South America

Three survivors from Cuba airliner crash: state media

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP)–Three people have been pulled alive from the wreckage of a Cuban airliner which crashed after takeoff Friday with 104 passengers aboard, and are in a critical condition in hospital, state media said. The country’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who visited the crash site, warned earlier that many people were feared dead.

Fujimori says he will not appeal travel ban

LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Ex-president Alberto Fujimori said Wednesday he would not oppose a judge’s ban on his leaving Peru ahead of a new trial. “I will not appeal. All I want is to have time with my family and write my memoirs,” the ex-president, 79, said on Twitter. Fujimori, president from 1990-2000, had been serving a 25-year prison sentence for crimes that included commanding death squads that killed suspected civilian sympathizers of leftwing guerrillas […]

Lima Group countries call on Venezuela to cancel polls

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — The Lima Group of countries seeking a peaceful solution to the spiralling crisis in Venezuela urged President Nicolas Maduro on Monday to cancel weekend elections that the group has denounced as undemocratic. The group “calls for the last time on the Venezuelan government to suspend the general elections” scheduled for Sunday, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told a press conference after the countries met in Mexico City. The elections were called […]

Paraguay to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

  ASUNCION, Paraguay (AFP) — Paraguay announced Wednesday that it intends to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, becoming the third country to do so after the United States and Guatemala. In a brief statement, Paraguay’s foreign ministry said it had “begun the process of executing the presidential decision.” “We are very pleased by the important decision to move the Paraguayan embassy. This decision by (President Horacio) Cartes is fair and brave,” […]

Honduras regrets loss of US protection status for its nationals

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AFP) — Honduras expressed regret Friday that around 60,000 of its citizens living and working in the United States are losing special protection status under tougher migration changes brought in by President Donald Trump. The US Department of Homeland Security announced in a statement that it was ending the so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Hondurans, but giving 18 months’ time, to January 5, 2020, “to allow for an orderly transition.” Trump’s government […]

49 missing in Sao Paulo blaze building collapse: firefighters

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Forty-nine people were listed as still missing Wednesday after a 24-storey building occupied by squatters in central Sao Paulo was engulfed in fire and collapsed, the Brazilian city’s fire department said. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster on Tuesday only three were declared unaccounted for, including one man who was seconds from being successfully rescued by firefighters before the building suddenly crashed down. “The fire department is continuing to […]

Sao Paulo tower used by squatters collapses in fire

by Johannes Myburgh Agence France Presse SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — A 24-storey building used by squatters in the center of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, collapsed early Tuesday after a blaze that tore through the structure, leaving at least three missing. Survivors described waking in the night to find themselves surrounded by flames and escaping with their children before the tower turned to rubble. Scores of homeless families were occupying the building, according to […]

Pressure grows on Nicaragua’s Ortega as protest toll hits 27

by Marco SIBAJA Agence France Presse MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AFP) — Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was under pressure from widespread street unrest Monday despite backing down on a contentious pension reform plan that triggered days of violence in which at least 27 people have been killed. Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets of the capital Managua in the evening hours to demand an end to the repression against protesters in the latest anti-government […]

Conservative wins Paraguay presidential poll: official

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 […]

Nicaragua scraps reform behind deadly protests that killed 24

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 […]

Cubans have high hopes for their little-known new leader

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 […]

End of era in Cuba as Castro hands torch to Diaz-Canel

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 […]