Latin America

• Tuesday, May 26th 2026 - 14:08 UTC

  María Corina Machado closes Panama visit with tribute to Venezuelans who crossed the Darién

  

  Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado on Monday closed her visit to Panama with a tribute to the more than half a million Venezuelan migrants who over the past decade crossed the Darién jungle on their way to North America, in a speech before the National Assembly of Panama and during the presentation of the key to Panama City by the municipal authorities. The visit was also marked by the confirmation of her presidential candidacy as part of the democratic transition plan set out by the United States following the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro on 3 January.

• Monday, May 25th 2026 - 21:58 UTC

  2026 World Cup drives Airbnb supply surge in Mexican host cities and consolidates real estate firms' control

  

  The approach of the 2026 World Cup, which Mexico will co-host alongside the United States and Canada, has accelerated the mass conversion of traditional housing into short-term tourist rentals in the three Mexican cities hosting the tournament, with a sharp rise of real estate firms as the dominant market actor. According to data from the specialized firm AirDNA cited by the newspaper El País, the supply of properties on Airbnb and similar platforms grew in Mexico City by 30% between 2023 and 2026, rising from 18,000 to close to 24,000 units. In the Guadalajara metropolitan area, growth reached 50%, to 9,760 properties, and in the Monterrey metropolitan area it doubled, to 7,274 units.

• Monday, May 25th 2026 - 04:24 UTC

  Three main Colombian presidential candidates close campaigns one week before first round

  

  The three main contenders to succeed President Gustavo Petro on Sunday closed their campaigns with massive political rallies in different cities across the country, one week before the first round of the presidential elections of 31 May. Leftist senator Iván Cepeda, of the ruling Pacto Histórico; far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, of the Defensores de la Patria movement; and right-wing senator Paloma Valencia, of the Centro Democrático, lead the polls, while around 10% of the electorate remains undecided one week before the vote. The eventual runoff is scheduled for 21 June.

• Monday, May 25th 2026 - 01:49 UTC

  Peru sends four tons of food to Bolivia and joins humanitarian airlift over blockades

  

  The government of Peru on Sunday delivered to Bolivia a donation of four tons of food intended for families affected by the road blockades that highland peasant sectors have maintained for 19 days, in an initiative that adds Lima to the growing regional humanitarian airlift organized around the government of President Rodrigo Paz. The aid arrived aboard a Peruvian military aircraft and was received by Bolivian Deputy Minister of Consular Management Héctor Huanca and the Peruvian Ambassador in La Paz, Carlos Chávez-Taffur, at El Alto international airport.

• Monday, May 25th 2026 - 00:44 UTC

  Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office maps Marset drug route from Bolivia to European ports

  

  The Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment against Gianina García Troche, the former partner of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, that reconstructs in detail the criminal structure operating from Paraguay that for years moved cocaine from Bolivia to major European ports. The document, cited by the Uruguayan newspaper El País, lays out a three-pronged organization, nearly a thousand clandestine flights inside the Paraguayan Chaco, and a verified export volume amounting to 17,340 kilos of cocaine seized in Belgium and the Netherlands, valued at up to USD 434 million on the European market.

• Monday, May 25th 2026 - 00:38 UTC

  Evo Morales demands elections in Bolivia in 90 days “to avoid deaths” and warns against militarization

  

  El expresidente boliviano Evo Morales (2006-2019) elevó este domingo la presión sobre el Gobierno de Rodrigo Paz al exigir la convocatoria de elecciones generales en un plazo de 90 días “para que no haya muertos, para que no haya heridos”, en una nueva escalada del pulso político que mantiene paralizadas a las ciudades de La Paz y El Alto desde hace tres semanas. El líder cocalero, prófugo de la justicia boliviana por un caso de presunta trata agravada de menores, advirtió que cualquier decisión del Ejecutivo de “militarizar” el país para desbloquear las rutas constituiría una alternativa “suicida”.

• Wednesday, May 20th 2026 - 23:18 UTC

  Bolivia escalates internal conflict into diplomatic clash with Colombia and divided regional backing

  

  The political and social crisis that has been shaking Bolivia for 15 days escalated on Wednesday into a regional diplomatic confrontation, with the government of Rodrigo Paz expelling the Colombian ambassador to La Paz, Elizabeth García, denouncing before the Organization of American States an attempt at “institutional destabilization,” and receiving public backing from the United States and from several governments in the region. The decision was taken after Colombian President Gustavo Petro described the protests as a “popular insurrection” and said that in Bolivia “there is a people in the streets being killed,” statements considered “interfering” by La Paz.

• Wednesday, May 20th 2026 - 18:29 UTC

  United States indicts Raúl Castro over 1996 shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue aircraft

  

  The US Department of Justice on Wednesday filed formal charges against former Cuban president Raúl Castro and five other Cuban military officers on counts of murder, conspiracy to murder US citizens, and destruction of aircraft, in connection with the shootdown on 24 February 1996 of two civilian planes operated by the anti-Castro organization Brothers to the Rescue. The indictment, approved on 23 April by a grand jury of the Southern District of Florida, was unveiled at the Freedom Tower in Miami on the same day the Cuban diaspora commemorates Independence Day, a date the Havana regime does not celebrate. It is the first time in nearly 70 years that a senior leader of the Cuban regime has faced criminal charges in the United States over events that resulted in the deaths of US citizens.

• Tuesday, May 19th 2026 - 12:10 UTC

  Bolivia: miners' dynamite and peasants' siege reach the heart of power in La Paz

  

  The center of La Paz turned on Monday into the stage of a more than three-hour pitched battle in which thousands of salaried miners and peasants clashed with police forces trying to prevent their entry to Plaza Murillo, the seat of Bolivia's executive and legislative branches. The protesters threw dynamite charges at the police, who responded with tear gas. The cordons were not overrun, and the Army, deployed around the square as the last line of defense, did not intervene directly. The mobilization is the largest challenge President Rodrigo Paz has faced since taking office six months ago.

• Tuesday, May 19th 2026 - 02:09 UTC

  After CIA director's trip to Havana, Cuba warns of “bloodbath” in case of attack

  

  Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned on Monday that a possible US military attack on the island “will provoke a bloodbath of incalculable consequences,” in the most explicit hardening of Havana's discourse toward Washington since the start of the oil blockade imposed in January. The message, released through the X social media platform, coincided with the public confirmation that the Cuban government has acquired more than 300 drones from China and Iran, a purchase that island authorities framed as part of the exercise of their “legitimate defense.” The rhetorical shift comes just four days after the visit to Havana by the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe.