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. 

Buenos Aires bans shops from handing out plastic bags

A ban on shops handing out disposable plastic bags went into effect in Buenos Aires on 1 January, after the lawcourts ruled it was legal and rejected a challenge by the sector. EFE news agency termed the move the culmination of a process that began in 2009, intended to curb, then eliminate massive plastic bag use. The city had already ruled that shops should charge for plastic bags, and the newspaper Clarín cited the retailers' association ASU on 2 January as observing that this had duly reduced demand by "70 per cent." Yet EFE cited the city's chief environmental officer Eduardo Macchiavelli as saying in an interview that the city still typically consumed 500 million bags a year, which could "circle the world seven times." Shops failing to comply with the new norm would be fined 100,000 pesos (almost 6,000 euros), and the city was helping people by gifting reusable cloth bags around the capital during January, the website Infobae reported. In spite of advance warning of the ban, on 2 January many shoppers reportedly had to buy bags as they arrived at supermarkets without them. At stores like Carrefour and Walmart, large, reusable bags were sold for 15 pesos (around 0.9 euros), while Día supermarkets were selling plastic bags for 1.5 pesos, as a product. This was strictly legal, a spokeswoman told Clarín, as the bags sold were thicker than the single-use bags the city had banned, and reusable.

Salta in Argentina to ban plastic bags

The district of Salta in northern Argentina is phasing out the sale and use of plastic bags by the end of 2016 to curb pollution, the regional daily El Tribuno reported on 30 August. The daily stated that single-bag use had already fallen by 70 per cent since early 2016, when the municipality began discouraging their use in coordination with supermarkets. Their sale or distribution will be forbidden from 30 December, it stated, while shops and supermarkets were to starting selling and promoting the use of cloth or reusable bags from 1 September. Plastic, which takes hundreds of years or longer to disappear, has become one of the world's main pollutants, in spite of its utility.

Argentines "use eight billion" plastic bags a year

Argentines use "at least" eight billion plastic bags a year, around 200 per person, roughly half of that to hold household rubbish, the northern daily La Voz del Interior reported on 9 April, citing a study by the National Institute of Industrial Technology, INTI. The daily reported that residents of Córdoba, where La Voz is published, used 266 million plastic bags a year of which 40 million - or 300 tonnes of plastic - were thought to end up as floating trash for "being badly disposed of." La Voz depicted the relative impact of pollution from a year's consumption of bags in Córdoba as equivalent to three days of driving by all its cars, although its opinion was that the environmental impact of plastic pollution in Córdoba was "limited" compared to car pollution or the unspecified amount of food wasted there. Córdoba and its suburbs have a population of a little over 1.3 million. The municipal council of Rosario in the province of Santa Fe was separately to discuss whether to ban or charge for plastic bags. The Socialist council president Miguel Zamarini was urging a ban following the example of other cities, the website Infonews reported on 6 April. Zamarini cited Córdoba as one city where supermarkets were no longer handing out plastic bags. "We welcome the debate, but we do not believe in partial solutions and palliative measures. Pollution of supermarket plastic bags is proven and we do not want a less harmful bag, but to eliminate pollution outright," La Capital cited him as saying.

Venezuelan President travels to boost trade, denounces "fascist" opponents

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro told a gathering of left-wing activists in Buenos Aires on 8 May that his country was seeing the resurgence of a "fascist-style" opposition that had allegedly resorted to violence when rejecting the results of the 14 April presidential elections. He was referring to parties in the Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition led by the former candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky. Maduro began on 7 May a tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, intended he said to "strengthen food sovereignty" and replenish Venezuela's food reserves, El Nacional and Globovisión reported on 6 May. In Argentina he accused unspecified opposition groups of attacking Cuban medical centres in Venezuela after the elections, El Universal reported on 8 May. The conservative forces emerging in Venezuela he said, had "clear fascistoid signs," and were "intolerant" and hostile to "brother nations" like Argentina and Cuba, key allies of Venezuela's socialist regime." Where he asked "has anyone seen a political current challenging political elections just before attacking Cuban doctors providing a service" to Venezuelans? Venezuela's opposition was "anti-Latin American" and would "immediately" leave regional associations like Mercosur "if they had power," he told activists gathered in a stadium. Maduro denied in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 7 May that the opposition was being harrassed and said "all political currents have full liberty in Venezuela." He signed 10 accords with Uruguay before going to Argentina, where he signed 12 agreements on 8 May intended he said to eliminate "the severe shortages we have had and have, among other reasons for sabotage," Venezuela's AVN news agency reported.The agreements also envisaged joint food production and farming ventures in Venezuela, and trade and exchanges in areas of energy, media and technology.

