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☆ Chile's conservative assembly begins drafting new constitution
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/5] Chile’s President Gabriel Boric sings the national anthem during the first session to draft a new constitution, in Santiago, Chile, June 7, 2023. REUTERS/Ivan AlvaradoSANTIAGO, June 7 (Reuters) - A new Constitutional Council dominated by conservative parties in charge of drafting Chile's new constitution began its official duties on Wednesday, in the second attempt to replace the current text that dates back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. The new process will be shorter and more limited than the previous one, which was marred by controversies surrounding extreme proposals and assembly members. A small number of protesters from opposing political views amassed outside the National Congress building in Santiago. Some oppose Boric and the need for a new constitution while others oppose the new right-wing council.

Persons: Gabriel Boric, Ivan Alvarado SANTIAGO, Augusto Pinochet, it's, Boric, Natalia Ramos, Alexander Villegas, David Gregorio Our Organizations: REUTERS, Constitutional Council, National Congress, Thomson Locations: Santiago , Chile, Santiago

☆ Mexico foreign minister quits in bid to clinch presidential nomination
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Dave Graham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/4] Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard raises his fist while announcing he will resign next week to focus on winning the nomination of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) ruling party for next year's presidential election, at a hotel in Mexico City, Mexico, June 6, 2023. Mexico's U.N. ambassador Juan Ramon de la Fuente and ambassador to the U.S. Esteban Moctezuma are seen by many analysts as the favorites to replace Ebrard as foreign minister. As foreign minister, it is harder for Ebrard to address domestic issues than for Sheinbaum and Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez, another leading contender, Buendia said. Following Ebrard's announcement, MORENA party chairman Mario Delgado told Mexican radio the party's contenders would ultimately have to resign to ensure a fair contest. During Monday's meeting, Lopez Obrador said he had urged the party to remain united, and pledged not to influence the outcome of MORENA's internal contest.

Persons: Marcelo Ebrard, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, Ebrard, Mexico's U.N, Juan Ramon de la Fuente, Esteban Moctezuma, Lopez Obrador, MORENA, Jorge Buendia, Marquez, Buendia, Adan Augusto Lopez, Lopez, Mario Delgado, Dave Graham, Anthony Esposito, Gerry Doyle, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: Foreign, Regeneration, Read, MEXICO CITY, Mayor, U.S, Thomson Locations: Mexico City, Mexico, MEXICO, U.S, Mexican, State of Mexico

☆ Mexican president urges unity among ruling party contenders
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, June 6 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he had sought to promote unity within the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) during a dinner on Monday evening attended by the party's main contenders to succeed him. Ebrard is one of the leading contenders to succeed Lopez Obrador, though most recent polling has tended to give Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum a slight edge in the race. Lopez Obrador said Ebrard, Sheinbaum and Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez, another presidential hopeful, were at the dinner, where MORENA leaders congratulated party stalwart Delfina Gomez for winning the State of Mexico's gubernatorial election on Sunday. "And we also met to maintain unity, so that there aren't divisions," the leftist president told reporters. Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Paul SimaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, MORENA, Marcelo Ebrard, Lopez Obrador, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, Ebrard, Adan Augusto Lopez, Delfina Gomez, Dave Graham, Isabel Woodford, Paul Simao Organizations: MEXICO CITY, Regeneration, Mexico City Mayor, Thomson Locations: MEXICO, Sheinbaum, Mexico's

"This is the right's best chance for people to pick a Pinochet constitution without Pinochet's signature," said Patricio Navia a political scientist at New York University. "The political climate in Chile isn't the same as in 2019 or 2020," said political analyst Cristobal Bellolio. An estimated 3,200 Chileans were murdered and another 28,000 tortured by the state during Pinochet's rule. Many of the victims were affiliated with the socialist government of Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a 1973 coup. "The issue is that if it's more right then Pinochet's constitution, people are going to reject it," Navia added, who added the loss for Boric left the leader who once promised to bury Chile's market-led model sorely wounded.

☆ Opinion | Timothy McVeigh’s Dreams Are Coming True
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

As you probably know by now, there was another mass shooting last weekend, at an outdoor mall in Allen, Texas. But mass shootings are increasingly part of the background noise of life in a country coming apart at the seams. And so in the wake of mass shootings, when the public is most likely to clamor for gun regulations, Republicans regularly shore up gun access instead. In April, following a school shooting in Nashville, Republicans expelled two young Black Democratic legislators who’d led a gun control protest at the Tennessee Capitol. A few days later, the State Senate passed a bill protecting the gun industry from lawsuits.

