South America

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said authorities arrested two U.S. citizens among a group of “mercenaries” on Monday, a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 4 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – The Brazilian Ministry of Health, reported on Sunday that, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country has exceeded 100,000, with 7,025 deaths.

According to the latest epidemiological data, the virus has infected 101,147 people and left 7,025 dead.

Over the last 24 hours, there have been 4,588 new confirmed cases, and 275 new deaths.

The fatality rate in Brazil is currently 6.9 percent.

CARACAS, May 4 (NNN-XINHUA) – Venezuelan Interior Minister, Nestor Reverol, announced that, an attempted maritime invasion “by Colombian terrorist mercenaries,” occurred in the central state of La Guaira, to destabilise the country.

He stated that the objective of the attack was “to increase the spiral of violence, generate chaos and confusion in the population, and thereby lead to a new coup attempt.”

4 May 2020; AFP: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro railed against the country's lockdown Sunday in a speech to thousands of anti-confinement demonstrators as the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections passed 100,000, with more than 7,000 deaths.

Bolsonaro blamed state governors for continuing the lockdown in a speech outside his presidential palace in Brasilia.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian Ministry of Health reported on Sunday that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country has exceeded 100,000, with 7,025 deaths.

According to the latest epidemiological data, the virus has infected 101,147 people and left 7,025 dead.

Over the last 24 hours, there have been 4,588 new confirmed cases and 275 new deaths.

The fatality rate in Brazil is currently 6.9 percent.

SAO PAULO, May 3 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – A total of 96,559 COVID-19 cases have been reported, with 6,750 deaths as of Saturday, the health ministry reported.

In the past 24 hours, Brazil registered 4,970 more cases and 421 deaths, becoming the hardest-hit Latin American country, with the highest number of cases and deaths.

The southeast state of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s epicentre of the outbreak, reported 31,174 infections and 2,586 deaths, followed by the state of Rio de Janeiro with 10,546 infections and 971 deaths, according to the ministry.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Human rights groups on Saturday called for an investigation into a prison riot in western Venezuela that left 46 people dead and 75 injured, and questioned authorities’ explanation that the incident was linked to a failed escape attempt.

The U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCR) said on Twitter it was “gravely concerned” about the incident on Friday at the Los Llanos penitentiary in Portuguesa state. The South American country’s prisons are infamous for extreme levels of violence and poor conditions.

SAO PAULO, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Supreme Court Judge Luis Roberto Barroso issued an injunction on Saturday suspending the Foreign Ministry's move to expel 34 Venezuelan diplomats.

According to the injunction, Barroso gave the government 10 days to explain why it set May 2 as the deadline for the diplomats' departure.

Brazil withdrew its diplomats from Venezuela's capital city Caracas on April 17, Reuters reported on Saturday.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 2 (NNN-Xinhua) — The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro opened on Friday its second field hospital to serve patients infected with COVID-19, as the pandemic has put a strain on the city’s public hospital network.

It is the largest field hospital of the nine planned to be installed in the city, with facilities occupying 13,000 square meters at the Riocentro convention center. The new field hospital has 500 hospital beds, including 100 in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 15 for the hemodialysis unit.

QUITO (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund has approved a request from Ecuador for emergency financing to fight the coronavirus pandemic, granting a $643 million loan, the Andean country’s economy ministry said on Friday.

Ecuador has been among the hardest-hit countries in Latin America by the coronavirus, with 24,675 confirmed cases and 883 deaths, plus a further 1,357 deaths that were likely caused by the virus.