Nearly two weeks after the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, uncertainty hangs over South America. The unease deepened on January 16 when the U.S. warned airlines to exercise caution over parts of South and Central America, citing risks linked to potential military activity. The panic followed a series of provocative remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, who claimed drug cartels were “running Mexico” and suggested American strikes on land targets. Earlier, he had targeted Colombia, accusing President Gustavo Petro of exporting cocaine to the U.S.  

With a continent of more than 450 million people still reeling from the abduction of a sitting President, Mr. Petro responded rather bluntly to Mr. Trump. “If you detain a president whom much of my people want and respect, you will unleash the people’s jaguar,” Mr. Petro wrote on X. Later, as Mr. Trump moderated his tone a bit, Mr. Petro moved to de-escalate too, cancelling his planned trip to the World Economic Forum and, instead, focus on his planned meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House on February 3. 

As the region awaits anxiously for the Trump–Petro talks, Brazil — the largest democracy and economy in Latin America — is moving on two parallel tracks – diplomatic and humanitarian – to support Venezuela. While President Lula da Silva has publicly denounced the “violation of Venezuelan sovereignty and international law,” his government is focusing on relief efforts. Brasilia has dispatched 100 tonne of medical supplies to Caracas where a major dialysis centre was destroyed during the U.S. military operation. “We cannot forget that when there was a collapse of oxygen supply in Manaus during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1,35,000 cubic metres of oxygen came from Venezuela to save the Brazilian people,” Health Minister Alexandre Padilha said as Brazil sent a planeload of supplies to Caracas.  

Beyond humanitarian relief, Brazil has used the crisis to signal a diplomatic message: South America will not remain passive while a neighbouring country is reshaped by force. “Our priority right now is political and institutional stability in Venezuela and we are resisting pressure from some Western capitals to push immediately for elections or a rapid transition,” says a senior Brazilian diplomat. Meanwhile, Lula has activated multiple diplomatic channels, holding phone calls with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Russian President Vladimir Putin to coordinate opposition to the use of force and reaffirm respect for sovereignty of countries in the region.  

Brazil’s response to the crisis is also embedded in its rejection of unilateralism. This was underscored on January 17 as the European Union and the South American trading bloc Mercosur signed an agreement to create one of the world’s biggest free-trade zones. Speaking at the signing, President Lula argued that in an era of rising protectionism, the agreement demonstrated that “another form of global governance is possible — more active, representative, inclusive and fair.”  

Yet the region’s ability to present a unified front is being undermined by divisions within. Leaders, such as Argentina’s President Javier Milei, have openly aligned themselves with Mr. Trump. This alliance, analysts warn, risks normalising interventionist rhetoric. “Trump, being impulsive and believing in unilateral actions above all, would not be more contained even in the absence of aligned regional regimes,” says Rafael R. Ioris, professor of Latin American history at the University of Denver. “But it helps Trump to have most regional countries controlled by the Right. It provides a kind of legitimacy and puts pressure on those not yet aligned to reconsider more autonomous courses of action.” 

With Brazil and Colombia both heading into crucial elections this year, the geopolitical stakes are rising. “While Trump has openly suggested possible military action against Mexico and Colombia, pressure on Brazil is likely to be subtler. These could include support for right-wing candidates and efforts to tarnish Lula’s campaign, particularly through disinformation,” notes Mr. Ioris, adding that such tactics could also backfire, as happened in Mr. Trump’s failed tariff war against Brazil.  

With the Venezuelan crisis, South America is confronting a familiar challenge: the reassertion of a Monroe Doctrine–style logic in which the hemisphere is treated as a zone of U.S. influence. Regional leaders know that their response to this crisis will shape not only Venezuela’s future but South America’s place in the new world order. President Lula is leading the pushback against the framework. “In a multipolar world, no country should have its foreign relations questioned. We will not be subservient to hegemonic endeavors,” Lula wrote in an article for the New York Times on Sunday. Venezuela’s future, Lula asserted, “must remain in the hands of its people”. 

Brazil’s recent dealings with Washington show both the possibilities and limits of resistance. After months of confrontation, Brazil forced U.S. to roll back its tariff. Yet observers do not see this as something that will last long. “It is true that the Lula administration made significant advances in its relationship with Trump in 2025,” says Brian Mier, a Recife-based political commentator. “Make no mistake about it, however, the U.S. wants ideological hegemony in the Western hemisphere. It wants our rare earth minerals and, especially, our petroleum.” With Brazil heading to elections in October and some opposition figures openly courting Washington, the threat of renewed pressures remains high. 

