Latin America News

By Miguel Lo Bianco Archaeologists have discovered the earliest dated cave paintings in South America in Argentine Patagonia, dating back 8,200 years. The 895 paintings were found by Argentine and Chilean archaeologists in the Huenul 1 cave, a 630 square meter rock shelter located in the province of Neuquen, some 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) southwest of...

By Juan Elman Salvadoran street vendor Maria earned just $10 selling sweets and handicrafts today – a particularly bad day. It’s half of what she usually gets: $20 on average; $25 if she’s lucky. “Sales are not good. There is tourism in the area, but people don’t come to the village,” she tells openDemocracy in...

By Luke Taylor Panama has ordered Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to stop treating people who have crossed the Darién Gap, one of the world’s most dangerous and fastest-growing border crossings. MSF is one of the largest medical NGOs operating on the dangerous jungle frontier which connects Colombia to Panama and the loss of their services...

By Adam Jourdan Julia Quispe Tincuta remembers the first time she reached the peak of Bolivia’s Huayna Potosi mountain, where she and other Aymara Indigenous women had long worked cooking or carrying gear for other climbers to reach base camp. “When I arrived at the summit I felt like I was in the air, like...

By Jules Ownby Colombia is the deadliest country in the Americas for human rights defenders. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has been warning of the problem for years, and on Tuesday, it published a report that revealed the situation remained the same in 2023. According to the IACHR report, 126 human rights defenders...

Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court ruled Friday that an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed by Venezuelan security forces under President Nicolás Maduro‘s rule during a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2017 may proceed. Appeals panel Presiding Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut said that the court “rejects the appeals” brought by Venezuela. The ruling was...

By Mayela Armas and Vivian Sequera Venezuela’s recent abrupt reversal in its nascent rapprochement with the United States and domestic opponents is likely a response to declining support among its traditional base, according to sources close to the ruling party, voters and analysts. After months of thawing U.S. relations, the administration of President Nicolas Maduro has done a...

By Alan Feuer and Natalie Kitroeff American law enforcement officials spent years looking into allegations that allies of Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, met with and took millions of dollars from drug cartels after he took office, according to U.S. records and three people familiar with the matter. The inquiry, which has not been previously reported, uncovered...

By Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito Border tensions over Guyana’s Esequibo and the humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami Indigenous people have led Brazil’s army to increase its forces in the Amazon by 10% ahead of plan, the military commander for the region told Reuters. The additional 2,000 troops will help the army patrol a 9,000 km border with...