The novel coronavirus is spreading so rapidly among indigenous people in the outskirts of Brazil’s Amazon that doctors are now evacuating critical COVID-19 patients by plane. Doctor Daniel Siqueira said Monday two planes are going out daily, one for normal patients and the other for COVID patients. He said airlifts for COVID patients account for 60% of the removals.  Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples’ Articulation (APIB), the country’s main tribal organization, said the vast majority of the 540 COVID-19 cases among dozens of tribes has hit the Manaus area the hardest. The mayor of Manaus, Arthur Virgilio Neto, said because much of the interior Amazon is underdeveloped, people in those areas are trying to get to Manaus. He said he expects there will be a new wave of crowded hospitals and fights for vacancies. The Brazilian government’s indigenous health service, Sesai, reported on Monday at  least 23 indigenous people have died from COVID-19. The victims were in a remote area of the Amazon river bordering Colombia and Peru. Brazil has confirmed 255-thousand COVID cases and 16,856 deaths. 
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Tensions are still running high in a poor community outside Santiago, Chile, a day after dozens of protesters demanding food aid during the coronavirus lockdown clashed with police. Police fired water cannons at protesters in the “El Bosque” neighborhood who threw stones and firebombs at them and lit barricades blocking streets.Police clear a barricade during clashes demanding food aid from the government during the COVID-19 lockdown, at a poor neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, Monday, May 18, 2020. The face off occurred a day after President Sebastian Piñera announced on national television, the start of a five-point aid program, beginning with the distribution of 2.5 million baskets of food and other essential items for the most vulnerable and middle-class families in need. Pinera’s announcement comes with just under half of the country still under lockdown restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus.  Quarantine measures have hit thousands of Chile’s poorest individuals, preventing them from generating enough income to support their families.  The surge in unemployment caused by shutdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus has forced many poor Chileans to turn to a growing number of soup kitchens. Chile’s Health Ministry has reported 46,059 cases of coronavirus, with 478 deaths. 
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Iran is warning the United States against threatening its tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela, where gasoline and oil are in desperately short supply despite Venezuela being a major oil production center. As many as five Iranian ships loaded with gasoline are believed to be on their way to the South American country. U.S. sanctions forbid Iran from selling oil and the U.S. is also pressuring all countries against supplying fuel to Venezuela, as part of Washington’s efforts to drive President Nicolas Maduro from power. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote a letter Sunday to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about Tehran’s concerns over whatever action the U.S. might take. Iran “reserves its right to take all appropriate and necessary measures and decisive action…to secure its legitimate rights and interests against such bullying policies and unlawful practices,” Zarif wrote. “This hegemonic gunboat diplomacy seriously threatens freedom of international commerce and navigation and the free flow of energy. Zarif said Iran would consider any “coercive measures” by the U.S. as a “dangerous escalation.”  Iranian officials delivered a similar message to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran who handles all U.S. interests in Iran.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin brief reporters about additional sanctions placed on Iran, at the White House, Jan. 10, 2019, in Washington.U.S. officials have not yet said specifically how they plan to respond if Iran is sending gasoline to Venezuela. But the State Department, Treasury, and Coast Guard warned all global shipping companies and governments not to help Iran, or anyone else, dodge sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposed sanctions on Iran when he pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal, leaving the Iranian economy in shambles. The U.S. has also imposed a variety of sanctions against Venezuela, whose economy was destroyed by a drop in global oil prices, corruption, and Maduro’s failed socialist policies. The sanctions have made it difficult for Venezuela to send crude oil to refineries. “We have to sell our oil and we have access to its paths,” Iranian cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei says. “Iran and Venezuela are two independent nations that have had trade with each other, and they will.” 
