Latin America

Mistrusting the state to provide adequate healthcare services amid the rising threat of the Chinese coronavirus, a Brazilian slum has hired private doctors to treat residents.

Cuban dissidents reported on Friday that José Daniel Ferrer, the head of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), had been released after spending six months in prison without evidence of having committed a crime.

A Venezuelan Navy patrol boat deliberately rammed into a German cruise ship in international waters on Thursday in an unprovoked act of aggression, before sinking as a result of the damage. 

Does Mark Zuckerberg know more about the Chinese virus pandemic than Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro?

Officials in Ecuador pledged on Monday to improve the collection of corpses after delays related to the Chinese coronavirus forced some families to keep their loved ones’ bodies in their homes for days after they passed away.

Shortly after Twitter removed a post about the coronavirus pandemic by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Facebook followed suit also removing the president’s post from its platform as well. 

Twitter took down two tweets from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, citing its policy against misinformation related to the Chinese coronavirus, despite refusing to take down misinformation from Chinese officials about the virus last week.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro once again played down the threat posed by the Chinese coronavirus on Sunday, urging people to take it “like a man” and return to normality as quickly as possible.

Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro responded to the U.S. Department of Justice branding him a narco-terrorist on Thursday and offering a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture by branding the move “extravagant, extremist, and vulgar.”

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ordered on Thursday that places of worship are “essential services” that must be exempted from quarantine measures against the Chinese coronavirus.

The Venezuelan polling firm Meganálisis published its monthly nationwide survey this week, finding that the looming spread of Chinese coronavirus in the country is corresponding to decreased faith in the legitimate president of the country, Juan Guaidó.

The Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and members of his cabinet for narco-terrorism. The U.S. recognizes Juan Guaido as the legitimate president even though Maduro manages to maintain power.

City of God, a slum complex in Rio de Janeiro, confirmed its first case of Chinese Coronavirus over the weekend. With state authorities underprepared, gangs and militias running the slums imposed strict curfews this week in anticipation of the novel coronavirus’s spread.

The independent outlet Cubanet published a video Tuesday of a long line in Havana, Cuba, in which distressed citizens complained of waiting outside in close quarters for hours for their government-allotted food rations, exposing themselves to potential carriers of the Chinese coronavirus.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro once again blasted the global “hysteria” over the Chinese coronavirus, and urged his people to get back to normal life and work as soon as they possibly can.

Twitter deleted a post by Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday after he publicly recommended a “natural brew” as a potential cure for the Chinese coronavirus.

Shopkeepers at a plaza in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, attacked a team of journalists and kidnapped them on Monday, threatening not to let them out if they did not delete footage of the shopkeepers violating a coronavirus quarantine.

The global coronavirus pandemic originating in China is leading conservative Latin American leaders to question key tenets of the region’s foreign policy.

The number of cases of the Chinese coronavirus in communist Cuba is continuing to rise as its population faces the pandemic without widespread access to hygienic essentials such as soap and clean water.

The Communist Party of Cuba sent dozens of its barely-paid medical professionals to Italy on Sunday to help with Chinese coronavirus treatment – shortly after asking Cubans at home to contribute increasingly hard-to-obtain soap and water to their children’s schools.

A prison riot in the Colombian capital of Bogotá on Saturday sparked by the ongoing Chinese coronavirus outbreak has left 23 people dead and a further 83 injured, the country’s Minister of Justice Margarita Cabello announced on Sunday. 

Cuban anti-communist dissidents took to the internet Thursday to demand the Castro regime stop inviting global tourism to the country while the rest of the world deals with a pandemic of the highly contagious Chinese coronavirus, noting Cuba’s destitute healthcare system and shortages of basic hygienic goods.

In Argentina, violators of a mandatory coronavirus quarantine face jail time and criminal charges. Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez said on Sunday, “I’m going to be inflexible on this. Anyone who has to be in quarantine is going to follow it, and if they don’t, we’re going to pursue them criminally.”

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro praised his own efforts to deal with the Chinese coronavirus on Wednesday when asked by a television reporter whether he had sent out the “wrong message” in his initial skepticism over the pandemic.

Brazil’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue was lit up with the flags of nations affected by the Chinese coronavirus Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro.

Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional revealed on Wednesday the confirmation of four cases of Chinese coronavirus among workers at the Helicoide, a former shopping mall turned into the nation’s most notorious prison for political dissidents.

The Cuban Communist Party has not planned any social isolation measures, including shutting down schools, to combat a growing number of Chinese coronavirus cases – alarming parents worried they do not even have enough water or soap to wash their hands, Cuban outlets revealed on Wednesday.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro demanded a $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an institution he has long reviled, on Tuesday to help fight the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of Americans are stuck in Peru after the government shut down the country’s borders to slow the number of coronavirus infections.

Hundreds of inmates successfully escaped from four low-security prisoners across the state of São Paulo on Monday after the government canceled Easter prison holidays and tightened visitor restrictions as part of efforts to contain the Chinese coronavirus.