Tag Archives: caribbean

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All schools closed as six new cases confirmed

Issued By: Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education

This evening, Monday May 24, 2021, I wish to update you on the present COVID-19 situation. Within the last twenty-four hours we have recorded six (6) additional cases, all from the same household. These six new cases are referred to as Case # 55 through to Case # 60. The
individuals are in isolation at a COVID-19 certified facility. These additional cases bring the total number of COVID-19 confirmed cases to 60 with 46 cases for St. Kitts and 14 cases for Nevis. Please note that 45 cases have fully recovered with zero deaths. There are now fifteen (15) active cases. These patients are stable and are being monitored.

As we continue the extensive contact tracing exercise, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education wish to inform you of the proactive decision to close all schools in the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis. All public and private schools in St. Kitts & Nevis, at the Early Childhood, primary, and secondary levels are physically closed for the next two weeks effective Tuesday May 25, 2021. This is in an effort to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The Ministry of Health continues its robust contact tracing exercise which began on Wednesday May 19, 2021 and we will update you as the situation unfolds. We will broaden our web of contact tracing and testing to identify all possible contacts. The aim is to break the chains of transmission of the COVID-19 virus and contain this cluster of cases. The Ministry of Health wishes to assure the public that all measures are being taken to restrict the spread of coronavirus.

We urge you to adhere to the COVID-19 prevention and control measures. These include wearing a face mask, maintaining good hand hygiene, maintaining physical distance of at least 6 feet from others when in public places and avoiding crowds and events. These non-pharmaceutical measures work, and we are encouraging everyone to comply with them especially at this time.

We remind you that the AstraZeneca / Oxford COVID-19 vaccine is our main tool in fighting this virus and we urge you to come forward and get vaccinated. By getting vaccinated you are not only protecting yourself but those who cannot be vaccinated such as all of our school children. We continue to encourage persons to empower themselves with the facts about the benefits of the AstraZeneca Oxford Vaccine and take advantage of this opportunity to be vaccinated.

Let us work together to maintain and protect the health and wellbeing of the people of the Federation.

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Calypso Rose, David Rudder, Hazel Scott Immortalized at Wax Museum

Three more icons from Trinidad and Tobago have been immortalised with wax figures at the Caribbean Wax Museum in Barbados.

The figures of Calypso Rose, David Rudder and Hazel Scott were unveiled on Thursday night at the Sagicor School of Business and Management at Cave Hill, Barbados.

Arthur Edwards, sculptor and co-director of the museum said they are offering something that keeps our icons before the public forever.

“We honour people; that is what we do. We are in the business of offering them perpetuity, a way that they will never be forgotten. A moment in time in three dimensions, I don’t think you can beat,” he said.

“Of course in the Caribbean, we honour people in different ways…you put plaques on walls and rename buildings, we do everything which probably does make sense in a way but after those people pass on the meaning passes on because the name attached to a building no longer becomes the name of the person it becomes the name of a building, a geographical location so the honour is dead when the person passes on. We are offering something that keeps these people before the public forever. Three-dimensional art does that,” he added.

Edwards, who runs the museum with his wife Frances Ross, appealed for support from regional Governments calling specifically on public policy design people to include them in the conversation.

Edwards came under criticism last year after he unveiled a sculpture of renowned calypsonian The Mighty Sparrow.

Addressing the controversy, which he said was the fault of a badly composed photo, he said they made sure they are covering all bases this time around with proper lighting.

“We will take lashes tomorrow, we know it, but my shoulders broad,” he said.

John King, Barbados’ Minister of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports, said in his address that institutions like the Caribbean Wax Museum act as vehicles to encourage and renew our interest in culture and what it means to our societies.

“Creating an imagery of persons we love and look up to can positively impact on our lives and emotions and it is through these type of institutions our stories are told,” he said.

He said the three West Indian icons honoured have impacted our lives in one way or another. He said they championed the causes of social injustice, racial discrimination and sexism through their works.

“They brought awareness to social issues as well as Caribbean pride and togetherness,” he said.

The three sculptures were shown positioned next to each other with Scott’s statue positioned sitting at a piano.

Speaking via Zoom, David Rudder said not in his wildest dreams did he ever think he would be sharing a stage with Calypso Rose and Scott. He said he is standing with two women who broke the glass ceiling.

