The cloud of smoke caused by raging bushfires in Australia has been spotted more than 12,000km away in Chile and Argentina, weather authorities in the South American countries said on Monday. Meteorologists in Uruguay expect the cloud in the next 24 hours.
Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, whose government has been rocked by riots over inequality, ignited a fresh wave of anger after claiming that “many” videos on social media of police abuse of demonstrators were “fake news”, and unrest was being fomented by foreign governments.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has signed into law an anti-crime bill that toughens measures to stem a rampant deadly crime wave, although he vetoed some parts of the bill, the government said on Wednesday.
Good news and bad news for the tourism industry of Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile. The good news is that this Friday some 3.150 cruise visitors are expected to land in the city, they are passengers from the Norwegian Star and the Viking Jupiter, each contributing with 2.348 and 800 pax.
In a formal public release, the Chilean Foreign office demanded that Argentine president Alberto Fernandez avoid making comments about the internal affairs of the country, following Fernandez statements during a television interview that the international community was not so critical of Chile as it is of Venezuela.
A voracious fire in the Chilean city of Valparaíso began on Tuesday and extended until after Christmas Eve on Wednesday, leaving about 245 homes destroyed, 2000 people without power and a dozen injured. The authorities believe that the fires in the tourist city were intentional.
The Search and Rescue operation of the Chilean Air Force’s C-130, that made full use of assets and personnel available of the Falkland Islands Government (FIG), the British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI) and the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI), continues along with the Chile’s search command, according to a joint statement released on Friday:
Research undertaken by ForwardKeys, the travel analytics firm, which analyses 17 million flight bookings and 7 million flight searches a day, has revealed that the recent riots in Chile have taken a tremendous toll on tourism to the country.
Falkland Islands based PHAROS SG, on regular deployment as a South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands fishery patrol vessel, returned on Tuesday morning to Stanley Harbour, after assisting in the search for wreckage and debris from the Chilean C130 aircraft that went missing on Monday 09 December.
The Royal Navy vessel HMS Scott arrived on Sunday in the search area, to provide support to the Chilean military in their response to the loss of a C130 that went missing earlier in the week in the Southern Atlantic Ocean.