With 220,000 troops on the ground and 315,000 public officials on call, the operation to eradicate the Zika virus from Brazil has become the largest military operation in that nation’s history. Many fear attempts to eradicate the mosquito-borne illness before the Summer Olympics in August will not be enough, however, as scientists study the deadly complications that accompany the disease.
The head of Brazil’s National Force for Public Security, Col. Adilson Moreira, has resigned, citing his disgust with the ongoing corruption scandal engulfing the administration of President Dilma Rousseff. The resignation leaves security operations for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro mostly unmanned until Rousseff names a replacement.
Following major setbacks in talks with the FARC terrorist group, the president of Colombia has announced his government will begin peace talks with another terror group, the Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN).
The Havana Tribune, a state-controlled Cuban newspaper, has added insult to injury following Fidel Castro’s scathing criticism of President Barack Obama upon his departure from the island. In an editorial, the title of which refers to President Obama as “negro,” an opinion columnist has accused him of “inciting rebellion.”
Amid cheers of “Dilma out!” and “Brazil forward!” the nation’s largest minority party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), has voted to leave the ruling government coalition, putting President Dilma Rousseff one step closer to impeachment.
The communist government of Cuba restored its iron-fisted control over pro-democracy activists last weekend, following mass arrests a week ago on the Sunday before President Barack Obama landed in Havana. An estimated 300 dissidents were beaten and arrested nationwide.
Colombia’s Attorney General is investigating whether a high-ranking general tendered his resignation from the Armed Forces under pressure from government officials seeking to appease the FARC terror group, currently stonewalling a peace deal the nation’s president has wagered his legacy on.
One of two remaining holdouts against Zika on the Western Hemisphere has confirmed its first locally acquired case of the enigmatic virus. The government of Chile has confirmed that a Zika patient contracted the disease from a sexual partner who had been to Haiti.
A small collection of leftists organized a grand display in protest of President Obama’s trip to Argentina in Buenos Aires Wednesday, holding up banners reading “Go Home Obama” and burning the American flag.
The Cuban government exerted extraordinary efforts this week to keep pro-democracy activists out of sight of international media. They failed, with one dissident demanding freedom for prisoners of conscience live on ESPN. That dissident: Yasser Rivero Boni, a political prisoner himself and the son of a member of the Ladies in White movement.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff issued a defiant statement Tuesday, asserting that an investigation implicating her in a billion-dollar corruption scandal is an attempt at a coup d’etat and that she will “never resign” from her post, despite millions of Brazilians taking to the streets to demand she step down.
Politicians of all political stripes in Chile are facing an investigation into misuse of state corporate funding, which has, so far, incriminated eight political parties, a scandal overshadowed only by the alleged billions stolen from a state-run corporation in neighboring Brazil.
“Hundreds” of individuals from Latin America and the Caribbean have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
On Sunday, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff praised the nearly four million Brazilians who took the streets to call for her impeachment for maintaining the peace.
Less than an hour after President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil swore her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, into a position as her new chief of staff, a federal court issued an injunction annulling the appointment, suggesting Rousseff’s decision may amount to a crime.
The judge presiding over a massive corruption probe into Brazil’s state-run oil corporation has released audio of wiretaps in which President Dilma Rousseff is heard telling her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, that she has a plan in place to grant him government immunity should prosecutors build a strong enough case to send him to jail on corruption charges.
Thousands of Brazilians returned to the streets Wednesday night after an intense weekend of protests to call for President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, following the appointment of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as her Chief of Staff. The appointment partially shields da Silva from prosecution for corruption allegations related to the billion-dollar Petrobras kickback scheme.
A Brazilian senator arrested after an investigation implicated him in one of the biggest corruption scandals of the nation’s history accused President Dilma Rousseff of sending one of her closest aids to offer to pay his legal fees if he agreed not to implicate her or other high-ranking officials in the case.
The Coast Guard of Argentina sunk a Chinese fishing ship trespassing into Argentine waters on Tuesday, after the trawler responded to calls to return to international waters by trying to ram into a Coast Guard vessel, according to the South American government.
