Media reports all across the Southern Cone Friday underlined the heat wave affecting Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay with temperatures reaching 48 degrees Celsius and forecast to remain around or above 40 degrees for several days.
The Liberian-flagged freighter En May was removed on Friday from one of the pillars of the Zárate-Brazo Largo bridge that connects the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos, where she got stuck after losing her steering capabilities last Sunday. Full navigation was thus restored on the Paraná River waterway.
At least ten people were reported Friday to have died in Chile as forest firest gripped the Valparaíso area, where President Gabriel Boric Font decreed a state of emergency.
In a daring attempt to swim across the Rio de la Plata from Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, to Argentina, experienced Uruguayan swimmer and surgeon Gonzalo Leal tragically lost his life. Leal, from the Uruguayan department of Salto, suffered a cardiac arrest shortly after reaching the shore of Buenos Aires, according to El País.
BlackRock CEO and founder Larry Fink told Argentine President Javier Milei in a virtual meeting that he would be visiting the South American country in May, and Casa Rosada Spokesman Manuel Adorni confirmed in Buenos Aires.
The Standard & Poor's (S&P) rating agency Thursday raised Paraguay's grading from BB to BB+ after 10 years, Economy Minister Carlos Fernández Valdovinos announced. The news represented one more step towards obtaining an investment grade rating (a low risk of non-payment of debts), he also explained on social media.
Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice José António Dias Toffoli ordered a R$ 8.5 billion (about US$ 1.7 billion) corruption fine on Odebrecht suspended after raising doubts on the circumstances that led the company to accept such a collaboration agreement with the Prosecutor Office.
According to an agreement signed by Paraguay's National Secretariat of Culture (SNC), the National Administration of Navigation and Ports (ANNP), and First Lady Leticia Ocampos, the Port of Asunción will become the country's most important cultural center, it was reported. The measure also seeks to reconvert and revamp the country capital's historic downtown, it was explained.
A 39-year-old Chilean tourist identified as Javier Valdés Susarte was found dead at a Rio de Janeiro favela, it was reported Thursday in Brazil's former capital city. Authorities are still investigating.
Argentine defense authorities bid farewell earlier this week to the new group of troops to be deployed in Cyprus as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Blue Helmets (UNFICYP), it was reported in Buenos Aires.