South America

BOGOTA, Jan 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Colombia’s government has agreed to a six-month ceasefire with the five largest armed groups operating in the country, President Gustavo Petro announced.

Petro, the country’s first left-wing president, has pledged to end the Andean nation’s internal conflict, which has run for almost six decades killing at least 450,000 people between 1985 and 2018.

BRASILIA, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be sworn in as president of Brazil on Sunday under tightened security in the Brazilian capital following threats of violence by supporters of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

The ceremony in Congress begins at 3 p.m. (1800 GMT), after which Lula will go the Planalto palace to don the presidential sash before a crowd of 30,000 supporters, while some 300,000 are expected to gather to celebrate on Brasilia's esplanade.

SAO PAULO, Dec 31 (NNN-AGENCIA BRASIL) — At least seven people have been killed in one week in the Brazilian state of São Paulo due to heavy rains, Agencia Brasil reported Friday. Five of the victims belonged to the same family in the city of Araraquara.

The heavy rains that hit the state of São Paulo during this week caused the death of seven people between Tuesday and Thursday, according to the state’s Civil Defense authorities.

BRASILIA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro landed in Florida on Friday, after delivering a teary message to his supporters less than two days before his fierce leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to take office.

An official Brazilian plane landed in Orlando, Florida late on Friday, flight tracking website FlightAware showed. Although Bolsonaro's destination has not been officially confirmed, his security staff were already in place in Florida.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Thursday that Sônia Guajajara will head up a new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, with a mandate to oversee policies ranging from land demarcation to health care.

Guajajara was elected to Congress in October. She is widely known as the leader of the main umbrella group for Brazil’s many Indigenous tribes and is a member of the Amazon Guajajara. This year she made Time Magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — With Pelé’s death, Brazilians have lost a piece of their hearts.

On Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach, the news broke when Paulo Vinicius was playing soccer with his 9-year-old nephew.

“Pelé represents the best of Brazil: its people, its working class,” said Vinicius, 38, a physical-education instructor. “Pelé gives a sense of identity to the Brazilian people.”

LA PAZ, Dec 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Bolivian police arrested Luis Fernando Camacho, the governor of the economic powerhouse Santa Cruz region, on “terrorism” charges, setting off street clashes between his supporters and security forces.

“We inform the Bolivian people that the Bolivian police executed an arrest warrant against Luis Fernando Camacho,” Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo said, adding that Camacho was flown to La Paz, the administrative capital, for questioning.

GUANABARA BAY, Dec 29 (Reuters) - On a stormy evening in mid-November, a huge, abandoned cargo ship broke free of its moorings and slowly floated into the massive concrete bridge that carries cars across Brazil's Guanabara Bay to Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil's navy said the 200-meter-long (660-ft.) Sao Luiz, a rust-spattered bulk carrier built in 1994, had been anchored in the bay for more than six years awaiting legal proceedings before it crashed into Latin America's longest over-water bridge. The navy said it was investigating.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) —

Brazil´s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Thursday that Amazon activist Marina Silva will be the country´s next minister of environment. The announcement indicates the new administration will prioritize cracking down on illegal deforestation in the forest even if it means running afoul of powerful agribusiness interests.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Nearly two weeks after Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defeated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil's most fraught election in a generation, Milton Baldin arrived in the capital Brasilia to try to overturn the result.

A small business owner from the deep interior of Brazil, Baldin, 55, joined thousands of hardcore Bolsonaro supporters who had set up an encampment outside army headquarters, from where they were urging the military to stage a coup.