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ASUNCION, Paraguay (AFP) — Mario Abdo Benitez, who represents Paraguay’s long-dominant Colorado conservatives, won Sunday’s presidential poll, landing the top job in one of Latin America’s poorest countries, election officials said. The US-educated son of a senior aide to the country’s late dictator, Abdo Benitez won 46.49 percent of the vote, with his centrist opponent Efrain Alegre taking 42.72 percent in a race that was far closer than expected. “The president of the republic is […]
by Blanca Morel and Julia Rios Agence France Presse MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AFP) — Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega on Sunday agreed to scrap a highly-controversial pension reform that sparked four days of violence which left 24 people dead. After days of clashes between protesters and the security forces, the worst of his 11-year presidency, Ortega said he was revoking the reform during talks with business leaders. The Nicaraguan Institute for Social Security (INSS) has decided to […]
by Rigoberto DIAZ Agence France Presse HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Despite being in the upper echelons of Cuba’s government for the past two decades, new President Miguel Diaz-Canel is not exactly well known. Most people on the island of more than 11 million know that, unlike the Castro brothers, he wasn’t part of the 1959 revolution. Some aren’t sure. But that hasn’t stopped Cubans from welcoming their new president, hopeful he will advance reforms to […]
by Alexandre Grosbois Agence France Presse HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuba is poised for the end of an era on Thursday as President Raul Castro steps down, formally handing power to his long-time deputy Miguel Diaz-Canel — and thereby ending his family’s six-decade grip on the island. The silver-haired Diaz-Canel, 57 — a top Communist Party figure who has served as first vice president since 2013 — will become the island’s first leader born after […]
GUARUJA, Brazil (AFP) — A group of homelessness activists briefly occupied Monday the seaside apartment at the heart of the corruption case that saw ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva imprisoned earlier this month. About 30 members of the Homeless Workers’ Movement and other leftist activists got into the triplex apartment in Guaruja, near Sao Paulo, hanging placards from the balcony in support of Lula. “Release Lula or there’ll be no peace,” they shouted. Lula […]
by Hector Velasco with Jordi Miró in Quito © Agence France-Presse BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — The kidnapping and killing of two journalists and their driver has thrown up an uncomfortable truth for Colombia and Ecuador, analysts say: that their long-neglected border has become a drug traffickers’ nirvana. The two governments sent troops into the dense jungle area to hunt for the killers and re-establish control over a region analysts say has become a key corridor […]
VATICAN CITY, Holy See (AFP) — Pope Francis admitted Wednesday he had made “grave mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation” in Chile after reading the findings of an investigation into sexual abuse committed by the clergy in the country. Francis said in a letter to Chilean Bishops released by the Vatican that he intended to summon them to Rome to discuss the investigation, which involves Bishop Juan Barros’ alleged cover-up of […]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — The arrest of a former FARC negotiator on US drug charges has brought Colombia’s landmark peace deal to its “most critical point,” the former rebel group warned on Tuesday. Jesus Santrich, a senior member of rebel-group-turned-political-party who had been slated to take a seat in Colombia’s Congress in July, was arrested on Monday in Bogota. Prosecutors in New York accuse him of conspiring to ship 10,000 kilograms of cocaine to […]
CURITIBA, Brazil (AFP) — Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, imprisoned since the weekend on a corruption conviction, will still be the Workers’ Party candidate in Brazil’s October presidential election, party leaders said Monday. “He is our candidate no matter the circumstances,” party chief Gleisi Hoffmann said outside the police station in the southern city of Curitiba where Lula is locked up. The leftwing ex-president, 72, handed himself into police on Saturday, a day […]
SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva surrendered to police Saturday to start serving a 12-year sentence for corruption, Globo television reported. Lula was able to walk out of the metalworkers’ union building near Sao Paulo where he had spent two days holed up, and was taken away in a convoy of black police cars. An earlier attempt to leave by car had been blocked by […]
by Carola Sole with Sebastian Smith in Rio de Janeiro © Agence France-Presse SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil (AFP) — Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s polarizing election frontrunner and leftist icon, was negotiating his surrender after dramatically skipping a first deadline Friday to start his 12-year prison sentence for corruption. Holed up with thousands of cheering supporters in the metalworkers’ union building in his hometown of Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, […]
by Paula Ramon © Agence France-Presse SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, once one of the most popular politicians on the planet, was given 24 hours to surrender to police Thursday and start a 12 year prison sentence for corruption. The order from Judge Sergio Moro, head of Brazil’s huge “Car Wash” anti-graft probe, came as a complete surprise given that lawyers had earlier said the leftist former two-term […]
