Caracas, Venezuela
Campaign begins: Candidates officially launched their presidential campaigns this week in the shadow of the late President Hugo Chávez. Acting President Nicolás Maduro highlighted his status as the populist firebrand’s chosen successor by holding a rally in Chávez’s home state of Barinas. “We will not let the people down, and we will go to the very end to build socialism,” he said. His chief opponent, Henrique Capriles, is focusing his run on the country’s high murder rate, and said the government had not put forward “a single proposal to defeat violence and bring peace to Venezuela.” Maduro has a 14 percent edge in the polls.
Curitiba, Brazil
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Killer doctor? A doctor charged with murdering seven patients is now being investigated on suspicion of killing up to 300 more over the past seven years. Virgínia Soares de Souza, 56, who was head of the intensive care unit at the Evangelical Hospital in Curitiba, is accused of having a “God complex.” A Brazilian television channel aired tapes of De Souza saying she wanted to “decongest” the unit, which she referred to as “a springboard to the other world.” Also charged with murder are seven colleagues suspected of carrying out her orders to asphyxiate patients by administering a muscle relaxant and then reducing their oxygen supply. De Souza has denied the charges.
Buenos Aires
Soccer star held: Police this week arrested the captain of one of Argentina’s most prestigious soccer teams and charged him with aiding and abetting a wanted murderer. Pablo Migliore, the San Lorenzo club’s goalkeeper, was detained on the pitch after his team lost a home game; police had earlier sealed off the stadium. Migliore, who played for the Boca Juniors team until 2008, is accused of helping to hide Maximiliano Mazzaro, who was the second-in-command of a notoriously violent Boca Juniors fan club and is wanted by police for a 2011 murder. Migliore has refused to testify and remains in jail. San Lorenzo’s most famous supporter is Pope Francis, who was pictured on Easter Sunday holding a club T-shirt given to him by a fellow fan.
