Peruvian Defense Minister Jose Huerta, a retired general, died Monday of a heart attack during a visit to military bases, the government announced. He was 71.

Two days of national mourning were declared in honor of Huerta, who passed away after arriving in Santa Maria de Nieva, a town in Peru's Amazonas region, state media said.

He collapsed as he was boarding a helicopter.

President Martin Vizcarra paid tribute to Huerta's service to the nation, and called the news of his death "painful."

Huerta was given full military honors when a coffin bearing his remains was flown back to the capital Lima. Lawmakers observed a moment of silence.

Huerta assumed office just nine days after Vizcarra took over from former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who stepped down in March last year.

Monday and Tuesday were designated as official days of mourning. The country's flag will be flown at half-staff on all public buildings, military bases and police barracks. </s> LIMA, Peru -- Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia died Wednesday after shooting himself in the head moments after police attempted to detain him amid corruption allegations in Latin America's largest graft probe.

President Martin Vizcarra announced on Twitter that Garcia died after undergoing emergency surgery hours earlier. Doctors at the Jose Casimiro Ulloa Hospital in the capital city of Lima said they provided cardiac resuscitation three times while trying to save his life.

“Distraught over the death of ex-President Alan Garcia,” Vizcarra wrote. “I send my condolences to his family and loved ones.”

The shocking end for the man who twice ruled Peru but more recently was ensnared in the Odebrecht corruption scandal comes amid national upheaval over endemic corruption involving nearly every former living president.

Garcia repeatedly professed his innocence and said he was the victim of false testimony by political enemies who accused him of taking more than $100,000 from the Brazilian construction giant. Odebrecht admitted in a 2016 plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that it paid nearly $800 million throughout Latin America in exchange for lucrative public works contracts.

The 69-year-old former head of state's attorney accused authorities Wednesday of neglecting to provide Garcia information on why he was being detained or show their official identifications when they showed up to arrest him.

“The president, upset over this situation, knowing his absolute innocence ... had this terrible accident,” attorney Erasmo Reyna said.

Interior Minister Carlos Moran said police found Garcia on the second floor of his home when they arrived. He asked for a moment to call his lawyer, entering a bedroom of the leafy mansion in Miraflores and closing the door behind him.

“Minutes later the sound of gunfire was heard,” Moran said. “Police forced their way into the room and found him.”

He was immediately transported to the hospital, arriving at 6:45 a.m. local time. A team of doctors, some called from outside hospitals, began operating at 7:10 a.m., according to Peru's health ministry.

“The situation is very critical,” Health Minister Zulema Tomas said shortly after the incident. “It's grave.”

The stunning turn of events comes four months after Garcia tried to seek asylum in Uruguay as prosecutors in Peru investigated allegations he illegally took payments from Odebrecht. He remained there for a little more than two weeks before having his request denied. In rejecting his claim, the South American nation's embassy said there was no evidence to support Garcia's contention that he was being targeted politically.

“In Peru, the three branches of government function freely and autonomously, especially in the case of judicial power,” Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez said.

Peru has gone further than any other country outside Brazil in prosecuting politicians tied to the Odebrecht probe. All but one living former head of state is being investigated for corruption tied to the scandal.

Just last week, former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was also detained for alleged money laundering tied to the probe. Congressional allies said he was taken Tuesday night to a local clinic with high blood pressure.

On Wednesday, Alberto Quintanilla, a congressman from the left-leaning political party Nuevo Peru, expressed solidarity with the family of Garcia and said that he hoped officials “would advance knowledge of the truth” through their investigations, but also respect due process.

Garcia was a populist firebrand whose erratic first presidency in the 1980s was marked by hyperinflation, rampant corruption and the rise of the Shining Path guerrilla movement.

When he returned to power two decades later he ran a more conservative government, helping usher in a commodities-led investment boom in which Odebrecht played a major supporting role.

A judicial order obtained by The Associated Press shows Judge Juan Sanchez ordered authorities to arrest Garcia and search for documents in his home related to money laundering allegations.

Prosecutors suspect the former president received more than $100,000 from Odebrecht, disguised as a payment to speak at a conference in Brazil. </s> (CNN) Former Peruvian president Alan Garcia died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head as police were preparing to arrest him on Wednesday morning.

His death was confirmed by current President Martin Vizcarra, who expressed his condolences over Twitter.

Garcia, who served as president from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011, was under investigation for money laundering and taking bribes in connection with a massive corruption scandal that has engulfed a number of former Latin American leaders.

When police arrived to execute an arrest warrant at his home at 6:30 a.m., Garcia said he wanted to call his attorney and went to his bedroom, Interior Minister Carlos Morán told CNN affiliate TV Peru.

Moments later, a gunshot was heard. Officers forced entry into the bedroom, where they found Garcia with a wound to the head, Morán said.

Read More </s> Rodolfo Illanes, the deputy minister of interior, was killed Thursday in Panduro, where he was meeting with miners who had been striking and blockading roads since August 10, according to the attorney general's office.

Three miners have died since the beginning of the protests, state-run ABI reported. The miners are protesting for their right to work directly with private companies.