The broader regional pattern only deepens these concerns. Peru has already experienced a right-wing coup, while Washington has actively sought to influence elections in favour of far-right candidates in Argentina, Ecuador, Honduras, and Chile. From Brasilia’s perspective, the logic is clear. “This is not about democracy or even oil,” says the senior Brazilian diplomat. “The real objective is to push China and Russia out, reassert the dominance of dollar and weaken the BRICS group. Venezuela is just one pressure point in an effort to drag the world back into a unipolar system where Washington sets the rules for us.”  

The challenge for South America, the veteran diplomat adds, is to resist the U.S. pressure without igniting fires across the continent. Any missteps could define the region’s autonomy for a generation. 

Published – January 21, 2026 05:00 am IST

Hanga Roa, Easter Island:

The moon blotted out most of the sun across the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday afternoon, giving just a few specks of land an impressive annular “ring of fire” eclipse.

Only Easter Island and a small area near the southern tip of Chile and Argentina witnessed an annular eclipse, lasting just a few minutes.

“The ring of fire is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Rocio Garcia, a tourist on Easter Island told Reuters on Tuesday. “Especially here in Rapa Nui with the Moai in the background it will be spectacular.”

An annular eclipse happens when the moon is too far away from Earth to completely blot out the sun, like a total eclipse, creating a dark silhouette surrounded by a bright ring of light called an antumbra, or more casually, a “ring of fire”.

As the sun darkened over the island on Wednesday afternoon, people gathered outdoors, chanted, played music, and wore special eyewear to catch a glimpse of the eclipse.

“I got excited when people were shouting. Everybody’s fervor made it more exciting,” said Alejandra Astudillo, an Easter Island resident.

An estimated 175,000 people live in the path of the eclipse’s annularity, giving far-flung residents and eclipse-chasing tourists a stunning view.

“It was an extraordinary phenomenon that’s not often seen,” said Esteban Sanchez in Las Horquetas, Argentina, one of the few towns in the eclipse’s direct path. “This is the first time I’ve seen that and it was really good.”

The southern half of South America, along with parts of Antarctica and Hawaii, saw a partial eclipse according to a map plotted out by NASA.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The “ring of fire” annular eclipse. File
| Photo Credit: AP

An annual solar eclipse will create a rare “ring of fire” phenomenon visible in parts of South America on Wednesday, October 2, 2024.

A “ring of fire” occurs when the Moon lines up between the Sun and the Earth to create a solar eclipse but does not block out the Sun’s light entirely.

This year, the Moon will be further from the Earth than usual, so those in parts of Chile and Argentina will be able to witness “a kind of ring of light coming from the Sun”, Diego Hernandez, head of scientific dissemination at the Buenos Aires Planetarium, told AFP.

Also Read: Skygazers watch ‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse over Western Hemisphere

A “crescent sun” will be visible before and after the ring, as the Moon passes in front of the Sun, he added.

The solar eclipse’s path will begin in the North Pacific, pass over the Andes and Patagonia regions of Latin America, and finish in the Atlantic.

“The eclipse will last more than three hours, from 1700 to around 2030 GMT,” according to NASA.

“But the “ring of fire” phenomenon is expected to last just a few minutes, occurring around 1845 GMT,” according to the IMCCE institute of France’s Paris Observatory.

“A partial eclipse will be visible from Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, parts of Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, and several islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans,” NASA said.

Space agencies and institutes have warned against observing an eclipse with the naked eye, saying it can cause irreversible damage to the retina. Ordinary sunglasses offer insufficient protection.

The only safe methods, according to NASA and the IMCEE, are using certified special eclipse glasses, or watching indirectly through a pinhole in a cardboard sheet projecting the image of the eclipsed Sun onto a second cardboard sheet.

The next partial solar eclipse will take place on March 29, 2025, visible mainly from western North America, Europe and northwest Africa.

Sao Paulo, Brazil:

South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil’s Amazon rainforest through the world’s largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year up to September 11.

Satellite data analyzed by Brazil’s space research agency Inpe has registered 346,112 fire hotspots so far this year in all 13 countries of South America, topping the earlier 2007 record of 345,322 hotspots in a data series that goes back to 1998.

