Chile ordered strict new quarantine measures on three districts in the capital Santiago after a sudden spike in coronavirus cases on Sunday. The health ministry reported a surge of 1,228 new infections, bringing the total to nearly 20,000 nationwide and dealing a blow to hopes it was over the worst of the crisis.
Chile's Navy is preparing to sail two recently retired Australian warships out of Sydney after purchasing them in a deal believed to be worth more than US$ 70 million. Ex-Adelaide-class frigates HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Newcastle were quietly commissioned into their new service this month during a formal handover ceremony between both navies.
Countries across Latin America tightened measures on Wednesday to halt the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus, with more lockdowns and school closures as well as increased aid to the region's poorest.
Chile has quarantined more than 1,300 people aboard two cruise ships after an elderly Briton aboard one of them tested positive for the coronavirus, the health ministry announced on Saturday. Both ships are cruising the Chilean fjords in Patagonia.
A Chilean student blinded in both eyes by police rubber bullets became the symbol of this week's protests on the second year of president Sebastián Piñera's mandate but also the thirtieth anniversary of the return of democracy to Chile.
Cities across Chile erupted in mass celebration and outrage on Sunday as women and their supporters rallied for International Women's Day. In Santiago, Dignity plaza that has become the city's ground zero for protests in recent months could not contain the crowd, extending for blocks along significant boulevards. Marches were under way in several cities, with others to follow on Sunday evening.
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.
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:
Thousands of protesters armed with stones, sticks and Molotov cocktails clashed with police on Sunday as one of Latin America's biggest music festival opened, in the latest spurt of a four-month-old wave of grassroots anger over economic inequality and other woes.
A man died of carbon monoxide poisoning after a supermarket was torched in Chile's capital Santiago on Friday, bringing the death toll from a resurgence in violent unrest rose to three. A mob looted and then set fire to the supermarket in southern Santiago in the early hours of Friday.