Latin America

• Tuesday, April 4th 2017 - 10:27 UTC

  International observers didn't find evidence of fraud in Ecuador´s presidential runoff

  

  International election observers didn’t find evidence of fraud in Ecuador’s presidential vote, the Organization of American States said on Monday, despite claims from the opposition that it was cheated after the ruling party’s candidate declared victory in a narrow race.

• Tuesday, April 4th 2017 - 10:18 UTC

  Morales vocal cords surgery in Cuba, a success says Bolivian government

  

  Doctors in Cuba removed a benign node from the vocal cords of Bolivia's President Evo Morales, the Bolivian government said.

• Monday, April 3rd 2017 - 13:39 UTC

  Mexico planning to purchase Brazilian rice ahead of a clash with Trump over a Nafta review

  A move announced recently by Mexican diplomats may be a precursor of what could be happening in the coming months with the trading of major commodities involving the country’s trade war talks with the U.S.

• Monday, April 3rd 2017 - 13:27 UTC

  Irish farmers want meat removed from Mercosur/EU trade talks

  

  The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is pushing to have meat removed from the proposed trade deal between Europe and Mercosur in the wake of Brazil’s meat scandal. The move could scupper the entire trade deal given the importance of the meat industry to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

• Monday, April 3rd 2017 - 10:16 UTC

  Mudslide in Colombian sweeps away half a city: 254 dead, hundreds missing

  

  Flooding and mudslides in the Colombian city of Mocoa sent torrents of water and debris crashing onto houses in the early hours of Saturday morning, killing 254 people, a quarter of them children, injuring hundreds and sending terrified residents, some in their pajamas, scrambling to evacuate.

• Monday, April 3rd 2017 - 08:05 UTC

  Incumbent candidate winning in Ecuador's presidential runoff

  

  Socialist candidate Lenin Moreno had a slim lead Sunday in Ecuador’s presidential runoff, setting up a tense wait for the final count in a race that could change the political map of Latin America.Moreno, the designated heir to a decade of President Rafael Correa’s “21st-century socialism,” had 51.07% of the vote to 48.93% for conservative ex-banker Guillermo Lasso, with 94.2% of districts reporting, said the National Electoral Council.

• Saturday, April 1st 2017 - 23:40 UTC

  Will Ecuador confirm the conservative-turn-tendency in South America?

  

  Voters in Ecuador will be going to the polls on Sunday for the presidential runoff and a choice between a traditional South American leftist and a conservative ex-banker, that will steer the oil exporting country for the next four years. It will also show if South Americans are effectively abandoning populist ideas as happened in Argentina, Peru and Brazil.

• Saturday, April 1st 2017 - 19:34 UTC

  Paraguay officials pledge the reelection amendment will be submitted to binding referendum

  

  A protester was killed in Paraguay after violent clashes overnight sparked by a secret Senate vote for a constitutional amendment that would allow conservative President Horacio Cartes to run for re-election. The political move also had the support and Senate votes from the left leaning former removed president Fernando Lugo, which polls show he has significant support ahead of the 2018 presidential election.

• Saturday, April 1st 2017 - 09:43 UTC

  Paraguay: protestors set Congress on fire following secret vote allowing presidential reelection

  

  Protesters stormed and set fire to Paraguay's Congress on Friday after the Senate secretly voted for a constitutional amendment that would allow President Horacio Cartes to run for re-election, a change that will also require approval by the Lower House. The country's constitution has prohibited re-election since it was passed in 1992 after a brutal dictatorship fell in 1989.

• Saturday, April 1st 2017 - 09:09 UTC

  Chavism divided: Chief prosecutor says there has been a ”rupture of constitutional order

  

  Venezuela's chief prosecutor broke with the government on Friday and rebuked a Supreme Court decision stripping Congress of its last vestiges of power, showing a crack in the unity of the embattled populist government of President Nicolas Maduro as it came under a torrent of international condemnation over what many decried as a major step toward dictatorship.