South America

CARACAS, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) —The Venezuelan military will escort Iranian tankers delivering much-needed petrol to the country to prevent any attempt by the US to stop them.

Five vessels are on the high seas and are due to arrive in the coming days.

Venezuela’s defence minister said they would be “welcomed” into its exclusive economic zone, which extends 370km from its shores.

The US, which has imposed sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, is reportedly considering steps to deter shipments.

SANTIAGO, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has left an extra 11.5 million people unemployed in Latin America, the United Nations and the International Labour Organization said.

The new estimate from the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the ILO would mean a total of 37.7 million people in the region are now unemployed.

LA PAZ, May 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Bolivia’s health minister has been arrested on suspicion of corruption related to the over-priced purchase of ventilators to fight COVID-19, the police chief said.

Marcelo Navajas was detained by police in La Paz, Colonel Ivan Rojas said, a day after interim President Jeanine Anez ordered an investigation.

Two other health ministry officials have also been arrested.

Bolivia bought 179 ventilators from a manufacturer in Spain for $27,683 each, costing almost $5 million.

LIMA, May 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Peru has become the second Latin American country after Brazil to reach 100,000 coronavirus cases, according to health ministry figures.

The number of dead from COVID-19 has also passed 3,000, with only Brazil and Mexico having suffered more.

Both cases and deaths have tripled since April 30.

The dire statistics come even though Peru has been in lockdown for nine weeks, paralyzing the economy.

The vast majority of cases are in Lima and its port Callao, where one third of the country’s 32 million people live.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Faustino López was terrified after his wife, Angélica, was hospitalized with the coronavirus last month.

Deeply shaken by seeing her so seriously ill after 45 years of marriage, and worried about falling sick himself, López moved from their bed to the living room couch, and wept as he watched news of the pandemic spreading through Peru. Then he lost his sense of taste and began to shiver with fever. A test came back positive for the virus.

SANTIAGO, May 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Police and protesters clashed in Santiago amid a city-wide lockdown meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus as local officials warned that food shortages had hit one of the Chilean capital’s poorest neighborhoods.

A group of protesters threw rocks, shouted and burned piles of wood along a street in the destitute neighborhood on Santiago’s southern fringe. Images on social media and local television showed police spraying tear gas and water cannons to disperse the growing crowd.

SANTIAGO, May 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Around half of Chile’s 50-member senate and four ministers have been placed in quarantine after coming into contact with at least three colleagues infected with the novel coronavirus, officials said.

Finance Minister Ignacio Briones and Chief of Staff Felipe Ward both wrote on Twitter that they had tested negative for the virus but were in quarantine until a second test is conducted.

19 May 2020; AFP: Around half of Chile's 50-member senate and four ministers have been placed in quarantine after coming into contact with at least three colleagues infected with the novel coronavirus, officials said Monday, as jobless protesters in a poor area of Santiago clashed with police to demand food aid.

Finance Minister Ignacio Briones and Chief of Staff Felipe Ward both wrote on Twitter that they had tested negative for the virus but were in quarantine until a second test is conducted.

SAO PAULO, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The mayor of Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo, has said its health system could collapse as demand grows for emergency beds to deal with coronavirus cases.

Bruno Covas said the city’s public hospitals had reached 90% and could run out of space in about two weeks.

São Paulo is one of the country’s worst-hit regions, with almost 3,000 deaths so far.

On Saturday, Brazil overtook Spain and Italy to become the nation with the fourth-largest number of infections.

QUITO, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The first case of the novel coronavirus has been detected in one of Ecuador’s indigenous Amazon tribes, the health ministry said.

Waorani organisations – speaking through the GO Alliance for Human Rights in Ecuador (DDHH) – warned COVID-19’s spread could be “catastrophic and highly lethal” for their community, which is vulnerable to diseases.

The first case reported in the Waorani tribe is a “pregnant woman, 17 years old, who began to show symptoms on May 4”, the ministry said in a statement.