LATIN AMERICA

Photo Credit: Mirja Vogel / Al Jazeera

Paola Cruz and her nephew, Nicolas Sanches Gallardo, made a deal when they were kids playing in the hills of Oaxaca, Mexico.

They agreed that, when one of them died, the other would seek out a mariachi band to play their favourite Mexican songs at the funeral.

But Nicolas warned Paola that if he died first and she didn’t honour the pact, he would travel back to the world of the living on Dia de los Muertos — Mexico’s Day of the Dead holiday — just to give her the scare of her life.

Photo Credit: AP

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck off the coast of northern Chile on Tuesday morning and was felt in several provinces of neighboring Argentina, but there were no immediate reports of damage and authorities said there was no tsunami risk.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 9:33 a.m. local time (12:33 p.m. GMT), and its epicenter was 42 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of Huasco, a city in Chile’s Atacama region. The quake had a depth of 35 kilometers (22 miles).

Photo Credit: Gustavo Garello

Former Argentine presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich, who placed third in Sunday’s election, endorsed right-wing populist Javier Milei on Wednesday for next month’s runoff, a move that could rupture the country’s main center-right opposition coalition.

Bullrich, a former security minister, received 24% of the vote, compared to 37% for Economy Minister Sergio Massa and 30% for Milei.

“In the case of Javier Milei, we have differences, and that’s why we competed. We don’t overlook them. However, we are faced with the dilemma of change or the continuation of a mafia-style governance for Argentina and putting an end to the shame of the present. We have the obligation not to remain neutral,” Bullrich told a news conference.

Photo Credit: Francisco Robles / AFP

At least 22 people, including a dozen police officers, have been killed in a spate of violence in central and southwestern Mexico in just one day, according to authorities.

In the most severe attack on Monday, unidentified assailants struck a security patrol in Guerrero state’s municipality of Coyuca de Benitez, shooting dead 11 municipal police officers. This brought the number of officers killed this year to more than 340, according to non-profit group Causa en Comun.

Photo Credit: Santiago Arcos/Reuters

Daniel Noboa, heir to a banana empire, will be Ecuador’s next president after defeating socialist Luisa Gonzalez, an ally of exiled former President Rafael Correa.

“From tomorrow, Daniel Noboa starts work as your new president,” the 35-year-old Noboa told supporters during brief remarks in the seaside town of Olon as votes from Sunday’s election were counted.

“Tomorrow, we start work for this new Ecuador, we start working to rebuild a country seriously battered by violence, by corruption and by hate,” he added.