A Reuters photographer traveling in the heart of Brazil’s Amazon this week witnessed massive fires burning in vegetation along roadways, blackening the landscape and leaving trees like burned matchsticks.

Smoke billowing from the Brazilian fires has darkened the skies above cities like Sao Paulo, feeding into a corridor of wildfire smoke seen from space stretching diagonally across the continent from Colombia in the northwest to Uruguay in the southeast.

Brazil and Bolivia have dispatched thousands of firefighters to attempt to control the blazes, but remain mostly at the mercy of extreme weather fueling the fires.

“We never had winter,” said Karla Longo, an air quality researcher at Inpe, of the weather in Sao Paulo in recent months. “It’s absurd.”

Despite still being winter in the Southern Hemisphere, high temperatures in Sao Paulo have held at over 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) since Saturday.

Hundreds of people marched in Bolivia’s highland, political capital La Paz to demand action against the fires, holding banners and placards saying “Bolivia in flames” and “For cleaner air stop burning.”

“Please realize what is really happening in the country, we have lost millions of hectares,” said Fernanda Negron, an animal rights activist in the protest. “Millions of animals have been burned to death.”

In Brazil, a drought that began last year has become the worst on record, according to national disaster monitoring agency Cemaden.

“In general, the 2023-2024 drought is the most intense, long-lasting in some regions and extensive in recent history, at least in the data since 1950,” said Ana Paula Cunha, a drought researcher with Cemaden.

The greatest number of fires this month is in Brazil and Bolivia, followed by Peru, Argentina and Paraguay, according to Inpe data. Unusually intense fires that hit Venezuela, Guyana and Colombia earlier in the year contributed to the record but have largely subsided.

Fire from deforestation in the Amazon create particularly intense smoke because of the density of the vegetation burning, Longo said.

“The sensation you get flying next to one of these plumes is like that of an atomic mushroom cloud,” said Longo of Inpe.

Roughly 9 million sq km (3.5 million sq miles) of South America have been covered in smoke at times, more than half of the continent, she said.

Sao Paulo, the most populous city in the Western Hemisphere, earlier this week had the worst air quality globally, higher than famous pollution hotspots like China and India, according to website IQAir.com. Bolivia’s capital of La Paz was similarly blanketed in smoke.

Exposure to the smoke will drive up the number of people seeking hospital treatment for respiratory issues and may cause thousands of premature deaths, Longo said.

Inhaling wildfire smoke contributes to an average 12,000 early deaths a year in South America, according to a 2023 study in the academic journal Environmental Research: Health.

September is typically the peak month for fires in South America. It’s unclear whether the continent will continue to have high numbers of fires this year.

While rain is forecast next week for Brazil’s center south, where Sao Paulo is located, drought conditions are expected to continue through October in Brazil’s northern Amazon region and center-west agricultural region.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has spread more aggressively than ever before in wild birds and marine mammals since arriving in South America in 2022, raising the risk of it evolving into a bigger threat to humans, according to interviews with eight scientists.

Of more immediate concern is evidence the disease, once largely confined to bird species, appears to be spreading between mammals. This strain has already killed a handful of dolphins in Chile and Peru, some 50,000 seals and sea lions along the coasts, and at least half a million birds regionwide.

To confirm mammal-to-mammal transmission, scientists would likely need to test infections in live animals.

“It’s almost certainly happened,” said Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. “It’s pretty hard to explain some of these large infections and die off without having mammal-to-mammal spread.”

The strain has shown up in dozens of bird species, including some migrating species, which can spread it beyond the region, scientists told Reuters.

As climate change escalates, animals will be forced to move into new territories, mixing with one another in new ways and possibly boosting opportunities for the virus to further mutate.

“It’s a matter of time before you will detect the first South American strain in North America,” said Alonzo Alfaro-Nunez, a viral ecologist at University of Copenhagen.

Human risk

The growing concern has prompted the 35 countries in the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to convene regional health experts and officials at a meeting this week in Rio de Janeiro.

The group plans to launch the world’s first regional commission to oversee bird flu monitoring and response efforts, a PAHO official told Reuters. This has not been previously reported.

Since the virus was first detected in Colombia in October 2022, there have been two known cases in humans on the continent, one each in Ecuador and Chile. Both came from exposure to infected birds.

