South America

Argentinean president Alberto Fernandez proposed a new set of regulations to tax the richest people in the country (above 2,35 M dollars).

Now the congress discusses the proposal that would create a one-time tax, starting with 3.5% up to 5.25%. The extraordinary fee is estimated to affect between 9.000 and 12.000 richest Argentineans, then 20% of the money collected will be used to fight the Covid-19 crises, and the rest will be used to reduce the economic crisis that holds the country in recession since 2018, having 40,9% of the total population of 44 million Argentineans under the poverty line.

Without a strict lockdown or any enforced measure, the Uruguayan government relies on citizens' common sense and suggests keeping social distances, reduce meetings as much as possible, permanent use of masks, and so on. Although, there are 792 currently infected cases and 12 ICU patients.

Peruvian lawmaker Francisco Sagasti is set to become the country's next interim president. The 76-year-old engineer, academic and former World Bank official is expected to be Peru's fourth president in less than five years -- and the second one in less than a week.

Activists, opposition parties and civil society groups who saw former President Martin Vizcarra's ouster as a legislative coup refused to recognize the new leader.

The population of the Falkland Islands has been celebrating the removal of an estimated 13,000 mines that were planted by Argentine forces in the 1982 military conflict.

Barry Elsby, a member of the island's legislative assembly, has stated that "This will be another good bit of closure for people who were here when the invasion happened and lived through the horrors of that time" and added that "All the mine signposts were a constant reminder of what happened but now they are all away, it's another return to normality".

After thousands of protestors demanded his removal, Peru's interim President Manuel Merino resigned Sunday.

Protests began peacefully but grew more intense during the later hours of the day. Protestors and police have clashed, and according to witness, reports shots were fired by police.

Merino assumed the presidency on Tuesday after the opposition-dominated Congress voted to remove his predecessor Martin Vizcarra, over bribery allegations, which he denies.

The Peruvian parliament has removed President Martín Vizcarra from office. He is accused of having accepted bribes during his time as governor.

The Peruvian parliament has removed President Martín Vizcarra from office. In Monday's vote, 105 members of Congress voted to remove the head of state, 19 were against and four parliamentarians abstained. To remove Vizcarra, 87 votes were necessary. Vizcarra declared that he was leaving the government palace without agreeing with the decision of the parliament.

The results of the Gallup survey show that Mexican security forces continue to be immersed in an image crisis due to corruption and violence.

Of all Latin American countries only in Venezuela the population feels less safe and distrusts the police more. Arturo Alvarado Mendoza, author and doctor of sociology at the Colegio de México, says that the current police force is at the service of the government and that it must "begin to attend to citizens' problems and improve its relationship with the population" in order to change its perception.

With massive participation in the plebiscite, citizens turned to the polls. There are celebrations in the Plaza Italia in downtown Santiago, and in various parts of the country. On the body that must write the new text, the option of the constitutional convention, jointly and integrated only by citizens elected for that purpose, is imposed with 78.8%

The polls opened in Chile this Sunday for a historic referendum on whether the country's constitution, which comes from the era of dictator Augusto Pinochet, will be discarded and replaced by a new charter to be formulated, one of the main demands of the protests that took over the country last year.

More than 14.8 million people can vote in 2,715 locations across the country, although those suffering from Covid-19 have been warned to stay away under threat of arrest.

Samuel David Niño Cataño died on the Guatemala-Mexico border when the plane he piloted crashed. The plane was loaded with cocaine and had taken off Puerto Carreño, Vichada, Colombia.

La Nueva Prensa has released 49 pictures and research showing Cataño was a pilot for Alvaro Uribe in his senate campaign and in the presidential campaign of Ivan Duque. The pilot was also a contributor to the Uribe campaign and had two unjustified contracts with the aviation administration signed during Duque presidency.

The group of progressive leaders explained that the difference of more than 20 points in this last elections show there was no fraud in the 2019 elections.

The Organization of American States, and the General Secretary Luis Almagro, were one of the main objectors to the past election results which ended in violence and a coup.

The OAS claims were rejected by several studies recently and the disputed electoral centers were the MAS got more than 90% of the votes in the 2019 election got even higher percentages in the re-run.

The "Our World in Data" tracker decided to drop Argentina from their tracker for possible bias in the "positivity rate".

Edouard Mathieu, from Our World in Data, posted on Twitter: "To ensure the quality and reliability of @OurWorldinData's COVID-19 testing data, we've decided to remove 🇦🇷 Argentina from our dataset for the time being. The official figures aggregated by the government are not of sufficient quality to correctly reflect the extent of testing."

Argentina's Health Ministry announced Monday that the country surpassed the barrier of one million infections of Covid-19. The South American country has been in lockdown for the past 7 months.

The Government reported that in the last day, 12,982 people tested positive, and the total number of infected reached 1,002,662. Also, 451 deaths were entered into the National Health Surveillance System (SNVS) and the total number of deaths recorded nationwide reached 26,716.

Exit polls show Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) candidate Luis Arce got around 50%, against 30% of the ex-president Luis Mesa. This advantage would give the socialist candidate the victory without the need of a second round. The definitive count is expected on Wednesday.

Interim president Jeanine Añez, who took office after last year's coup, recognized the victory. Luis Arce was the economy minister during the 12 years of Evo Morales presidencies.

Former Uruguayan President José "Pepe" Mujica confirmed this Sunday, before casting his vote in the departmental and municipal elections that took place in that country, that he will shortly leave his seat as senator both due to his age and health-related issues.

