Latin America News

By Claudia Rebaza Armed police raided Peru’s government palace and the private home of President Dina Boluarte in search of Rolexes and other luxury watches as part of a preliminary corruption inquiry. Police broke down the door to her property late Friday after officials apparently ignored orders to open up, Reuters reported. The probe was...

By Marlon Sorto and Heather Chen Argentina and Colombia say they have taken “concrete steps” to improve frayed relations between the two countries after far-right Argentine leader Javier Milei called his left-wing Colombian counterpart a “terrorist murderer” in a CNN interview. In a joint statement Sunday, the two nations’ foreign ministries said they had held talks under orders...

By Michael Stott A Chinese state-owned shipping company building one of Latin America’s biggest deepwater ports has criticized a move by the Peruvian government to remove its exclusive right to operate the facility. China Cosco’s Peruvian arm said a decision by authorities in Lima to seek to annul the exclusivity granted over the Chancay megaport...

By Tom Phillips A chorus of Latin American nations, including Brazil and Colombia, have voiced concern over the deteriorating political situation in Venezuela after the opposition politician best-positioned to challenge its strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro, in July’s presidential election was prevented from registering for the vote. Corina Yoris, an 80-year-old philosopher, was little-known outside academic circles...

By Mauricio Savarese  Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was formally accused Tuesday of falsifying his Covid-19 vaccination status, marking the first indictment for the embattled far-right leader, with more allegations potentially in store. The federal police indictment released by the Supreme Court alleged that Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false information into a public health...

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...