Marco Castillo and his boyfriend, Rodrigo Campos, waited just a few hours to take advantage of a new law in Costa Rica that made the country the first in Central America to allow same-sex marriage. A judge, two witnesses, relatives and hundreds of online viewers ...
Spain to reopen to tourists as South America named coronavirus hot spot
Spain said on Saturday it would let in foreign tourists and restart top league soccer in the coming weeks, accelerating Europe's exit from strict coronavirus lockdowns, even as the disease continued its deadly surge in parts of South America. Brazil saw its death toll passing ...
U.S. may restore Cuba to list of sponsors of terrorism, source says
The United States is considering returning Cuba to its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters on Thursday, a move that would mark another major blow to increasingly tense relations between Washington and Havana. There is a "convincing case” ...
With attention on the coronavirus, Amazon deforestation surges
As the world focuses on the coronavirus, deforestation continues to surge in the Amazon rainforest this year, raising fears of a repeat of last year's record-breaking devastation — or worse. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of ...
Peru's Keiko Fujimori to be freed from prison during graft investigation
Former Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori will be released from prison while she is under investigation for money laundering, her lawyer said on Thursday. Peru's supreme court accepted an appeal and ruled to revoke Fujimori's 15-month jail sentence, according to her lawyer, Giulliana Loza. Fujimori will ...
Argentine tango dancers go solo awaiting embrace lost to pandemic
Tango's once-warm embrace has grown cool under Argentina's strict coronavirus quarantine, though aficionados are finding a way to circumvent social isolation with virtual classes while they wait for dance venues to reopen. The lockdown means milongas — traditional dance clubs that dot the Buenos Aires ...
Amazon city resorts to mass graves as Brazil COVID-19 deaths soar
Deaths from the coronavirus outbreak have piled up so fast in the Amazon rainforest's biggest city that the main cemetery is burying five coffins at a time in collective graves. Soon, the city may run out of coffins. "It's chaos here," said Maria Garcia, who waited ...
Front-line medics in one of Latin America's coronavirus epicenters are lifting the lid on the daily horrors they face in an Ecuadoran city whose health system has collapsed. In one hospital in Guayaquil overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, staff have had to pile up bodies in ...
From Peru coca farmers to Paris pushers, coronavirus upends drug trade
Countries around the world have spent billions of dollars bailing out firms affected by COVID-19. Peru's coca farmers, who grow the bushy plant used to make cocaine, say they want help, too. Prices for coca leaves sold to drug gangs have slumped 70 percent since ...
Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro isolated and weakened by coronavirus denial
At a tense Cabinet meeting on Saturday in the Brazilian president's official residence, Jair Bolsonaro found himself isolated. The far-right leader convened the emergency meeting in Brasilia's modernist Alvorada Palace to resolve a dispute with Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who publicly opposed the president's ...
South America's indigenous people lock down as coronavirus takes hold
For decades, indigenous groups from Colombia to Brazil have been fighting the threat to their lives posed by oil exploration, deforestation and illegal logging. Now the battle is against the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Indigenous tribes are locking down and closing off their reserves to visitors as ...
SoftBank plans to invest $1 billion from Latin America fund, with eyes on 650 firms
SoftBank Group Corp. will continue to invest in Latin America this year, focusing on industries including e-commerce, health care and fintech. As part of its $5 billion Latin America Fund launched in the first quarter of 2019, the Japanese giant plans to dole out $1 ...
