South America

SANTIAGO, Sept 24 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Chilean migration authorities expelled 49 migrants who were found guilty of human trafficking in addition to carrying weapons illegally, the Department of Migration and International Police of Tarapacá reported.

The measure was adopted as a commutation of sentence, Miguel Ángel Quezada, presidential delegate to Tarapacá explained. The 40 Bolivian and nine Peruvian were arrested in areas near the borders with their countries of origin.

ACANDI, Colombia (AP) — It was 5 a.m. and in dozens of small tents around 500 migrants began showing signs of life, rising, packing their bags and preparing to cross the Darien Gap, the thick jungle teeming with snakes, bandits and treacherous rivers that separates Colombia from Panama.

Over a fire, Emile and Claude cooked some yucca and pasta to take on the six-day journey, along with 20 liters of drinking water for which they paid the steep price of $20. The men declined to provide their last names because they had entered Colombia illegally and feared being fined.

BRASILIA, Sept 13 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazilian carrier Azul will resume flights to Uruguay as of Nov 10 with the reopening of the Porto Alegre-Montevideo route four times a week.

The company will also serve Punta del Este starting Dec 20 from Porto Alegre and Dec 23 from Campinas (Sao Paulo).

Also starting Dec 20, services between Montevideo and Porto Alegre will be daily, the airline has announced.

Azul’s operations in Uruguay were suspended in March 2020, as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 10 (NNN-TELAM) – Argentine President, Alberto Fernandez, said that, climate and environmental action is a priority for the South American country.

“We need environmental social justice, which is the new name for development in our region,” Fernandez said, at the opening of the High-Level Dialogue on Climate Action in the Americas, held in Buenos Aires.

The event, hosted by Argentina, was attended by regional leaders and international organisation officials, among other leaders and special guests.

LIMA, Sept 9 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Peru’s President Pedro Castillo has announced a plant to manufacture the Russian-developed Sputnik V COVID-19 locally will be set up in the country, for which the government has allocated US $ 705 million worth of funding.

Castillo explained the move aimed at helping the country go through a third wave of the disease.

“As a result of negotiations between the Peruvian government and the Russian government, the installation of a Sputnik vaccine production plant in the country has been coordinated,” Castillo said in a broadcast message.

LA PAZ, Sept 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 23 people, including three children, were killed after a bus plunged off a cliff in central Bolivia, police and witnesses said.

    The bus, carrying 33 people, plummeted 400 meters down a cliff in Cochabamba state at around 11 am Monday.

    “I stepped on the brake and there was no brake,” said the driver, whose wife died in the accident.

    The dead also included three children aged one, two and six, according to the police Facebook statement. Five other victims remain to be identified, it added.

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 7 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The Government of Argentina has announced that effective Monday Sept 6, nationals going abroad shall be able to produce the Digital Vaccination Credential (CVD), available through the Mi Argentina app, as an official travel document.

CARACAS, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Ongoing talks between the Venezuelan government and the opposition group are an expression of the country's sovereignty and independence, Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) said as negotiations resumed Friday in Mexico.

"Dialogue, political understanding, peace, diversity and pluralism define these negotiations," the CNE said in a statement, noting that they are "essential values" of Venezuela's national life.

SAO PAULO (AP) — A World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina was suspended amid chaotic scenes after local health officials walked onto the pitch on Sunday in a bid to remove three players who didn’t comply with coronavirus restrictions.

The match featuring Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Neymar was stopped in the 7th minute because of the extraordinary interruption. The referee eventually suspended the game with the score at 0-0 after players, coaches, football officials and local authorities argued for several minutes on the field at NeoQuimica Arena.

SANTIAGO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Latin American and Caribbean region will see economic growth of 5.9 percent in 2021 amid a pandemic that has exacerbated longstanding structural problems in the region, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has said.

In its report titled "Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2021: Labor Dynamics and Employment Policies for a Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery Beyond the COVID-19 Crisis," the organization projected a slowdown for 2022, with an expansion of 2.9 percent.