☆ What Chile's state-led lithium policy means for the future of the electric vehicle industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Katie Brigham | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

The only two lithium companies currently operating in Chile are North Carolina-based Albemarle , the largest lithium producer in the world, and SQM , the No. Chile's lithium is of particular strategic importance to the U.S., which has a free trade agreement with the country but not with neighboring Argentina. The plan calls for the creation of a national lithium company to partner with all private businesses looking to enter the sector. Bags of battery-grade lithium carbonate at La Negra, Albemarle's lithium processing plant near Antofagasta, Chile. Lenny-Pessagno told CNBC in January that Albemarle supports the creation of a state-owned lithium company.

☆ ‘Chile ’76’ Review: Resistance and Paranoia Under Pinochet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Aline Küppenheim Photo: Kino LorberA woman is choosing colors in a paint store when there’s a disturbance outside. After some sounds of struggle and another, unseen woman crying out, everything goes silent again. There is an awkward pause. Then customers and clerks carry on with their business. None of them discuss what they have just heard.

☆ Chile's voters set to take big step in constitution redraft 2.0
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Natalia A. Ramos Miranda | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Rodrigo GarridoSANTIAGO, May 5 (Reuters) - Chileans will vote to elect 50 constitutional advisers on Sunday, a major step towards rewriting the constitution, after voters overwhelmingly rejected a first attempt in a plebiscite last September to replace the dictatorship-era charter. The so-called Constitutional Council that voters are set to elect will work as of June on the new constitution, based on a preliminary draft prepared by a commission of 24 experts that Congress appointed in March. "I voted to approve (in September), I wanted a new constitution and to get rid of the dictatorship's constitution, but now I'm not really interested." He stressed that traditional political forces are now more in control of the process, unlike the failed first attempt. It seems "likely that no single bloc or party will win enough seats to independently steer the process without compromise," Watson said.

☆ Swarm of bees delays a Delta flight by three hours
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Marnie Hunter | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —A swarm of bees touched down on a parked Delta Air Lines aircraft Wednesday, delaying a flight from Houston to Atlanta for about three hours. Delta apologized to customers on the delayed flight. My flight leaving Houston is delayed because bees have congregated on the tip of one of the wings. A swarm of bees delayed an Air India flight in 2019. The airport involved in Wednesday’s bee-related delay hasn’t joined in airport beekeeping efforts – yet.

☆ ‘Chile ’76’ Review: Domestic Unease That Twists Into Intrigue
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Teo Bugbee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 1973, the socialist government of Chile was overthrown by a military junta led by Gen‌‌. Thousands were killed, and hundreds of thousands fled the country under Pinochet’s dictatorship, which lasted for 17 years and was maintained through violence. The protagonist of “Chile ’76” is Carmen (Aline Küppenheim), a regal woman of middle age. She’s a grandmother and a career flight attendant who now lives a comfortably bourgeois lifestyle with her husband in Santiago. Carmen occupies her time alone with charitable work, guided by the sanguine priest of the town, Father Sánchez (Hugo Medina).

☆ Mexican president, with COVID, expected to resume activities this week -Interior Minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, April 26 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador may return to normal activities as soon as this week as his COVID-19 symptoms improve, a top government official said Wednesday. Lopez Obrador on Sunday said he had tested positive for the virus, his third known infection, and would take a few days off. Speaking in the president's place at a regular news conference, Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez said Lopez Obrador's health was improving. "We think, and this is what the doctors say, that the president will be resuming his normal activities ... before the weekend," he said. Lopez Obrador, 69, who had a serious heart attack in 2013, reported mild symptoms from both of his previous bouts of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic.

The country nationalised its copper sector in 1971, provoking international outrage, particularly in the United States. President Gabriel Boric's lithium "nationalisation" is a more benign version, using an even earlier copper model. THE COPPER MODEL - GOOD AND BADIf President Boric's lithium policy is an echo of past copper policy, the comparison is with the "Chileanisation" programme of the Eduardo Frei Montalva administration in the late 1960s. Even the neo-liberals of the Augusto Pinochet regime kept the national jewel in the crown as they opened the rest of the country's' copper sector up to the private sector. It is now Codelco that is tasked with taking control of the country's lithium sector.

