South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — What many deemed impossible just months ago is reality: Right-wing populist Javier Milei resoundingly won Argentina’s presidency.

And with his victory Sunday night, the fiery freshman lawmaker has thrust the country into the unknown regarding just how extreme his policies will be, following a campaign that saw him revving a chainsaw to symbolically cut the state down to size.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — His legions of fans call him “the crazy” and “the wig” due to his ferocity and unruly mop of hair, while he refers to himself as “the lion.” He thinks sex education is a Marxist plot to destroy the family, views his cloned mastiffs as his “children with four paws” and has raised the possibility people should be allowed to sell their own vital organs.

He is Javier Milei, Argentina’s next president.

BUENOS AIRES, November 20. /TASS/. Minister of Economy of Argentina Sergio Massa congratulated his adversary Javier Milei with victory in the presidential elections.

"I contacted Javier Milei to congratulate him and to wish him luck, because he is the president that the majority of Argentinians elected for the next 4 years," Massa, the candidate from the Union for the Homeland party, said. He made his statement before the official announcement of the election outcome.

BRASILIA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva extended best wishes to the newly elected government in Argentina, without making direct mention of President-elect Javier Milei, who has previously criticized Lula and labeled him an "angry communist."

"I wish good luck and success to the new government. Argentina is a great country and deserves all our respect. Brazil will always be available to work together with our Argentine brothers," he wrote on Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Voters in Argentina were heading to the polls Sunday in a presidential runoff election that will determine whether South America’s second-largest economy will take a rightward shift.

Populist Javier Milei, an upstart candidate who got his start as a television talking head, has frequently been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump. He faces Economy Minister Sergio Massa of the Peronist party, which has been a leading force in Argentine politics for decades.

QUITO, Nov 18 (NNN-XINHUA) — Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso delivered 15 Turkish-built Otokar armored tactical vehicles to the armed forces to help fight organized crime and violence.

The armored vehicles, each of which can accommodate nine soldiers, “have greater ballistic and mine protection. They also have technical characteristics for entering places that are difficult to access and highly dangerous in urban and rural settings,” Lasso said during the handover at Mariscal Sucre Air Base here.

CIUDAD EVITA, Argentina (AP) — As Argentina heads for a presidential runoff election on Sunday, the decades-old populist movement known as Peronism is on shaky ground, its candidate having lost some traction even among longtime loyalists living in a suburb of the capital that is its literal and figurative embodiment.

BELEM (Brazil), Nov 11 (NNN-AGENCIA BRASIL) — The Culture Ministers of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) signed a declaration in Belém condemning racism, thus reaffirming the bloc’s commitment to promoting ethnic-racial equality and combating racism in the region, Agencia Brasil reported.

The proposal, penned and put forward by Brazil’s Minister Margareth Menezes, who is acting as Pro Tempore President of Mercosur Cultural, considers that racial inequality is a structural problem to be tackled throughout the region.

LA PAZ, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and around a dozen injured Friday in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a trailer truck in the eastern Bolivian department of Santa Cruz, local police said.

The accident occurred when one vehicle strayed into the opposite lane where a passenger bus was traveling from the town of Puerto Suarez to the department's capital city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commander of the Robore Police, Major Pedro Silva, told reporters.

10 November 2023; MEMO: During a session on Gaza in the Brazilian Parliament yesterday, police expelled pro-Israel Congressman, Abilio Brunini, after an argument broke out between him and pro-Palestinian Brazilian congressmen.

Brunini said he supports Israel’s genocidal bombing campaign in Gaza, which led other participants to interrupt him and ask him to leave the session...