South America

Montenegro asks for international help to fight fires

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AFP) — Montenegro asked Monday for international help to fight wildfires in the Lustica peninsula on the country’s Adriatic coast, while forest fires in neighboring Croatia spread to suburbs of the coastal city of Split. “The situation at Lustica is critical. The interior ministry of Montenegro asked for the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism” to be activated to help extinguish the fire, the government said in a statement. Mayors of the threatened coastal […]

Raul Castro warns of “a setback” in US-Cuba relations

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuban President Raul Castro on Friday said that Donald Trump’s hardline stance towards the country marks “a setback” in relations with the United States after ties were gradually restored in 2015. “The announcements made by the current president… mean a setback in bilateral relations,” Castro said in remarks, broadcast on state television, at the closing of the first session of Cuba’s Parliament. Castro criticized Trump’s partial rollback of his predecessor Barack […]

Allies rally around Lula after corruption conviction

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) — Former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva emerged from the Sao Paulo residence of his Lula Institute on Thursday (July 12), with allies rallying around the ex-president to profess what he said was his innocence. The ruling marked a stunning fall for Lula, one of the country’s most popular politicians, and a serious blow to his chances of a political comeback. The former union leader, who won global praise […]

Colombian football fan killed by suspected backers of rival team

  BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – A fan of the Colombian football team Millonarios was killed by three fans wearing T-shirts of rival Atletico Nacional, police said Wednesday. The unprovoked assault happened Tuesday night at a bus station in Bogota, police inspector Oscar Solano told Caracol television. Press reports said the man was stabbed and died later in a hospital. “A Bogota family is in mourning because football fans allegedly attacked someone,” Solano said in a […]

Former Brazil leader Lula sentenced to jail for graft

BRASILIA, Brazil (AF) – Former Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was convicted and sentenced on Wednesday to nine and a half years in prison for corruption and money laundering. The term was handed down against Lula over a giant embezzlement and kickbacks scheme centered on state-owned oil group Petrobras, at the heart of a sprawling corruption probe known as “Car Wash.” The judge hearing the case said Lula — an iconic leftist politician […]

Honduran journalist murdered in Mexico, 7th in 2017

COATZACOALCOS, Mexico (AFP) – A Honduran journalist who sought asylum in Mexico after a colleague he collaborated with was murdered has been killed in the violent state of Veracruz, authorities and activists said. Edwin Rivera Paz was followed by gunmen and shot dead in broad daylight Sunday in the eastern city of Acayucan, said local authorities and the media rights group Reporters Without Borders. The TV news cameraman is the seventh journalist killed this year […]

Brazilians take to streets against President Temer

(Reuters) — Brazilians burnt effigies of President Michel Temer in a Sao Paulo street on Monday (July 10) to denounce moves by the conservative government to push through with reforms that protesters say will take away work and pension rights. Temer replaced impeached leftist President Dilma Rousseff just over a year ago with a vow to turn around the economic fortunes of Brazil’s flailing economy via austerity measures. But allegations of corruption have dogged his administration […]

Venezuela enters crucial week in battle over constitution rewrite

by Maria Isabel Sanchez Agence France Presse CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Pro- and anti-government groups are battling fiercely for public support over a contested plan by President Nicolas Maduro to have a new body elected this month to rewrite the constitution. The opposition, energized by the release from jail of one of its emblematic leaders, Leopoldo Lopez, is leading the charge against the new assembly to be chosen in a July 30 election. On Monday […]

At least eight dead after tourist bus crashes in Peru

(Reuters) — At least eight people were killed and more than 36 injured in Peru on Sunday (July 9) after a tourist bus crashed near the capital of Lima, officials reported. According to media, the double-decker bus was coming traveling from the popular tourist site of San Cristobal when it flipped on its side. Authorities are still determining the identity of the victims but media reports claim many children to be amongst the victims. Some local […]

Peru’s Fujimori hospitalized with heart issue: doctor

LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s jailed ex-leader Alberto Fujimori was taken to a hospital Friday after showing signs of hypertension and irregular heartbeat, his doctor said. The hospital trip comes on the same day that Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said a potential pardon for Fujimori would not be immediate, as had been speculated, but depended on a medical report that will likely be issued by the end of the year. Fujimori — who turns […]

Replacement sworn in as Venezuela’s dissident prosecutor expects to be fired

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuela’s recently sworn-in Vice Prosecutor Katherine Haringhton attempted to enter the country’s Public Ministry on Thursday (July 06) after the Supreme Court heard a petition to remove dissident state prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who has expressed criticism of President Nicolas Maduro. Ortega, the main challenger to Maduro from within the ruling socialist movement during three months of opposition protests, said she would not recognize legal proceedings against her by an “unconstitutional and […]

Venezuela gov’t backers attack opposition National Assembly lawmakers

https://youtu.be/Ctl3doavxrE CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan pro-government militants wielding clubs and pipes stormed into the opposition-held National Assembly Wednesday, attacking lawmakers and leaving seven hurt including three with blood streaming from their heads. The special independence day legislative session turned into a violent, nine-hour siege when supporters of leftist President Nicolas Maduro then blocked the building and prevented 350 lawmakers, staff and others from leaving. Police initially did not intervene, but eventually joined soldiers to […]