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Coronavirus Hits Dozens of Latin Leaders, Including Presidents

Associated Press

   HAVANA, CUBA - The coronavirus pandemic is sweeping through the
   leadership of Latin America, with two more presidents and powerful
   officials testing positive this week for the new coronavirus, adding a
   destabilizing new element to the region's public health and economic
   crises.

   In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, 65, announced his illness Tuesday
   and is using it to publicly extol hydroxychloroquine, the unproven
   malaria drug that he's been promoting as a treatment for COVID-19 and
   now takes himself.

   Bolivian interim President Jeanine Añez, 53, made her own diagnosis
   public Thursday, throwing her already troubled political prospects into
   further doubt.

   And in Venezuela, 57-year-old socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello
   said Thursday on Twitter that he, too, had tested positive, at least
   temporarily sidelining a larger-than-life figure considered the
   second-most-powerful person in the country.

   Another powerful figure, Venezuela's Oil Minister Tarek El Aissami,
   announced Friday he has the bug.

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