Boarded ships, terrorized fishermen and lawless coastlines. It’s a 21st-century version of an old menace.

The estimated 1 million Venezuelan refugees who have flooded Colombia alone in recent years is expected to double over the next year there and in other Latin American countries.

Southern Chile's Copahue Volcano belched plumes of ash skyward Saturday, prompting authorities there and in neighboring Argentina to issue a low-level alert.

Like a Surgeon ... General?

On the day after Christmas, McAfee posted a long blog post describing how he gave Belizean authorities the slip and snuck out of the country to avoid questioning (and in his estimation, wrongful prosecution) following the murder of his neighbor, Greg Faull.

Prime minister says he will 'do everything to protect interests of islanders' following demand by Argentina's president

A cat trained by prisoners to deliver cell phones and tools to dig tunnels was caught at a jail in northeastern Brazil after sneaking in with forbidden items strapped to its body.

Ambassador to Colombia asked to step down after bodyguard held party with prostitutes at mission.

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A plane carrying six people, one of them believed to be Vittorio Missoni, a director of Italy's Missoni fashion house, is missing off the coast of Venezuela.

In the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, free English classes will be offered to prostitutes to deal with the influx of 2014 World Cup tourists.

How a terrible but little-known conflict continues to shape and blight a nation

Kichwa villagers from Sani Isla vow to resist oil prospecting by state-backed company Petroamazonas at all costs.

Racers in the 34th annual Dakar Rally are nearing the finish line in Santiago, Chile

A security guard is hospitalized in the city of San Fernando in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago after accidentally discharging his weapon and shooting off his penis.

Scientists in Chile have spent the past year designing a drug that will give anyone who drinks alcohol an immediate (and very nasty) hangover.

A fire in a nightclub killed at least 232 people in southern Brazil on Sunday when a band's pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze and fleeing partygoers stampeded toward blocked and overcrowded exits in the ensuing panic, officials said.

Pair of band members whose pyrotechnics are believed to have sparked the blaze that killed 231 people also questioned.

Many of the dead in the fire were young science and engineering students--just the kind of experts the country needs to advance into the ranks of the First World. Has the time come for Brazil to make sure its legal system works to make prevent big and small abuses that may hamper its over-all economic future?

One of the owners of the Brazilian nightclub that burned down this week, killing 235, tried to take his own life while in custody, police said Wednesday.

A Carnival cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew is stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire broke out this morning, representatives for the cruise line said.

A new study of Brazil's rain forest says deforestation last year occurred more than twice as fast as in 2011.

In April or May they're going to lace dead mice with painkillers, attach them to little parachutes, drop them from helicopters and hope that they get snagged in the jungle foliage. Then, if all goes well, the snakes — which as their name implies hang out in trees — will eat the mice and die from ingesting the painkillers' active ingredients.

Often described as “uncontacted,” isolated groups living deep in the South American forest resist the ways of the modern world—at least for now. On a cloudless afternoon in the foothills of the Andes, Eliana Martínez took off for the Amazon jungle in a single-engine Cessna 172K from an airstrip near Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. Squeezed with her in the tiny four-seat compartment were Roberto Franco, a Colombian expert on Amazon Indians; Cristóbal von Rothkirch, a Colombian photographer; and...

The former Ambassador of Panama to the Organization of American States (OAS), Guillermo Cochez, says his sources have confirmed that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is dead.

Venezuela has lost its strongman. The world has lost one of its most prolific trolls.

In the annals of geopolitical insults, few have been more sweeping than Richard Nixon's admonition to a young Donald Rumsfeld as he pondered his future career. "Latin America doesn't matter," he offered. "People don't give a damn about Latin America". He said it in 1971. Would anyone in Washington dare say it again?

In the Brazilian town of Santo Antônio da Platina, spiders known as Anelosimus eximius were shot by Erick Reis as they showered the sky. Marta Fischer, a local biologist, is quoted at G1 as saying (translated), “…They are usually in trees during the day and in the late afternoon and early evening construct a sort of sheet webs, each makes his and then they come together. The goal is to capture insects.” She also says this phenomenon is normal.

Dozens of people have died in the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina after heavy rains caused flash floods.

Gullible bargain hunters at Argentina's largest bazaar are forking out hundreds of dollars for what they think are gorgeous toy poodles, only to discover that their cute pooch is in fact a 'Brazilian rat' pumped up on steroids.

In 2006, Sao Paulo, Brazil banned outdoor advertising.

The man former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez handpicked to be his successor has won the country's presidential vote, officials said late Sunday.

A manual recount of votes isn't possible in Venezuela, the head of the country's Supreme Court said Wednesday, suggesting there is no legal basis for the opposition's push for a ballot-by-ballot audit of the narrow presidential election results.

A new species of forcepfly named Austromerope brasiliensis, was recently discovered in Brazil and described in the open access journal Zoo Keys. This is the first discovery of forcepfly in the Neotropics and only the third known worldwide.

Venezuela's top election official said Thursday that authorities will complete a 100% audit of votes cast in Sunday's presidential election. Tibisay Lucena, president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council, said officials decided on the audit after a lengthy debate.

A former Washington DC primary school teacher accused of producing child pornography has been arrested in Nicaragua, the FBI has said.