Latin America

A photojournalist was wounded after a Haitian lawmaker opened fire on an angry crowd that had assembled outside the country’s parliament in Port-au-Prince. The violence follows a week of anti-government demonstrations. Video footage shows Senator Jean Marie Ralph Fethiere getting out of his car and firing several shots with a …

Protests have erupted in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro after an eight-year-old girl was allegedly killed by police, as the number of victims in operations by security forces continues to rise. Ágatha Vitória Sales Félix was with her grandmother in a van when she was shot in the back in a …

Guatemala must now consider itself a cocaine-producing nation and not just a transit country for the powerful narcotic after authorities discovered new coca processing laboratories, the interior minister said. Last year, Guatemala discovered plantations growing coca, along with a laboratory to process the leaf into cocaine. Until recently, the crop …

Forensic scientists in Mexico have managed to identify 44 bodies buried in a well in the state of Jalisco. Discovered just outside the city of Guadalajara, the human remains were hidden in 119 black bags. The remains were discovered earlier in September when local residents began complaining about the smell. …

After a field experiment between 2013 and 2015, genetically modified mosquitoes are breeding in Brazil, while according to the researchers’ original plan, all released mosquitoes and their offspring should have died. An attempt to contain the populations of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti in Brazil may have failed. It …

A group of Brazilian anthropologists and environmentalists has put forward Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapó tribe as a candidate for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for a lifetime of work protecting the Amazon rainforest. Raoni, an unmistakable Amazon icon with his large lip plate, yellow macaw-feather headdress, and earrings, …

A new storm is threatening the Bahamas just two weeks after Hurricane Dorian tore through part of the islands. Tropical Depression Nine strengthened into Tropical Storm Humberto on Friday night. It is currently moving towards Great Abaco, one of the islands worst hit by Dorian. About 1,300 people are missing …

At least 10 people died when a fire ripped through a hospital in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday evening, firefighters said. The blaze, apparently caused by a short circuit, was the latest tragedy to hit one of Brazil’s most famous cities. Staff wheeled patients out on beds as smoke spread …

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday granted a request by President Donald Trump’s administration to fully enforce a new rule that would curtail asylum applications by immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, a key element of his hardline immigration policies. The court said the rule, which requires most immigrants who want …

Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed what is believed to be the largest single mass child sacrifice in history. The bodies of 227 victims, aged between five and 14, were found near the coastal town of Huanchaco, north of Peru’s capital Lima. The children were believed to have been sacrificed over …

Not even the dead can keep the suspicions of Colombian police at bay, as one drug smuggler found to his cost. Authorities discovered 300kg of marijuana worth millions hidden inside two coffins. The unusual discovery was made at a police checkpoint in North Santander on Tuesday, according to El Tiempo. …

At least 23 people have died in a bar fire in the southeastern Mexican port of Coatzacoalcos after a suspected attack, authorities said, in what appeared to be one of the most deadly acts of criminal violence under the current government. Eight women died along with 15 male victims after …

The Brazilian government has said it will reject G7 countries offer of aid from to help tackle fires in the Amazon rainforest. French President Emmanuel Macron – who hosted a G7 summit that ended on Monday – said $22m (£18m) would be released. But Brazilian ministers say the money is …

Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano erupted twice on Sunday, blasting a column of ash, smoke, and gas more than 1.5km into the sky. A level-two yellow alert warning remains in effect following a second eruption at 6:34 pm which sent a column of ash in a north-northwestern direction, following the initial eruption …

European leaders on Friday threatened to tear up a trade deal with South America, reflecting growing international anger at Brazil as a record number of fires in the Amazon rainforest intensified an unfolding environmental crisis. Amid a global chorus of concern and condemnation, Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro pledged in …

France and Ireland say they will not ratify a huge trade deal with South American nations unless Brazil does more to fight fires in the Amazon. French leader Emmanuel Macron said President Jair Bolsonaro had lied to him about his stance on climate change. There are currently a record number …

It came, witnesses said, quickly and without warning. One compared it to the “apocalypse”. Sao Paulo – the largest city in the Americas – was plunged into afternoon darkness after vast plumes of smoke from forest fires burning across the continent suddenly swept over the city. Brazilians living in the …

At least three people were killed and seven others injured in a riot on Saturday night among football fans ahead of a national league match in Honduras, a hospital receiving the victims said on Sunday. Fans of Olympia and Motagua, traditional local rivals, clashed outside the National Stadium in the …

US immigration authorities have arrested nearly 700 mostly Latino workers at seven food processing plants across the southern state of Mississippi, the largest workplace raid in at least a decade. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement on Wednesday that the agency detained about 680 people who …

The death toll from a mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, increased to 22 after two more victims died in the hospital, police said. David Shimp, chief executive officer at Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso, said one patient died late Sunday night and another Monday morning. …