Brazil’s government is expected to grant former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a position as minister alongside President Dilma Rousseff, a move many suspect is intended to shield da Silva from facing money laundering charges in federal court.
An estimated total of 3.6 million people took to the streets of Brazil Sunday to demand President Dilma Rousseff resign or face impeachment in what is being called the largest peaceful protest in the nation’s history.
The President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, and the leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have confirmed that the two will not sign a peace deal on March 23 that would have allowed FARC leaders to return to Colombia as previously planned.
An Islamist radical admitted to killing a Jewish businessman in Uruguay as a mode of “following Allah’s orders,” stabbing the man ten times in the back after following him down the streets of western Paysandú city.
Scientists have confirmed that the Zika virus, which has infected upwards of one million people in Latin America, can severely damage the brains of unborn children. Now a new study suggests the virus may also trigger brain infections in adults that can cause the brain and spinal cord to swell, causing intense damage to the nervous system.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday he is recalling the nation’s charge d’affaires from Washington in protest of President Obama’s renewal of an executive order imposing sanctions on the socialist government. Officials in the State Department, however, have told media they are unaware of any official order to Maximilien Arvelaiz to return to Caracas.
Peru’s National Electoral Panel has eliminated two of the top three polling candidates for president in the nation’s upcoming elections, leaving center-right Senator Keiko Fujimori with a clear path to victory in April. The nation’s electoral board eliminated candidates Julio
Years of crippling socialist policies have left Venezuela so bereft of food, average Venezuelans must spent up to six hours waiting in line to received their allotted rations of basic goods like vegetable oil, flour, or milk. Musician Jonathan Acosta has offered to help ease the frustration by visiting supermarkets and performing for those waiting in line.
A Reuters exclusive report suggests that President Barack Obama will announce new concessions to Cuba’s communist dictatorship shortly before his arrival on the island on March 21, aimed at easing travel restrictions and allowing the Cuban government to enrich itself through tightly controlled business ventures.
The estimable Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal, whose columns about Latin America are always must-read material, put a rare foot wrong Monday in arguing that Donald Trump is offering Americans a form of leadership modeled after the Latin American caudillo.
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who during his tenure worked closely with the United States to eradicate Marxist terrorism from the nation, is accusing the current government of detaining his brother Santiago as a “political prisoner,” and President Juan Manuel
Brazilian federal law enforcement officials detained former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for nearly four hours to interrogate him on a possible role in the billion-dollar corruption scandal plaguing Petrobras, the nation’s state-run oil corporation.
A coalition of Venezuelan socialists that orchestrated the failed attempt to install Hugo Chávez as the nation’s head of state in 1992 are calling for the nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro, to step down, calling him an “autocratic” failure.
“Nisman was killed by a group related to the former government,” the former head of Argentina’s intelligence agency reportedly testified this week, squarely blaming former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her allies for killing a high-profile prosecutor investigating the Iranian government’s role in the nation’s worst terrorist attack ever.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that at least two pregnant women who tested positive for the Zika virus chose to abort their babies.
Colombian health officials announced a “probable” microcephaly case in an aborted fetus and discovered the Zika virus in the amniotic fluid.
Venezuelan opposition deputy José Manuel Olivares claims the country has under-reported cases of the Zika virus and the country lacks necessary medical supplies to properly combat the outbreak sweeping the region.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked people not to donate blood if they recently traveled to countries affected by the Zika outbreak.
As Latin America scrambles to help explain the Zika pandemic that has affected over a million people in the Western Hemisphere so far, conspiracy theories pushed by Russia and anti-Western outlets have begun to gather steam in social media and alternative news outlets.
The Brazilian Health Ministry has confirmed that the Zika virus has caused “most” of the microcephaly cases recorded following its discovery in the country.
President Barack Obama confirmed on Twitter Thursday morning that he will visit the rogue communist dictatorship of Cuba in March, more than a year after implementing a series of concessions to the Raúl Castro regime that has enabled it to further oppress political dissent and create a refugee crisis in the Western Hemisphere.