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Brazil become the country with the fourth-largest number of coronavirus infections in the world, surpassing Spain and Italy. Overnight, the South American country had more than 15,000 confirmed new cases, bringing the total to more than 235,000 Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. Health experts say the real number of cases could be higher because many people have not been tested.  With the death toll approaching 16,000, Brazil ranks sixth in the world for coronavirus-related deaths. Mexico and Ecuador also have seen a spike of new cases, prompting the World Health Organization to declare the Americas the new center of the pandemic. Russia is another hotspot, recording about 10,000 new confirmed cases a day for at least the past 10 consecutive days in May. But officials said Sunday the spread is being stabilized across the country.  Russia’s chief sanitary doctor, Anna Popova, told Rossiya 1 TV channel in an interview that the progress has been achieved due to Russians’ careful attention to their health. Russia has reported 281,752 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2,631 COVID-19-linked fatalities.  New hotspots are emerging in Africa, especially Nigeria, drawing attention to the dangers of inaction.A man wearing a protective face mask is seen on the first day of the easing of coronavirus lockdown measures, in Lagos, Nigeria, May 4, 2020.Spain and Italy, two European countries that were at the center of the world’s coronavirus outbreak in March, are now gradually returning to normal after about two months under lockdown and no reports of new infections. The daily number of people dying of COVID-19 in those two countries also is declining. A lockdown remains in place for Spain’s two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, as the government seeks to prevent resurgence of infections.  Italy has relaxed some of the coronavirus restrictions and is moving toward the next phase to reopen more businesses. Officials say tourists will be allowed into the country beginning June 3. Britain, which has the third-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases and the second-highest number of COVID-19-related deaths worldwide, also is preparing to reopen. The government said it has hired nearly all of the contact tracers it plans to employ to trace the virus’ spread when the country eases lockdown measures. Britain was on track to develop a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson quashed that hope Sunday. “There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruition,” Johnson wrote in a British newspaper. The number of cases globally continues to rise and has reached close to 4.7 million Sunday with more than 314.000 deaths. But after weeks of lockdowns that have ravaged the global economy and affected people’s material and mental health, even the countries where the spread continues have begun easing some restrictions. The United States, the world’s leader in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, with nearly 1.5 million confirmed cases and close to 90,000 deaths, is gradually easing restrictions, albeit at a different pace in different regions.  On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump is set to hold discussions with several state governors as well as restaurant executives and industry leaders on conditions for reopening. He is also expected to announce support of farmers and other members of the food chain industries who helped ensure a steady food supply during the lockdowns.President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 15, 2020, in Washington, as Coronavirus Task Force members Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx listen.Elsewhere in the world, Turkey is relaxing coronavirus guidelines. Citizens older than 65, who are the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, were allowed to leave their homes for six hours on Sunday, after weeks under a strict lockdown. In Thailand, malls were reopened Sunday for the first time since March and New Zealand has reopened restaurants and cinemas. Both countries have reported no new cases in recent days but are watching for a possible resurgence of infections.  As a precaution, Thailand on Saturday extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June. India has extended its lockdown by two more weeks as the virus continues to spread, the fourth extension since the end of March, but the government has promised new guidelines in the near future with a view to reopen some economic activities. The country of 1.3 billion people Sunday had about 95,000 coronavirus cases and slightly more than 3.000 deaths. China, where the virus originated last year in the central city of Wuhan, and was later contained, has seen a resurgence of new cases in the northeast. The authorities have quarantined about 8,000 people in the province of Jilin.  Health officials worldwide are warning of a possible new wave of infections in the fall. 