While those patients survived, H5N1 bird flu is deadly to humans in roughly 60% of cases worldwide.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is unlikely to raise the risk level for humans from the current “low” without evidence of human-to-human transmission or mutations adapted to human receptors, experts said.

Drugmakers, including GSK and Moderna, have said they are developing bird flu vaccines for humans, and have the capacity to produce hundreds of million so doses within months utilising production lines used for seasonal flu vaccines.

“We’re seeing [the virus] doing little evolutionary steps that are on the long-term moving towards a potential human infection,” said Ralph Vanstreels, a University of California, Davis researcher studying South American variants of H5N1.

Every year, Argentina’s Peninsula Valdes on the windswept Atlantic coast teems with densely packed elephant seals rearing pups.

Last November, Mr. Vanstreels came across a grim scene: hundreds of dead and rotting pups on the beach. Researchers estimate 17,400 pups died, nearly all born to the colony that year.

For each of those pups to have been infected by birds is highly unlikely, scientists said. Pups usually have contact only with their mothers, leading scientists to suspect this is how it spread.

Mr. Vanstreels is part of a group of scientists working to trace the virus’ genetic mutations in South America.

In a draft paper posted on the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention website, they analysed samples from sea lions, seals and birds from up the coast from Peninsula Valdes. Comparing the genomes from these samples with those collected in North America in 2022 and Asia earlier, the team identified nine new mutations.

The same mutations were found in samples collected in 2022 and 2023 in Chile and Peru, which were also hit by mass mortality of sea lions and birds.

“This is the first time this virus is so adapted to wildlife,” Mr. Vanstreels said. “Clearly something happened in Peru and in northern Chile where they acquired these new mutations.”

In the draft paper, researchers noted that the same mutations were present in one of the continent’s two human cases, a 53-year-old man who lived one block from the seashore where seabirds congregated.

Researchers said that case “highlights the potential threat posed by these viruses to public health.”

Regional response

With health officials and experts meeting in Rio this week, Latin American countries will be pressed to boost disease surveillance in the wild.

The region’s patchy data and limited resources has left scientists struggling to understand how the disease is spreading in the wild, with the number of cases likely much higher than reported. Some cases are not being sampled or lab-tested, scientists said.

Bolivia, for example, did not register a case in the wild last year, though the disease has been detected in surrounding countries, said Manuel Jose Sanchez Vazquez, epidemiology coordinator for PAHO’s veterinary health centre.

Managing the disease response can also be complex, Mr. Sanchez noted. Threats to humans are dealt with by public health officials, while threats to poultry or livestock fall to agriculture or veterinary authorities. In wild animals, the purview typically falls to environmental officials.

The new regional commission, expected to be announced on March 14, would aim to set standard protocols for monitoring, handling and reporting cases among various government agencies. It could also help in pooling laboratory resources, Mr. Sanchez said.

“We are worried and we are vigilant,” Sanchez said. “The more adaptation of the virus to mammals, the more likely it is that transmission to humans could happen.” (Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Katy Daigle and Bill Berkrot)

Argentina’s economy minister and the anti-establishment upstart he faces in a presidential runoff next month began competing Monday to shore up the moderate voters they need.

Economy Minister Sergio Massa earned almost seven points more than chainsaw-wielding economist and freshman lawmaker Javier Milei in Sunday’s vote. Most polls had shown Mr. Massa slightly trailing, as voters had been expected to punish him for triple-digit inflation that has eaten away at purchasing power and boosted poverty.

On November 19, voters will either choose Mr. Massa, despite the economic deterioration that took place on his watch, or place their hopes in a self-described anarcho-capitalist who promises a drastic shake-up of South America’s second-largest economy.

Mr. Milei’s fiery rhetoric and radical proposals — like slashing subsidies that benefit a large swath of the population and replacing the local currency with the dollar — galvanised die-hard supporters, but cost him support among more moderate voters.

Mr. Massa focused his messaging in the latter part of the campaign on how Mr. Milei’s budget-slashing chainsaw would negatively affect citizens already struggling to make ends meet, with a particular focus on how much public transportation prices in Buenos Aires would increase without subsidies, said Mariel Fornoni of the political consulting firm Management and Fit.

That “had a significant impact and evidently instilled more fear than anything else,” Ms. Fornoni said.

