Latin America

A small plane carrying tourists has crashed in Peru, killing all 13 people on board, according to local news reports and Peruvian officials. The aircraft had been flying over Nazca Lines ​archaeological site when it went down on Saturday. Eleven passengers and two pilots were on board. The cause of …

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has confirmed that his government has denied visas to two US officials who planned to travel to Brazil, accusing them of trying to interfere in October’s election. “We had to deny visas to two young folks they were sending to Brazil to meddle …

Keiko Fujimori is Peru’s 10th president in a decade – a tumultuous period in which no leader completed a full five-year term. A number of foreign dignitaries were present at her inauguration in Lima – among them the right-wing presidents of Argentina, Ecuador and Chile. In June, she defeated her …

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who has been in power since 2007, has proposed extending the presidential term by another year. The government-controlled National Assembly is expected to approve the extension in September. It is part of a proposed constitutional reform which also includes plans to bar members of the opposition …

Last year the murder rate was one of the highest in the world, with more than 9,200 people killed, according to Ecuador’s interior ministry. That’s despite an iron-fisted crackdown by President Noboa over the past two years. Critics say it has backfired. Top crime bosses have been arrested, causing the …

The BBC’s Orla Guerin goes on patrol with Ecuador’s police, who are grappling with a huge surge in drug crime. Drugs have been pouring into Ecuador from neighbouring Colombia and Peru – the two biggest producers in the world. Powerful home-grown gangs, with links to Mexican cartels and Albanian mafia …

At one of the pancaked private buildings, in the coastal town of Catia La Mar, an unlikely rescue took place eight days after the earthquakes struck. From beneath the concrete slabs, a security guard, Hernán Gil, was pulled out alive from an underground car park. The jubilant scenes briefly lifted …

Families in Venezuela are still searching for the remains of their loved ones, lost amid the rubble of flattened apartment buildings that line the coast of La Guaira, the region worst-hit by twin earthquakes on 24 June. Government officials say the death toll has surpassed 5,300, though estimates of the …

Nicaragua’s government-controlled National Assembly is debating whether to bar opposition parties from running in elections and will vote on the matter in the first week of August. The move comes just days after President Daniel Ortega said that there “will be no more elections for them [the opposition] to try …

The trial of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, is scheduled to begin on 1 June 2027, a New York judge ordered on Wednesday. Maduro is charged with narco terrorism, as well as drug and weapons related charges. He denies all the charges. The BBC’s Kayla …

A fire has killed 10 members of the same family, including five children, at a home in Peru’s capital Lima, police say. The blaze ripped through the property in the southern La Victoria district early on Wednesday, Gen Oscar Arriola from the Peruvian National Police told local media. Five children, …

The trial of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, is scheduled to begin on 1 June 2027, a New York judge ordered on Wednesday. US forces seized Maduro and Flores from their compound in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in a dramatic, night-time raid on 3 January, …

In 2024, the Amazon rainforest experienced its worst forest fires in over two decades, which the Copernicus Climate Change Service put down to “climate extremes and human activity”. “The 2025 figures are significant and show that it is possible to reduce the burned area in the country,” Vera Arruda, a …

A ferry carrying 116 passengers has sunk off the coast of Guyana with eight people so far rescued, local authorities have said. The MV Barima capsized near Iron Punt, on its route from Georgetown to Port Kaituma. A distress call was received at 23:01 local time (03:01 +1 BST), triggering …

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Cuban government’s “brutal crackdown against its own people five years ago is yet another reminder of the unique misery and evil that is innate to the communist system”. “Otero Alcántara’s only ‘crime’ was refusing to stay silent and using his art to …

For those born with Laron, there is hope in the form of a drug called Increlex. The medication, which was first developed 15 years ago, can result in increased height if administered during growth spurts. But accessing the drug can be difficult and it has several limitations – it can …

Argentina fans at home and in the US have celebrated their progression to the World Cup final after beating England in a semi-final match. The current World Champions overcame England in their match in Atlanta 2-1. Fans have been dancing and celebrating in the streets, as they look ahead to …

The opposition group is made up of former lawmakers who were elected to the National Assembly in 2015, the last time opposition parties won a majority in the legislative body. National Assembly elections held since then have either been boycotted by the opposition or widely dismissed as neither free nor …

A brother of Ecuador’s most notorious drug lord was killed on Sunday by gunmen who had disguised themselves as police officers. Police said David Macías, 35, was a regional leader in Los Choneros, the powerful criminal gang which was until recently headed by his brother, Adolfo. Adolfo Macías, also known …

The Mexican government says it will file criminal complaints in the United States over the deaths of more than a dozen of its citizens in US custody. Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco told journalists that the government would take “forceful legal action” to protect the human rights of Mexican citizens …