South America

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 13 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Distribution of the Russian developed Sputnik V vaccine manufactured in Argentina started Thursday with the first batch of 1.14 million doses, it was reported.

The lot includes 995,125 doses of component 1 and 152,500 doses of component 2 produced locally with ingredients supplied by the Gamaleya Institute of Russia.

BRASILIA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell 10% in July from a year earlier, after four straight monthly increases, preliminary data showed on Friday, but destruction remains far higher than before President Jair Bolsonaro took office.

Cleared forest in the month of July totaled 1,498 square km (578 square miles), nearly twice the size of New York City, according to government space research agency INPE.

From January to July, deforestation in the Amazon was up 7.8% from a year ago to 5,108 square kilometers, INPE data showed.

BUENOS AIRES/MONTEVIDEO, Aug 11 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Uruguay will start allowing foreigners in as of Sept 1 while Argentina announced the reopening of its common land borders is being eyed for Sept 6, as tourism seems headed for a gradual return to pre-pandemic levels.

Argentina’s National Migrations Director Florencia Carignano explained Monday the international crossings will enforce a sanitary protocol similar to the one at the Ezeiza airport and that the measure will also include paths to and from Chile.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — President Jair Bolsonaro suffered a major defeat in Congress when Brazilian lawmakers didn’t adopt his proposal to require printed receipts from some electronic ballot boxes.

Bolsonaro has insisted printed receipts are needed to avoid fraud, without providing any evidence that Brazil’s electronic voting system is prone to cheating. His allies needed 308 votes to pass the proposed constitutional change, but got only 229 Tuesday night.

LIMA, Aug 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Some two thousand people took to the streets of downtown Lima on Saturday to call on Peru’s Congress to remove leftist president Pedro Castillo and his cabinet.

Peru’s first leader in decades with no ties to the country’s political or economic elite, Castillo was sworn in on July 28 with a lengthy to-do list, including plans to reform the country’s free-market-friendly constitution.

SANTIAGO, Aug 8 (NNN-Xinhua) — Chile continued to register below 1,000 daily cases of COVID-19 after reporting 940 infections in the last 24 hours.

“940 new cases have been reported, with a positivity of 1.4 percent in the last 24 hours nationwide,” Health Minister Enrique Paris told the press.

However, the official stressed the importance of continued vigilance against the virus.

CARACAS, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Venezuela's ruling Socialist Party on Sunday holds a primary to choose candidates for November elections for governors and mayors, an election that may see the return of opposition political parties that have boycotted recent ballots.

Allies of President Nicolas Maduro will vie for the chance to be elected to 23 state and 335 governments municipal governments that have a been a key element of the Socialist Party's dominance of the country's politics.

LIMA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Peru's new Prime Minister Guido Bellido told Reuters on Saturday that the state plans to participate in key industries, including natural gas and new hydroelectric projects, under a new leftist administration.

Bellido, the top aide to newly inaugurated President Pedro Castillo, said the government will also seek to create new public companies, a shift for the Andean nation which in recent decades has focused on divesting its state-controlled corporations.

BRASILIA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - When U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday, he brought a message from Washington: Don't mess around with elections.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that the Biden administration raised concerns over Bolsonaro's unfounded claims of fraud in Brazil's all-electronic voting system and his threat not to accept the results of next year's election if the system is not changed.

BRASILIA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Brazil refuted on Saturday the wrong remarks made by spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Brazil Tobias Bradford on Chinese tech firm Huawei.

Bradford issued on Friday a statement on U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's visit to Brazil, claiming that the United States expressed strong concerns about Huawei's potential role in the field of communications facilities in Brazil and other countries.