South America

SANTIAGO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Chile's capital Santiago braced for protests on Monday to mark the second anniversary of the start of months of riots against inequality that left around 30 people dead and a trail of destruction around the city.

The 2019 protests - a mix of large, peaceful marches and smaller, violent riots - triggered a powerful social shift in the Andean country and led to the formation of a representative assembly to redraft the market-oriented constitution.

LIMA, Oct 17 (NNN-XINHUA) — Eight people were killed and 20 others were injured after a bus collided with two vehicles on Saturday in the southern department of Arequipa, Peru, local media reported.

  The bus, belonging to the company Tuti Tours, was coming from the province of Caylloma when it lost control and collided with two other vehicles, Radio Programs of Peru cited the National Police as saying.

  Local media said that six people died at the scene and another two died after being transferred to the San Juan de Dios medical center.

QUITO, Oct 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four inmates were found dead Thursday at the same Ecuadorian prison where 119 prisoners were killed in the country’s deadliest inmate riot two weeks ago, the prison authority said.

The SNAI national prison service said on Twitter that the deaths were the result of “alleged suicide.”

The prison service added that “security protocols” had been activated at the penitentiary in the southern coastal city of Guayaquil after the bodies were found at dawn.

BRASILIA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Brazil and other Latin American countries are coming under undue pressure to take steps to preserve the Amazon rainforest, Brazil's Vice President Hamilton Mourao said on Friday.

Addressing the virtual Third Presidential Summit of the Leticia Pact for the Amazon, Mourao said pact members need to unite against "scientifically groundless" pressure that seeks to "unduly transfer to our countries responsibility for necessary actions to reverse climate change and the loss of biodiversity."

Sao Paulo, Oct 9 (AP-PTI) Bars in Sao Paulo are full again for evening happy hours, lawmakers in the capital of Brasilia have nearly done away with video sessions via Zoom, and Rio de Janeiro's beaches are packed. Calls for strict social distancing seem but a memory.

BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Argentina has recently approved the emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm for children aged between three and 11.

The country's health minister Carla Vizzotti made the announcement last week. There are approximately 6 million children in that age group.

Vizzotti also noted Argentina plans to finish vaccinating people aged over three years old by the end of this year.

Education officials said they expect the move to help resume in-person learning in Argentina.

BRASILIA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Gearing up for Brazil's election campaign next year, former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday visited garbage dump scavengers who are now working at a recycling plant.

Lula, a former union leader who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, is expected to challenge far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, though neither has officially declared their candidacy.

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 6 (NNN-Xinhua) — Seven people, including four minors, died in a house fire on Tuesday in the Argentine city of Bahia Blanca, some 635 km south of Buenos Aires, police said.

The fire started in the front part of the house, located in the Villa Ressia neighborhood of the major port city.

“The victims sought refuge in a back room, but could not get out because the window had a grille on it,” a local newspaper reported.

“We responded to a 911 call about a fire,” the head of the Bahia Blanca Police Department Gonzalo Bezos said.

SANTIAGO, Oct 5 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — An operation codenamed ‘Frontera Norte’ has allowed Chile’s Criminal Investigations Police (Policía de Investigaciones – PDI) to arrest nine suspected members of a migrant smuggling ring following an investigation supported by INTERPOL and law enforcement across South and Central America.

BRASILIA, Oct 4 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazilian voters are to go out Sunday to choose 19 new Mayors in six states after the Electoral Court has banned those chosen in 2020 to take office, citing legal grounds.

 Sunday’s outcome is believed to yield some concrete evidence on the country’s current political atmosphere, particularly in São Paulo, where President Jair Bolsonaro has recently staged demonstrations supporting him.