South America

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Argentina’s government approved a package of emergency measures aimed at lifting the South American country out of its worst economic crisis in years.

Argentina is in a recession caused by a currency collapse that struck 18 months ago.

Poverty levels in the country of 44 million still top 40 per cent – in a country that was among the world’s wealthiest in the early 20th century.

BRASILIA, Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized after suffering a fall at his official residence in Brasilia, the latest health scare for the 64-year-old, his office said.

Local media reported that Bolsonaro hit his head when he slipped in a bathroom at the Alvorada Palace.

He was taken to the Armed Forces Hospital where he underwent a cranial CT scan, “which did not detect any changes,” his communications office said in a statement.

The rightwing leader will remain at the hospital for observation, the statement added.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Tour operator Alejandro Palacios joined hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protesting in the streets early this year, wanting to believe that things would finally change in the country as upstart opposition leader Juan Guaidó rallied international support and promised a swift end to President Nicolás Maduro’s rule.

To Palacios, Guaidó seemed different from the string of past opposition leaders who had challenged Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, over 20 years of increasingly authoritarian socialist rule.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - The commander-in-chief of the Chilean Air Force has warned that the struggle to recover the remains of a Hercules that crashed en route to the Antarctic two weeks ago could make it difficult to ever determine what happened to the plane.

The Hercules C-130 cargo plane, which was carrying 17 crew members and 21 passengers, disappeared shortly after taking off on Dec. 9 from the southern city of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia.

La Paz (Reuters) - Bolivian former President Evo Morales on Saturday appealed for his supporters to attend a rally on the border between Argentina and Bolivia on Dec. 29 to choose a candidate for Bolivia’s election early next year.

In an interview with Argentine radio, Morales, who has sought political asylum in Argentina, said he had called the meeting of the Movement for Socialism party, which he helmed for 14 years as president.

“We will choose our candidate with a view to the upcoming elections in Bolivia,” Morales told Radio La Network.

BUENOS AIRES, December 21. /TASS/: Former Bolivian President Evo Morales will be immediately arested if he crosses the country's border, Justice Minister Alvaro Coimbra said on Friday.

"The arrest warrant for the ex-president has already been issued, and migration authorities across Bolivia have been notified, along with other relevant services. If citizen Evo Morales enters the country, he will be arrested," Coimbra told Agencia Boliviana de Informacion.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The reduction of Brazil's basic interest rate Selic will save the Brazilian government 110 billion reals (26.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday.

"Next year, we will pay 110 billion reals less in interest rates due to the fall in the Selic rate," the president told reporters. "We are recuperating Brazil. It is not an easy task."

The Selic rate has been cut four times this year from 6.5 percent to record-low 4.5 percent.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s Congress late on Tuesday approved the federal government’s budget for next year, based on projected economic growth of 2.32%, with the bill passing to President Jair Bolsonaro for final approval.

The budget totals 3.867 trillion reais ($921.50 billion) with 917.1 billion reais allotted for refinancing public debt.

It also makes provision for raising the minimum monthly wage to 1,031 reais ($246) from 998 reais.

ALTAMIRA, Brazil (AP) — Edizangela Alves Barros believed that being forced to relocate to make way for a mammoth dam in Brazil’s Amazon would mean a brighter future for her family.

Instead, their newly built settlement has more expensive electricity bills and intermittent public lighting -- a cruel irony for a community just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the world’s third-biggest hydroelectric dam.

“We left our wooden houses to live in concrete houses, but our economic situation got worse,” Alves Barros, a mother of five, said in an interview.

PUNTA ARENAS (Chile), Dec 17 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The Royal Navy vessel HMS Scott arrived to provide support to the Chilean military in their response to the loss of a C130 military plane that went missing earlier in the week in the Southern Atlantic Ocean.

British Forces’ South Atlantic Islands, based in the Falklands Islands and Falkland Island Governement have provided assistance to the search effort working with regional neighbors.