South America

Pope defends Chilean bishop accused of abuse cover-up

  IQUIQUE, Chile (AFP) — Pope Francis on Thursday strongly defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up a priest’s sexual abuse of minors. “The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will speak,” the pope said in response to a journalist’s question about the 61-year-old bishop, appointed by Francis in 2015 despite being accused of covering up another priest’s abuse of boys. “There is not a single piece of proof against […]

UPDATED: Car hits crowd at Brazil’s Copacabana, killing baby

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — A car ploughed into a crowd on Rio de Janeiro’s tourist-packed Copacabana seaside promenade on Thursday, killing a baby and injuring 17 people, authorities said, with the driver telling investigators he suffered a seizure. The black car, its windshield shattered and the front caved in, came to rest on the beach where some of the injured were frantically being treated. The Rio de Janeiro health secretariat told AFP that […]

Car hits crowd at Brazil’s Copacabana, injuring 11

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — A car ploughed into a crowd on Rio de Janerio’s tourist-packed Copacabana promenade on Thursday, injuring 11 people, Brazilian police said. “A person lost control of his vehicle… running over at least 11 people,” a Rio military police spokesman told AFP, adding that initial information did not suggest it was an intentional attack. According to firefighters, one of the victims of the accident was seriously hurt. © Agence France-Presse

Rights group slams Brazil police violence

BRAZILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Police violence in Brazil is unabated, Human Rights Watch warned on Thursday, calling on the government to take action against a spate of extrajudicial killings. In its latest report on human rights in 90 countries, HRW said that 437 police officers were killed in Brazil in 2016, the vast majority of them while off duty. The same year, police officers killed at least 4,224 people, about 26 percent more than in 2015, according […]

Pardoned Peru ex-president leaves hospital

by Roberto Cortijo  Agence France-Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s pardoned former president who was until recently serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses, was discharged from hospital Tuesday after receiving treatment for cardiac arrhythmia. Fujimori, 79, was hospitalized at the end of last year and treated for various ailments. “He is under careful medical observation,” his doctor Alejandro Aguinaga told AFP. Aguinaga said Fujimori was given a Holter monitor that records “everything that […]

Pope in Chile seeks forgiveness for Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals

  by Catherine Marciano Agence France Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday opened his visit to Chile by asking forgiveness for child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in the South American country. “I cannot begin to express the pain and shame that I feel over the irreparable harm caused to children on the part of Church ministers,” the 81-year-old pontiff said. “I would like to join with my […]

Scandals overshadow pope’s meetings in Chile

by Catherine MARCIANO Agence France-Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Catholic Pope Francis will hold a closely watched meeting with members of Chile’s under-fire clergy on Tuesday, the first full day of his visit to a country whose church is beset by sex abuse scandals. He arrived in Santiago Monday night and was received by leftist President Michelle Bachelet — an agnostic who has faced down the conservative opposition, including from the church, to spearhead social […]

Pope voices nuclear war concerns as he begins Latin America trip

by Catherine MARCIANO Agence France-Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) – Pope Francis admitted Monday he was frightened by the prospect of an accidental nuclear apocalypse, as he began a weeklong visit to Chile and Peru to bolster a local Catholic Church riven by sex abuse scandals. “I think we are at the very edge,” the pope told reporters aboard his plane when asked about the threat of a nuclear war in the wake of a recent string of […]

Several dead in operation to arrest Venezuela pilot

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) – Several people, including two police officers, were killed in an operation to capture a helicopter pilot who bombed Venezuela’s Supreme Court during anti-government protests last year, the interior ministry said Monday. A ministry statement said members of a “terrorist cell” were killed in a fierce gunbattle, and five were captured, but did not say whether the pilot, Oscar Perez, was among the dead or detained. At the height of street protests against President Nicolas Maduro […]

Pope begins Latin America visit in Chile amid Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals

  by Miguel Sanchez Agence France Presse Santiago, Chile (AFP) — Pope Francis arrives in Santiago on Monday at the beginning of a testing weeklong visit to Chile and Peru that aims to boost a flagging local Church hit by child sex abuse scandals. The pope is scheduled to arrive in Santiago at 8:10 pm (2310 GMT) on his first visit to Chile since becoming pope, and his sixth to Latin America. The 81-year-old Argentine […]

Two dead in Peru after 7.3-magnitude quake

LIMA, Peru (AFP) — A 7.3 magnitude earthquake shook southern Peru on Sunday, killing at least two people and injuring 65, the South American country’s civil defense agency said. Homes made of adobe collapsed in coastal areas most directly affected by the quake, local authorities said. The earthquake struck in the Pacific, 31 kilometers (19 miles) from the seaside town of Acari in the region of Arequipa, according to the US Geological Survey. “There are […]

Four killed in Venezuela food looting violence: opposition

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Four people were killed and 15 injured on Thursday in violence linked to food looting in Venezuela, according to members of the opposition and the local press. It brought to six the number of deaths tied to desperate food shortages in the oil-rich but crisis-riven country since December. In the town of Arapuey in the west of Venezuela, for several days now looters have targeted shops and stores and clashed with […]