Latin America

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s top two presidential candidates were neck-and-neck late Sunday in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba remained in the dark early Wednesday after Hurricane Ian knocked out its power grid and devastated some of the country’s most important tobacco farms when it hit the island’s western tip as a major storm.

Hurricane Ian tore into western Cuba on Tuesday as a major hurricane, with nothing to stop it from intensifying into a catastrophic Category 4 storm before it hits Florida on Wednesday.

Cubans have approved a sweeping “family law” code that would allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt, as well as redefine rights for children and grandparents, officials said Monday, though opposition in the national referendum was unusually strong on the Communist Party-governed island.

Reasons for why so many Chileans rejected the proposed document —which would’ve replaced the current constitution written under the Pinochet dictatorship— center on widespread fears stoked by a massive misinformation campaign.

Last month, Venezuelans surpassed Guatemalans and Hondurans to become the second-largest nationality stopped at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Venezuelans were stopped 25,349 times, up 43 percent from 17,652 in July and four times the 6,301 encounters in August 2021, authorities said Monday, signaling a remarkably sudden demographic shift.

In the months since an explosion at the Saratoga Hotel in Havana killed 47 people, and weeks after 14 firefighters died fighting the oil fire at the port in Matanzas, recent fires at state-owned and military facilities are leading people on social media to draw various conclusions.

Latino Rebels speaks with Lorena González, mother of Sergio Pastor, 31, who is known as “19” for the code of the neighborhood where he grew up, Ciudad Bolívar, and who is currently facing life imprisonment in Colombia for his participation in last year’s National Strike.

Latino Rebels asked senators this week about last Sunday’s constitutional referendum in Chile, in which a new constitution backed by the country’s young leftist president was rejected in a mandatory vote by a 24-point margin.

Thousands of people in Haiti’s capital and other major cities organized new protests on Wednesday to demand safer streets, more affordable goods, and the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

After voters in Chile rejected a progressive constitution that would have fundamentally changed the country, political leaders on Monday started working on finding a path forward to reform the current charter which dates back to the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

With deforestation and mining destroying the Amazon rainforest and authoritarianism threatening Brazilian democracy, the need to block the Bolsonaro administration’s persecution of Indigenous communities is more crucial than ever.

The new policy announced Monday night comes almost three weeks after the communist government began buying hard currency from the public at 110.40 pesos per dollar, a rate similar to that of the black market and more than four times the rate used for official transactions

A former Miami congressman who signed a $50 million consulting contract with Venezuela’s socialist government not only did no apparent work but also channeled a large chunk of the money to a yacht company on behalf of a fugitive billionaire, according to new allegations in a civil suit.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday they have arrested the attorney general in Mexico’s previous administration on charges he committed abuses in the investigation of the 2014 disappearances of 43 students from a radical teacher college.

Colombia’s first left-wing president and its first Black woman vice-president were sworn in, representing a landmark change of course in leadership. Latino Rebels attended the inauguration and spoke with the people about their hopes for the new administration.

JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s presidential election campaign officially began Tuesday with former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leading all polls against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro amid growing concern of political violence and threats to democracy.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Cuban doctor has been shot to death at a hospital in a rough neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City, prosecutors in the State of Mexico confirmed late Monday.

During the 24th International AIDS Conference that took place over the last weekend of July in Montreal, Colombian visual artist and lawyer Juan de la Mar used their mic time to express how essential it is to advocate for the sexual rights of people living with HIV.

In this last episode of our ‘Genias in Music’ series, we explore the life and music contributions of Petrona Martínez and its impact on the construction of a more diverse national identity in Colombia.

Flames engulfed a fourth tank at an oil storage facility in western Cuba on Tuesday as the raging fire consumes critical fuel supplies on an island grappling with a growing energy crisis.