Latin America

• Wednesday, April 15th 2026 - 10:00 UTC

  Bukele bets on Google to build “world's best health system” as medical sector decries layoffs

  

  El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced on Tuesday in a national broadcast the launch of the second phase of Dr. SV, a public health application developed with Google Cloud that incorporates artificial intelligence based on the Gemini model to detect, diagnose and monitor patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and kidney conditions.

• Tuesday, April 14th 2026 - 10:28 UTC

  Peru reaches 72% of vote count with Fujimori ahead and second place disputed among three candidates

  

  The count in Peru's presidential election is advancing slowly and without resolution. With 72% of ballots processed by the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) early Tuesday morning, Keiko Fujimori (Fuerza Popular) holds first place with 16.94% of the vote. Second place, which grants entry to the June 7 runoff, remains open: Rafael López Aliaga (Renovación Popular) stands at 13.0%, Jorge Nieto (Buen Gobierno) at 12.0% and leftist Roberto Sánchez (Juntos por el Perú) at 9.73%, with the gap narrowing as ballots from the country's interior are added.

• Monday, April 13th 2026 - 10:55 UTC

  Peru extends voting to Monday as Fujimori and Lopez Aliaga emerge as runoff contenders

  

  Peru will hold an unprecedented supplementary voting day on Monday: more than 52,000 citizens unable to cast ballots on Sunday due to logistical failures will vote at 187 polling stations in Lima and in the overseas jurisdictions of Orlando, Florida, and Paterson, New Jersey. The National Elections Jury (JNE) authorized the extension and urged polling firms to suspend the release of surveys to avoid influencing remaining voters.

• Monday, April 13th 2026 - 00:27 UTC

  Uruguay hosts DEA summit that warns of new drug trafficking routes in South America

  

  Uruguay hosted the 2nd Regional Coordination Meeting of the US Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Southern Cone Division, a conference held on April 9–10 in Montevideo that brought together representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and the United States to strengthen cooperation against drug trafficking and transnational organized crime.

• Sunday, April 12th 2026 - 23:49 UTC

  Peru closes a troubled election day and begins a lengthy count with outcome uncertain

  

  More than 10,000 polling centers closed in Peru on Sunday after a ten-hour voting day disrupted by logistical failures that forced authorities to extend the schedule by one hour, to 6:00 p.m. local time. The National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) reported that 99.8% of polling stations were installed, but 15 voting centers in Lima — containing 211 stations — could not be set up, leaving 63,300 voters unable to cast ballots.

• Thursday, April 9th 2026 - 21:36 UTC

  Chilean Air Force conducts first-ever aerial refueling of US F-35 fighters

  

  The Chilean Air Force (FACh) completed for the first time an aerial refueling operation involving two U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II fighters, in a milestone that demonstrates growing interoperability between the two countries and the level of modernization achieved by Chile's military aviation.

• Thursday, April 9th 2026 - 01:13 UTC

  Latin America faces fertilizer vulnerability; IICA and TFI agree joint plan amid Hormuz crisis

  

  The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the U.S.-based Fertilizer Institute (TFI) announced a partnership to secure fertilizer supply across the Americas, amid logistical disruptions and price volatility worsened by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the war between the United States, Israel and Iran.

• Tuesday, April 7th 2026 - 21:06 UTC

  “Has anyone talked about democracy? No”: OEI secretary criticizes Trump's oil-driven approach to Venezuela

  

  The secretary general of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), Mariano Jabonero, said that US President Donald Trump's primary interest in Venezuela is energy-related and has nothing to do with promoting democratic values or civilization.

• Saturday, April 4th 2026 - 03:03 UTC

  British ambassador calls Bolivia's Falklands/Malvinas support for Argentina “unacceptable”

  

  Argentina on Friday thanked Bolivia for its support on the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty claim and called “unfortunate” the remarks by the British ambassador in La Paz, Richard Porter, who branded the Bolivian position “deeply disappointing and unacceptable.”

• Wednesday, April 1st 2026 - 10:37 UTC

  Bolivia: probe into ring that stole and adulterated fuel imported through Chilean ports

  

  Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Tuesday denounced the existence of an international ring dedicated to stealing and adulterating gasoline and diesel imported into the country, with operations detected in Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay. According to the president, the scheme originated under the previous management of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), the state-owned fuel supply company.