
The spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus or COVID-19 has sent ripples of panic all across the globe. What was thought to be a localized threat in China has quickly grown into an epidemic that has spread into Italy, Iran and South Korea.

Latin American stocks and currencies weakened on Thursday, with Brazil's real slipping to yet another record low, as the rapid spread of the coronavirus sapped risk appetite and investors worried about the scale of the economic fallout.

Brazil plans to push for its own candidate to lead the Inter-American Development Bank, vying with Argentina for the regional lender’s top job, as President Jair Bolsonaro seeks to capitalize on the political alliance with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

Argentina and Chile both said on Tuesday they had confirmed their first case of the novel coronavirus in patients who recently returned from travels. A 43-year-old infected Argentine man had returned from Italy on March 1, while a 33-year-old Chilean man had spent a month in southeast Asia.

Guyana goes to the polls this Monday in a pivotal election in one of South America's poorest nations, where a coming oil boom is set to reshape an ethnically-divided political landscape.

It was a March sunny Sunday in Montevideo, and for the solid democracy of Uruguay, business as usual. An outgoing center government was replaced by a center-right coalition that emerged victorious from the runoff last November. Despite fifteen years in office, three mandates, Luis Lacalle Pou, 46, is the new president for the next five years and for the first time with a woman vice president, notary Beatriz Argimón.

A center right president took office in Uruguay on Sunday, promising to crack down on crime and tighten government finances after a 15-year string of left-leaning governments. Luis Lacalle Pou, a 46-year-old surfing enthusiast and son of a former president, narrowly won the election in November, 37.000 votes, in his second try for the top office.

The following article was published by The Washington Post, based on a report from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab political scientists John Curiel and Jack R Williams (*)

Covid 19 might not be a priority in Argentina at the moment, although there are some cases under observation, but what is really threatening is the mosquito-transmitted dengue with 152 cases confirmed in the province of Buenos Aires and some 3.000 in the northern provinces of Misiones and Corrientes.

Amnesty International has documented grave violations of human rights in 2019 in 24 countries across the Americas. Examples of the major human rights events analyzed include: