South America

LA PAZ, Jul 13 (NNN-XINHUA) – At least 24 people died and another 10 were injured, after a public transportation bus plunged into a ravine, more than 100 metres deep in the southern Bolivian department of Chuquisaca, police and medical workers said.

The director of the Traffic Operational Unit, Colonel Jose Luis Assaf, told reporters, the number of fatal victims may rise due to the severity of their injuries.

BUENOS AIRES, July 11 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — After rumours of all kinds, it was announced that Argentina would gradually increase the number of travellers who may come back to the country through the Ezeiza international airport in Buenos Aires.

Before June 25, the limit was set at 2,000 passengers a day, but it was brought down to 600 in a drastic move to keep the Delta variant of the coronavirus at bay. That measure was in force until Friday July 9 and, so sudden as it was, it ended up leaving over 10,000 Argentines stranded abroad.

BRASILIA, July 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s disapproval rating passed 50 percent for the first time, according to a poll published by the Datafolha Institute, marking a new low in the far-right leader’s declining popularity.

Bolsonaro’s gap to former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of next year’s elections also increased from 18 to 21 percentage points.

BRASILIA, July 9 (Reuters) - Brazilian Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco on Friday vehemently rejected any speculation that the 2022 presidential election may not take place, insisting that the constitution will be upheld and the wishes and expectations of the Brazilian people will be met.

Speaking to reporters in the Senate, Pacheco was responding to comments made by President Jair Bolsonaro earlier in the week that he may not accept the result of the election unless the voting system is changed.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s presidential election is 15 months away, yet barely a day passes without President Jair Bolsonaro raising the specter of fraud and warning that he will be entitled to reject the results unless Congress overhauls the voting system.

He has mentioned potential vote fraud more than 20 times in the past two months and even floated the idea of canceling the election altogether.

CARACAS, July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Joe Biden reaffirmed US support for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in a letter Monday even in the midst of efforts to resume negotiations with President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

“Under your leadership and in coalition with civil society leaders you are preserving those ideals of freedom democracy and sovereignty,” Biden wrote in a letter addressed to Guaido and sent through the Office of Venezuelan Affairs in neighboring Colombia, an official in that office said.

SANTIAGO, July 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Delegates chose a woman from Chile’s majority indigenous Mapuche people to lead them in drafting the country’s new constitution – a dramatic turnaround for a group that is unacknowledged in the country’s present rule book.

LIMA, July 4 (NNN-Xinhua) — Peru’s security forces seized a shipment of 236 kilograms of cocaine at the port of the coastal province of Callao, the Anti-Drug Directorate of the National Police reported on Saturday.

According to the police report, the drugs seized were discovered inside a container at the port’s APM Terminals and were destined for the city of Antwerp in Belgium.

“Inside, four suitcases were found with a total of approximately 236 kilos of cocaine,” explained the Anti-Drug Directorate.

SANTIAGO, July 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Chile officially starts writing a new constitution Sunday to replace the one it inherited from the era of dictator Augusto Pinochet and is widely blamed for deep social inequalities that gave rise to deadly protests in 2019.

The country’s biggest protests in 30 years of democracy won Chileans a referendum last October in which a majority voted for a new constitution to be drawn up by a body of elected members.

LIMA, July 4 (NNN-TELESUR) — The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) of Peru extended the suspension of flights from India, Brazil and South Africa to limit the chances of spreading in its nation territory the new variants of COVID-19 originating in these countries.

The Ministerial Resolution 636-2021-MTC/01, published on Thursday, establishes the new extension that runs until July 15 and that at the end may be renewed in the case that the conditions in these countries continue to deterioriate.