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In the remote Amazon community of Betania, Tikuna tribe members suspect the coronavirus arrived this month after some returned from a two-hour boat trip down the Solimoes River to pick up their government benefit payments.Dozens subsequently got headaches, fevers and coughs. Two died. And the five government medical workers for the community of about 4,000 are not treating the sick because they lack protective equipment and coronavirus tests, said Sinésio Tikuna, a village leader.So the Tikuna rely on their traditional remedy for respiratory ailments: Inhaling clouds of smoke from burning medicinal plants and beehives.The Tikuna’s plight illustrates the danger from the coronavirus as it spreads to rainforest areas where tribe members live in close quarters with limited medical services. Most are reachable only by boat or small aircraft.”We’re very worried, mainly because help isn’t arriving,” Sinésio Tikuna said in a telephone interview.Brazil has Latin America’s highest COVID-19 death toll, with more than 15,000 as of Sunday. The country’s hardest hit major city per capita is in the Amazon — Manaus, where mass graves are filling up with bodies.Graves for people who have died in the past month fill a new section of the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery, amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in Manaus, Brazil, May 11. 2020.As Sinésio Tikuna described in an interview his belief that beehive smoke saved four sick tribe members, there was no one at a Manaus hospital to help a feverish woman, struggling to breathe, make it inside the emergency room. A police officer put her on a gurney, wheeling it inside with an Associated Press photographer’s help.The indigenous people dwelling up the Solimoes and Negro rivers that merge in Manaus to form the Amazon River tried for weeks to seal their reserves off from the virus, pleading for donations while awaiting government deliveries of food so they could remain isolated. It didn’t come for many, indigenous advocates said.The Upper Solimoes basin has 44 tribal reserves and has emerged as the Brazilian Amazon’s indigenous infection hotspot. Testing is extremely limited, but shows that at least 162 of the area’s approximately 76,000 indigenous people have been infected and 11 have died. There are more than 2,000 confirmed infections in parts of the area not overseen by the government’s indigenous health care provider.In a Tikuna village named Umariacu near the border with Peru and Colombia, the first three COVID-19 deaths were elderly tribe members infected by younger members who left town to receive government welfare payments and trade fish and produce for chicken and other food, said Weydson Pereira, who coordinates the region’s indigenous government health care.”Our biggest anguish today is the indigenous people who aren’t staying in their communities and coming in and out of town. Today the safest place for them is inside their villages,” Pereira said this month, infected and isolating at home with his infected wife and daughter.Two weeks of tribal quarantine for the region would have provided time to identify and isolate cases, but “unfortunately, that hasn’t happened,” he said.In the same area, people of Kokama ethnicity have been unable to get medical treatment fromhealth system in the small city of Tabatinga or from the government’s indigenous care provider, federal prosecutors said in a lawsuit filed this week seeking to expand Tabatinga’s hospital.That hospital’s 10 ventilators are in use for coronavirus patients and the nearest intensive care is 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) downriver in Manaus, also filled with patients, Pereira said.Manaus’ lack of coronavirus treatment prompted Pedro dos Santos, the leader of a slum named Park of Indigenous Nations, to drink tea made of chicory root, garlic and lime to combat a high fever that lasted 10 days. A 62-year-old neighbor of Bare indigenous ethnicity needed an ICU bed, but none were available and he died, said the man’s son, Josué Paulino.Some frightened residents of Manaus, population 2.2 million, are fleeing but they may be asymptomatic carriers and could spread the virus elsewhere, said Miguel Lago, executive director of Brazil’s Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials.About 575 miles (925 kilometers) up the Negro River from Manaus is the community of Sao Gabriel Cachoeira, where people of 23 indigenous ethnicities make up more than 75 percent of the population.FILE – A small boat navigates on the Solimoes River near Manaus, Brazil, May 22, 2014.About 46,000 live in the urban area and on rural reserves with frequent back-and-forth transit, said Juliana Radler, an advisor for the Socio-Environmental Institut, an environmental and indigenous advocacy group.Sao Gabriel Cachoeira quickly reacted to the COVID-19 threat within a week of the World Health Organization’s pandemic declaration by cutting off riverboat and plane arrivals in late March — except for essential goods and soldiers.But Radler said some Sao Gabriel Cachoeira residents stuck in Manaus headed home on supply ships — disembarking nearby and sneaking into town under cover of darkness. About 150 others made the voyage on a triple-decker ferry named the Lady Luiza.When it arrived days later, authorities tried but failed to turn passengers away. No quarantine areas were available and some ferry passengers may have brought the virus to Sao Gabriel Cachoeira, Radler said.Brazil’s Navy authorized the ferry’s trip and passengers were desperate to go home because “they felt exposed and vulnerable” in Manaus, the Lady Luiza’s owner said on Facebook.By mid-April, many residents had what they believed was a strong flu. The community’s COVID-19 committee used radio broadcasts, sound trucks and pamphlets to issue warnings about the virus in Portuguese and indigenous languages including Tukano, Nheengatu and Baniwa.One of the first confirmed coronavirus cases was a teacher of Baniwa ethnicity who died after being taken to Manaus for treatment. For most people COVID-19 causes moderate symptoms like fever, but it can result in death.As of this week, Sao Gabriel Cachoeira had 292 confirmed infections and nearby indigenous reserves had registered their first cases.All six functioning ventilators in the hospital were in use and remote tribal health centers were short of supplies, Radler said. “We need a field hospital as fast as possible, in the next 20 days,” she said. “If not, it will be a catastrophe, a true catastrophe.”  
