South America

ASUNCION, Aug 13 (NNN-TELESUR) — The vice-president of Paraguay, Hugo Velázquez, resigned Friday after the US listed him for alleged corruption, which unleashed a scandal in the South American country.

In addition, he also abandoned the presidential pre-candidacy of the ruling Colorado Party, to which he was heading with a view to the Paraguayan general elections to be held next year.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilians poured into the University of Sao Paulo’s law school to hear a manifesto denouncing the brutal military dictatorship and calling for a prompt return of the rule of law.

That was 1977. Almost 45 years later to the day, thousands rallied at that same site Thursday for readings of two documents inspired by the original “Letter to the Brazilians.” Both new manifestos defend the nation’s democratic institutions and electronic voting system, which far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked ahead of his reelection bid.

CARACAS, Aug 10 (NNN-ABN) – Thousands of Venezuelans marched through the streets of the capital, Caracas yesterday, to protest U.S.-led sanctions and illegal seizures of the nation’s financial and nonfinancial assets.

About 10,000 protesters took part in the demonstration called by the government, to press for the recovery of the assets, the transportation minister and president of state-run airline Conviasa, Ramon Velasquez Araguayan, told the publicly-owned Venezolana de Television.

SANTIAGO, Aug 8 - Chile will seek to apply harsh sanctions on those responsible for a huge sinkhole near a copper mine in the country's north, the mining minister said on Monday.

The mysterious hole of 36.5 meters in diameter that emerged in late July has provoked the mobilization of local authorities and led the mining regulator Sernageomin to suspend operations of a nearby mine owned by Canada's Lundin (LUN.TO) in the northern district of Candelaria.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A German diplomat in Rio de Janeiro, Uwe Herbert Hahn, was arrested on Saturday night in connection with the death of his Belgian husband, police said.

Hahn said that his husband, Walter Biot, had died on Friday when he fell from their apartment in the Ipanema neighborhood after suffering a sudden illness.

But police arrested him on suspicion of murder after their forensics found bloodstains in the apartment and the autopsy of Biot's body showed multiple wounds. Television images showed police taking Hahn away in a police car.

Aug 7 (Reuters) - A sinkhole in Chile has doubled in size, growing large enough to engulf France's Arc de Triomphe and prompting officials to order work to stop at a nearby copper mine.

The sinkhole, which emerged on July 30, now stretches 50 meters (160 feet) across and goes down 200 meters (656 feet). Seattle's Space Needle would also comfortably fit in the black pit, as would six Christ the Redeemer statues from Brazil stacked head-to-head, giant arms outstretched.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s first leftist president will be sworn into office Sunday, promising to fight inequality and heralding a turning point in the history of a country haunted by a long war between the government and guerrilla groups.

LIMA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Peruvian President Pedro Castillo on Thursday called on the country's political parties to help his government form a new "broad-based" cabinet, following the resignation of Anibal Torres as prime minister.

"I am opening up this space to other political parties so we can once and for all form a broad-based cabinet to work for Peru," Castillo said.

SAN JUAN DE COLON, Venezuela (AP) — The freight company owned by Alfredo Rosales and his brothers was hustling, its 50 or so trucks constantly on the go hauling about 1 million tons of coal, cement, flour and other goods every year in commerce between Venezuela and Colombia.

Their work came to an abrupt halt in 2015, when the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shut down border crossings with its neighbor after years of deterioriating relations with conservative Colombian administrations.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In a move that shocked environmentalists, the government of Brazil’s third-largest state has given up a legal fight over protecting a state park in one of the Amazon’s most biodiverse areas. The upshot of that decision is that a man responsible for the deforestation of huge swaths of protected land wins with finality a lawsuit against the government. The park will cease to exist.