Kirchner opponents repeat protests in Argentina

"Tens of thousands" of Argentinians protested on 8 November in Buenos Aires and other cities against insecurity, inflation, corruption and the policies of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, repeating the protests organized in September, the daily Clarín reported on 9 November. It observed that these protests were "directed principally against" Kirchner, who many Argentines suspect may wish to serve a third presidential term. She is not allowed by law to serve a third consecutive term and the government has said nothing about plans to alter the constitution to allow this, but suspicions evidently persisted. Police reportedly counted some 30,000 people outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires in the evening, while Clarín, a daily unsympathetic to Kirchner, reported "massive demonstrations" not just in the capital but in cities including Córdoba, Mendoza and San Miguel de Tucumán, without citing figures. The government noted the support of some opposition politicians for the protests including of the mayor of Buenos Aires Mauricio Macri who was reportedly in the crowd. The speaker of Argentina's lower legislative chamber Julián Domínguez observed on 9 November that mobilisations "for negative sentiments are not good for" Argentina and would not strengthen institutions, the state agency Telam reported. Kirchner in turn defended her policies at a gathering in the presidential palace on 9 November, as a "political project of inclusion, even of those who disagree," Telam reported. On 7 November, a power outage left some 1.5 million residents of central Buenos Aires without electricity for over two hours, also halting the metro and utilities and causing traffic jams, Europa Press reported on 8 November. Work in parliament and government offices was also affected. The planning minister Julio de Vido said on 8 November that the government would investigate prior to possible legal action, and insisted there had been "no problem with energy supplies or generation," Europa Press reported. He said "we cannot blame the heat...we notice the hour, the place and the demand, which was half what that line could convey." November is late spring in Argentina.

Nine killed in Mexico, traffickers arrested

A policeman and two suspected criminals were three of "at least" nine reported killed or found dead around Mexico on 31 October. The three were killed in a shootout between security forces and gunmen in the district of Guasave in the north-western state of Sinaloa, Proceso reported. Four were killed the same day in a gun attack on a mechanical workshop in Guadalupe, next to the north-eastern city of Monterrey. The owner of the workshop, his son and two presumed employees were killed in that attack. Another victim was a policewoman reported kidnapped on 30 October, found dead in Tlapehuala in the western state of Guerrero. Marines separately arrested on 29 October a suspect identified as José Salgueiro Nevárez - El Che - presumed head of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Hidalgo de Parral in the northern state of Chihuahua where he was arrested, Proceso reported on 31 October. Four were arrested with him and arms, ammunition, seven cars and communication equipment confiscated. A man described by media as The Zetas cartel's main supplier of Colombian cocaine was arrested in Buenos Aires on 30 October following a multi-national investigation process, Proceso reported, citing declarations by Colombia's police chief José Roberto León. Henry de Jesús López Londoño - Mi Sangre or My Blood - was apparently arrested while attending to paperwork in Ecuador's embassy; Colombia, Argentine intelligence and the US Drug Enforcement Administration collaborated to find him.

Argentine "middle class" protest Kirchner policies

Thousands of Argentines protested in Buenos Aires and other cities on 13 September, banging metal pots and pans in the Latin American tradition, against crime rates and the leftist policies of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, media reported. Her officials dismissed the protests as confined to a wealthy minority and "addicts" of the country's right-wing dictatorship of the 1970s. Tens of thousands were thought to have protested at the invitation of Internet pages such as Twitter or Facebook, venting frustration with issues including foreign-exchange controls, insecurity and rumoured plans for constitutional reforms to allow Kirchner to serve a third presidential term from 2015, Reuters reported. There is a two-term limit set by the law, and Reuters observed the government had not so far declared any plan to reform the constitution. The reactions of the president's allies were almost contemptuous: Senator Aníbal Fernández of the Justicialist Party - the political home of several past presidents - said the protests were "put together by professionals" and "fake identities" on the Internet had convened protesters, the daily Clarín reported on 17 September. The head of the rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Asociación Madres de la Plaza de Mayo) Hebe de Bonafini issued a communiqué published on 16 September in Tiempo Argentino denouncing the protesters as people who had "cheered" the military dictatorship and were "happy" to see it "kidnap and kill" its opponents;" they "are disgusting," her statement read. Bonafini told a radio station on 17 September that "the people are something else. The pots they were banging were not like the ones we have at home, made of aluminium, dented and charred," La Nación reported. The government's Cabinet Chief Juan Manuel Abal Medina said on 14 September that the government was not bothered by the protests. He told a television programme on 16 September that protesters were "sectors that do not tolerate egalitarian policies" or the government's "inclusive project" meant to benefit "40 million Argentines," La Nación reported. He said Argentina did not have "like elsewhere in the world a strong right-wing party to channel certain demands," for which reason its partisans formerly turned to "the barracks" - the army - and now use "the mass media."