Latin America

An electric grid failure described by Argentine President Mauricio Macri as “unprecedented” triggered a blackout affecting tens of millions across South America Sunday.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó confirmed on Thursday that he had sent a team of diplomats to Sweden to negotiate with other world powers towards a solution to the country’s ongoing political and humanitarian crisis. 

The Brazilian government is receiving an average of 102 abuse allegations against elderly people every day, according to a report published Wednesday by the country’s Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights.

The Central Bank of Venezuela released on Thursday a new set of banknotes for the second time in under a year, as rampant hyperinflation continues to ravage the socialist country’s crippled economy. 

Six Citgo oil executives, five of them American citizens, will stand trial on charges of embezzlement and conspiracy after a year and a half in prison without charges in socialist Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro’s supreme court revealed on Monday.

An overcrowded morgue in San Cristóbal, western Venezuela, has asked families of the deceased to take their bodies home or face their relatives being buried in a communal, unmarked grave, La Nación reported on Wednesday.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed Angelina Jolie’s meeting with Venezuelan refugees this weekend as an orchestrated “show” and accused the United Nations Human Rights Commission on Refugees (UNHRC) of inflating the number of people who have fled the country.

A Philadelphia couple who claimed they became violently ill at a Dominican Republic resort where three Americans died over the weekend said they noticed something was amiss during their stay last year.

The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), an NGO that tracks violent crime in the country, found that nearly 1,500 minors were violently killed in 2018, many of them by Nicolás Maduro’s socialist forces, the outlet Runrunes reported on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the world to unite to find solutions to the hunger crisis in Venezuela at the World Food Prize Laureate Announcement Ceremony, arguing that “we all have an obligation” to get the country off of the “Maduro diet.”

Thousands of Venezuelans poured into neighboring Colombia this weekend after the Maduro regime partially re-opened the border following a four-month blockade.

A Venezuelan man was killed and another wounded following a dispute at a service station in the western state of Merida on Saturday, as vehicles owners were forced to wait hours or even days to get access to gasoline.

At least four people died at resorts in the Dominican Republic from mysterious illnesses, according to multiple reports.

Actress Angelina Jolie visited Venezuelan refugees in Colombia this weekend, praising them as the “strongest people in the world” while calling on the international community to provide more assistance.

Tens of thousands of Haitians participated in protests across the country on Sunday to demand President Jovenel Moïse’s resignation. The mass action came after an audit found politicians had embezzled billions in development funds from PetroCaribe, a socialist Venezuelan program that granted poorer Western Hemisphere nations access to cheap oil.

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) said the Trump administration’s deal with Mexico that averted U.S. tariffs “achieved nothing.”

A member of a colectivo, the violent socialist gangs the dictatorship uses to stay in power, appeared on Venezuelan television Thursday condemning Nicolás Maduro for failing to repair the only hospital in the nation with a toxicology specialization.

The newly-elected President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, used his first week in office to fire a host of government officials via Twitter, taking many within the country’s political establishment by surprise. 

A Venezuelan colonel loyal to dictator Nicolás Maduro reportedly forced a soldier who denounced the socialist regime to model a “street woman” outfit as punishment, the Argentine news organization Infobae reported Thursday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed on Wednesday that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó traveled to Oslo last week for the second round of negotiations with socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.

The Washington Post published off-the-record remarks on Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in which he laments the fractured state of Venezuela’s opposition to dictator Nicolás Maduro, quipping that “forty-plus people” think they are the rightful heirs to the presidency.

Talks with Mexican officials are not making “nearly enough” progress in curbing the Central American migration into the United States, said a tweet from President Donald Trump.

As many as 800,000 Americans have purchased tickets to travel via cruise ship from the United States to Cuba, a practice the Trump administration banned Tuesday, likely keeping their money out of the hands of the repressive Castro regime.

Three American tourists died from a mysterious respiratory illness in a Dominican Republic hotel, according to several reports.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has reiterated his call for fresh elections to be held for the country’s National Assembly, a move that would pave the way for his socialist regime to take back control of the country’s only democratically elected lawmaking body. 

Venezuela’s Supreme Court, run by loyalists to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, ordered the online news outlet La Patilla to pay senior chavista official, television show host, and alleged cartel chief Diosdado Cabello 30 billion bolivars ($4.7 million) for aggregating a 2015 article in which Hugo Chávez’s former security chief accused Cabello of drug trafficking.

President Donald Trump dismissed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s accusation that he was not serious about leveling a proposed tariff on Mexico.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Tuesday it would eliminate “people-to-people” educational travel to Cuba, an exception to the embargo expanded under President Barack Obama widely abused for tourism.

The Russian government rejected a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday claiming it had largely withdrawn its significant military presence in Venezuela, adding that it had not contacted President Donald Trump about any such moves.

El Salvador over the weekend inaugurated its president, Nayib Bukele, who promised to bring about “a new era” by ending the nearly decade-long rule by the party linked to the left-wing, communist-leaning guerrillas that participated in the Central American country’s bloody civil war.