The army chief in Bolivia has urged President Evo Morales to step down amid protests stemming from his disputed re-election last month. The call comes hours after Mr Morales agreed to call a new election after international monitors called for the result to be annulled. The Organization of American States (OAS), which monitored the elections, […]

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been freed from jail. A judge ordered the release of Lula after the Supreme Court ruled that convicted criminals should go to prison only if they have exhausted their appeal options. He was mobbed by supporters outside a prison in the city of Curitiba where he […]

Nine US citizens, three women and six children, were killed in an attack by suspected drug cartel gunmen in northern Mexico on Monday. Officials have not named the victims, but family members have identified those killed as members of the LeBaron family. The victims are reportedly all dual US-Mexican citizens who live in a community […]

Mexico is a nation where affluence, poverty, natural splendour and urban blight rub shoulders. It has the second-largest economy in Latin America, and is a major oil exporter. But prosperity remains a dream for many Mexicans, and the socio-economic gap remains wide. Rural areas are often neglected, and huge shanty towns ring the cities. Many […]

A young indigenous land defender has been shot dead and another wounded by illegal loggers in Brazil’s Amazon. Paulo Paulino Guajajara was reportedly attacked and shot in the head while hunting on Friday inside the Arariboia reservation in Maranhao state. He was a member of Guardians of the Forest, a group formed to combat logging […]

Search operation ‘managed to rescue eight migrants alive’, officials said, but one person was still missing. A small boat carrying African migrants off the coast of southern Mexico sank on Friday, leaving two people dead and one missing, authorities said. The boat was travelling off the southern border state of Chiapas when it listed to […]

An indigenous leader, Cristina Bautista, and four volunteer community guards have been killed in south-west Colombia. The security forces say that members of a dissident rebel group are behind the attack in Cauca province. The number of indigenous Colombians killed has risen steeply amid a resurgence of violence by dissident rebel groups and paramilitaries. President […]

Prosecutors in Mexico say that Karime Macías, the wife of disgraced Mexican politician Javier Duarte, is being held in London. Mexico has requested the extradition of Ms Macías, 43, who reportedly lived in luxury in the British capital. Her husband, the former governor of Veracruz province, is serving a nine-year sentence in jail for corruption. […]

A giant skeleton has “emerged” from a street in the Tlahuac neighbourhood of Mexico City. Much to the delight of local children, the sculpture has been placed in the city street ahead of the Day of the Dead celebrations on 1 and 2 November. The skeleton is made of cardboard and local artists have placed […]

Mexican authorities are running DNA tests to determine the identity and origin of 42 human skulls found at an altar in a drug gang hideout. The mound of skulls in Mexico City was piled around what appeared to be an altar of an Afro-Caribbean religion. A raid by hundreds of police on a labyrinthine slum […]