume “decent, sincere” political dialogue with the United States, a country with which his government maintains tense relations, once Joe Biden assumes the presidency. “In time,… we will work, hopefully, to resume decent, sincere, direct channels of dialogue between the future government of Joe Biden” and Venezuela, the leftist leader said in a televised speech. Maduro had said Saturday he […]

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Peru’s Congress to retry president for impeachment

  LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s Congress on Monday voted to try again to impeach President Martin Vizcarra for alleged “moral incapacity” after he survived a first attempt weeks ago, setting a date of November 9 for him to defend himself. “The motion to vacate the presidency of the republic has been admitted,” said the first vice president of Congress, Luis Valdez. The trial, for alleged acts of corruption in 2014 when Vizcarra was governor […]

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Brazilian woman among those killed in France church attack

BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — One of the three victims of an extremist knife attack in a church in France Thursday was a 44-year-old Brazilian mother of three, the Brazil foreign ministry announced. The woman was seriously wounded in the attack on the Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice, in the southeast of France, by a 21-year-old Tunisian immigrant who had recently arrived in the country. She managed to flee to a nearby bar, but died shortly after, […]

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