Speaking on behalf of Calypso Rose, her manager Lorraine O’Connor revealed that the 81-year-old singer recently did knee replacement surgery and is recuperating. She, however, conveyed Rose’s gratitude for the honour.

Adam Clayton Powell III, son of the late Scott, said many are discovering his mother through the internet and videos on YouTube. He said she is more famous today than when she was the highest-paid black woman in Hollywood in her heyday.

Scott was a Trinidadian-born jazz and classical pianist, singer, and actor credited for ensuring black actresses in Hollywood were given respectable roles. She was the first black entertainer to host her own show and appeared in five films.

Powell said a book The Women Who Invented Television credited his mother as one of four women who invented television.  He said she invented the television variety show that laid the blueprint for all subsequent shows of that nature.

He said another children’s book details her life as an activist.

He said: “She is becoming more known now than anytime in recent years

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Ana, 1st Storm of the 2021 Hurricane Season

The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) has said that Sub-Tropical Storm Ana has now transitioned into a tropical storm, the first of the 2021 hurricane season, a bit early. The season officially begins June 1.

The reclassification of Ana comes as satellite images indicate it has contracted significantly since yesterday and now has a compact area of moderate convection around the centre.

At 5 am Atlantic Standard Time (AST) on Sunday, the centre of now Tropical Storm Ana was located over the Atlantic Ocean about 340 miles (545 km) northeast of Bermuda.

The path of Tropical Storm Ana. Photo: NOAA

 

(The path of Tropical Storm Ana. Photo: NOAA)

NHC has forecast that Ana is moving toward the northeast near 12 mph (19 km/h) and this heading with an increase in forward speed is expected to occur during the next day.

Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph (75 km/h) with higher gusts.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) from the centre.

Slight weakening is expected to take place during the next 24 hours and Ana is expected to dissipate by Monday.

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COVID: Mandatory Masks, Curfew for Haiti

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has imposed a nightly curfew and mask mandate as the country is going through a eight-day “health emergency” over an outbreak of COVID-19.

The Associated Press reported on Monday that the government will ban all outdoor activity from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Social distancing of at least 5 feet will be observed and Moïse ordered public institutions to reduce staff by half.

Temperature checks and hand-washing stations are required in banks, schools, hospitals and markets as well.

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Haiti hasn’t begun to distribute vaccines to the general population yet, but will begin its vaccine program in June, the AP said.

Haiti has seen 13,906 COVID-19 cases and 208 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to government statistics in the AP report.

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention lists the country at a level three in its travel health lists

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World View: Blinken in Israel, US Election, Mid East Airbase Mystery, More

May 25, 2021

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The Associated Press

The Rundown

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JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at shoring up the Gaza cease-fire. He will face the same obstacles that have stifled a wider peace process for more than a decade,…Read More

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ATLANTA (AP) — Six months after Donald Trump’s loss, conspiracy theorists and Trump backers are continuing their push for repeated examinations of ballots and finding limited successes. A Georgia judge last week awarded a group the chance to review m…Read More

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The intersection where George Floyd took his final breaths was to be transformed Tuesday into an outdoor festival on the one-year anniversary of his death, with food, children’s activities and a long list of musical performers. …Read More

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A mysterious air base is being built on a volcanic island off Yemen that sits in one of the world’s crucial maritime chokepoints for both energy shipments and commercial cargo. …Read More

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TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese government Tuesday was quick to deny a U.S. warning for Americans to avoid traveling to Japan would have an impact on Olympians wanting to compete in the postponed Tokyo Games. …Read More

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ROME (AP) — One night in early 2019, Rome street artist Alessia Babrow glued a stylized image of Christ she had made onto a bridge near the Vatican. A year later, she was …Read More

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — As more companies start selling tickets to space, a question looms: Who gets to call themselves an astronaut? It’s already a complicated issue …Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan is hitting roadblocks. A policing overhaul after the killing of George Floyd is up in the air. Even a seemingly…Read More

AKSU, China (AP) — A backlash against reports of forced labor and other abuses of the largely Muslim Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang is taking a toll on China’s cotton ind…Read More

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On the Run: Brazilian Police Arrest Italian Drug Lord

REUTERS- Brazil’s Federal Police on Monday arrested Rocco Morabito, a fugitive Italian drug lord with ties to the powerful ‘Ndrangheta criminal gang, underlining the growing importance of Brazil in the Europe-bound cocaine trade.

