The Trump administration has lifted its Level 4 advisory on global travel, but issued similar-level alerts for more than 50 countries, including Mexico, which has had far fewer deaths in both absolute and per-capita terms.

On May 3-4, a group of mercenaries and anti-government militia attempted to land in Venezuela by sea, kidnap President Nicolas Maduro, take control of an airport, and fly him to the United States to face prosecution. The operation failed, eight mercenaries were killed, and several dozen others, including two American nationals, were captured.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The appointment of neoconservative hardliner Elliott Abrams as US special envoy to Iran sends a clear signal that President Donald Trump wants to intensify efforts to force regime change in Tehran, two former diplomats said.

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz, also known as El Marro (the sledgehammer), the suspected leader of Mexico’s notorious Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, has been placed in a high-security prison facility where he will be awaiting trial, Secretary of Security and Civil Protection Alfonso Durazo said on Friday.

SANTIAGO(Sputnik) - Chilean Ambassador to Colombia Ricardo Hernandez has been attacked, Chilean Foreign Minister Andres Allamand said.

An uncovered US Agency for International Development (USAID) document lays out a blueprint for regime change in Nicaragua. An expert told Sputnik the playbook shines a new light on the 2018 protests in Nicaragua as well as similar operations in other countries targeted by the US, such as Venezuela.

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - China has agreed to observe a temporary fishing moratorium off the coast of the Galapagos Islands, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said in a press release on Wednesday.

In April last year, opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim President Juan Guaido attempted to stage a coup in Venezuela and overthrow democratically elected President Nicolas Maduro, purportedly with support from the US government. However, the attempt was botched due to the military refusing to support Guaido.

The plane belonged to the Fifth Villa Reynolds Air Brigade of the Argentine Air Force. The causes and circumstances of the crash are not immediately clear.

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - The Colombian Supreme Court has ordered the house arrest of ex-President Alvaro Uribe, the country’s media reported on Tuesday.

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - A grenade attack on a police station was carried out by unknown individuals in northeastern Colombia, the Colombian La FM radio reports.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Bolivian Energy Minister Alvaro Rodrigo Guzman said he had contracted the novel coronavirus disease.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Venezuela says it hopes to resume dialogue on the disputed Essequibo region with Guyana’s new government as soon as possible, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said in a statement.

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno has said on Twitter that the country has received the necessary majority to renegotiate the bonds of Ecuador’s foreign debt.

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - A number of opposition parties in Venezuela will not be participating in the parliamentary elections set to take place on 6 December, a statement released by the National Communication Center of opposition leader Juan Guaido said.

Yepez, the boss of the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, a gang based in Guanajuato, has been involved in a bloody struggle for control of the drug trade in the state with another gang, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Brazil is now the world's second-worst affected country after the United States, with more than 2.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 88,000 related deaths.

The Venezuelan Prosecutor General’s Office announced its intention to submit a request for Ramirez’s arrest and extradition to Interpol in early 2018, a month after launching a criminal investigation against the former official and his cousin over an alleged money-laundering scheme.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, an ardent coronavirus sceptic who demonstrated an ostentatious disregard for common public health safety provisions, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on 7 July and subsequently quarantined in the presidential palace in Brasilia.

The US slapped tough sanctions on Venezuela and seized or froze billions of dollars' worth of state assets abroad in early 2019, in a bid to topple the democratically elected government of President Nicolas Maduro and replace him with self-proclaimed 'interim president' Juan Guaido.