Mr. Massa once again showed his Peronist party’s power to mobilise Argentine voters. A political movement named after former President Juan Domingo Perón that has both left- and right-wing factions but broadly believes in social justice and workers’ rights, Peronism has been a dominant force and in this election cycle emerged as the only viable left-leaning option.

Right-wing votes were divided between Mr. Milei, former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich of the main opposition coalition and another candidate, Cordoba province’s Governor Juan Schiaretti. Ms. Bullrich finished third in the field of five candidates, and the runoff will be decided by where her voters ultimately migrate.

She said in her concession speech Sunday night that she wouldn’t congratulate Mr. Massa on his victory because he was part of “Argentina’s worst government,” and that her coalition would never support “the mafias that have destroyed this country.” She stopped short of endorsing Mr. Milei, however.

During the campaign, Mr. Milei harshly criticised Ms. Bullrich as part of the entrenched elite that required purging, but he sought to appeal to her voters in a radio interview Monday, suggesting that they should focus on the bigger picture.

“Everyone who wants to change Argentina, who wants to embrace the ideas of freedom, are welcome,” Mr. Milei said. “It’s not a matter of labels; it’s a matter of who wants to be on this side.”

Asked in a news conference Monday whether he foresees challenges in siphoning support away from Ms. Bullrich, Mr. Massa responded that “leaders aren’t the owners of votes” and that several views espoused by Mr. Milei “have nothing to do with our culture and the values of the average Argentine citizen.”

Mr. Massa also said he would not want his government to be characterized as only Peronist.

“I believe it’s a mistake to suggest that the upcoming phase should be tied solely to Peronism. We are heading toward a government of national unity. I will call upon the best from various political forces, regardless of their origin,” Mr. Massa said.

Mr. Massa had already told voters that he inherited a bad economic situation exacerbated by a devastating drought that decimated exports. He reassured them that the worst was past.

With nearly all ballots counted Monday, Mr. Massa, 51, had 36.7% of the vote and Mr. Milei, 53, had 30%. Ms. Bullrich got 23.8%

In his radio interview, Mr. Milei characterised Mr. Massa’s results as the minister’s “ceiling” and said his showing marked a “floor”.

Mauro Salvatore, a 23-year-old programmer, said outside Milei’s campaign headquarters Sunday night that he is optimistic Mr. Milei will pick up the votes that went to Bullrich in the first round.

“We have a clear possibility. We find ourselves in a situation we knew wouldn’t be easy, but you can see the Argentine people are tired and really want change, independent of whether it will be Milei or Bullrich,” said Mr. Salvatore. “We have a lot of faith that some of Bullrich’s voters can be taken, given it’s understood they have more inclination toward Milei’s ideas than Massa’s.”

Analysts, however, questioned whether those votes would automatically transfer to him. Some of the more progressive elements of Ms. Bullrich’s coalition were already making clear Monday they would not support Mr. Milei, who has raged against the so-called “political caste,” vowed to eliminate half the government ministries and slash public spending.

And some analysts warned a runoff scenario may not be conducive to Mr. Milei’s combative style.

Mr. Milei is “an inexperienced candidate, lacking political expertise, who perhaps may not have the capacity to understand that the current scenario will require him to moderate, build political agreements, and appeal to voters who might ask for changes in his political proposal,” said Lucas Romero, head of Synopsis, a local political consultancy.

Mr. Milei’s casting himself as a culture warrior against the creep of the so-called “socialist agenda” appears to be a headwind, said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. Mr. Milei has been endorsed by Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and says he shares a common mission with former U.S. President Donald Trump. Some supporters wear hats that read “Make Argentina Great Again”.

Mr. Gedan described Milei’s opposition to abortion and gun control, among other positions, as “out of sync with Argentine society”.

Sovereign bonds plunged Monday and there was a selloff in Argentine equities as the market predicted that Mr. Massa’s first-round surprise means the government has little incentive to correct any of the economy’s imbalances for now. In the run-up to the vote, Mr. Massa boosted welfare programs and implemented tax cuts that benefited almost all registered workers, going against calls from the International Monetary Fund for austerity and removal of subsidies.

Mr. Massa “was able to build over the last two months through some tax holidays and other giveaways that could be fairly deemed populist,” said Brian Winter, a longtime Argentina expert and vice president of the New York-based Council of the Americas. “It’s going to be really interesting to hear what he says in the next few weeks, because he will need to win over some more moderate voters in order to win.”