Morabito was arrested in a hotel room in the northeastern coastal city of João Pessoa, along with two other foreigners, Brazil’s Justice Ministry said in a statement. One of the foreigners was another Italian fugitive it said, without giving further information.

In a separate statement, the Federal Police said that Morabito had been arrested in Uruguay in 2017, after 22 years on the run from Italian justice. He escaped from jail in Uruguay in 2019, when Brazilian authorities began investigating him.

The Federal Police said that Italian police traveled to Brazil for the arrest and were involved in the operation.

“(Morabito) was considered the second most wanted criminal in Italy and accused of involvement with the ‘Ndrangheta, considered one of the largest and most powerful criminal organizations in the world,” the Justice Ministry said.

It added that Morabito has already been sentenced to 30 years in prison in Italy.

In recent years, Brazil has become a key player in the trans-Atlantic drug trade, with its gangs tying up with Italian, Dutch and Balkan players to move record loads of cocaine to Europe, lured by high prices and growing demand.

Morabito’s arrest in the northeast of Brazil also hints at a growing trend in cocaine shipments from the poorer region of the country due to growing scrutiny in the major ports of southeastern Brazil.

The ‘Ndrangheta is based in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, and has surpassed Cosa Nostra to become the most powerful mafia group in the country – and one of the largest crime gangs in the world.

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Bahamas Announces Lockdown of Two Islands Over Virus

The Bahamas government has announced a two-week lockdown for Cat Island and North and Central Andros, effective 8:00 pm on Monday as the country moves to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Bahamas recorded 52 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, including seven in Cat Island and nine in Andros. The country has recorded 222 deaths and 11, 296 positive cases since March last year.

Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, in a nationwide radio and television broadcast, said that only essential workers will be allowed to visit the islands during the lockdown.

The Bahamas recorded 52 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, including seven in Cat Island and nine in Andros.

“Every agency, business or establishment shall remain closed, except for the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Government community clinics, and COVID-19 vaccination sites.

“No individual, other than an essential worker, shall leave his or her place of residence for any purpose other than for the purpose of seeking urgent medical attention, to go to a vaccination site, or on prescribed days, to purchase food, water and other essential items. The administrator or a designee, is permitted to distribute food and water on behalf of the Government,” he said in the broadcast.

He said that food store owners may be permitted to restock their stores, after the arrival of the respective mailboat and the Seacorp.

“Food stores may be opened for two days, between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm after the mailboat has arrived. Residents may leave their homes, to go to the food store during the two days, immediately following the arrival of the mailboat only. Farmers are permitted to water their crops, between the hours of 5:00 am to 9:00 am.”

Prime Minister Minnis said that subsistence fishing will be permitted and that the commercial banks may reload their Automated Banking Machines.

“Gas stations may open on Fridays from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm for government agencies only. Customs and Immigration will be able to fulfill their duties as needed. Security guard services will be permitted. Hotel workers carrying identification will be permitted to traverse to and from their places of employment.

Prime Minister Minnis said that residents of North and Central Andros will be allowed to harvest crabs during the lockdown.

He said also that the AUTEC’s Navy Base will be allowed to operate and Emile Knowles Construction Company will also be allowed to work on the government’s bridge project in Stainard Creek during a 12 hour period.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, has already dispatched officers to Cat Island, and North and Central Andros, to ensure that residents are not leaving these areas, and risking the greater spread of the COVID-19 virus, to other communities and islands,” Prime Minister Minnis said.

CMC

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PR Opens-Up, Brazil Death Toll, Japan Travel Warning, Wuhan Virus Theory

Puerto Rico Opens-Up

As of May 24, 2021, Puerto Rico is no longer requiring a negative COVID-19 PCR molecular test result for passengers arriving on domestic (US) flights if they are fully vaccinated (two weeks after the final injection).

Flyers arriving on international flights and non-vaccinated travelers will still be required to submit a test result taken no more than 72 hours prior to arrival to Puerto Rico’s online portal, according to Discover Puerto Rico.

Overall COVID-19 restrictions have relaxed across the islands. Business capacities have increased from 30 to 50 percent, masks are no longer required at parks and beaches for those who are fully vaccinated, and alcohol consumption at pools and beaches can resume (although bars remain closed). The new executive order will also lift the island’s curfew.

