Latin America News

By Antonio Maria Delgado A political ploy designed by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to regain international legitimacy through heavily manipulated elections appears to be spiraling out of control for the socialist leader as support for a previously unknown rival reaches apparently insurmountable levels. A new poll over the weekend shows that opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia...

By Thomas Graham According to a resolution passed at the congress of the Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) on Wednesday, Arce “expelled himself” from the party by not appearing at the meeting on Tuesday in the department of Cochabamba. David Choquehuanca, the vice-president, and dozens more legislators, officials and activists loyal to Arce, were also expelled...

By Nora Gámez Torres A young mother has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for transmitting videos on Facebook of a protest in Cuba, the latest example of the communist government’s heavy-handed policies to crack down on growing dissent amid worsening economic conditions. Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, 23, was charged with “sedition” and disseminating “enemy...

Mexico’s president said Thursday that the country’s violent criminal gangs and drug cartels are essentially “respectful people” who “respect the citizenry” and mostly just kill each other. The claims by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are clearly at odds with the reality of millions of Mexicans who live in areas dominated by drug cartels. The cartels routinely...

By Nelson Bocanegra Thousands of protesters returned to the streets of Colombia’s major cities Saturday and Sunday to protest against the left-wing government of Gustavo Petro, whose popularity is at an all-time low. The demonstrations followed even larger turnouts last week, when an estimated 600,000 held marches in the country’s largest cities. The demonstrations were...

The head of Mexico’s detective service acknowledged Tuesday that the country is “the champion” of fentanyl production, something that appears to run counter to past statements by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. López Obrador has hotly denied in the past that any fentanyl is produced in Mexico, saying Mexican cartels only press it into pills...

By Laura Millan Lombrana Government geologist Gino Casassa steps down from the helicopter and looks around in dismay. Casassa is standing at the foot of a glacier, 4,200 meters (13,800 feet) above sea level. The sky over the Andes is a deep blue, but something is not right: It’s July — mid-winter in South America...

By Bryan Harris and Hannah Murphy Brazil’s attorney-general has demanded “urgent regulation” of social media sites after Elon Musk threatened to disobey a court order banning certain profiles on his X platform and after he called for a Supreme Court justice to “resign or be impeached”. “It is urgent to regulate social networks,” said Jorge...