☆ Mexico president self-isolating after catching COVID-19: minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, April 24 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is receiving medical treatment and self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19, the country's Interior Minister Adan Augusto said Monday in a morning press conference. Augusto said that Lopez Obrador was at the presidential headquarters and that the president had shown cold-like symptoms since Saturday. He denied a media report that the president had suffered a heart attack. This is the third known COVID-19 diagnosis for Lopez Obrador, 69, who had a serious heart attack in 2013. He reported mild symptoms from both of his previous bouts of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic.

☆ Mexican president tests positive for COVID-19 for third time
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, April 23 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the third known infection, adding that while he was not seriously ill he would take a few days off. Lopez Obrador, 69, who had a serious heart attack in 2013, reported mild symptoms from both of his previous bouts of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic. Lopez Obrador said Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez would host his regular morning news conference. In January 2022, Lopez Obrador underwent cardiac catheterization and was found to be in good health. Back then, the government said the president has regular check ups that include lab tests, electrocardiograms, stress tests and CT scans.

[1/5] A supporter of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stands near the 'San Raffaele' hospital, where former Italian Prime Minister is hospitalised, in Milan, Italy, April 7, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia GrecoMILAN, April 7 (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is "better than he was", his friend Fedele Confalonieri said on Friday after visiting him in hospital, where he is being treated for a lung infection caused by chronic leukaemia. "I'm sure he'll make it because he's a strong man, and because he's the best prime minister we've had in Italy. A friend of Berlusconi, Vittorio Sgarbi, said before he went into hospital the two had discussed his future. Berlusconi's Forza Italia party is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition, although he does not have a direct role in her government.

☆ Mexico Probes Possible Staff Negligence in Fire That Killed 38 Migrants
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Anthony Harrup | Santiago Pérez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MEXICO CITY—Mexican federal prosecutors will investigate possible negligence in the response to a fire at a migrant detention center in the border city of Ciudad Juárez that left at least 38 migrants dead as actions of staff at the facility came under scrutiny, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday. A surveillance video shows migrants trapped in locked cells as the fire erupted on Monday night, while two guards appear to make no attempt to release the detained men as smoke filled the detention area. The authenticity of the video was confirmed by Interior Minister Adán Augusto López.

☆ El Salvador condemns staff at Mexican migrant center after deadly fire
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 29 (Reuters) - El Salvador condemned on Tuesday the action of detention center staff in Mexico during a fire that killed at least 38 migrants, including "several" Salvadorans, and demanded a thorough investigation. Pope Francis prayed in Spanish for the migrants who died yesterday in a tragic fire in Ciudad Juarez. Let us pray for that" the Pope said during his weekly address to crowds in St Peter's Square on Wednesday. A video shared on social media appears to show three people at the center in what appear to be official uniforms failing to open a cell door as the fire began. By the end of the video the smoke is so thick the cell can no longer be seen.

☆ Migrants were locked behind bars during deadly Mexico fire, witnesses say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Lizbeth Diaz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, March 29 (Reuters) - Migrants were locked in a cell as a blaze spread killing 39 people at a detention center in Mexico, witnesses and a survivor said on Wednesday, as Mexico's president vowed to bring to justice those responsible. "There'll be no attempt to hide the facts, no attempt to cover for anyone," he told a news conference in Mexico city. All the victims were male, and Mexico's government is under pressure to find out why they died after officials said the women migrants at the center were successfully evacuated. Outside a hospital in Ciudad Juarez, which sits across the border from El Paso, Texas, family members anxiously waited for news of their loved ones who had been injured in the fire. Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Ciudad Juarez and Daina Beth Solomon, Dave Graham and Valentine Hilaire in Mexico City; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Chile starts second attempt to draft new constitution
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] A Constitution expert commission kicks off prior to the next constitution process of Chile, in Santiago, Chile, March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Ivan AlvaradoSANTIAGO, March 6 (Reuters) - Chile has begun its second attempt to write a new constitution as a group of experts that Congress appointed to start preparing a preliminary draft was installed on Monday. It will then work off the experts' draft in June, while the vote to approve or reject the proposed text will be held on Dec. 17. Assuming all goes to plan, Chile will have a new constitution by the end of this year," consultancy Teneo said. The current constitution dates back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, although it has undergone dozens of reforms over the years.