Because Puerto Rico is a US territory, US citizens will not need to take a COVID-19 test or need a passport to re-enter the mainland or any US islands.

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Brazil Virus Deaths Keep Rising

#Brazil’s Healthy Ministry on Monday registered 790 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours and 37,498 new cases of coronavirus.

The country has confirmed 449,858 deaths from the virus out of more than 16 million confirmed cases since the pandemic began, according to ministry data.

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US Advises Against Japan Travel Ahead of Olympics

By John Bowden 
e US State Department has issued an advisory warning Americans not to travel to Japan, just two months before the Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin in Tokyo.

A notice on the agency’s website stated that a “high level” of COVID-19 was present in the country and urged Americans to avoid nonessential travel.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Japan due to COVID-19, indicating a very high level of COVID-19 in the country. There are restrictions in place affecting U.S. citizen entry into Japan. Visit the Embassy’s COVID-19 page for more information on COVID-19 in Japan,” read the notice.

The Olympic Games are set to begin in Tokyo on July 23. Foreign spectators have already been banned from attending, but thousands of athletes and support staff are expected to attend.

The Hill has reached out to the State Department for comment on whether the guidance differs for vaccinated Americans. Team USA did not immediately return a request for comment as to whether the advisory would affect U.S. participation in the Games.

News of the U.S. travel advisory comes as Japan’s government is under growing pressure at home to cancel the games; last week, a group of roughly 6,000 doctors called on the government to do so, while public opinion polls have indicated strong resistance to the idea of the Games going forward as planned.

Some athletes have already seen their Olympic dreams end early this year before the opening ceremony even began. Three members of Australia’s skateboarding team tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, resulting in the entire team being judged as being in close contact to infected persons and being disqualified as a result.
Health officials have opened up mass vaccination clinics in at least two cities in the past several days in an effort to ramp up the country’s lagging vaccination program which has so far resulted in just 3.5 percent of its citizens being fully vaccinated.
“We will do whatever it takes to accomplish the project so that the people can get vaccinated and return to their ordinary daily lives as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday, according to The Associated Press.
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China rejects report of sick staff at Wuhan lab prior to Covid outbreak

Spokesperson dismisses Wall Street Journal claims based on ‘previously undisclosed’ intelligence

Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a World Health Organization visit in February.
Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a World Health Organization visit in February. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters
China affairs correspondent
Guardian (UK)
 

 

China has vehemently denied a Wall Street Journal report citing US intelligence materials that said several members of staff at a key virus laboratory in Wuhan had fallen ill shortly before the first patient with Covid-like symptoms was recorded in the city on 8 December 2019.

Foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said it was “completely untrue” that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) became sick in autumn 2019. The report, based on “previously undisclosed” US intelligence, said the lab staff had become sick “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness”.

“The United States continues to hype up the ‘lab-leak’ theory … Does it care about traceability or is it just trying to distract attention?” Zhao said. He also cited a March statement from WIV , in which the institute said it had “never dealt with Sars-CoV-2 before 30 December 2019”.

The Wall Street Journal report came on the eve of a key meeting of the World Health Organization’s decision-making body, which is expected to discuss in detail the next phase of an investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

Separately, CNN reported on Monday, citing people briefed on the intelligence, that the intelligence community “still does not know what the researchers were actually sick with”. “At the end of the day, there is still nothing definitive,” one of the people who has seen the intelligence told CNN.

Shi Zhengli, who directs the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at WIV, said earlier this year that all staff had tested negative for Covid-19 antibodies, and there had been no turnover of staff on the coronavirus team.

News Corp exclusive on Chinese ‘bioweapons’ based on discredited 2015 book of conspiracy theories

 

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International experts investigating the origins of the coronavirus said in February, following their trip to China, that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus had spread from a lab leak in the city of Wuhan.

Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the WHO mission, said at the time that work to identify the origins of Covid-19 pointed to a “natural reservoir” in bats, but it was “unlikely” that this occurred in Wuhan.

The organisation’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, however said in March that “all hypotheses remain on the table” after 14 countries, including the US and UK, made a joint statement to express concerns over the WHO team’s conclusions.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic on Monday said that the organisation’s technical teams were now deciding on the next steps. He said further study was needed into the role of animal markets as well as the lab-leak hypothesis.

