South America

SAO PAULO, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday that Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio Freitas will run for governor of Sao Paulo state in next year's elections.

In televised remarks to journalists outside the presidential palace in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said Freitas would run on the ticket of the center-right Liberal Party (PL), which Bolsonaro joined in November.

"It's certain that Tarcisio will be our candidate," he said.

SANTIAGO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Left-leaning candidate Gabriel Boric won the Chilean presidential election on Sunday, after his rival -- right-wing candidate Jose Antonio Kast -- conceded, making him the youngest elected president in Chile's history.

"I congratulated him on his great triumph. From today, he is the elected president of Chile and deserves all our respect and constructive collaboration," Kast wrote on Twitter.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Former leftist student leader Gabriel Boric will be under quick pressure from his youthful supporters to fulfill his promises to remake Chile after the millennial politician scored a historic victory in the country’s presidential runoff election.

Boric spent months traversing up and down Chile vowing to bring a youth-led form of inclusive government to attack nagging poverty and inequality that he said are the unacceptable underbelly of a free market model imposed decades ago by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chileans were electing their next president Sunday following a polarizing campaign between a free-market firebrand likened to Donald Trump and a millennial former student protest leader who promises to attack nagging inequality in Latin America’s most advanced economy.

BRASILIA, Dec 18 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Good and bad news for Brazil’s beef exports. China finally lifted the ban on Brazilian beef and allowed the resumption of shipments to the great Asian market. But several of the main retailers in Britain and the European Union have announced the banning of Brazilian beef in their shelves because meat processors are using cattle linked to the Amazon and Pantanal deforestation.

BRASILIA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro had a "direct and relevant" role in spreading disinformation about the country's electoral process during live streams on social media, a federal police document reviewed by Reuters on Friday said.

Federal police commissioner Denisse Ribeiro wrote in the document that Bolsonaro's streams had a "clear purpose" of misguiding Brazilians in regards to the integrity of the country's elections.

SANTIAGO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Chilean voters are split on what they want from the future ahead of a landmark presidential election on Sunday between polarized candidates - one offering social change and the other pledging to get tough on law and order.

The election will see ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast and leftist Gabriel Boric go head-to-head after closing their campaigns this week, where they looked to win over middle-ground voters who could make the difference in a tight race.

BOGOTA, Dec 15 (NNN-XINHUA) – At least three people were killed, including two policemen and a civilian, when two explosive devices detonated at the Cucuta international airport, in north-eastern Colombia, Defence Minister, Diego Molano, confirmed yesterday.

The official explained that the first device exploded on a civilian and minutes later, two police officers died, while trying to deactivate another explosive device.

COLCHANE, Chile (AP) — A merciless sun seared the migrants as they walked through one of the driest places in the world, trying to illegally cross the border from Bolivia into Chile fearing it might soon be closed.

It has become common in recent months to see migrants trudging across the Atacama Desert but the flow appears to have increased in recent days ahead of Chile’s presidential runoff Sunday. The migrants fear that if far-right candidate José Antonio Kast wins he will close the border as he promised during his campaign.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian police killed at least 11 people during protests that broke out in September of last year, following the death of a taxi driver who was beaten to death while in police custody, a report backed by the United Nations found.