Woman in Quito evades death after hitmen see her face

A woman appeared to avert assassination in northern Quito on 16 December after a quick check of her face by a suspected gun for hire led to.. no action. Camera footage of the brief incident showed a man getting off a motorcycle as the woman left her home near the Parque Inglés, initially blocking her path, then signalling at someone before riding away. The incident was hailed online as ranging from lucky to miraculous. Police said they were investigating.

Bogotá producing record amounts of trash

The Colombian capital may come to generate well over two million tons of solid trash in 2025, which authorities said was a record. The city was now producing over 6,300 tons of trash every day, exceeding the more than 6,100 tons a day produced in 2024 and around 6,000 tons daily for 2023, El Espectador reported on 14 December, citing the firm running the city's main dump. The city had already generated over 1.92 million tons of trash this year and was expected to beat the 2024 figure of over 2.2 million tons. The figures showed an urgent need for trash management and especially separation, according to the manager of the Doña Juana landfill, Andrea Pérez Cadavid. Observers warned the capital, with a population over over 8.4 million, could face a trash crisis after 11 February 2026, as trash disposal firms' existing contracts end and a "competitive" phase begins in which concessinoary firms could select service sectors and opt for more lucrative parts of the city.

Trump administration to blockade Venezuelan oil

U.S. President Donald J. Trump ordered a "total blockade" of Venezuelan oil exports using "sanctioned oil tankers" on 16 December, further tightening the screws on the already sanctioned regime of the socialist President Nicolás Maduro. Trump accused "the illegitimate Maduro regime" of stealing "oil, land and other assets" belonging to the United States to finance a range of criminal activities, and declared the regime "a foreign terrorist organization." The United States had in recent months undertaken selective strikes on boats identified as drug-trafficking vessels, but the latest decision, which Venezuela denounced as a "grotesque threat," was being seen as intended to topple Maduro. Practically no Western state recognized his controversial reelection in 2024, and the European Union recently prolonged its own sanctions on the regime over its rights violations and suspected hijacking of the 2024 presidential elections.

Chile votes in "arch-conservative" as next president

The conservative José Antonio Kast Rist was elected on 14 December as Chile's next president, winning 58% of votes cast that day against 42% cast for his rival, the "communist moderate" Jeannette Jara. Some media and observers abroad were describing Kast as a right-wing extremist or "arch-conservative," highlighting his putative admiration for the country's military regime of the 1970s. Conservatives and liberals however cheered the result as another sign of the region ditching socialism. Colombia's socialist president, Gustavo Petro, warned, writing on X (Twitter), that "fascism is advancing. I shall never shake the hand of a Nazi or son of a Nazi," prompting a protest note from Chile's outgoing government. Kast, a practising Catholic, is of German ancestry, and vowed after his election to govern for all Chileans. His first trip abroad as president-elect was to Argentina, where he was "effusively" received by his right-wing peer President Javier Milei. "What a triumph... it was glorious," Milei said as he embraced Kast in his office. Kast is to formally take power on 11 March, 2026.