South America

CARACAS, Oct 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Venezuelan prosecutor’s office said it had issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Juan Guaido, the first time it had taken such a step, and would ask for Interpol’s help in his apprehension.

Prosecutors were appointed “to issue an arrest warrant against him and to request a Red Notice from Interpol so that he pays for his crimes,” Prosecutor Tarek William Saab said.

QUITO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's National Electoral Council (CNE) began Thursday the nationwide distribution of 2,413 electoral packages for the second round of the early presidential elections in October.

"Each package contains ballots, electoral documents, ballot boxes, pens, markers, tape, fingerprinting pads and wax, stamps, LED flashlights, calculators, security items and electoral envelopes, among others," the CNE detailed in a press release.

ASUNCION, Sept 27 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Paraguayan President Santiago Peña insisted that if the trade deal between Mercosur and the European Union is not operational by Dec 6 there would be no agreement at all after he takes over the South American Common Market (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) bloc’s pro-tempore presidency.

“I have said and I have transmitted this to President [Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] to close the negotiation because if he does not close, I am not going to continue in the next semester,” Peña told the Financial Times at his residence in Asunción.

LA PAZ, Sept 25 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Citing a “dirty” campaign against him, former Bolivian President Evo Morales announced during the weekend that he would run again in the 2025 elections.

His Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, the same as current head of state Luis Arce Catacora claims Morales is the “king of cocaine” while the opposition regards him as a “drug trafficker,” according to local media.

Evo Morales assured that he was “forced” to make this decision for which he will “fight”, amid the division within the ruling party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).

Sept 21 (Reuters) - A close aide to Jair Bolsonaro told police the former Brazilian president and senior military officers met last year to discuss a military intervention to overturn the result of the election after he lost, newspaper O Globo and news website UOL reported on Thursday.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Soon after she learned what happened, Helmut Kramer’s mother grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the priest out of photographs from her son’s baptism.

“She kept the photos after that,” said Kramer, who was sexually abused at age 12 in a Jesuit school in Antofagasta, a city in northern Chile.

“My mom is still Catholic, but she never attended Mass again. She says that she will never set foot in a church, and she does not trust the pope or any priest,” the 53-year-old Chilean said.

BUENAVENTURA, Colombia (AP) — Officers wade through rows of abandoned wooden homes teetering above a mangrove-cloaked river – one of the key channels used by gangs to move drugs and weapons through this long-neglected swath of Colombia’s Pacific coast.

Each step for them is a reminder: Control here remains not with the law, but with those whose names are spoken in whispers in their city. Los Shottas and Los Espartanos.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil is reinstating stronger greenhouse gas commitments it made in 2015 as part of the Paris Agreement that were weakened under former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The announcement was made Thursday by the country’s Committee on Climate Change, a joint body made up of 18 government ministries. “Brazil is a major actor in helping the planet in this challenging moment,” Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said during the committee meeting in Brasilia.

BRASILIA, Sept 14 (NNN-XINHUA) — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva swore in three new ministers Wednesday in the first reform of his cabinet to broaden the government’s allied base.

The new cabinet members, Andre Fufuca (Progressives Party) and Silvio Costa Filho (Republicans Party), assumed the posts of Minister of Sports and Minister of Ports and Airports, respectively.

LIMA, Sept 14 (NNN-XINHUA) — At least 10 people were killed and nine others injured after a minivan and a dump truck collided head-on on Tuesday night in southern Peru’s Arequipa region, media reported Wednesday.

The accident took place at the entrance of a tunnel at about 9:10 p.m. local time (1410 GMT) and two minors were among the dead, the reports said.

Police and firefighters arrived at the scene to help the victims and clear the road.

Local police have started a preliminary investigation to determine the causes of the accident.