South America

MONTEVIDEO, Dec 1 (NNN-Xinhua) — Uruguay’s President-elect Luis Lacalle Pou on Saturday called for “national unity,” saying that during his presidency beginning March 1, he will not seek “to change one half of the country for another.”

In the first speech after his confirmed narrow win in the presidential runoff on Nov. 24, Lacalle Pou said that the five political parties making up his “multicolor” coalition understood the “popular cry” for a different way to run the country.

MONTEVIDEO, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Uruguay's Electoral Court officially proclaimed Luis Lacalle Pou as the country's president-elect on Saturday, after the final ballot inspection was concluded.

"The president and vice president-elect of the republic for the period of March 1, 2020, to March 1, 2025, are hereby proclaimed as the citizens Mr. Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou and Mrs. Beatriz Argimon Cedeira, respectively," the electoral body announced in a statement.

30 November 2019; AFP: Bolivia's interim government will file a case in The Hague against former president Evo Morales for "crimes against humanity," the interior minister announced Friday.

The government will file the lawsuit "in the next few days," the minister, Arturo Murillo, told state radio Patria Nueva.

The International Criminal Court sitting in The Hague has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for crimes against humanity.

BRASÍLIA, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil released revised statistics showing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest surpassed 10,000 sq km in the year to July 2019, the highest in more than a decade.

The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said last week that satellite data showed 9,762 sq km were cleared of trees in the 12-month period, an increase of 29.5 per cent.

MEXICO CITY, Nov 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Pres Donald Trump’s plan to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organisations has ignited a raging debate in Mexico on whether the groups’ horrific violence should be considered terrorism.

Mexicans broadly agree on one thing, though: They don’t want the American president’s help.

PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) — A court in the South American country of Suriname convicted President Desi Bouterse on Friday in the 1982 killings of 15 political opponents and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

The decision by a panel of three judges marks the end of a historic trial that began in November 2007, although it was not immediately clear what happens next.

The judges did not issue an arrest order, and Bouterse’s attorney, Irvin Kanhai, immediately appealed the decision, calling it a “political verdict.”

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Without offering proof, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday said actor Leonardo DiCaprio had funded nonprofit groups that he claimed are partly responsible for fires in the Amazon this year.

Bolsonaro’s remarks about the American actor were part of a wider government campaign against environmental nonprofit groups operating in Brazil.

“DiCaprio is a cool guy, isn’t he? Giving money to set the Amazon on fire,” the president said to supporters in Brasilia.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Supporters cheered late Friday as once-powerful opposition leader and two-time Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori left the prison where she had been held while being investigated for alleged corruption. Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal approved her release.

Smiling broadly, the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori walked out of the women’s prison in the Lima district of Chorrillos and was handed a bouquet of roses by her husband, Mark Villanella, who had been on a hunger strike demanding her release.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday congratulated Uruguay's president-elect Luis Lacalle Pou over phone on his victory in the election, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"President Bolsonaro wished success to President Lacalle Pou in carrying out the mandate granted by the Uruguayans and affirmed his willingness to work towards the wellbeing of both nations," said the statement.

Bolsonaro also invited Lacalle Pou to visit Brazil soon, it said.

27 November 2019; AFP: Chile's national police committed "serious human rights violations" as weeks of violent demonstrations across the South American country claimed 25 lives, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday in a report calling for reform of the force.

HRW said the police, known as Carabineros, "committed serious human rights violations, including excessive use of force in the streets and abuses in detention," during the protests.