The Nicaraguan government released 100 prisoners to a form of house arrest Monday, including three human rights activists. The administration of President Daniel Ortega said all 100 face charges of “offenses against security and the public peace,” which have commonly been applied to participants in anti-government protests that started last year. But opposition figures couldRead more

A Guatemalan boy in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody died Monday, a day after beginning treatment for the flu.  Carlos Gregorio Hernandez-Vasquez, 16, was found “unresponsive” while being held at the Weslaco Border Patrol Station.  U.S. officials have not determined the cause of death, which is generally issued after an investigation by multiple federalRead more

Gunmen killed at least 11 people in a bar in northern Brazil on Sunday, officials said. The shooting took place in the city of Belem, the public safety department of northern Para state said. There was no immediate word on the motive of the shooting. The attackers fled but the news website G1 quoted policeRead more

U.S. sanctions on oil-rich Venezuela appear to be taking hold, resulting in mile-long lines for fuel in the South American nation’s second-largest city, Maracaibo. Some drivers said they’d had to wait almost 24 hours to fuel up, and people have been grabbing catnaps on the hoods of cars or in truck beds. Nearing empty andRead more

Five foreigners including the pilot died Saturday when their private plane crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Roatan island, a tourist destination on the Atlantic coast of Honduras, local authorities said. Officials gave conflicting accounts of the victims’ nationalities. Armed forces spokesman Jose Domingo Meza said four of the victims were fromRead more

After decades pulling political strings behind the scenes as a cabinet chief and strategist for Argentine presidents, Alberto Fernandez now aims  to win the top job himself.    But rather than a power grab, the unexpected presidential bid announced on Saturday appears more a strategic maneuver orchestrated by his political patron, former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is running as viceRead more

Eddy Montes, a protester shot dead in a Nicaragua prison this week, was a naturalized U.S. citizen who served in the Navy, but ultimately returned to the Central American country where he fought for a change in government, his family said. Montes died Thursday after he and other prisoners tried to snatch a gun fromRead more

Talks in Norway this week with representatives of Venezuela’s government and the opposition sought to “build a peaceful agenda” for the crisis-stricken South American country, President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday. Norway’s foreign ministry, which has a tradition of conflict mediation, said earlier on Friday that the talks were in an “exploratory phase.” The representativesRead more

A former commander of the Marxist FARC rebel group was released from prison Friday and immediately re-arrested after new evidence came to light, the attorney general’s office said in a statement. In a move likely to rattle an already delicate peace accord with the now-demobilized insurgents, Seuxis Paucias Hernandez, known by his war alias asRead more

Angry drivers queued for hours in towns across Venezuela Friday as fuel shortages worsened in the South American nation following a plunge in gasoline imports and a stoppage at the nation’s second-largest oil refinery. Shortages of motor fuel have become a periodic occurrence in the OPEC nation, particularly in border regions where smuggling to neighboringRead more