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A Mexican journalist was killed Saturday in Ciudad Obregon in the country’s north, the third reporter killed this year in Mexico, authorities said.”An armed attack has been confirmed that took the life of Jorge Armenta,” director of digital media outlet Medios Obson, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Twitter. A municipal police officer was also killed and a second officer was wounded.Regional Governor Claudia Pavlovich condemned the armed attack on Armenta in a message on Twitter, adding that she instructed the prosecutor to “immediately start the investigations to clarify and find those responsible for the damnable attack against the director of the Obson Media, Jorge Armenta and 2 municipal police officers.”Media group Reporters Without Borders, known by its French initials RSF, said in a statement that Armenta had received threats and was under government protection. The organization said it is investigating the type of protection he had.RSF has continuously ranked Mexico, as well as Syria and Afghanistan, as the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists to carry out their duties.The two other journalists killed in Mexico also this year were Víctor Fernando Alvarez, who was found dead on April 11 in the port of Acapulco after he disappeared on April 2; and Maria Elena Ferral, who was shot dead by two assailants on motorbikes in the eastern state of Veracruz in March. 
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May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.First observed in 2004, the day was designed to focus “attention on the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexuals, transgender, intersex people and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender, identities or expressions, and sex characteristics,” according the May17.org website.The U.N. secretary general issued a statement in support of May 17, noting that this year’s observation comes “at a time of great challenge.”“Among the many severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is the increased vulnerability of LGBTI people,” Antonio Guterres said. “Already facing bias, attacks and murder simply for who they are or whom they love, many LGBTI people are experiencing heightened stigma as a result of the virus, as well as new obstacles when seeking health care.”The U.N. chief urged people to “stand united against discrimination and for the right of all to live free and equal in dignity and rights.”Most of the events around the world marking the day have been moved online because of the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.The May 17 date was chosen for the worldwide celebration of sexual and gender diversities to commemorate the World Health Organization’s 1990 decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.  
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The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR reports worsening violence and hardship caused by COVID-19 are pushing people in Central America to flee their homes in droves, creating a displacement crisis in the region.By the end of last year, escalating violence and instability had displaced some 720,000 people in northern Central America, about half of them in their home countries.The UNHCR reports Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — the most seriously affected countries — are locked in a vicious circle of chronic violence, poverty and increasing hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The UNHCR finds that criminality, which is endemic in the region is flourishing in this time of coronavirus. Agency spokesman Andrej Mahecic says despite COVID-related lockdowns, criminal gangs are using the confinement to strengthen their control over communities.“This includes the stepping up of extortion, drug trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence, and using forced disappearances, murders, and death threats against those who do not comply. Restrictions of movement made it harder for those that need help and protection to obtain it, and those that need to flee to save their lives are facing increased hurdles to find safety,” Mahecic said.In addition to constant threats to their lives, Mahecic said the lockdowns are destroying livelihoods, making it difficult for people to support themselves and feed their families. He said access to basic services such as health care and running water are limited.“Faced with these dire circumstances, people are increasingly resorting to negative coping mechanisms, including sex work and that puts them at further risks both in terms of health and by exposing them to violence and exploitation by gangs,” Mahecic said.The UNHCR reports local community leaders expect a rapid increase in forced displacement as soon as lockdown measures are lifted. The agency says it is working with state officials and partners in Honduras and El Salvador to try to protect people facing threats and violence. 
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Ten people died in gunbattles between police and suspected gang members in a shantytown in Brazil on Friday.Police chasing a gang leader raided the Alemao slum in northern Rio de Janeiro, triggering the gunbattles. Authorities said in a statement that there were “multiple clashes.”An elite Brazilian police unit known by its Portuguese acronym BOPE carried out the operation. The local drug kingpin sought in the raid was among the dead, the statement said.Police did not release the man’s identity but said he had escaped prison in 2016 and was on the list of leading drug traffickers in slums, bordering Rio’s iconic Copacabana and Ipanema neighborhoods. 
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Brazil’s Sao Paulo state is building thousands of vertical funeral plots in order to meet the demand caused by the surge in coronavirus victims.Heber Vila, director of Evolution Technology Funderaria, the company that manufactures these vertical cemeteries, said the plots being constructed of recyclable materials are safe as it prevents any type of contact between cemetery visitors in the form of liquids or gases from the body.An estimated 13,000 vertical plots are being built in three cemeteries in Sao Paulo state, one of the areas in Brazil hardest-hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.The impact of the virus on Sao Paulo prompted Gov. Joao Doria to repeat his stance of gradually easing lockdown restrictions, although President Jair Bolsonaro has complained that the lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus have hurt the economy.Brazil leads all Latin America in coronavirus infections with more than 200,000 confirmed cases, and the death toll is nearing 14,000. 
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Colombia launched new measures Thursday night aimed at stopping a rise in coronavirus infections near the border with Brazil.President Iván Duque said residents in the Amazon region are instructed to stay home unless making essential trips for food or medical help.The military has also dispatched troops to strengthen border security.The latest restrictions are aimed at helping Colombia’s overwhelmed hospital system and to provide safeguards for the indigenous people of the Amazon region, where there has been a spike in COVID-19 cases.The Associated Press says the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia reports 146 COVID-19 infections and six deaths among the population.Duque said Colombia finds itself in a situation that could turn critical, given the differences, from an epidemiological viewpoint, with its neighbors.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro resisted anti-COVID measures and criticized many of the country’s local leaders for closing businesses in Brazil, which has the highest COVID rate in Latin America.   
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Health officials in the Yucatan area of the Mexican peninsula say coronavirus deaths peaked Thursday, with a record number of nine people losing their lives during a 24-hour period.The spike in COVID-19 deaths brings the number of people in Yucatan who have died with the virus to 92. The total number cases in Yucatan reached 982 cases.The latest human toll of the virus came on the same day Gov. Mauricio Vila Dosal announced aerospace, aeronautical and automotive factories in Yucatan will resume operations on Monday, after hygiene safeguards are put in place.Dosal also announced an extension of the ban on alcohol sales until the end of the month.The Yucatan Business Council, a group of stakeholders from various industries and business experts, will resume discussions Thursday on how to resume operations in agriculture, with an announcement of a comprehensive back-to-work plan next Friday.Yucatan’s construction industry is currently preparing a plan to meet safety requirements in order to reopen June 1. 
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A powerful Venezuelan official is seeking an investigation of the nation’s academy of scientists for publishing research that questioned official figures on coronavirus cases and estimated the pandemic may hit the country hard in the coming months. Venezuela’s In this April 2, 2019 file photo, Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s socialist party boss and president of the National Constituent Assembly attends a session in Caracas, Venezuela.”The numbers that they use are not supported,” Socialist Party Vice President Diosdado Cabello said, referring to the report on his weekly show Wednesday night. “It should be investigated.”  On Thursday the academy released a statement in response, reiterating the report’s two main conclusions: that testing should be increased and that it was unlikely the pandemic’s curve would be flattened at this time, underscoring the country should prepare for a forthcoming peak in the pandemic.   “It worries us as scientists, that we are harassed and marked for a technical report intended to improve management of the pandemic,” the statement added. The report used a mathematical model that the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine had developed earlier this year.  Venezuela’s information ministry did not respond to a request for comment.  Venezuela’s testing program has largely relied on rapid blood tests donated by the Chinese government, while its polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing capacity remains low. The PCR molecular tests are recommended by the World Health Organization and are considered more reliable than the rapid blood tests.  Only positive PCR tests certified by a single, overstretched Caracas lab — the National Institute of Hygiene — that can test a maximum of 100 samples per day, are included in the government’s official coronavirus case count. This has created a backlog that has kept the country’s confirmed case count artificially low, according to four of the people with knowledge of the facility. The government has previously sought to arrest critics of the nation’s rickety health care system, where some hospitals lack basics like soap and running water. The critics have said the government is ill-prepared to confront the deadly pandemic. “Providing scientific facts in an unbiased way for the well-being of our people who are suffering the worst crisis in our history, is a heroic act that deserves to be recognized by all Venezuelans,” the opposition-controlled National Assembly said in a statement denouncing the threats against the academy. 
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Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra said the rate of coronavirus cases is peaking and will begin a gradual decline as the country moves into the “final stage” of a lockdown which began more than two months ago.Vizcarra said until the lockdown ends on May 24, citizens will remain under a nightly curfew and social distancing will be enforced at markets, other businesses and on public transportation.Vizcarra said some markets in Lima temporarily closed after more than half the merchants in the capital city tested positive for coronavirus.Peru has the second-highest rate of coronavirus cases in Latin America, with Wednesday’s count reaching 76,306.Peru’s health ministry said 2,169 people have died from the virus.Peru’s all-important mining, fishing and construction industries have already begun a measured restart of operations. 
