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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's press secretary tested positive for coronavirus days after taking part in meetings with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reports and multiple American outlets have confirmed. The latest: Bolsonaro is currently being monitored, according to Brazilian media. Fabio Wajngarten, the aide, was photographed with Trump on Saturday.

Rep. Ilan Omar (D-MN) claimed the Trump administration was waging a “coup” against the Venezuelan government for recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido, who temporarily assumed presidential powers in an effort to unseat Nicolas Maduro. “A US backed coup in Venezuela is not a solution to the dire issues they face,” she said on Twitter. “Trump’s efforts to install a far right opposition will only incite violence and further destabilize the region. We must support Mexico, Uruguay & the Vatican’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful dialogue.” Ilhan Omar ✔@IlhanMN A US backed coup in Venezuela is not a solution to the...

<p>CARACAS, Venezuela - President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday faced the gravest challenge to his authority since assuming power in 2013 as the U.S.-backed opposition claimed the legitimate mantle of leadership, and President Donald Trump promptly recognized him as Venezuela's interim president.The dramatic developments came as anti-Maduro protests drew hundreds of thousands of people into Venezuelan streets.</p>

(Videos at site) Venezuela kicks off two days of military drills on Saturday in response to US President Donald Trump's threat of military action and newly announced sanctions on the crisis-stricken nation. Trump warned on August 11 that the United States was mulling a range of options against Venezuela, "including a possible military option if necessary." His Vice President Mike Pence later played down the threat, insisting that Washington was prioritizing a diplomatic solution and economic sanctions. National security advisor HR McMaster followed suit, saying "no military actions are anticipated in the near future." But tension only surged again when...

The Trump administration on Friday slapped tough new economic sanctions on Venezuela aimed at slowing the South American dictatorship’s steady slide into totalitarianism. President Trump signed an executive order that bans US companies and individuals from dealing in new debt and equity issued by the government of Venezuela and its state oil company. It also prohibits dealings in some existing bonds owned by the Venezuelan public sector, as well as dividend payments to the government of Venezuela, headed by President Nicholas Maduro. “The Maduro dictatorship continues to deprive the Venezuelan people of food and medicine, imprison the democratically elected opposition,...

Bogota (AFP) - Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos declared the country's 50-year conflict with FARC guerrillas "truly over" Tuesday, as the last truckloads of decommissioned weapons rolled away to be melted down. Santos himself shut a padlock on the last lot of decommissioned rifles before it was taken out of a remote demobilization camp to formally seal the UN-supervised disarmament by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). "With the laying down of arms ... the conflict is truly over and a new phase begins in the life of our nation," Santos said at a ceremony in Pondores, a remote...

Vice President Mike Pence, speaking from Colombia, emphasized today the U.S. has "many options" when it comes to dealing with the crisis in Venezuela. "What's appropriate is for the United States of America to make it clear that we have, as the president said, many options on Venezuela," Pence said in an interview with NBC News. "We're simply not going to tolerate seeing Venezuela collapse into dictatorship." "President Trump has made it clear - we’re simply not going to stand by while Venezuela crumbles," he continued. Venezuela has recently been rocked by violent protests and political unrest. In a controversial...

US President Donald Trump has said he is not ruling out a military option in dealing with the crisis in Venezuela. "The people are suffering and they are dying," he said. Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said President Trump's suggestion was "an act of craziness". President Nicolas Maduro's new constituent assembly has been widely criticized as anti-democratic. The US recently imposed sanctions on President Maduro, branding him a dictator. "We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary," Mr. Trump told reporters on Friday evening. "We have troops all over the world in places that are...

President Donald Trump on Friday said he would not rule out a "military option" in Venezuela as the ruling regime there consolidates power. "We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary," Trump told reporters at his New Jersey golf club on Friday. The president did not answer a question about whether American troops would lead a potential operation. "We don't talk about it. But a military operation, a military option, is certainly something we could pursue," he responded.....

In one of the most striking recent examples of Latin American unity, an emergency meeting held in Peru this week over how to handle Venezuela’s pressing political crisis drew 17 countries that denounced a “breakdown” of democracy. Foreign ministers flew to Lima from every corner of the Western Hemisphere — except the U.S. It wasn’t because the region had aligned itself against Washington. For once, Latin America’s biggest players came together to make the rarest of admissions: When it comes to Venezuela, they agree with President Donald Trump. At least for now. “What we have in Venezuela is a dictatorship,”...

Investment banker Russ Dallen at Caracas Capital Markets points out a painfully obvious truth about Venezuela: it's no longer a sovereign state.  It's actually a Russian puppet state. In a market note via email, he writes: While the usual Venezuela cast of rogue acolytes – Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua – came out in support of the Maduro Regime after the fraudulent Constituent Assembly vote, from a geopolitical and economic point-of-view, there were only going to be two nations whose support really mattered: Russia and China.  And even after the revelation by Venezuela's voting machine software and hardware provider Smartmatic that Venezuela had...

BUENOS AIRES--Argentine President Mauricio Macri, who has maintained close ties with Donald Trump for many years, warned against optimism that the U.S. president-elect will take a flexible stance after his inauguration. “(Trump) is a bold and aggressive person who pushes his pet theories and pushes through them,” Macri, 57, said in an exclusive interview with The Asahi Shimbun on Nov. 18, before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s official visit to Argentina. Like Trump, 70, Macri used to be a businessman. He has gotten to know Trump’s personality and management skills since the 1980s. During the U.S. election campaign, Macri expressed...