South America

BOGOTA, March 19 (NNN-TELESUR) — Colombians have rejected the appearance of several posters with xenophobic comments against Venezuelan citizens living in Bogota.

The posters read, “Those rats are killing us. Don’t give them handouts, food, or clothes. Don’t rent them or give them work. Don’t be an accomplice to their crimes.”

The signs were taped on poles and home facades in Bogota’s southwestern communities, where thefts have upsurged in recent weeks.

CAVALCANTE, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s vast size and deficient infrastructure make getting coronavirus vaccines to far-flung communities of Indigenous peoples and descendants of slaves a particularly daunting endeavor.

QUITO, March 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ecuador investigators raided the health ministry on Wednesday as part of a probe into influence peddling against former health minister Juan Carlos Zevallos.

Zevallos resigned last month over a vaccine scandal that saw well-connected individuals, including his mother, jump the queue for their coronavirus jabs.

“In the operation, information is being collected on the vaccination plan and the list of beneficiaries” of immunisation against COVID-19, the public prosecutor’s office said on Twitter.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden wrote to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro last month, outlining opportunities to work together on the pandemic and the environment ahead of the United Nations COP26 climate conference, the Brazilian president’s office said on Thursday.

In the Feb. 26 letter, which was confirmed by a U.S. official, Biden said his government is willing to work closely with Brazil on a new chapter in bilateral relations, adding that there were no limits on what the nations could achieve together, according to the Brazilian president’s office.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Bolivia’s former President Jeanine Anez began a four-month jail term on Monday as investigators probe allegations she helped in a coup that led to the removal of longtime leader Evo Morales from power in 2019.

The arrest of the conservative interim leader - who was in power for less than a year after the ouster of leftist icon Morales - has sparked sharp criticism from human rights groups and the Organization of American States (OAS), who say judicial channels are being abused for political ends.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday picked his fourth health minister since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, amid the worst throes of the disease in the country yet and after a series of errors decried by public health experts.

Marcelo Queiroga, the president of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology, will replace Eduardo Pazuello, an active-duty army general with expertise in logistics who landed the position last May despite having no prior health experience.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is pressing banks to implement digital payment systems as hyperinflation prompts chronic shortages of cash in the bolivar currency, three people familiar with the talks told Reuters.

Maduro has targeted the public transit system - where roughly three-quarters of all circulating cash is spent - as the first stage of a plan he calls “the digital bolivar.” In January, he asked banks to deliver point-of-sale terminals to the Caracas subway system and bus drivers, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — After being among the world’s hardest-hit nations with COVID-19, Chile is now near the top among countries at vaccinating its population against the virus.

With more than 25% of its people having received at least one shot, the country of 19 million on South America’s Pacific coast is the champion of Latin America, and globally it is just behind Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

That’s a far cry from the beginning of the pandemic, when Chile was criticized over its inability to trace and isolate infected people.

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 13. /TASS/: Brazil has passed India to claim the world’s second-highest coronavirus case tally after the United States. As many as 85,663 cases were recorded in Brazil in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 11,363,380, according to the Health Ministry.

The number of coronavirus fatalities rose by 2,216 to 275,105 in the past day. Brazil has the second-highest coronavirus death toll after the US.

Over ten mln patients have recovered in Brazil, there are currently more than one mln active coronavirus cases in the country.

BRASILIA, March 13 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved the basic text of a bill that revives a federal cash transfer program to help millions of poor families whose incomes have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The measure will allow emergency stipends totaling up to 44 billion reais (US$ $7.96 billion) to be paid to low-income Brazilians over the next four months, with recipients expected to get an average of 250 reais per month.