MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

South America News.

New Bolivian president

Jaime Quiroga became interim president of Bolivia after Hugo Banzer, seriously ill with cancer, resigned at a ceremony in Sucre during the country's National Day celebration. Vice president Quiroga, a US trained engineer, is expected to be confirmed by Congress this week as Banzer's successor until the end of the five year presidential mandate in August 2002. However since Bolivia is currently ruled by a fragile coalition and policies to open up the Bolivian economy have caused widespread unrest, Mr. Quiroga could have a hard time ruling these last twelve months. On Monday crowds lined the main square of Sucre to greet Mr. Banzer, who is expected to return this week to Washington for further treatment of lung cancer and liver metastasis. Mr. Banzer a former Army General first came to power as head of a military regime in 1971 which ended seven years later with a dreadful human rights record. However in 1978 he founded Acción Democrática Nacionalista, and after standing several times as presidential candidate, finally was democratically elected in 1997. Last July on a regular routine medical check to United States, cancer was discovered. The peaceful handing over of power has been hailed as a great democratic success since Bolivia historically has been one of the most unstable countries of South America.

Brazil mourns its top novelist

Brazil's most famed novelist, Jorge Amado, world known for depicting the Afro-Brazilian culture in the tropical northeast, died this week of a heart attack in his hometown of Salvador at the age of 88. Translated into over fifty languages and with over 30 million copies sold, Mr. Amado became world known with two of his most renowned novels, "Gabriela, clove and cinnamon" and "Doña Flor", both of which were made into movies starring Sonia Braga incarnating the beauties of the northeastern state of Bahia. Born in 1912 in the small town of Itabuna, Mr. Amado at the age of 15 began writing in a Salvador newspaper and published his first work at 19. At the time Mr. Amado's works were more involved in denouncing the semi feudal living conditions in the Bahia plantations, openly flirted with Socialism and havi