In Washington, a US national security council spokesperson said that the Biden administration continued to have “serious questions about the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, including its origins within the People’s Republic of China.”

She said the US government was working with the WHO and other member states to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic’s origins “that is free from interference or politicisation.”

UK and US criticise WHO’s Covid report and accuse China of withholding data

The lab-leak theory has been around since last year. In January 2020, as China attempted to contain the spread of the virus, rumours began to spread amid the scramble for answers. The conservative US website Washington Times, for example, alleged that coronavirus “may have originated in a lab linked to China’s biowarfare programme”.

But what many virus experts deemed a pure science issue was quickly turned into a diplomatic row, amid growing tensions between China and the United States. Three weeks after the Washington Times’s report, Republican senator Tom Cotton raised the lab-leak theory, while admitting he had no evidence to support it.

In March 2020, Zhao alleged on his Twitter account that the coronavirus was an “American disease” that might have been brought to China by members of the United States army who had visited Wuhan a few months earlier. He provided no evidence to support his theory, either.

Soon afterwards, several US allies began calls for an independent inquiry into the origin of Covid-19. Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, for example, reiterated his country’s call in his address to the United Nations general assembly in September.

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Study: Russia’s Sputnik Vaccine Effective Against Brazil Variant

Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in fighting off and neutralizing the aggressive coronavirus variant first discovered in Brazil, according to Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and a study conducted by researchers in Argentina.

Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in Brazil, has spread throughout hard-hit Latin America. Scientists in Brazil have found that the variant’s mutations could make it more resistant to antibodies, raising international concern over its potential to render vaccines less effective. read more

The Argentina-based study, carried out by the Dr. Vanella Institute of Virology of the National University of Córdoba (UNC), however, found a strong immune response against the variant in those vaccinated with Sputnik V.

“The study confirmed that the immunity developed in people vaccinated with ‘Sputnik V’ neutralizes the Brazilian strain after having received two doses, and even after the first,” the RDIF said in a statement on Monday.

According to the Argentine study, viewed by Reuters and cited by RDIF, 85.5% of individuals developed antibodies against the COVID-19 variant on day 14 following the first dose of the vaccine. That rate rose to nearly 100% by day 42, after an individual had received both doses.

Rogelio Pizzi, dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the UNC, told Reuters the institute’s study showed that the Russian vaccine successfully inhibits the variant.

“The results are excellent. The vaccine works for this strain,” Pizzi told Reuters, adding that the UNC Institute of Virology is also conducting studies on the strain originally detected in the UK.

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Peru: Leftist Militants Kill 14 Ahead of Presidential Vote

Leftist Shining Path militants killed at least 14 people, including two children, in a remote region of Peru known for coca production and burned some of the bodies beyond recognition, the military said on Monday.

Pamphlets encouraging Peruvians to refrain from voting in the June 6 presidential election were found at the site of Sunday’s massacre, according to a statement from the joint command of Peru’s Armed Forces.

The military called the murders “an act of genocide” and said the Shining Path had previously labeled such attacks a form of “social cleansing.” The statement assured Peruvians of “a secure electoral process.”

The incident took place in a region called Valle de los Rios Apurimac, Ene y Mantaro (VRAEM), where 75% of cocaine is produced in the South American country, according to authorities.

“It is likely there will be more deaths,” police commander Cesar Cervantes told RPP radio on Monday. Cervantes had earlier said that at least 18 had been killed.

The VRAEM, a mountainous region the size of Puerto Rico, is the center of constant operations by the security forces against remnants of the Shining Path, which police allege acts as “bodyguards” for drug traffickers.

The Maoist rebel group, long regarded by the government as terrorists, launched one of the deadliest internal conflicts in Latin America in the 1980s. An estimated 69,000 people were killed, according to a truth commission.

The Shining Path began to fade in the early 1990s after the jailing of founder Abimael Guzman and has since morphed into a criminal group with ties to narco-traffickers.

Peru is slated to hold elections in less than two weeks, pitting socialist Pedro Castillo against conservative Keiko Fujimori.

The United Nations condemned “the murder” of the people and expressed its solidarity with the victims and their families.

“In the framework of the ongoing electoral process, we call on all actors to act responsibly, avoiding hate speech that increases tensions,” said a statement from the UN office in Lima.

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