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Mexico’s death toll from tainted alcohol has soared to at least 70 in the past two weeks, with dozens of deaths occurring since Sunday.Authorities said at least 40 people died on Mother’s Day after drinking tainted alcohol in Puebla and Morelos.Officials said at least 20 victims died in Chiconcuautla, Puebla, after consuming a local drink called Refino, which may have been tainted with methanol.Puebla State Interior Secretary David Méndez said the victims were among dozens of people attending a funeral last weekend.The mayor’s office in Puebla declared a health emergency and people are being urged not to drink alcohol, and if they do and require medical attention, the mayor is promising a full investigation.Meanwhile, 15 other people died in two jurisdictions in Morelose state, south of the capital, Mexico City, after drinking an unnamed alcohol that was later confiscated by authorities.Late last month, 28 victims died In Jalisco state after drinking El Chorrito, cane alcohol tainted with methanol.Authorities have not said publicly whether the surge in Mexico’s tainted alcohol deaths is related to the coronavirus restrictions, which included the closing of many alcohol retailers. 
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More than 40 people have been detained as alleged participants in last week’s unsuccessful attempt to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as security forces continue to round up suspects.Three Venezuelan men were captured Monday in Carayaca, 35 miles west of Caracas. Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard said in a social media post that the men were “terrorists who entered the country intending to provoke violence.”Late Sunday, Venezuelan army chief Remigio Ceballos tweeted to announce that government forces had arrested eight other “enemies of the fatherland” allegedly tied to the foiled raid.ALERTA! Pueblo de Venezuela la Patria se crece su FANB sigue garantizando la Seguridad de la Nación, hemos capturado hoy a esta hora 8 terroristas mercenarios, Felicitaciones REDI Capital y Central seguimos escudriñando y capturando a los enemigos de la Patria!!! pic.twitter.com/6c1NadqwNT— A/J REMIGIO CEBALLOS (@CeballosIchaso) May 11, 2020Maduro’s forces reportedly killed eight men during the May 3 raid and captured more than 20 others, including Americans Airon Berry and Luke Denman, both former members of the U.S. special forces. Berry and Denman are being held in Venezuela on charges of terrorism, arms trafficking and conspiracy.Maduro announced last week that his government was working toward the extradition from the U.S. of Jordan Goudreau, the operator of a Florida-based security contracting company implicated in the botched mission, to stand trial for his alleged role in the raid attempt.Venezuelan authorities say that the operatives traveled by speedboat from Colombia to Venezuela and that Venezuelan forces foiled the attack, having been warned about it ahead of time.
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New Zealand and Thailand each reported no new coronavirus cases Wednesday as the governments prepared to further ease lockdown restrictions. New Zealand has now had four such days during the past two weeks, showing continued success that followed a month of strict stay-at-home orders. Thursday brings the latest step back to normalcy there with most stores and restaurants allowed to open again with social distancing rules in place. “The sense of anticipation is both palpable and understandable,” Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said. Thailand reached the zero daily cases milestone for the first time since early March.  The government is urging people to continue wearing masks if they go out in public and will meet Friday to decide on additional easing measures such as allowing shopping malls to reopen. In another sign of progress, Austria announced Wednesday its border with Germany would fully reopen on June 15 after talks between leaders of the two countries. Mexico’s General Health Council has classified the construction, mining and automobile manufacturing industries as “essential activities,” meaning they will be allowed to operate while other businesses remain under lockdown restrictions.A medical worker from the COVID-19 triage carries paperwork at the Mexico General Hospital, in Mexico City, Tuesday, May 12, 2020.The move came ahead of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s expected announcement Wednesday of his plan for gradually resuming economic activity in Mexico.  The country’s health ministry has reported 38,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,900 deaths. While many countries, especially in Europe, are starting to allow businesses to reopen, health officials remain cautious about the risk for moving too quickly and allowing a resurgence of infections. The top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told a Senate committee he is concerned that if states skip stages such as waiting for a two-week decline in confirmed cases before opening up, “we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks.” “If you think that we have it completely under control, we don’t,” Fauci told lawmakers.  “If you look at the dynamics of the outbreak, we are seeing a diminution of hospitalizations and infections in some places, such as in New York City, which has plateaued and starting to come down, New Orleans. But in other parts of the country, we are seeing spikes.” The United States has the most confirmed cases in the world, followed by Russia, which has seen a spike in cases, including reporting more than 10,000 new cases again Wednesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Tuesday that he has contracted the virus. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin had to relinquish his duties two weeks ago after being diagnosed with COVID-19.  President Vladimir Putin is conducting all his communication via video links from his official retreat outside Moscow.  Worldwide, there are about 4.3 million confirmed cases and 292,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. 
