Latin America

The highest death toll in the Caribbean is in the Dominican Republic, where 51 people have died as of Tuesday morning.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Like every Sunday, Brazilian Pastor Silas Malafaia took the stage of his Pentecostal temple in a middle-class Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. But this week, he wore a T-shirt instead of a blazer and, behind the three cameras broadcasting to his legion of YouTube followers, were thousands of empty seats.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s government broadened its shutdown of “non-essential activities” to the private sector and prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people to fight the spread of the new coronavirus.

Three years after the FARC disarmed to the United Nations, the Colombian government is still unable to establish a presence in much of the remote countryside.

“Some will die. I’m sorry. That’s life,” Bolsonaro reportedly said.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — From Mexico City to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Santiago, Chile, the coronavirus is taking root in the world’s most unequal region, where many of Latin America’s first cases arrived with members of the elite returning from vacations or work trips to Europe and the United States.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Even as coronavirus cases mount in Latin America’s largest nation, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has staked out the most deliberately dismissive position of any major world leader, calling the pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Government officials faced heavy criticism for their response to the coronavirus outbreak in Puerto Rico as details trickled out about the newest death reported Friday in the U.S. territory, which was the first for a resident.

MIAMI (AP) — A retired Venezuelan army general indicted alongside Nicolás Maduro has surrendered in Colombia and is being taken by Drug Enforcement Administration agents to New York for arraignment, four people familiar with the situation said Friday.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday he will maintain his busy travel schedule dedicating infrastructure projects around the country in spite of growing restrictions prompted by the coronavirus epidemic, including a shutdown of most federal government operations.

The threat of the coronavirus to Brazil’s low-income communities has hit home in recent days.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced an indictment of President Nicolás Maduro.

MIAMI (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stood defiant in the face of a $15 million bounty by the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges, calling Donald Trump a “racist cowboy” and warning that he is ready to fight by whatever means necessary should the U.S. and neighboring Colombia dare to invade.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico announced Thursday that it would extend a two-week curfew to April 12 and warned of new restrictions to help curb coronavirus cases.

In the age of COVID-19, anything other than ending deportations is a high-risk, potentially disastrous move.

Brazilian Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta warned that Brazil’s public health system will likely collapse by the end of April.

MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has indicted Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolás Maduro and several key aides on charges of narcoterrorism.

SÃO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s governors are defying President Jair Bolsonaro over his call to reopen schools and businesses, dismissing his argument that the “cure” of widespread shutdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus is worse than the disease.

In an Instagram LIVE, Residente asked Bukele about the ways in which he is combating the spread of COVID-19 in El Salvador.

Here in Latin America, for the first time in about 500 years, we don’t automatically trust those coming from the other side of the ocean.

Due to the coronavirus,  this year is the first time since 1983 that the Abuelas and Madres of Plaza de Mayo won’t march on the anniversary of Argentina’s military dictatorship. In this story, reporter Lucía Cholakian Herrera checks in with one of the reunited families.