Chile

SANTIAGO, May 1 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Chilean and human rights organizations together with former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón filed an accusation before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague against President Sebastián Piñera for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the 2019 protests, it was reported.

(Reuters) --- The director of Chile’s health regulator said he sees no evidence of safety issues with Sputnik V, the COVID-19 vaccine developed in Russia, despite its rejection by the Brazilian health regulator this week over a lack of information about its safety.

SANTIAGO, April 18 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Former conservative Senator Jaime Orpis has been bestowed with the dubious honour of becoming Chile’s first-ever politician to be handed down a jail sentence for his involvement in acts of corruption.

Orpis, of the ultra-conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party, of the current government coalition of President Sebastián Piñera, was sentenced to five years for the crime of tax fraud and 600 days for bribery, as per a lengthy ruling from the nation’s Third Oral Court.

(Reuters) --- Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac was 67% effective in preventing symptomatic infection in the first real-world study of the Chinese shot, the Chilean government said on Friday.

The vaccine was 85% effective in preventing hospitalizations and 80% effective in preventing deaths, the government said in a report prepared by the Chilean health ministry.

SANTIAGO, April 10 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Chile and India are discussing furthering bilateral trade under the so-called Partial Scope Agreement (PSA). Authorities from both countries held a series of virtual encounters that concluded on Friday.

Heading Chile’s delegation is Felipe Lopeandía, general director of bilateral economic affairs within the Undersecretariat of International Economic Relations (Subrei) while leading India’s team is Assistant Commerce Secretary Suresh Kumar.

SANTIAGO, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The Chilean Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that it will strengthen the search for new variants of COVID-19, with the genomic sequencing of 500 samples a week to investigate the cause of the new wave of infections that is affecting the country.

"So far, the Brazilian and the British variants have been detected in Chile. We were doing 176 sequences a week and, for next week, we are going to sequence 500 samples to try to search for any new or strange strains that may explain the increase in cases," said Minister of Health Enrique Paris.

SANTIAGO, March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Chile’s president Sebastian Pinera said that his government had signed a new deal with CanSino Biologics for its one-dose coronavirus vaccine as the South American nation vaults ahead with one of the world’s fastest inoculation drives.

Pinera said in a televised statement that Cansino had agreed to deliver 1.8 million doses of the vaccine in May and June.

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.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — After being among the world’s hardest-hit nations with COVID-19, Chile is now near the top among countries at vaccinating its population against the virus.

With more than 25% of its people having received at least one shot, the country of 19 million on South America’s Pacific coast is the champion of Latin America, and globally it is just behind Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

That’s a far cry from the beginning of the pandemic, when Chile was criticized over its inability to trace and isolate infected people.

SANTIAGO, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chile's President Sebastian Pinera on Friday received the first dose of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac against the novel coronavirus disease, along with those aged 71 and over.

While visiting a community healthcare center in the southern region of Los Rios, where the president spends his austral summer vacations, Pinera joined more than 1.5 million Chileans in receiving at least the first dose of the vaccine.