Browsing: South America

Forest fires have destroyed more than 17,000 hectares in Colombia since November, authorities said Friday, as the country faces its hottest January in decades.More than 340 fires have been recorded in that period, spurred by prolonged drought, record heat, and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Susana Muhamad, the environment minister, said, adding that 26 fires

Ms Heathman said that scientists are now awaiting test results from more of the island’s penguins and are “preparing for a large-scale outbreak” of bird flu.The newly recorded deaths confirm for the first time that gentoo penguins are susceptible to the disease. While gentoos do not have a yearly migration cycle like other penguins, experts

Mr Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, has told Argentines that a “shock treatment” is needed to pull the country out of its dire economic crisis, in which 40 per cent of people live in poverty.He has warned that unless his radical reforms are implemented, Argentina will face “a social catastrophe of biblical proportions”.Six weeks into his

Russia is suspending imports of bananas and flowers from Ecuador, weeks after Quito agreed to a US weapons deal that will result in Ukraine receiving Soviet-era military equipment from the South American country.The Russian agriculture watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, said in a statement that authorisations for five Ecuadorian exporters were suspended from Tuesday due to the detection

Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world. Ten longish holidays and you might claim to sort of know it. But for a first exploration or just a very memorable holiday, the key is to choose half a dozen stops, mix up the topography, cuisines and cultures, and spend some time on the road

He divested from most of those when he first assumed the presidency, after running on a centre-right platform.  Crucially, he had distanced himself from the 1973-1990 Pinochet dictatorship.It was that break, from a brutal regime notorious for its extrajudicial killings and “disappearances” of nearly 3,000 suspected Left-wing subversives, that finally allowed the Chilean right to

Newspapers in Buenos Aires hyped the “gold rush”, drawing in large numbers of people from central Argentina and Chile as well as foreign migrants, especially Dalmatians. There turned out to be limited quantities of gold, but the bogus rush led to the establishment of the first towns in the interior. At the same time Spanish

Sebastian Piñera, the former president of Chile who died after the helicopter he was piloting crashed into a lake, reportedly gave his life to save his passengers.Mr Piñera told those on board – his son, sister Magdalena and a friend – to leap into the water while he wrestled with the controls of the malfunctioning

The hills are characterised by narrow roads and cul-de-sacs, and have few exits. As people jumped into their cars to escape, deadly traffic jams quickly formed. Firefighters couldn’t get in, while the valleys magnified the winds, fanning the storm.  “Our home is in a dip and we didn’t have time to leave. We were trapped in,”

A Colombian politician who admitted he has “no idea” how to do his job and was hired despite having no relevant qualifications has been forced to resign.Manuel Córdoba, the culture chief for the city of Medellin, was filmed telling an audience at a public event: “I don’t know what a registry is or what a