Chile
- Chilean Constitutional Convention delegates failed to select new leaders in a marathon session yesterday, convention president Elisa Loncón said voting will resume today. Delegates carried out eight rounds of voting yesterday, but no candidate obtained the 78 votes required to replace Loncón who was elected last year for a six-month period. (EFE, see Monday’s briefs.)
Colombia
- Five years after Colombia’s peace accord with the FARC, the country is still struggling to resolve a displacement crisis that is only worsening, reports the Washington Post. Colombia has nearly 5 million internally displaced people, that includes at least 82,846 who were forcibly displaced between January and November 2021, a 169 percent increase from the previous year.
Cuba
- More than 90 percent of Cuba’s population has been vaccinated with at least one dose of the country’s nationally developed vaccines, while 83 percent have been fully inoculated, reports the Guardian. Of countries with populations of over a million, only the United Arab Emirates has a stronger vaccination record.
Brazil
- Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been discharged from hospital, two days after being admitted with an intestinal obstruction, his latest health complication from a 2018 stabbing, reports Reuters. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
- São Paulo priest Júlio Lancellotti is an outspoken champion of homeless people – a cause that makes him unpopular with Brazil’s authorities, reports the Guardian.
Paraguay
- Environmentalists say construction of Paraguay’s Bioceanic Corridor is a nightmare, that will accelerate destruction of the Chaco – the fastest-vanishing forest on Earth – and piling deadly pressure on its native inhabitants, including some who shun the outside world, reports the Guardian.
Argentina
- Argentina’s national intelligence agency presented a judicial accusation against former Buenos Aires province officials, accusing them of leading a secret scheme to “eliminate trade unions.” The claim relates to a leaked video in which former labor minister, Marcelo Villegas, who served in Maria Eugenia Vidal’s government, affirmed to businessmen: “If I could have a Gestapo, a shock force to finish off all the trade unions, I’d go ahead.” (Buenos Aires Times)
- Argentine President Alberto Fernández has called on the judiciary to “investigate without delay” allegations of alleged espionage during the government of his predecessor Mauricio Macri. (Buenos Aires Times)
- Tensions within Argentina’s ruling Frente de Todos coalition eased after last year’s November’s midterm elections, though it is unclear how ongoing government negotiations with the International Monetary Fund could affect the detente, writes Nick Burns in Americas Quarterly.
- Thousands of people protested yesterday along the beaches of Mar del Plata in Argentina to protest an oil exploration project off the Atlantic coast, reports AFP.
