Philip Reeves

Heavily armed bank robbers laid siege on Tuesday to an entire city in southern Brazil, overpowering local police. The assault caused shock in a country dominated by organized crime.

Thousands of fans lined up from the early hours on Thursday to file past Maradona's wooden casket in the presidential palace. Argentina's beloved soccer star died on Wednesday.

Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona died on Wednesday at age 60. NPR remembers his life and legacy.

It may come as a surprise but the popularity of President Jair Bolsonaro is growing — even as the country suffers one of the highest COVID-19 death tolls in the world.

A Black man in Brazil died after being severely beaten by supermarket security guards. The incident that was caught on video on the eve of Black Consciousness Day is causing a huge outcry.

A major row erupted in Brazil after the government suspended trials of a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine. President Jair Bolsonaro is accused of playing politics with the pandemic.

The former president crossed the border from Argentina and was welcomed by a large group of supporters, just a day after his former economy minister, Luis Arce, was sworn in as president.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been called the Trump of the Tropics. His environmental and other policies are expected to face closer scrutiny if Joe Biden is elected the next president.

After mass protests, and amid a pandemic, Chileans go to the polls Sunday for a referendum over whether to scrap the constitution introduced under Gen. Augusto Pinochet's rule.

NPR correspondents in South America, the Middle East and Europe discuss the recent spikes in coronavirus cases in their regions.

Luis Arce looks to have won Sunday's presidential election in Bolivia, returning the country to socialist rule after last year's ouster of Evo Morales amid fraud allegations in an earlier vote.

Luis Arce, a candidate handpicked by former President Evo Morales, is expected to be confirmed as the winner in the country's most important presidential election in a generation.

Bolivians voted for a new president on Sunday. The election — which was delayed twice — was the first since leftist icon Evo Morales was ousted almost a year ago.

Bollivians go to to the polls tomorrow to choose a new president in their first election since leftist icon Evo Morales was ousted last year.

Rieli Franciscato was a leading expert on uncontacted tribes and was killed while on a mission to shield an isolated indigenous group from a possible hostile encounter with outsiders.

Peru's per capita COVID-19 death rate is higher than any nation's except for tiny San Marino. The government's awareness campaign slogan is "COVID does not kill by itself. Let's not be accomplices."

The fragments of a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite that fell on Santa Filomena last month have been a literal windfall as locals sell them for thousands of dollars apiece.

Despite an early lockdown, Peru has now registered more deaths per capita from COVID-19 than almost any other country. Peruvians are debating what went wrong.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is on the rise. With fire season underway, the rainforest faces the threat of even more destruction. But President Jair Bolsonaro dismisses those fears as a lie.

"Many of us know the risk [voting] entails because of the pandemic," a protester says, "but we want to hold elections." The vote, postponed twice due to the virus, is now set to take place on Oct. 18.