Bolivian President Evo Morales described the deputy minister as "a hero of natural resources" and declared three days of national mourning.

"It was a cowardly act -- he was kidnapped, tortured and killed," Morales said. "It's unforgivable, and I don't understand how our brothers can hurt us in such a way."

Five people, including a leader representing miners, were arrested Friday in relation to the killing. An additional 40 miners are under investigation. Orlando Gutiérrez, president of the Mine Workers Federation of Bolivia, condemned the killing, ABI reported. The autopsy report indicates Illanes was tortured for six to seven hours, and suffered strikes all over his body, according to Ramiro Guerrero, the attorney general of Bolivia. He also had multiple broken ribs and puncturing of his skull, Guerrero said in a statement. Authorities also found "a large quantity of explosives," some buried underground in the area where Illanes' body was recovered. Panduro is about 150 km (93 miles) from La Paz. </s> A Bolivian government minister has been beaten to death by striking mineworkers after being kidnapped, the government said.



Rodolf Illanes, deputy interior minister, had gone to talk to protesting workers on Thursday in Panduro, around 160km (100 miles) from the capital, La Paz, but was intercepted and kidnapped.

“At this present time, all the indications are that our deputy minister Rodolfo Illanes has been brutally and cowardly assassinated,” minister of government Carlos Romero said in broadcast comments. The government was trying to recover his body, Romero said.

Reymi Ferreira, the defence minister, said that Illanes had been “savagely beaten” to death by the striking miners.

He broke down on television as he described how Illanes, appointed to his post in March, had apparently been “beaten and tortured to death”. Illanes’ assistant had escaped and was being treated in a hospital in La Paz, he said.

“This crime will not go unpunished. Authorities are investigating ... around 100 people have been arrested,” Ferreira said.

Moises Flores, the director of a mining radio station, later told local radio: “We have been able to see close up that vice-minister Illanes was dead. Colleagues told us that he had died of a beating.”

Protests by miners in Bolivia demanding changes to laws turned violent this week after a highway was blockaded. Two workers were killed on Wednesday after being shot by police, and the government said 17 police officers had been wounded.

The National Federation of Mining Cooperatives of Bolivia (Fencomin), once a strong ally of the leftwing president, Evo Morales, began what it said would be an indefinite protest after negotiations over mining legislation failed.

Protesters have been demanding more mining concessions, the right to work for private companies, and greater union representation.

The vast majority of miners in Bolivia, one of South America’s poorest countries, work in cooperatives, scraping a living producing silver, tin and zinc. There are few foreign-owned mining firms, unlike in neighboring Peru and Chile.

Natural gas accounts for roughly half of Bolivia’s total exports. Morales, a former coca grower, nationalised Bolivia’s resources sector after taking power in 2006, initially winning plaudits for ploughing the profits into welfare programs and boosting development.

But his government has been dogged by accusations of cronyism and authoritarianism in recent years, and even the unions who were once his core support have soured on him as falling prices have crimped spending. </s> CARACAS, VENEZUELA—Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in wealthy eastern Caracas Thursday amid a tropical downpour to support a protest movement that is gaining steam even as it turns more deadly.

Venezuela officials confirmed earlier in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week.

The public prosecutor’s office says it will investigate the death of 36-year-old Miguel Colmenares. He was shot at a protest in the central city of Barquisimeto on Tuesday.

Read more:Venezuelans rally to oppose President Maduro as officials attempt to break up crowd

Gruseny Calderon was killed during the same protest. Congressman Alfonso Marquina says the 32-year-old protester was injured by rubber bullets that pierced his lung and liver. </s> LIMA, Peru (AP) — Alan García, a former Peruvian president whose first term in the 1980s was marred by financial chaos and rebel violence, and who was recently targeted in Latin America's biggest corruption scandal, died on Wednesday at the age of 69.

President Martin Vizcarra announced on Twitter that García died after undergoing emergency surgery for a bullet wound hours earlier.

García shot himself before being detained by police amid allegations he received illegal payments from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht after Peruvians voted him back into the presidency for a second term in 2006.

A lifelong politician, García's career was marked by epic triumphs and setbacks, a rollercoaster of a public life fueled by his charisma.

He was "condemned to become president again and again," a former president, Fernando Belaunde, once said. </s> Argentine legislator Héctor Olivares died three days after being seriously wounded in a gun attack that killed a provincial official, a Senate official said Sunday.

Acting Senate president Federico Pinedo said Olivares died of his wounds earlier in the day.

ARGENTINE LAWMAKER FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE AFTER BEING AMBUSHED BY GUNMEN

At least six people have been detained in what has been described as a "mafia-style" attack Thursday that shocked Argentines. Officials have said two gunmen in a parked car shot wounded Olivares and killed Miguel Marcelo Yadón near the country's congressional building in Buenos Aires.

Olivares, a member of the pro-government Radical Civic Union party, represented La Rioja province in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of congress. Yadón worked for La Rioja's federal electric transportation system.

Authorities have said investigators are working to determine a motive. </s> (BBC)Former Peruvian President Alan García has died after shooting himself as police arrived at his home to...
The Defense Minister of Peru, José Huerta, suddenly dies of cardiac arrest while worked.