South America

SAO PAULO, May 23 (Reuters) - Former Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, who won the presidential primary for the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), said on Monday he was dropping out of the race, as centrist parties keep up their search for a strong candidate in a polarized election.

Doria, who stepped down as governor to run, threw in the towel after opinion surveys for the October election showed him consistently with just 2-3% of voter support.

"I understand that I am not the choice of the PSDB leadership," Doria told reporters.

BRASILIA, May 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's top public prosecutor said President Jair Bolsonaro has committed no crime by questioning the legitimacy of the voting system or suggesting he might not concede defeat in the October elections as former U.S. President Donald Trump did in 2020.

Prosecutor General Augusto Aras, appointed by Bolsonaro in 2019, said in an interview with Reuters that threatening not to accept defeat was political rhetoric and not in itself a prosecutable crime.

CARACAS, May 23 (Reuters) - Iranian state firms have started preparations to revamp Venezuela's largest oil refinery, the 955,000-barrel-per-day Paraguana Refining Center, four people close to the talks said, following a contract to repair its smallest facility.

A deal would deepen an energy relationship that has become a lifeline for Venezuela's dilapidated oil industry amid a crisis caused by decades of mismanagement and underinvestment, and aggravated by U.S. sanctions on the South American country.

FUSAGASUGA, Colombia (AP) — Flanked by bodyguards with bulletproof shields, Gustavo Petro stood on a stage and lashed out at Colombia’s political elite in a speech to the residents of Fusagasuga, a rural town where farmers are struggling.

The leftist presidential candidate spoke of the need to protect local farmers from heavily subsidized foreign competitors. In the crowded public square, supporters waving the flags of opposition parties cheered when Petro promised to oust a political class that “prefers to work with criminals.”

SAO PAULO, May 20 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called Elon Musk's proposed takeover of Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) a "breath of hope" as the two met in Brazil on Friday, adding he hoped the U.S. billionaire would help end the "lies" about his widely criticized stewardship of the Amazon rainforest.

Bolsonaro and Musk, the CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and rocket company SpaceX, met to discuss rural internet connectivity and monitoring of the Amazon. The meeting comes at a sensitive time for both men.

QUITO, May 20 (Reuters) - Ecuador's former vice-president Jorge Glas, who served 4-1/2 years in prison on a bribery conviction before being released last month, was arrested on Friday by police under a court order to return him to jail.

Earlier in the day a tribunal annulledthe decision that freed him in April and ordered him back into custody.

SAO PAULO, May 18 (Reuters) - COVID-19 is on the rise again in the Americas as many countries have abandoned measures like masking and social distancing and many lag in vaccination rates, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.

Cases in the Americas surged 27.2% last week from the prior one, driven primarily by a spike in infections in the United States, according to PAHO.

BRASILIA, May 18 (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Dias Toffoli on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by President Jair Bolsonaro against justice Alexandre de Moraes, saying there was no fair cause for it to go forward, according to a decision reviewed by Reuters.

Bolsonaro announced late on Tuesday he was suing Moraes for abuse of authority, citing alleged "attacks on democracy," marking the latest episode in a running showdown between the president and the court that could spill into the country's upcoming presidential election.

SANTIAGO, May 16 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Chile’s Constitutional Convention published the draft of the text it penned to replace the Carta Magna inherited from 1980 and which was inspired by former military dictator Augusto Pinochet.

BUENOS AIRES, May 16 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentina has been invited by Chinese president Xi Jinping to participate in three BRICS events taking place in the coming four weeks. The first will be a get-together of political parties, social organizations and think tanks, a second on May 20th, is a summit of foreign ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, BRICS full members, and the Argentine minister guest. Finally, on June24 a summit of the five-plus one leaders is scheduled.