Latin America

Peruvians will pick a president on Sunday in an election that has bitterly divided them by class and geography, with urban and higher-income citizens preferring right-wing Keiko Fujimori while the rural poor support leftist political novice Pedro Castillo. Polls in the runoff election are to open at 7 a.m. (1200 …

Arturo Cruz’s detention comes three days after opposition presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro was placed under house arrest. Police in Nicaragua have taken opposition politician Arturo Cruz into custody, detaining a second presidential hopeful in less than a week and escalating the battle ahead of November elections in which President Daniel …

Questions surround controversial decision to award football tournament to Brazil, country with second-highest COVID death toll in the world. It is fitting that the underused Estadio Mane Garrincha football stadium in Brasilia sits almost within sight of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s office. In a little more than a week, the …

The French Pacific island of New Caledonia, which rejected independence in two previous referendums, will have a third and final vote on Dec. 12, France’s overseas territories minister said on Wednesday. The referendum would be followed by a two-year transition period to allow Paris to clarify its relations with New …

One of Colombia’s top five criminal groups, Los Caparros, has been dismantled with the death of its leader, Defense Minister Diego Molano said on Tuesday. Robinson Gil Tapias, known as “Flechas,” was killed in an operation by Colombia’s military and police last Thursday in the northern rural municipality of Caceres, …

More than a month since Colombians first took to the streets this year to protest against a botched tax overhaul and the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, tensions across the country are escalating rapidly with more than a dozen deaths over the weekend — and a risky new government …

Cases of life-threatening malnutrition are expected to more than double among young Haitian children this year, due to COVID-19, gang violence, and extreme weather associated with climate change, the U.N. children’s fund UNICEF said on Monday. Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has long had one of the world’s …

Tens of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets Saturday to voice their frustrations with President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis, in what appeared to be the largest protests the country has seen since the pandemic began last year. Demonstrators in some of the country’s largest cities, including …

Four people die in and around protest-hit Cali as talks to end month-long demonstrations remain stalled. Colombian President Ivan Duque has deployed military troops to the western province of Valle del Cauca and its capital, Cali after four people died in protests that marked a month of anti-government demonstrations. The …

Property owners operating with ‘total impunity’ in areas where the building is forbidden, zone’s head says. Just beyond the towering pyramids of what was once the largest city of the Americas, an illegal building project threatens to cause irreparable harm to the remains of temples and some two dozen other …

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro visited two indigenous reservations in the Amazon on Thursday for the first time as head of state, despite protests from some tribal leaders against his drive to open up their protected lands to commercial mining. Bolsonaro, flanked by army officers and a Tukano chieftain with feather …

Peaceful mass protests in Colombian cities, which were re-convened by the national strike committee, escalated into violent clashes with special forces and left dozens of people injured, the Red Cross said. “The Red Cross has assisted 139 people in the middle of the demonstrations in Bogota, mostly in the Yomasa …

Dry weather this year raises the risk of severe fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands, scientists say, warning that drought could fuel the destruction of biomes critical to curbing climate change. Last year, dry weather helped fuel record fires in the Pantanal, while the Amazon experienced the worst …

Alma Barragan was shot dead during a campaign event becoming the 34th murdered candidate this election season. A mayoral candidate has been killed in Mexico, bringing to 34 the total number of candidates murdered nationwide ahead of June 6 legislative elections that will fill thousands of local seats and nearly …

Unions and student groups are set to march on the capital cities of Colombia’s 32 provinces on Wednesday to demand government concessions on economic support for the poor and other issues, following almost a month of widespread protests. Demonstrations that began last month have pressured the government and lawmakers into …

Peru’s interim president said on Tuesday there will be “no impunity” for the authors of a massacre of 16 Peruvians in a jungle region known for cocaine production, which authorities attribute to a dissident faction of Shining Path rebels. “We are doing all we can to deploy the police and …

Conservative Ecuadorean president Guillermo Lasso took office on Monday promising to revive an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic and create jobs for a population weary from years of painful austerity measures. The 65-year-old former banker in April beat out socialist economist Andres Arauz, who had promised to restore the …

The death toll from COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean passed 1 million people on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, with the pandemic worsening in the part of the world with the highest per capita death rate. From the dusty highlands of Bolivia to the Brazilian metropolis of …

Bolivia’s immunization drive against COVID-19 is being hit by anti-vaccine misinformation that is stoking skepticism and leaving inoculation centers half empty, a challenge for the government facing a wave of new infections. Health workers and officials have raised concerns about low turnout at some vaccination sites, saying jabs are going …

Panama will temporarily close its border with Colombia beginning Thursday to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and tighten security, its government said, after Colombia reopened the land and maritime crossings on the border. Panama’s government said Colombia’s decision to reopen the borders “puts at risk the significant progress” that Panama …