South America

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian lawmakers on Saturday unanimously approved a measure calling for new presidential elections that would exclude former leader Evo Morales — a key step toward pacifying a nation rocked by unrest since an Oct. 20 marred by reported irregularities.

The bill was first approved by the Senate and then later in the day by the lower house, both of which are dominated by Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party. Interim President Jeanine Áñez tweeted that she would promulgate the bill into law Sunday morning.

23 November 2019; AFP: Bolivia's caretaker government on Friday filed a complaint accusing Evo Morales of "sedition and terrorism" after the ex-president allegedly called on supporters to maintain blockades in the crisis-hit country.

Interior Minister Arturo Murillo referred the case to federal prosecutors in La Paz, which has been choked by road blocks for weeks, causing food and fuel shortages in the seat of government.

23 November 2019; AFP: Protesters picketed the home of Colombian President Ivan Duque on Friday, defying a curfew and the leader's promises of a "national conversation" on social policies following massive anti-government demonstrations that have left three dead and dozens wounded.

BRASILIA, Nov 23 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazil’s conservative president Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday launched a new political party called the Alliance for Brazil, which will put an emphasis on God, family and homeland, as he tries to win back evangelical voters.

“If I had done this sooner, we would have gotten 100 deputies and a senator elected in each state,” Bolsonaro said at a formal launch event in a luxury hotel in the capital Brasilia.

SAO PAULO (AP) — A fired-up former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, freshly out of jail, vowed to fight Brazil’s far-right government and the forces he says unjustly incarcerated him, saying he would make “their lives hell.”

“They don’t know what it is to face a 74-year-old passionate man,” da Silva, who governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010, and became one of the world’s most popular politicians before being ensnared in corruption scandals, told cheering supporters late Friday.

Bogota, Nov 22, AFP/GANASHAKTI: Tens of thousands of Colombians took to the streets of the capital Bogota on Thursday amid a general strike to protest the policies of President Ivan Duque's right-wing government.

There were reports of clashes and arrests as trade unions, students, opposition parties and the South American country's indigenous organisations challenged the full gamut of Duque's economic, social and security policies.

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Supporters of ousted Bolivian leader Evo Morales marched into the capital La Paz on Thursday carrying coffins of people killed in clashes with the military and police, drawing attention to the human cost of the crisis gripping the South American nation.

Security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowds after demonstrators placed one protester’s coffin and an effigy of interim President Jeanine Anez on top of an armored military vehicle and tried to enter the square where the presidential palace is located, a Reuters witness said.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 21 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, officially left the Social Liberal Party (PSL) on Tuesday, as he prepared to launch his own political party.

Bolsonaro joined PSL last year, to take part in the presidential race. However, he and Luciano Bivar, PSL president, have been at odds for months now, and their disagreements culminated in Bolsonaro’s decision to leave the party.

EL ALTO, Bolivia (Reuters) - In the high-altitude Bolivian city of El Alto, perched on barren steppe above the capital, indigenous activists have led the fight for the return of unseated president Evo Morales.

Hundreds have blockaded a major power plant and fought deadly battles with security forces.

Others have marched down into La Paz carrying the colorful Wiphala - a checkered flag symbolic of Andean ethnic groups - to pressure conservative caretaker President Jeanine Anez.

LA PAZ, Nov 19 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — At least two protest marches converged in the center of Cochabamba city on Monday, to demand the resignation of the self-proclaimed interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Añez.

Encouraged by the slogan ‘áAñez Out!,’ protesters carried Bolivian and Wiphala flags with a black ribbon to represent their mourning following the death of nine indigenous protesters during the repression unleashed on Friday by military and police in the area of Huayllani (Sacaba).