South America

MONTEVIDEO, March 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Uruguay confirmed that it had detected the presence of two coronavirus variants that originated in neighbouring Brazil as the tiny South American nation faces a spike in cases and deaths.

Scientists examined 175 COVID-19 samples taken from around the country and found the Brazilian P1 strain in 24 of them and the P2 variant in four.

CARACAS, March 22 (NNN-TELESUR) — Venezuela’s Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami denounced a new terrorist attack against a gas pipeline of the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA).

The minister announced that terrorist action damaged a gas pipeline section located in Tejero, northern Monagas state.

The plant is used to compress gas and inject it at high pressure into oil wells in El Tejero, La Leona, and La Urica areas.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Protesters against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro defied police in the capital Friday, a day after the latest round of arrests of the leader’s critics under a dictatorship-era national security law.

Four demonstrators were detained Thursday after calling Bolsonaro “genocidal” for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and displaying a cartoon depicting the president as a Nazi. But on Friday, police quietly watched an hour-long protest against Bolsonaro staged by about 40 people.

BOGOTA, March 19 (NNN-TELESUR) — Colombians have rejected the appearance of several posters with xenophobic comments against Venezuelan citizens living in Bogota.

The posters read, “Those rats are killing us. Don’t give them handouts, food, or clothes. Don’t rent them or give them work. Don’t be an accomplice to their crimes.”

The signs were taped on poles and home facades in Bogota’s southwestern communities, where thefts have upsurged in recent weeks.

CAVALCANTE, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s vast size and deficient infrastructure make getting coronavirus vaccines to far-flung communities of Indigenous peoples and descendants of slaves a particularly daunting endeavor.

QUITO, March 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ecuador investigators raided the health ministry on Wednesday as part of a probe into influence peddling against former health minister Juan Carlos Zevallos.

Zevallos resigned last month over a vaccine scandal that saw well-connected individuals, including his mother, jump the queue for their coronavirus jabs.

“In the operation, information is being collected on the vaccination plan and the list of beneficiaries” of immunisation against COVID-19, the public prosecutor’s office said on Twitter.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden wrote to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro last month, outlining opportunities to work together on the pandemic and the environment ahead of the United Nations COP26 climate conference, the Brazilian president’s office said on Thursday.

In the Feb. 26 letter, which was confirmed by a U.S. official, Biden said his government is willing to work closely with Brazil on a new chapter in bilateral relations, adding that there were no limits on what the nations could achieve together, according to the Brazilian president’s office.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Bolivia’s former President Jeanine Anez began a four-month jail term on Monday as investigators probe allegations she helped in a coup that led to the removal of longtime leader Evo Morales from power in 2019.

The arrest of the conservative interim leader - who was in power for less than a year after the ouster of leftist icon Morales - has sparked sharp criticism from human rights groups and the Organization of American States (OAS), who say judicial channels are being abused for political ends.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday picked his fourth health minister since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, amid the worst throes of the disease in the country yet and after a series of errors decried by public health experts.

Marcelo Queiroga, the president of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology, will replace Eduardo Pazuello, an active-duty army general with expertise in logistics who landed the position last May despite having no prior health experience.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is pressing banks to implement digital payment systems as hyperinflation prompts chronic shortages of cash in the bolivar currency, three people familiar with the talks told Reuters.

Maduro has targeted the public transit system - where roughly three-quarters of all circulating cash is spent - as the first stage of a plan he calls “the digital bolivar.” In January, he asked banks to deliver point-of-sale terminals to the Caracas subway system and bus drivers, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.