South America

CARACAS, Jan 14 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro insisted that his administration was tackling the issue of malnourishment suffered by nearly 2.3 million people nationwide, according to the government’s latest reports.

Maduro said that more work was required to help citizens who are not guaranteed a proper diet and underlined the notorious improvement from figures recorded in 2017 when nearly 11 million people were in this condition.

BRASILIA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Brazil's former Justice Minister Anderson Torres, who was in charge of public security in Brasilia during the invasion of government buildings a week ago, was arrested in Brasilia on Saturday on suspicion of "omission" and "connivance".

Torres was arrested after returning to Brazil on Saturday. He had been on vacation in Florida, the same U.S. state his ex-boss, former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, had traveled to after losing last year's election.

Demosthenes Torres, one of Torres' lawyers, confirmed the arrest to Reuters.

LIMA, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- A total of 41 civilians and one police officer have died during nationwide clashes between supporters of former President Pedro Castillo and security forces in Peru that have lasted more than a month, the Attorney General's Office said Friday.

In the wave of protests, especially in the southern region, 531 people were injured, including 355 civilians and 176 National Police agents, while 329 people have been arrested, the office said in a statement.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s president is seeking to suspend arrest orders against some of the country’s biggest criminal suspects, including at least one individual wanted in the U.S. on narcotics charges, as part of an ambitious plan to dismantle armed groups that have long dominated the countryside.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court has agreed to investigate whether former president Jair Bolsonaro incited the far-right mob that ransacked the country’s Congress, top court and presidential offices, a swift escalation in the probe that shows the ex-leader could face legal consequences for an extremist movement he helped build.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The horde of rioters who invaded government buildings on Jan. 8 in an attack on Brazil’s democracy left behind a trail of destruction whose full scope is only now coming into full view.

Following a painstaking survey of the ruins, the national artistic heritage institute on Thursday night released a 50-page report, the bulk of which is a photographic catalog of the damages. They go far beyond the shattered glass on the exteriors of the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, all architectural icons.

SAN CARLOS, Bolivia (AP) — Outside Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s most populous city, the highway starts to resemble a parking lot with dozens of cargo-laden trucks stopped in a long line as exhausted-looking drivers wait by the side of the road. Wet clothing hangs from the windows of some trucks.

The vehicles are blocked by large mounds of sand piled on the highway as it passes through the town of San Carlos, 68 miles (110 kilometers) from Santa Cruz. No cars or trucks pass the mounds, only motorcycles transporting people.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A group of 46 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday demanding former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s diplomatic visa be canceled in the wake of the rampage in Brazil’s capital by his supporters.

MIAMI (AP) — The map was called “Beach Trip” and was blasted out to more than 18,000 members of a public Telegram channel called, in Portuguese, “Hunting and Fishing.”

But instead of outdoor recreation tips, the 43 pins spread across the map of Brazil pointed to cities where bus transportation to the capital could be found for what promoters promised would a huge “party” on Jan. 8.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Protests against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte’s government that have left 48 people dead since they began a month ago spread through the south of the Andean country on Wednesday with new clashes reported in the tourist city of Cusco.

Health officials in Cusco said 37 civilians and six police officers were injured after protesters tried to take over the city’s airport, where many foreign tourists arrive to see sites including the nearby Incan citadel of Machu Picchu.