South America

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The U.N. World Food Program is warning that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.

New projections released late Wednesday estimate a startling increase: Whereas 3.4 million experienced severe food insecurity in 2019, that number could more than quadruple this year in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions.

CARACAS, May 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuela’s Supreme Court approved opposition member Luis Parra as parliament speaker after a tense, months-long stand-off with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who also claims the role.

The court, made up of loyalists to President Nicolas Maduro, declared Parra’s claim “valid,” it said in a statement. Guaido has dismissed Parra as “an accomplice to dictatorship.”

The National Assembly parliament is the only Venezuelan branch of government in opposition hands.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden said Tuesday that wearing a mask in public to combat the spread of the coronavirus is a sign of leadership and called President Donald Trump a “fool” who was “stoking deaths” for suggesting otherwise.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Defying dire predictions, Venezuela so far seems to have avoided the coronavirus wave striking much of South America.

But experts warn that while the virus may have been slow to spread here, due in large part to Venezuela’s isolation, the number of daily illnesses could soon climb high enough to severely test the country’s already dilapidated health system.

TEHRAN, May 25 (IRNA-NNN) — The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that the first of five Iranian oil tankers headed to Venezuela has berthed at the country’s port ignoring US warnings.

Quoting TankerTrackers tweet, IRNA said the Iranian oil tanker had loaded 43 million liters of gasoline from southern Iranian port of Shahid Rajaei in mid-March.

So far there has been no indication of any interference from the US on the fuel delivery. The remaining vessels are expected to arrive Venezuela in the next few days.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — With Brazil emerging as one of the world’s most infected countries, President Jair Bolsonaro is deflecting all responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, casting blame on mayors, governors, an outgoing health minister and the media.

CARACAS (Reuters) - The first of five Iranian tankers carrying fuel for gasoline-starved Venezuela entered the South American country’s exclusive economic zone on Saturday, despite a U.S. official’s warning that Washington was considering a response to the shipment.

The tanker, named Fortune, reached the country’s waters at around 7:40 p.m. local time (1140 GMT) after passing north of the neighboring dual-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, according to vessel tracking data from Refinitiv Eikon.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 23 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Brazil registered a record number of new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, with 20,803 cases reported, and exceeded 1,000 deaths in one day for the third time, the government said.

According to the Ministry of Health, the total number of confirmed cases rose to 330,890, while deaths in the country rose to 21,048, with a daily increase of 1,001, which put the fatality rate at 6.4 percent.

On Thursday, Brazil established another record by registering 1,188 deaths in one day.

23 May 2020; AFP: Brazilians got a shocking look Friday at an expletive-laced meeting between President Jair Bolsonaro and his cabinet when a Supreme Court judge released a video at the center of an investigation targeting the far-right leader.

The April 22 cabinet meeting is under scrutiny by prosecutors probing allegations by former justice minister Sergio Moro that Bolsonaro tried to interfere in federal police investigations.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 22 (NNN-Xinhua) — Brazilian police have confiscated a record 28 tons of marijuana discovered inside a truck near the border with neighboring Paraguay, the Federal Police force said.

The largest ever drug bust in Brazil took place on Wednesday, in an area between the towns of Tacuru and Iguatemi, in south Mato Grosso do Sul state.

Authorities uncovered the cache of drugs after a routine inspection of a hotel in the border city of Ponta Pora, where a guest behaved suspiciously when questioned by police officers.