South America

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Argentine authorities seized 1.6 tons of cocaine hidden in animal feed destined for Dubai and detained 12 people, police said on Friday.

The seizure, which took place overnight from Thursday to Friday in the central city of Rosario, highlights the role played by Argentine ports in trafficking South American drugs internationally.

The cocaine “is worth approximately $60 million,” said Mariano Giuffra, head of the dangerous drugs department in the federal police.

The arrests took place at various sites around the country.

BARRETOS, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro traveled to Latin America’s biggest rodeo — a bubble of staunch support — to connect with voters from the countryside ahead of October’s vote.

BRASILIA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday he has authorized Minister of Mines and Energy Adolfo Sachsida to consider the privatization of oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) next year, if the president is re-elected in October.

"Sachsida has this idea. I gave him the green light to discuss privatization of Petrobras next year," Bolsonaro said in an interview on Jovem Pan, a television and radio station.

LIMA, Aug 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four tourists were killed and 16 injured after visiting Peru’s world-famous Machu Picchu site when the minibus they were traveling in crashed into a ravine, authorities said Monday.

Two of the dead tourists were Colombians, while the other two have yet to be identified, said the regional government of Cusco, where the ancient Inca citadel is located.

Amongst the injured were four French people, two Greeks, two Israelis, two Canadians, two Argentines, two Peruvians, a Dutch person and one more unidentified person.

BOGOTA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Colombia will guarantee the right to asylum and refuge, President Gustavo Petro said late on Monday, after a high-ranking Venezuelan lawmaker urged the extradition of his party's political opposition from Colombia.

The South American neighbors have begun the process of normalizing their relations since the inauguration of Petro this month, after years of tension and trade closures, with each naming an ambassador to the other country. 

ASUNCION, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Paraguay's Attorney General's office said on Tuesday it opened a criminal investigation into Vice President Hugo Velazquez, almost two weeks after the U.S. government accused him of having committed "significant" corruption.

The Public Ministry said on Facebook that Attorney General Sandra Quinonez ordered the opening of a criminal case to investigate "the facts in relation to the statement of the U.S. ambassador, Marc Ostfield" concerning Velazquez.

LIMA, Aug 22 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Peru has been singled out as the country with the highest rates in South America of people living under food insecurity, it was reported.

A study from the United Nations Office for Food and Agriculture (FAO) showed over half of Peru’s population was facing a situation “never before observed in the country,” where food insecurity affected 50.3% of the 32 million inhabitants.

SAO PAULO, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday his country did not need to cut a single tree to plant more soybeans, sugarcane or raise cattle as he vowed to restore law enforcement in the Amazon rainforest to curb deforestation.

His remarks came as Reuters reported last week that advisors to the leftist former president were proposing subsidized "green" farm loans to spur planting of soybeans and corn on open pasture and reduce deforestation in the Amazon. 

BOGOTA. Aug 21 (NNN-TELESUR) — A new massacre, the 64th in Colombia so far in 2022, was registered in the north of Bogota, after four bodies, three men and a woman, were found inside a van, reported the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz).

This discovery took place on Autopista Norte and Calle 223 in the Colombian capital, after neighbors alerted the authorities, who later found the bodies in bags inside a car.

SANTIAGO, Aug 20 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Chile’s Lower House passed an internal regulation whereby Deputies will have to submit a hair sample for a toxicology test and drew lots for the first 78 of the 150 of them who will have to abide by the new indication.