Latin America

Young people across Latin America are taking part in the contests where participants compete to prove who has the most charisma. BBC News

A former president of Ecuador has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of taking bribes. Lenín Moreno insisted he had not taken money from a Chinese firm which secured a contract to build a hydroelectric plant in the Latin American nation. The 73-year-old will serve …

Colombia’s new right-wing president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has approved the extradition of five rebel armed group members who are wanted in the US on drug-related charges. The move is a step towards ending a plan by his left-wing predecessor Gustavo Petro who tried to end the violence that has …

The football with which Diego Maradona scored his famous ‘hand of God’ goal at the 1986 World Cup has sold at auction for £2.5m. Maradona famously punched the ball past goalkeeper Peter Shilton in Argentina’s 2-1 quarter-final win over England. After the game, he told reporters it had been scored …

Panama Canal’s operator is to cut the number of vessels passing through the key waterway due to low rainfall caused by El Niño. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) told shipping firms on Thursday that 32 vessels a day will be able to pass through it from 15 September, compared to …

The Mexican Navy rescued two fishermen 150 miles off the coast of Chiapas, Mexico on 19 August, after they had been missing for 5 days. Naval authorities began the search for the men, aged 53 and 32, after their fishing cooperative lost contact with them on 15 August and sent …

At least 21 people have been killed and another four injured in a head-on collision between a minibus and a lorry in southern Brazil, local officials say. The crash happened at around 04:30 local time (07:30 GMT) on the BR-373 highway in the southern state of Paraná. Local media reported …

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hailed the discovery of oil near the mouth of the Amazon river. Speaking after the find was announced by Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras, he said it could be “a passport to the country’s future”. His decision to allow exploratory drilling in …

Eight illustrations by French artist Henri Matisse that were stolen from a library in São Paulo have been recovered by police in Brazil. The works, which have a combined estimated worth of about $200,000 (£148,000), were found on Thursday at a home in the town of São Bernardo do Campo, …

Mexico City officials set the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest serving of sandwiches arranged in a continuous line, unveiling a giant torta stretching 100 metres (328 feet) and weighing more than 1.5 metric tonnes. The record-breaking row of sandwiches was assembled during Torta Fair, an annual food festival …

A 32-year-old woman, who had been trapped under rubble for 36 hours following the 7.4-magnitude quake which shook western Colombia, has been rescued alive. Daniela Largo was pulled from beneath a collapsed building in the city of Pereira after a 10-hour-long rescue operation. Firefighters finally managed to reach her via …

The magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday, 10 August, is the worst in this century, according to the National Geological Service. In addition to Cali, it left destruction and death in other regions such as Chocó, in the north-west. Around the remains of Torres del Limonar, unlike Gallego, …

Most deaths were reported in Cali, Colombia’s third-most populous city, as crews search collapsed buildings for those still trapped. At least 169 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a magnitude-7.4 quake hit western Colombia. Read more about Colombia’s largest earthquake in years here. BBC News

A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake has shaken western Colombia. At least 111 people have been killed and dozens more are injured, according to local officials. Buildings have collapsed and rescue efforts are under way to free those who have been trapped beneath rubble. The shaking was felt across the country, …

A powerful earthquake has caused significant damage in Colombia’s Pacific coast, officials say. Nubia Carolina Córdoba, governor Chocó province, said people had been injured but did not specify how many. She also said she was concerned about possible aftershocks. The magnitude-7.4 quake struck at 07:34 (12:34 GMT) at a depth …

Military intelligence officers said that Forero led a group known as Frente 28, which is one of the many dissident factions to have sprung forth from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). The Farc, Colombia’s largest left-wing rebel group, signed a peace deal with the government in 2016 but …

Prosecutors in Ecuador have charged a former interior minister and six others on suspicion of being involved in the assassination of a presidential candidate in 2023. José Serrano and the head of cartel Los Lobos, Wilmer “Pipo” Chavarria, were implicated in the murder of Fernando Villavicencio at a campaign event …

The killing of a young influencer, caught on camera as he was livestreaming in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, has raised questions about possible links between content creators and criminal cartels in this violence-wracked part of the country. On the stream, two men on a motorbike can be seen riding up to …

A Mexican influencer, César Gastélum, has been shot dead while livestreaming on TikTok. Gastélum was filming with two friends outside a fast food restaurant in Tres Ríos, in the northern city of Culiacán, on Tuesday evening when when two men on a motorbike drove up to him and one shot …

The eruption of the Fuego volcano in Guatemala has triggered the evacuation of at least two villages on its slopes. Fuego, one of the most active volcanoes in the Western Hemisphere, started spewing lava and ash on Monday. Pyroclastic currents – rivers of gas, volcanic ash and rock fragments – …