The Trump administration is seeking to curb migration from Central America by introducing new rules over who can claim asylum in the US. Under the new rules, announced on Monday, migrants who travel via another country before reaching the US border will be ineligible for US asylum. Migrants who have been trafficked will be exempt […]

When plainclothes policemen came to the Buenos Aires Herald’s office brandishing machine guns, the newspaper’s staff knew they were coming. It was 22 October 1975 and the police were looking for the small Argentine newspaper’s news editor, Andrew Graham-Yooll. A visit from armed police would normally have meant certain death, but the office had been […]

The assault on the house on 30th Street, led by 100 soldiers and police officers, began in the early afternoon. Within hours, the building in La Plata, Argentina – that had appeared from the outside to be a rabbit farm – was almost destroyed, and all but one of its residents killed. The only one […]

Brazil’s lower house of Congress has voted by a large majority to overhaul the country’s generous pension system. The vote, with 379 in favour and 131 against, is seen as an important victory for President Jair Bolsonaro. His government says the reforms are critical to boosting the growth of South America’s biggest economy. But the […]

An arrest warrant has been issued for Colombian former rebel turned lawmaker Jesús Santrich after he failed to show up to court in relation to drug smuggling charges. Colombia’s supreme court has ordered Santrich’s capture after he disappeared on Sunday. He is alleged to have helped smuggle a large quantity of cocaine into the US, […]

A court in Italy has sentenced 24 South American ex-officials to life in prison for illegally detaining, torturing and killing hundreds of opposition activists in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the victims – who were killed as part of Operation Condor, a pact between South American military rulers – more than 20 were Italians. Twenty-three […]

A former governor of Rio de Janeiro says he helped pay a $2m (£1.6m) bribe to secure the Olympic Games for the Brazilian city in 2016. Sérgio Cabral told a judge the payment was made to secure votes in the decision-making meeting in 2009. He said that Carlos Nuzman, then the chairman of the Brazilian […]

At least 26 people have died after a fishing boat capsized off the coast of Honduras, officials say. Another 47 people were rescued from the vessel, which sank off the country’s eastern Mosquitia region on the Caribbean coast. The 70-tonne boat was packed with fisherman after the government lifted a seasonal ban on fishing for […]

A judge in Venezuela has announced that imprisoned lawmaker Juan Requesens will face trial for allegedly trying to kill President Nicolás Maduro in 2018. Mr Requesens was arrested three days after a drone carrying explosives blew up at a military parade attended by Mr Maduro on 4 August. The opposition politician, who denies the charges, […]

A judge in Venezuela has announced that imprisoned lawmaker Juan Requesens will face trial for allegedly trying to kill President Nicolás Maduro in 2018. Mr Requesens was arrested three days after a drone carrying explosives blew up at a military parade attended by Mr Maduro on 4 August. The opposition politician, who denies the charges, […]