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A videotape has emerged showing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro telling his Cabinet that he wanted to personally choose the head of the federal police office in Rio de Janeiro to shield his family from investigation. The videotape was viewed Tuesday by investigators looking into accusations made by former Justice Minister Sergio Moro that the president is trying to interfere in ongoing police investigations.    Sources say Bolsonaro told his Cabinet in the videotape that he wanted to change the leadership of the federal police office because his family is being persecuted. But hours after the videotape was viewed, the president said that he was instead expressing concern about his family’s safety. Bolsonaro also said there has never been any investigation of his family by the federal police, and that the videotape should have been destroyed.  Rio de Janeiro is Bolsonaro’s hometown and where his two sons are prominent politicians:  Flavio, a senator, and Carlos, a Rio city councilman.  Both sons are under investigation for various allegations by local prosecutors and police.   Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered an investigation into Moro’s accusations after Moro, a popular anti-corruption crusader, abruptly resigned from Bolsonaro’s cabinet last month after the president fired the federal police chief.  The growing scandal is likely to further damage Bolsonaro’s already sinking approval ratings over his stubborn approach to the coronavirus pandemic, which has soared to over 177,000 confirmed cases, including 12,400 fatalities.  The health ministry reported 881 fatalities over a 24 hour period on Tuesday, its deadliest day since the start of the outbreak. 
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Jamaica will begin relaxing its COVID-19 restrictions this week with the reopening of churches for a two-week trial period. Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced during a press briefing Monday that beginning May 16 services may resume based on an agreement with the religious community that face masks are worn and social distancing is maintained inside the church. The prime minster also said no more than 10 people can be gathered outside places of worship while each person stays six-feet apart.    The government will also allow community bars to reopen on May 19 while authorities review how the managers are conducting operations. Under the criteria for bars reopening, social and physical distancing must be maintained and a limit of five people, including the bartender, are to be in the bar at any given time.  Prime Minister Holness said it is crucial that Jamaicans do their best to maintain the integrity of the relaxed restrictions to help move the nation’s economy back to its capacity.  Jamaica has confirmed 502 coronavirus cases and nine deaths. 
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The Brazilian city of Niteroi, adjacent to Rio de Janeiro, is increasing its restrictive measures to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.Authorities in Niteroi are now restricting people from other jurisdictions to enter its region.People in healthcare and other jobs classified as essential will be the only ones allowed to enter the city without restrictions.Authorities says local government workers and policemen are checking documents of people entering the city and taking their temperature.People in Niteroi, a city of 500-thousand, must stay at home unless traveling for something that is essential.Niteroi’s tightening of restrictions comes just as President Jair Bolsonaro deemed gyms and hair salons as essential services that can stay open through the new coronavirus outbreak, although the country is still seeing an increase in new cases and deaths.Niteroi has registered 756 of the 17,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and 43 deaths.Brazil has 168,331 confirmed cases of the virus and 11,519 deaths.
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Avianca, the second-largest airline in Latin America, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Sunday to reorganize its debt “due to the unpredictable impact” of the coronavirus pandemic.In a statement issued in Bogota, Avianca said that along with “some of its subsidiaries and affiliates,” it had asked to “voluntarily file for Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code” in a New York court.The process allows financially struggling companies to reorganize and restructure their debt.The airline’s operations “have been dramatically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” as well as federal air travel restrictions.The company “continues to have high fixed costs,” the statement said.Avianca temporarily suspended all passenger operations in late March, following Colombian President Ivan Duque’s decision to close the country’s airspace as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose.The decision, which grounded 142 aircraft, “has reduced consolidated income by more than 80 percent and has put significant pressure on liquidity,” according to the statement.It added that 12,000 of the airline’s more than 20,000 employees would take unpaid leave.The company asked the New York court for “authorization to fulfill work commitments” prior to the bankruptcy protection request and “maintain the compensation scheme applicable to its employees.”The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a crushing blow to the global aviation industry, which has been directly affected by confinement measures and travel restrictions.According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Latin American airlines will lose $15 billion in revenue this year, the worst crisis in the industry’s history.Avianca, which had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US in 2003, recorded a net loss of $894 million in 2019, against a $1.1 million profit the year before.Avianca Holdings — which carried 30.5 million passengers in 2019 — is currently comprised of the Colombian airlines Avianca and Tampa Cargo, the Ecuadorian airline Aerogal and the companies of the Taca International Airline Group, which has offices in Central America and Peru.
