South America

Far from Venezuela-Guyana oil flap, Mango Landing just wants peace

By Patrick FORT MANGO LANDING, Guyana, Dec 14, 2023 (AFP) – Robinson Flores, a Venezuelan who has been living in Essequibo for years, has no time for politicians fighting over the disputed oil-rich region run by Guyana. Life in this sleepy border village along the muddy Wenamu River is just fine, thank you, he says. And the flap that exploded in recent months as Venezuela lays claim to Essequibo is an unwelcome disruption. “Politicians do […]

At least 16 dead in motorway pile-up in Venezuela: fire brigade

CARACAS, Dec 14, 2023 (AFP) – At least 16 people died and six more were seriously injured after a fiery 17-vehicle pile-up on a highway in Venezuela, the country’s fire chief Juan Gonzalez told AFP on Wednesday. “So far there are 16,” Gonzalez said when asked about the death toll in the crash earlier in the day on the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho highway, which connects the capital, Caracas, with the east of the country. […]

Guyana, Venezuela presidents to meet Thursday on border row

By Barbara AGELVIS CARACAS, Dec 10, 2023 (AFP) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart, Irfaan Ali, will meet Thursday on their countries’ growing dispute over the oil-rich region of Essequibo, amid mounting international warnings against escalating the row. The meeting will be held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, according to the Caribbean country’s Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had also been invited at […]

Peru frees Fujimori following death squad pardon

LIMA, Dec 7, 2023 (AFP) – Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, 85, was freed from prison on Wednesday after a court reinstated a pardon of his 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity. Fujimori, who served from 1990 to 2000 and is now in poor health, left the Barbadillo prison in Lima and was greeted by his children Keiko, a three time failed presidential hopeful, and Kenji, a businessman. The elder Fujimori wore nasal tubes providing […]

Javier Milei: outsider who ignited Argentine rage to become president

By Fran BLANDY BUENOS AIRES, Nov 20, 2023 (AFP) – With his wild hair and powered-up chainsaw, the libertarian Javier Milei has upended Argentine politics in a meteoric rise from obscurity to the presidency, riding a wave of fury over decades of economic decline and rampant inflation. “Long live freedom, damn it!” was his rallying cry throughout a campaign in which he railed against a “thieving and corrupt political class,” notably on TikTok and YouTube […]

URGENT: Argentina’s Milei wins presidential election, Massa concedes

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 19, 2023 (AFP) – Libertarian outsider Javier Milei will be Argentina’s next president, said his rival, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who conceded defeat after Sunday’s election. “Obviously the results are not what we had hoped for, and I have spoken to Javier Milei to congratulate him and wish him well, because he is the president that the majority of Argentines have elected for the next four years.” This is a developing story…

Argentines hold breath in tight presidential election

By Fran BLANDY and Sandra FERRER BUENOS AIRES, Nov 19, 2023 (AFP) – Argentina braced Sunday for the outcome of a knife-edge presidential election between Economy Minister Sergio Massa and outsider Javier Milei, who represent wildly different visions for the country’s future. Voters cast their ballots gripped by fear, uncertainty and resignation, with few confident either candidate could halt decades of economic decline and financial mismanagement of an economy that is Latin America’s third-biggest and […]

Colombia detains 4 in kidnapping of footballer’s father

BOGOTÁ, Nov 11, 2023 (AFP) – Police in Colombia have detained four people suspected in the kidnapping of the father of Liverpool footballer Luis Diaz, who was held hostage for nearly two weeks by members of the ELN guerilla group, officials said Saturday. Luis Manuel Diaz was freed Thursday, 12 days after being abducted by armed men on motorcycles at a gas station in the town of Barrancas near the Venezuelan border. “We have detained […]

Argentine Swifties shake off election bad blood at ‘Eras Tour’

By Tomás VIOLA BUENOS AIRES, Nov 10, 2023 (AFP) – Decked out in friendship bracelets and glitter, fans lined up ahead of the first Argentina show of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” Thursday ready to shake off the bad blood of the upcoming presidential election — until they were met with posters warning: “Swiftie, don’t vote Milei.” Thousands of young people queued for hours outside Buenos Aires’s Estadio Monumental stadium in the springtime sun, singing, trading […]

43 million went hungry in Latam, Caribbean last year: UN

SANTIAGO, Nov 9, 2023 (AFP) – Hunger affected some 43.2 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022, about 6.5 percent of the region’s population, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said Thursday. While an improvement from 2021, the figure was higher than pre-Covid — representing some six million extra hungry people from 2019, the agency said in a regional overview of food security and nutrition. The FAO cited the pandemic, the climate […]

Elvis’ cousin in heartbreak hotel after conceding Mississippi election

WASHINGTON, Nov 8, 2023 (AFP) – A distant cousin of rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley failed to shake up the race for governor in the US state of Mississippi on Tuesday, conceding the election to his Republican rival, US media reported. Democrat Brandon Presley had spent six years as mayor of Nettleton — a small town in northeastern Mississippi just a few miles from the birthplace of the King — before running for governor. His prospects […]

Outlaw militias torch 35 buses in Rio after crime boss is killed

Suspected paramilitary militia members torched 35 buses and a train drivers’ cabin in Rio de Janeiro Monday, paralyzing parts of the scenic Brazilian city after one of their leaders was killed in a police operation, officials said. The chaotic scenes erupted after an operation that state Governor Claudio Castro said killed the nephew and right-hand-man of a militia boss known as “Zinho.” Castro said the police had delivered a “hard blow to one of the […]