South America

ARAÇUAI, Brazil (AP) — After Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro boosted welfare payments in August by 50%, many people in the Jequitinhonha Valley, one of the poorest regions of the country, felt they could once again afford some meat, keep electricity running and repair leaky roofs.

Even if it was an obvious election-year gambit, needy Brazilians are grateful for the extra 200 reais ($38) per month -- but perhaps not enough to switch their political allegiance to the far-right leader in large numbers.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva published an open letter to evangelicals on Wednesday aimed at countering claims he would persecute their faith and at winning votes among a large and growing part of the population.

The letter, read at a gathering with evangelical leaders at a Sao Paulo hotel, promised he would respect religious freedoms if elected — as he did during his 2003-2010 presidency.

MARACAY, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Flooding in Venezuela's central Aragua state killed at least three people on Monday, adding to the death toll from weeks of intense rains, authorities said.

A downpour on Monday afternoon caused a dam to overflow, causing a flood that carried rocks, trees and mud down a main road in El Castano, a suburb of the city of Maracay about 119 kilometers (74 miles) southwest of the capital Caracas.

Authorities said multiple families had to be rescued, and that a total of around 50 families were impacted.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - A rescue dog turned police mascot has become one of Brazil's most beloved furry internet sensations.

Dubbed "Corporal Oliveira," the dog was taken in by Rio police officer Cristiano Oliveira, who found him in 2019 near his police station abandoned, injured and hungry.

The dog - decked out in a police uniform with a toy gun strapped in and sunglasses - has become the official mascot of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police's 17th batallion, patrolling alongside his officer and running beside motorbikes.

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 16 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentine Federal Judge Federico Villena ruled in favor of acquitting the remaining five crewmembers of the Venezuelan-Iranian Boeing 747-300 seized at the Ezeiza International Airport citing a lack of evidence to prosecute them for financing terrorist activities.

Villena thus authorized Víctor Manuel Pérez, Mario José Arraga Urdaneta, Abdolbaset Mohammadi, Saeid Valizadeh, and Gholamreza Ghasemi to leave the country, despite the US Department of Justice’s involvement in the investigation.

BRASILIA, Oct 16 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazilian oil company Petrobras Friday announced its intention to leave Argentina and has therefore launched the sale of its stake in Posa, its local subsidiary, which holds a 33.6 % of the Río Neuquén Field.

The move to quit natural gas operations comes after Petrobras has already left its fuel retail activity in the country.

CARACAS, Oct 16 (NNN-TELESUR) — High-level officials from the administration of President Nicolas Maduro remained deployed in the town of Las Tejerias supervising the tasks for the recovery of the affected areas after the Oct 8 landslide.

They confirmed that the death toll rose to 50 people.

Citizen Security Minister Remigio Ceballos reported that 3,200 officials and members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) continue tirelessly in search and rescue efforts, following 24 strategic lines of action in risk management and disaster management.

BRASILIA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Brazil plans to nominate former central bank governor Ilan Goldfajn to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday, as Latin America's largest economy seeks to secure its first presidency of the institution.

The development bank will elect its next president on Nov. 20 after the ouster of Mauricio Claver-Carone in an ethics scandal.

LIMA, Oct 15 (NNN-ANDINA) — October 20 is the deadline to vote for Peru’s tourist icon Machu Picchu, nominated as the World’s Leading Tourist Attraction 2022, and thus allow it to obtain its fifth title in the global edition of the World Travel Awards —also known as the Oscars of World Tourism.

NECOCLI, Colombia (AP) — Venezuelan Gilbert Fernández still plans to cross the dangerous Darien jungle into Panama and head toward the United States over land, despite a U.S. announcement that it will grant conditional humanitarian permits only to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants arriving by air.

“The news hit us like a bucket of cold water,” Fernández said Thursday, a day after the announcement, which also stated that Venezuelans arriving by land at the Mexico-U.S. border would be returned to Mexico.