South America

Venezuela cuts workday, extends school cancelation over blackouts

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela’s government announced Sunday that it is reducing the length of the workday and keeping schools closed due to devastating electricity blackouts plaguing the country. Crippled infrastructure, little investment in the power grid and poor maintenance mean that the widespread blackouts that have hit Venezuela throughout the month of March are likely here to stay. Add to that the country’s economic deep crisis, eye-popping inflation rate and the “brain drain” of […]

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Guatemala in mourning after 18 die in hit-and-run

SOLOIA, Guatemala (AFP) — A truck ploughed into a crowd of indigenous Guatemalans gathered on a highway, leaving 18 dead as it drove off without stopping and plunging the Central American country into an outpouring of grief on Thursday. The government announced three days of mourning after the incident late Wednesday in the western town of Nahuala, whose population of around 65,000 are mostly K’iche’ Maya. A group of people had converged at the entrance […]

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30 Guatemalans killed by truck: officials

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AFP) –At least 30 indigenous Guatemalans were killed on Wednesday night when they were struck on a highway by a semi-trailer truck in the town of Nahuala in the country’s west, rescue workers said. “Personnel from the Departmental Municipal Firefighters have counted at least 30 dead people at this point,” spokesman Cecilio Chacaj told reporters. The group had congregated at the site of a hit-and-run accident that had killed a resident of their […]

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Maduro blames ‘terrorists’ as new blackout grips Venezuela

by Marc BURLEIGH / Esteban ROJAS CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — President Nicolas Maduro blamed “terrorists” for a new, near-nationwide blackout that gripped Venezuela Tuesday, two weeks after a similar outage caused deaths and chaos. In a statement on Twitter, Maduro said a deliberately set “large-scale fire” hit facilities around the Guri hydroelectric plant in the south of the country that supplies power to 80 percent of Venezuela’s 30 million inhabitants. Another operation by “criminal hands” […]

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New blackout hits swaths of Venezuela including Caracas

by Marc BURLEIGH / Guillaume DECAMME CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — A new blackout hit many regions in Venezuela including much of Caracas on Monday, sowing alarm two weeks after a nationwide outage that paralyzed the country. The power cut in the capital occurred at 1:28 pm (1720 GMT) and knocked out electricity in the city center. Cellphone signals were also disrupted and television was blanked out. Shops hastily lowered shutters, fearing looters. A Venezuelan newspaper […]

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Maduro’s government calls new Venezuela blackout an ‘attack’

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — President Nicolas Maduro’s government said Monday that a new blackout across much of the country was an “attack” against the electricity system, adding that work was being carried out to bring back power. Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on state television that the attack targeted the country’s principal hydroelectric plant, Guri, as in the last, nationwide blackout that hit Venezuela earlier this month. © Agence France-Presse

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6.1 magnitude quake hits SW Colombia: USGS

A strong 6.1 magnitude earthquake shook southwest Colombia on Saturday afternoon, the USGS said, though there were no immediate reports of casualties or significant damage. The quake hit at 2:19 pm local time (1921 GMT), seven kilometers (four miles) northwest of the town of El Dovio in the Department of Valle del Cauca, at a depth of 113.3 kilometers (70.4 miles), the US Geological Survey said. Marta Lucia Calvache, a spokeswoman for the Colombian Geological […]

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Venezuela government accuses arrested Guaido aide of ‘terrorism’

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) –The Venezuelan government said Thursday it arrested a top aide to opposition leader Juan Guaido, regarded as interim leader by the US and other countries, for “terrorism.” Interior Minister Nestor Reverol read a statement on state TV saying Guaido’s chief of staff Roberto Marrero, detained in a predawn raid on his Caracas home, was involved in a plot by Colombia and Central American countries to attack the leadership of President Nicolas Maduro’s […]

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Cradle of Venezuela oil industry is a scene of desolation

by Margioni BERMÚDEZ MENE GRANDE, Venezuela (AFP) — Greasy slicks continue to darken the ground in Mene Grande, a modest town where Venezuela’s oil boom was born more than a century ago. But now the days of crude glory are gone, replaced by desolation. The asphalt on the roads is worn down. Water, cooking gas and electricity are absent most of the time. Locals, who previously received generous oil-related salaries, have left the country because […]

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In Caracas, water an obsession after days of blackout

by Margioni BERMÚDEZ CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Plastic bottles and containers at the ready, Keisy Perez ignores the stench from the brown river as it slips slowly through the grimy San Agustin district of Venezuela’s capital. The quest for drinkable water has rapidly become an obsession for millions like her in Caracas days after a crippling power blackout stalled the city’s pumps. In this part of Caracas, the Guaire river is effectively an open sewer. […]

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Venezuela’s pro-regime ‘colectivos’ vow to back Maduro whatever it costs

by Nina NEGRON / Margioni BERMÚDEZ CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) –Jorge Parrado collects water for his Caracas district. But he is also ready to fight completely in support of President Nicolas Maduro as a member of a “colectivo,” cells that uphold and enforce the regime’s socialist ideals. He had arrived at a park in the west of the capital aboard a water tanker to fill it from wells. The precious water was to be taken to […]

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Eight killed in Brazil school shooting, two suspects dead

by Nelson ALMEIDA SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Two former pupils shot dead eight people, most of them students and staff, at a high school near Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday before turning their weapons on themselves, authorities said. The two assailants burst into the school grounds in the early morning, armed with a .38 caliber revolver and a “medieval weapon that looked like a bow and arrows,” military police Colonel Marcelo Sales said. After […]

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