Mujica had already hinted on another occasion that he would leave the Senate in October, but this Sunday he announced that if he can, he will "leave it earlier." "I am about to leave because of my age, because I have a chronic immunological disease and it is logical that politics obliges social relations. If I have to take care of myself, I cannot speak, I cannot go to one side, I cannot go to the other, I am a bad senator ", argued the former president, 85 years old.

The Congress of the Republic did not reach the 87 votes necessary to vacate President Martín Vizcarra on the grounds of permanent moral incapacity. The motion to remove the president had 32 votes in favour, 78 votes against and 15 abstentions.

In the morning, the head of state attended the plenary session, where he assured that the audios that involve him have not been verified and that they will be made available to the Public Ministry.

The Constitutional Court of Peru refused to suspend the impeachment process of President Martín Vizcarra As a consequence of this decision, the president or his lawyer should appear before Congress this Friday to defend themselves before the legislators vote on whether to impeach him.

Marianella Ledesma, the president of the Constitutional Court, told local radio that judges had voted by five to two to reject an urgent petition by Vizcarra asking that Congress suspend debate on whether to impeach him for "moral incapacity."

Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya has assured this Monday that she will support the Venezuelan elections if the requirements are met. "If there is space, however small, for elections to be held with democratic conditions, Spain will support it," she summarized in a press conference from the ministry's headquarters.

The Congress of Peru voted to admit the impeachment process against the President Martín Vizcarra. There were 65 votes in favour, 36 against and 24 abstentions.

After the admission, the plenary set for September 18 the debate of the motion. President Martín Vizcarra, or his lawyer, may appear to give his defense, and his dismissal requires 87 votes according to the parliamentary regulations.

The Congress is investigating government contracts awarded to singer Richard Cisneros worth $49,500, and the links between Cisneros and Vizcarra.

Protests against police violence started after a video of Javier Ordóñez being chocked and tasered by two policemen. Javier was detained for violating the quarantine, was chocked and tasered at least five times and later died in custody. Family claims he was assaulted at the police station.

At least 10 people were killed during the protests, of which at least 3 were hit by bullets. Video of this killings has also been published in social media.

Cuba has seen a surge of Coronavirus cases since early August. Schools reopened on Tuesday in most of Cuba after five months of being closed.

As Havana is struggling to control a second Coronavirus wave, the city imposed a nightly curfew from 7pm to 5am. Residents will also not be allowed to travel interprovincially.

Argentina’s Economy Minister Martin Guzman announced Monday the country reached a deal with the majority of creditors, and that 99% of the $65 billion debt could be restructured.

The deal would allow Argentina to exit default, and start debt talks with the International Monetary Fund.

Claudio Crespo, Chilean police special Special Forces commander, was detained early Friday over the blinding of the student Gustavo Gatica during protests in November 2019.
The psychology student Gatica, was blinded in both eyes by police rubber bullets during the protests against the government of President Sebastian Piñera.
Crespo, known as "G3", was discharged last June for manipulating the images recorded by his GoPro camera.

Rappi delivery workers in Bogota, went on strike Saturday to protest unfair working conditions. Around 1,000 protesters gathered in the north region of the Colombian capital.

A spokesperson for the "Rappitenderos" said, "There are also unjustified blocks, not in the wrong way."

Rappi said, in a statement, it would listen to the workers and highlighted its efforts to protect them during the pandemic.

Peru had 507,996 Covid-19 cases and 25,648 deaths since the beginning of the outbreak, according to health ministry data on Thursday.

During a public event to pay tribute to 120 doctors who have died from Covid-19, President Martin Vizcarra blamed the recent spike in infections on an uptick in social and sporting events and a lax attitude by the public.

More than 140 days after the start of the quarantine, the Argentina's Ministry of Health reported Sunday 4,688 new cases of Covid-19 and another 84 deaths, in the last 24 hours.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, the number of people who have died is 4,606, while there are 246,499 confirmed cases in the country.

A Venezuelan court sentenced Luke Denman and Airan Berry, two former United States Army Special Forces soldiers, to 20 years in prison for their role in a failed incursion aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro in early May.

Chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab said on Twitter "Said gentlemen ADMITTED having committed crimes of conspiracy, association, illicit trafficking of weapons, war and terrorism typified in the Penal Code".

The Banco de la Nación Argentina signed an agreement Wednesday establishing a quota of not less than 1 per cent of all the bank's personal destined to be occupied by trans people.
"This is part of the change in priorities, abandoning a model of political and cultural exclusion and moving to one of expansion of rights," said the chief of staff, Santiago Cafiero, who participated in the event at the bank headquarters at Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires.

Argentina reached a deal with its major creditors to restructure roughly $65 billion in sovereign debt, a hopeful sign for a country that now faces a brutal Covid-19 related recession on top of longstanding economic problems.

The official statement of the Argentinean Economy Ministry read: "Argentina will adjust some of the payment dates contemplated for the new bonds established in its July 6 Invitation, without increasing the total amount of principal payments or interest payments that Argentina undertakes to make and at the same time improving the value of the proposal for the creditor community ".

The Colombian Supreme Court of Justice decided to impose house arrest against the former president, and current senator, Álvaro Uribe for the alleged crimes of bribery and procedural fraud.

Uribe confirmed the news through his Twitter account: "The deprivation of my freedom causes me deep sadness for my lady, for my family and for Colombians who still believe that I have done something good for the Homeland."

The case began in 2018 when the Supreme Court of Justice called Álvaro Uribe for investigation, considering that there was evidence that the former president, was allegedly trying to convince witnesses to retract the statements against him and in which they involved him with paramilitary groups.