South China Morning Post - Americas

Chile wants to widen the group of countries buying its copper and attract about US$100 billion in mining investment over the next decade, its foreign minister said on Wednesday, in the most explicit move yet by the new government in Santiago to reduce its exposure to Chinese demand. “The market is highly concentrated and we need to broaden the number of places that buy our coppe...

A judge on Wednesday set a June 1, 2027, trial date for ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on US drug-trafficking charges, while a defence lawyer vowed to seek dismissal of the case on the grounds that Maduro is immune from prosecution as the head of a sovereign state. Maduro and his wife, wearing beige prison garb, appeared during a hearing las...

Nicaragua’s long-serving President Daniel Ortega said the Central American country will no longer hold elections, eliminating the possibility of an electoral challenge when his term ends next year and further entrenching the rule he shares with his wife. Ortega, who has continuously held power since 2007 following an earlier presidential term ‌in the 1980s, said the move will cl...

An ageing ferry carrying more than 100 people capsized off the coast of Guyana, with 67 saved and rescue teams searching for the rest, officials said on Sunday. The ferry MV Barima left the small English-speaking country at the northeast corner of South America on Saturday afternoon with 133 people aboard for a trip from the capital, Georgetown, to the town of Port Kaituma. Port...

At least six people were killed and 21 injured after two earthquakes struck a mountainous region of Peru, the country’s civil defence chief said ‌on Sunday. The earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 5.1 and 3.7, hit on Saturday night in Chupaca province in the Junin region, about 300km (186 miles) east of Lima, according to Peru’s National Seismological Centre post on social media. ...