SAO SEBASTIAO, Brazil, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The death toll from devastating rainfall in southeastern Brazil rose to 40 on Monday, official figures showed, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited the region and said homes should no longer be built in areas at risk of landslides and major floods. Lula flew over the coastal town of Sao Sebastiao alongside Cabinet ministers and pledged to help rebuild the town of some 91,000 people by constructing new houses in safer places. "Sometimes nature takes us by surprise, but sometimes we also tempt nature," Lula said in a speech after meeting with Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas and Sao Sebastiao Mayor Felipe Augusto to coordinate their response to the disaster. "I express my solidarity with the people of Sao Sebastiao and I hope this never happens again." [1/4] Landslides are seen after severe rainfall in Sao Sebastiao, Brazil, February 20, 2023.

☆ Was the poet poisoned? Chile awaits new report on Neruda’s death
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] A picture of Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda is seen inside his museum house in the coastal sector of Isla Negra, Chile, April 26, 2016. REUTERS/Rodrigo GarridoFeb 15 (Reuters) - A third inquiry into the death of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda 50 years ago could shed new light on whether he was poisoned by political enemies, as alleged by some of his family. Rodolfo Reyes, a Neruda nephew, reiterated this week claims that his uncle - a member of the Communist party and the most important Chilean intellectual of the time - was poisoned. Previous tests have found no evidence Neruda, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971, was poisoned. Reporting by Fabian Andrés Cambero; Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Brazilian judge orders arrest of Bolsonaro’s ex-minister after Brasília rampage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

BRASILIA, Brazil — A Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered the arrest on Tuesday of the capital’s most recent public security chief after supporters of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro led a rampage through government buildings. Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro storm the National Congress building in Brasília on Sunday. In the arrest warrant, Moraes cited their failure to ensure proper security forces were in place. A Reuters witness spotted police at the Torres family residence in an upscale Brasília neighborhood, where a resident said they left carrying bags. His son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, denied on Tuesday that the former president was responsible for the riots on Sunday.

The government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva bolstered security measures nationwide as flyers appeared on pro-Bolsonaro social media calling for mass demonstrations in Brazilian cities to "retake power." Ricardo Cappelli, the federal official in charge of public security in the capital since Sunday, said all security forces had been mobilized to prevent protests and that there would be no repeat of rioting. So far, 727 of the over 1,500 involved in Sunday's riots have been imprisoned. The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Moraes's arrest warrant for Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro's former justice minister who oversaw public security in Brasilia during Sunday's riots. The former president, whom Lula has blamed for inflaming the protests, did not mention Sunday's riots.

Bolsonaro, a far-right nationalist, left Brazil for Florida on Friday after losing to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil's most fraught vote in a generation. Bolsonaro's U.S. trip insulates him from any immediate legal jeopardy in Brazil, where he is under investigation in at least four criminal probes. Under Brazil's constitution, a sitting president can only be arrested if he is convicted by the Supreme Court. From September, Lula will be able to install his own prosecutor general, who has the power to charge Bolsonaro if his cases remain with the Supreme Court. Bolsonaro also faces 12 requests for investigation at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) for baseless claims Brazil's electoral system is liable to fraud, as well as alleged abuses of power for granting economic benefits to win votes.

☆ Death toll rises to 19 from prison attack in Mexican border town
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Members of the Mexican Army arrive at Cereso number 3 state prison after unknown assailants entered the prison and freed several inmates, resulting in injuries and deaths, according to local media, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico January 1, 2023. REUTERS /Jose Luis GonzalezMEXICO CITY, Jan 2 (Reuters) - An attack on a prison in the Mexican border town of Juarez left 19 dead and allowed a cartel kingpin to escape along with two dozen other prisoners, authorities said Monday. The attack allowed 25 inmates, including Ernesto Alfredo Pinon de la Cruz, also known as "El Neto," to escape. She added that state authorities had not requested that any dangerous prisoners, such as "El Neto," be transferred from the overcrowded prison to a higher-security location. The incident Sunday resulted in one of the highest death tolls from prison attacks in Mexico in recent years.

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