South America

QUITO, July 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The mayor of Ecuador’s third largest city was slain Sunday in a shooting that killed one other person and wounded four more, including two suspected attackers, officials said.

Agustín Intriago, a 38-year-old lawyer, belonged to the local Better City movement in the port city of Manta and was recently re-elected to a term that began in May.

BUENOS AIRES, July 23 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentine President Alberto Fernández spoke with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to discuss a new understanding ahead of this year’s elections, it was reported in Buenos Aires.

22 July 2023; MEMO: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil announced on Friday that his country is looking forward to raising the value of trade with Turkiye to $3 billion, Anadolu Agency reported.

During a press conference in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, Gil highlighted the significant investment and cooperation policies developed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Latin America.

BUENOS AIRES, July 16 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — A total of 17 Argentine provinces are under yellow alert due to weather forecasts heralding extremely cold temperatures, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) announced.

The SMN also said these temperatures reaching -10.8 degrees Celsius in El Calafate, Santa Cruz (south), and -8.9 degrees in La Quiaca, Jujuy (north), might be dangerous for children and elderly or chronically ill people.

CARACAS, Jul 12 (NNN-ABN) – The Venezuelan government said yesterday, it supports Cuba’s condemnation of the “manipulative conduct of the European Union (EU)” in organising an upcoming EU-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit in Brussels, Belgium.

“Venezuela decisively supports the condemnations made by Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

SAO PAULO, Jul 12 (NNN-CMA) – At least four people were killed, including two minors, when suspects opened fire on a bar in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, local media reported yesterday.

Based on reports from the Sao Paulo Civil Police, the incident occurred minutes before midnight on Monday, in the Parque Paraiso neighbourhood of the Itapecerica da Serra district.

Two people were wounded in the shooting, which saw two suspects arrive on a motorcycle and fire multiple shots into the bar before fleeing.

QUITO, July 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ten people were killed and ten injured, including children, in two shootings Sunday in Guayaquil, the Ecuadoran port city in the grips of a bloody war between drug trafficking gangs, officials said.

The shootings took place in two poor neighborhoods of the city that has seen at least three similar attacks since April.

The first shooting killed four people and injured 10 — including children aged 2, 13 and 14 — in Siete Lagos in the south of the city, the prosecutor’s office said on Monday.

QUITO, July 9 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gustavo Manrique revealed that Ecuador is negotiating the construction of a migrant center to attend people who want to travel to the United States.    

Manrique affirmed he has held conversations with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, so that the South American nation may be part of the initiative and have an office here.

ASUNCION, July 6 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Paraguayan law enforcement officers on Wednesday destroyed as many as 11 tons of marijuana seized from alleged drug traffickers in the northeastern department of Amambay, bordering Brazil, the ABC Color newspaper reported.    

The Strategic Intelligence Directorate officers, attached to the National Anti-Drug Secretariat, managed to detect the drug during an investigation at a production and storage center at the La Paraguaya Natural Reserve.

BOGOTA, July 6 (NNN-MERCCOPRESS) — Colombia’s main rebel group National Liberation Army (ELN) ordered its forces to stop “offensive military actions” as of July 6.

However, in a message posted on the rebel group’s website, its members were advised to be prepared to “respond to threats or attacks by any armed group against our units or against the civilian population.”