Seizures of the synthetic opioid fentanyl by Mexican security forces have increased by at least 486% in 2020, the country’s defence secretary has announced. Mexico’s military and police forces seized an estimated 1.3 tons of the synthetic opioid this year, compared to 222 kilograms in 2019. Luis Cresencio Sandoval, the country’s defence secretary, said the increase was...
Brazilian activists have voiced alarm over their government’s plans to bulldoze a 94-mile highway through a biodiverse corner of the Amazon along the border with Peru that is home to at least three indigenous communities. The planned road is an extension of the BR-364, a 2,700-mile highway that links São Paulo with the Amazon state of...
The former governor of Mexico’s violence-wracked western state of Jalisco has been shot dead in a restaurant bathroom in the popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta. Aristóteles Sandoval was dining with four others when at around 1.40 on Friday he got up from the table and went to the toilet, where the killer shot him in...
Mexico’s congress has approved a new national security law restricting the activities of foreign law enforcement officers, in a move which critics say will endanger intelligence sources and threaten the future of international anti-narcotics operations. The law passed on Tuesday strips foreign agents of diplomatic immunity and requires foreign officials in the country to share any intelligence they have...
Lawmakers in Argentina’s lower house have passed a bill that would legalise abortion in most cases, in a big step forward for the legislation that could set the tone for a wider shift across Latin America. The landmark bill, which needs approval from the country’s senate in a debate expected before the end of the...
A portly young man leant out of his building’s doorway, flanked by police cars on both sides. Stray cats walked past, looking for scraps in the Havana night. “I’ve been under surveillance by the police and state security for two days now,” said Esteban Rodríguez, 32, who describes himself as a social media influencer. “They...
Venezuelans go the polls on Sunday choose a new congress in an election that the opposition is boycotting and most western nations call a fraud by President Nicolás Maduro to retake the last state institution not in the hands of the ruling Socialist party. The vote is almost certain to return congress to Maduro’s allies...
A huge radio telescope in Puerto Rico that has long played a key role in astronomical discoveries collapsed on Tuesday, officials said. The Arecibo Observatory had been shuttered since August after an auxiliary cable snapped and caused a 100ft gash on the reflector dish. Then a main cable broke in early November, leading the National Science Foundation...
A black man who died after being beaten by supermarket security guards in the city of Porto Alegre on the eve of Black Consciousness Day has sparked outrage across Brazil after videos of the incident circulated on social media. Footage showed João Alberto Silveira Freitas being punched in the face just outside the doors of a Carrefour...
When glad tidings of Donald Trump’s undoing reached Flávio Dino’s 18th-century palace in north-eastern Brazil, he felt delight. “Trump was such a toxic figure,” said the Communist party governor of Maranhão state, a leading light of the Brazilian left. “Trump’s defeat is a victory for humanity.” For many Brazilian leftists, Joe Biden’s triumph has also provided...