Central and South America - news, breaking stories and comment from Latin America

The Americas

Woman kills pregnant teen and raids her womb to pass off baby as her own

Aline Roberta Fagundes confessed she murdered Gabrielle Barcelos Silva and cut her open to remove the baby because her partner had threatened to leave her after she had miscarried.

Dec 7, 2017

By Karen Noronha

Brazil

3,000 Mexican drug cartel victims 'cooked with acid' found in mass grave

A burial ground holding the dumped remains of at 3,000 suspected drug cartel murder victims has been unearthed in northern Mexico.

Dec 6, 2017

By Roger Baird

Mexico

Adorable dad takes young daughter on dates every month to show her 'how she should be treated'

Caitlin Fladager posted online that her husband has now taken their four-year-old daughter out for a "date" every month for a year, and the internet went crazy for the idea.

Dec 6, 2017

By Charlotte Tobitt

Mexico presidential candidate wants amnesty for drug cartel kingpins

Mexico presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador sparks outrage by suggesting drug cartel kingpins should be offered amnesty in Mexico's most violent state Guerrero.

Dec 5, 2017

By Isabelle Gerretsen

Mexico

'People were being sick and peeing themselves': Passengers' horror as engine explodes during take-off

Shaken Thomas Cook holidaymakers said they were "lucky to be alive" after plane engine explodes during take-off.

Dec 4, 2017

By Roger Baird

Video shows hero fireman crawl onto thin ice to save dog that fell through

Footage taken in Saskatchewan, Canada, shows a firefighter sliding onto thin ice to save a dog, which had been stuck for half an hour.

Dec 4, 2017

By Charlotte Tobitt

American financier Rohina Bhandari killed in Costa Rica shark attack

New York financier Rohina Bhandari named as American tourist killed in shark attack off coast of Costa Rica.

Dec 4, 2017

By Isabelle Gerretsen

Honduras on knife edge as count says President Hernandez got more votes in 'stolen' election

TV star turned opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla has accused Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez's government of trying to steal the election.

Dec 4, 2017

By David Sim

Politics Pictures

Venezuela's latest answer to 4,000% inflation – Bitcoin-like digital currency

President Nicolas Maduro announces his socialist government would launch its own cryptocurrency to beat US-led sanctions.

Dec 4, 2017

By Vasudevan Sridharan

Bitcoin

Mexican drug cartel forces rival hitman to 'confess sins' before brutal Isis-style beheading

The execution was carried out by the hitmen from the Viagras cartel and is meant to be a message to the competing Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Dec 4, 2017

By Lara Rebello

Families of missing Argentine submarine crew protest the end of the search effort

The families of the 44 crew members of the missing Argentine submarine protested against the government after the search effort was called off.

Dec 4, 2017

By Nicole Rojas

Argentina

Brother of Barcelona star Lionel Messi arrested after gun recovered in his blood-covered boat

Barcelona star Lionel Messi's older brother was arrested after police recovered a gun in a blood-covered boat he claimed to have abandoned following an accident.

Dec 4, 2017

By Nicole Rojas

Lionel Messi Argentina Barcelona FC