NewsBite

South America

This Month

Sunrise over Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro with Sugarloaf Mountain in the Horizon. It’s light very early at some times of the year.

Why this country thinks it will have to bring back daylight saving

Authorities in Brazil nearly brought back daylight saving late last year to conserve energy amid a historic drought that had threatened hydroelectric power generation.

  • Terrence McCoy
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores stand together after the swear-in ceremony at Palacio Federal Legislativo in Caracas.

Venezuela’s Maduro sworn in amid protests and international rebuke

Nicolás Maduro said his enemies’ failure to block his inauguration to a third six-year term was “a great victory” for the nation.

  • Joshua Goodman and Regina Garcia Cano

December 2024

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron pose for photos at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia.

Brazil president rushed to hospital for brain surgery

Doctors said 79-year-old president Luiz Ignacio Lula de Silva was in the ICU after an emergency operation related to a fall in October.

  • Gabriel Araujo and Lisandra Paraguassu

November 2024

Xi Jinping and Dina Boluarte at a ceremony to virtually inaugurate the Chancay port.

China’s $2b Peru port faces obstacles from the Andes to the Amazon

While Chancay may rekindle an old dream of integrating South America’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts, there is no effective way to make it happen.

  • Dayanne Sousa and Rachel Gamarski

October 2024

One Direction singer Liam Payne dead after falling from hotel balcony

Harry Styles’ former bandmate died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, according to Argentine media.

  • Brendan O’Boyle, Eliana Raszweski and Agustin Marcarian
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September 2024

Alberto Fujimori, centre, is driven out of prison by one of his lawyers, accompanied by his son Kenji, left, after his release in December last year.

Peru’s Fujimori, divisive head of a political dynasty, dies age 86

During his decade in power, he revived the economy and crushed two leftist insurgencies. But he was forced out in a corruption scandal and later imprisoned.

  • Marco Aquino
Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez

Venezuela opposition candidate flees to Spain

Edmundo Gonzalez, 75, who ran against President Nicolás Maduro in July, left after seeking refuge in the Spanish embassy in Caracas several days ago.

  • Lisandra Paraguassu and Vivian Sequera

August 2024

This frame grab from video shows wreckage from a plane that crashed by a home in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Felipe Magalhaes Filho via AP)

Brazilian airliner crashes, killing all 62 on board

Video shared on social media showed what appeared to be an ATR-made plane spinning out of control as it plunged to the ground.

  • Reuters

July 2024

A protester runs past a police motorbike set on fire during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election.

Protests erupt in Venezuela as nations denounce election result

The US and countries around the world denounced the official results of Sunday’s vote, which did not appear to match statistical estimates based on partial counts.

  • Frances Robles, Jack Nicas and Alejandro Cegarra
President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters gathered outside the Miraflores presidential palace after electoral authorities declared him the winner.

Maduro declared winner in Venezuela’s disputed presidential election

Nicolás Maduro will face the challenge of legitimising the vote to his people and the rest of the world, given his government’s history of repression and fraudulent elections.

  • Patricia Laya and Andreina Itriago Acosta

June 2024

Police clear the streets during clashes with anti-government protesters outside the Argentinian Congress in Buenos Aires.

Argentine Senate passes Milei reform bill as protests rage outside

The bill is key to overhauling an embattled economy, and includes plans for privatising public firms, granting special powers to the president and spurring investment.

  • Nicolás Misculin and Eliana Raszewski
Claudia Sheinbaum addresses supporters at the Zocalo, Mexico City’s main square, after declaring victory.

Mexico’s first woman president inherits debt and violence

Claudia Sheinbaum capitalised on outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s popularity while also inheriting rampant criminal violence and a large fiscal deficit.

  • Maya Averbuch and Alex Vasquez

May 2024

A worker counts money at a grocery store in Buenos Aires.

Argentina launches 10,000-peso notes, worth $17, as inflation bites

The new note, worth five times more than the previous largest note, was introduced as Argentina’s annual inflation rate reached 287 per cent in March.

  • Ciara Nugent

April 2024

Argentine President Javier Milei.

Javier Milei fuels wild rally that makes peso No. 1 in world

The currency has, in fact, not only stopped plunging day after day but in one key foreign exchange market, it’s actually rallying sharply.

  • Ignacio Olivera Doll
People protest outside the Ecuadorian embassy in Mexico City.

Governments rally around Mexico after embassy raid in Ecuador

The late-night seizure of Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s former vice president who was detained on graft charges, triggered a suspension of relations with Quito by Mexico City.

  • Alexandra Valencia
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February 2024

A resident flees an encroaching forest fire in Vina del Mar.

Chile’s fires sweep into urban areas killing scores

Firefighters are struggling to contain forest fires in the centre and south of the country caused by El Niño weather patterns.

  • Alexandre Plaza and Patricia Luna

January 2024

The motor-mouthed Argentine president was mobbed at Davos after delivering his keynote address.

‘Taxing parasites’: Is this the fieriest speech ever given at Davos?

Argentina’s Javier Milei set Davos alight, warning Western politicians that by trying to correct illusory market failures, they were sliding towards socialism.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Security surrounds the car of EPresident Daniel Noboa as he leaves Canela radio station on Wednesday.

Ecuador ‘at war’ with drug gangs, says president

Daniel Noboa said the country would begin deporting foreign prisoners this week to reduce prison populations and spending.

  • Alexandra Valencia
Soldiers patrol outside the government palace during a state of emergency in Quito, Ecuador.

Armed men storm Ecuador TV studio amid escalating violence

The South American country has been rocked by attacks, including the abductions of police officers, following a powerful gang leader’s apparent escape from prison.

  • Annie Correal and Genevieve Glatsky

December 2023

People against the draft of a new constitution celebrate after the result became obvious.

Chileans reject constitution overhaul for second time

The latest vote highlighted the deep division in the South American country and the inability of political sectors to address people’s demands for change.

  • Maria Verza and Patricia Luna
Argentina’s new President Javier Milei speaks outside Congress in Buenos Aires.

Why investors are cheering Argentina’s ‘shock therapy’

Analysts believe the radical measures announced this week by new President Javier Milei offer a realistic opportunity to rescue the South American economy.

  • Tim Wallace
Nicolas Gonzales carries a plate of food from a soup kitchen in a poor neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.

Argentina’s left vows resistance as Milei slashes budget

Union leaders called meetings after shock measures announced by the new president, while the left-leaning governor of Buenos Aires vowed to fight.

  • Michael Stott
Argentinia’s President Javier Milei.

‘Shock therapy’: Argentines 54pc poorer as president devalues peso

Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, is taking the first steps in a shock-therapy program to try and pull the country from an inherited economic crisis.

  • Kevin Simauchi, Manuela Tobias and Ignacio Olivera Doll
President Nicolas Maduro speaks to pro-government supporters after a referendum regarding Venezuela’s claim to the Essequibo, a region administered and controlled by Guyana.

Venezuelans vote to claim sovereignty over oil-rich chunk of Guyana

It remains unclear how President Nicolas Maduro will enforce the results. But Guyana considers the referendum a step towards annexation.

  • Regina Garcia Cano and Jorge Rueda
Javier Milei’s Argentina extracts lithium cheaply using solar power, with a carbon footprint seven times lower than Australian spodumene.

How Argentina’s Javier Milei looks set to undercut Australian lithium

The president-elect’s country holds 21 per cent of the world’s proven reserves. It is today producing just 6 per cent of supply. This is about to change.

  • Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/world/south-america