LATAM POLITICS TODAY-Chile rethinks mine safety after worker deaths and expanding sinkhole

The latest in Latin American politics today:

Chile rethinks mine safety after worker deaths and expanding sinkhole SANTIAGO - Chile is taking another look at health and safety in its mines after two workers died on a mining construction project in July and a giant sinkhole more recently opened up near a copper mine. Chile President Gabriel Boric said on Wednesday he wants to ratify an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention on health and safety in mines. The rules were issued in 1995 and first adopted by Botswana, Finland, Spain and Sweden. Brazil adopted the rules, known as convention 176, in 2006 and Peru in 2008.

Trade associations and legislators have requested government support for convention 176, which includes guarantees for workers, while requiring the state to adopt certain legislative standards. Colombian lawmakers send anti-fracking bill to congress

BOGOTA - Colombian lawmakers have presented a bill to ban fracking and development of non-conventional sources of hydrocarbons - as well as to reform Colombia's transition to renewable energy - to the Andean country's Congress. Though this represents the fourth time such a proposal has been sent to lawmakers to debate, anti-fracking activists are optimistic that this time the bill will be successful, touting support from more than 100 members of Congress and the Andean country's new, leftist government led by Gustavo Petro.

Brazil farm sector leader blasts a return to office by Lula SAO PAULO - The head of Brazil's powerful farm lobby, the National Confederation of Agriculture (CNA), Joao Martins, says the country has no room for the return of a president who had been jailed for corruption.

Though he did not mention former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by name, Martins was clearly referring to the leftist leader who is the front-runner ahead of the October elections. Martins spoke at a CNA conference attended by far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election with strong support from the farm sector.

Former Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo hospitalised after suffering a stroke ASUNCION - Former Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was urgently hospitalised in capital Asuncion after suffering a stroke and is in an induced coma, a senator from his party has confirmed.

Physician and lawmaker Jorge Querey said Lugo, who is also a senator and served as the country's president from 2008 to 2012, was admitted to the care centre with a diagnosis of "ischaemic cerebrovascular accident" and studies indicated a "relatively small" lesion. (Compiled by Steven Grattan; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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