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Coronavirus patients were being turned away from hospitals in the Mexican capital on Saturday, as both public and private medical facilities quickly fill up and the number of new infections continues to rise.Of the 64 public hospitals in the capital’s sprawling metro area designated to receive patients sick with COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus, 26 are completely full, according to city government data.A vinyl banner on the fence of the Ignacio Zaragosa public hospital in the city’s poor Iztapalapa district said it had no more beds for new coronavirus patients.”We thank you for your understanding,” it added.Doors paramedics entered with patients on stretchers last week were closed on Saturday at the public facility, with orange barrels set up to block access.Another 16 public clinics were nearly full, while 22 others did have space, the data showed.Five private hospitals in the capital contacted by Reuters said they had reached their capacity to treat coronavirus patients, including the Medica Sur hospital, Hospital Español, as well as two clinics belonging to Grupo Angeles.Available beds and intensive care units equipped with ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients at private hospitals in five states and Mexico City are already saturated, according to figures from the National Association of Private Hospitals.The states include Puebla, Tabasco, Quintana Roo, Baja California and Baja California Sur.”Right now we don’t have any space,” said an attendant at the private Centro Medico ABC hospital.The government has said this weekend could mark the peak of infections in the densely populated area in and around the capital, home to more than 20 million people, which is also where most confirmed cases have been documented.Public health officials have confirmed at least 31,522 infections and 3,160 deaths to date, although both figures almost certainly undercount the true extent of the outbreak in Mexico due to very limited testing.Citing modeling data from a few weeks ago, public health authorities have said there could be more than 104,000 COVID-19 cases.As recently as Thursday, the health ministry said the capital still had 38 percent availability of beds with ventilators to treat patients, while in the surrounding state of Mexico, 55 percent remained available.Nationwide, three-quarters of beds with ventilators were still available for new patients, the ministry said.  
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Russian soldiers are operating drones over Venezuela as part of a search for members of a paramilitary force that led a botched invasion this week, local media reported, citing deleted tweets from a state military command center.At least eight Russian special forces members will be “operating drones to run search and patrol operations” near La Guaira, the coastal state just north of Caracas, according to a report Friday from local news outlet El Nacional. It posted a screenshot of a tweet it said was later deleted on Thursday from the profile of the military command, known as ZODI La Guaira.An aircraft arrived at the country’s international airport on Thursday that would join the search mission, ZODI La Guaira wrote in a separate tweet, posting a photo of a helicopter. El Nacional said that tweet was also later deleted.The aircraft’s origin and the reason the tweets were deleted were not immediately evident.The information ministry did not immediately reply to a request for clarification.Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency on Saturday that the report represented an attempt to denigrate the cooperation between Moscow and Caracas.’Fake News’ZODI La Guaira on Friday posted a tweet saying the command “categorically denies interference by the Russian military” in its ranks. The post included a screenshot of a tweet from user @YourNewsAnonLat about Russia’s alleged support, saying the claim was “Fake News.” It did not address the screenshots of the previous alleged tweets from the account.Even though the incursion was broadly considered a humiliating failure since authorities initially announced it had been broken up on Sunday, organizers in subsequent days have said members of the force continued to fight.There has, however, been no evidence of any military actions on the part of the group since Sunday.Thirty-one people have been arrested for their role in the bungled incursion, Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab said Friday, including two Americans who work for the security firm that organized it, Silvercorp USA.Authorities said eight people were killed.The two captured Americans appeared on state television in Venezuela on Wednesday and Thursday, saying they had been tasked by Silvercorp with taking control of the Caracas airport in order to fly out President Nicolas Maduro after his planned seizure by the group.On Friday, Venezuela requested the extradition of U.S. veteran Jordan Goudreau, chief executive of Florida-based Silvercorp USA, who has claimed responsibility for the plan, and two U.S.-based Venezuelans for their roles in the failed incursion.
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A Brazilian non-governmental organization run by a group of ex-prisoners is providing aid to residents of Rio de Janeiro’s poor neighborhoods (favelas) as the country is facing an economic crisis partially caused by coronavirus restrictions.
 
Eu Sou Eu, or I Am Me, is distributing food and face masks to the needy in the favelas, where many people live under the poverty line, lacking adequate food and decent living spaces.
 
Authorities in Brazil have enforced strict guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19 with stay-at-home orders and requiring people to wear masks in public places and on transportation.
 
However, President Jair Bolsonaro has pushed to have measures eased and has criticized governors for going too far with restrictions.
 
Data collected by the Johns Hopkins University show that Brazil has more than 146,800 confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 10,000 deaths. 
 
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