The lawless mining gangs targeting the Amazon’s precious green energy minerals
As demand for the tin ore cassiterite soars, special forces units of Brazil’s Ibama environment agency must play a cat and mouse game with the thousands of illegal miners pouring into Yanomami reserves
Emissions
Anger mounts over environmental cost of Google datacentre in Uruguay
Protesters say recently approved tax-free datacentre will ‘provide nothing except toxic waste and greenhouse gases’
Guyana
Tensions rise as Maduro uses border dispute to build support ahead of Venezuela poll
An old territorial claim to part of Guyana rich in oil and gold has proved useful for Hugo Chávez’s successor. But the land grab has sparked outrage among the Guyanese
Pollution
‘They’re waiting till we die of cancer’: 10 years on, Mexico’s worst mining disaster still poisons lives
In the desert town of Ures, everyone lives under a shadow of ongoing sickness and hardship stemming from a waste spill in 2014. But they are losing hope of seeing justice
The Amazon
Crisis at Tres Fronteras: how criminal syndicates threaten Amazon’s future
Honduras
‘Just give me 30 men and a few arms’: Honduran Indigenous groups ready to fight to save land
The Latin oil rush
Mexico’s love affair with Pemex: will its bid to save the fallen oil giant block the shift to clean energy?
The Latin oil rush
Argentina’s future lies in the balance as vast oilfields poised for extraction
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
Hanging by a thread: Peruvian alpaca breeders’ way of life under threat
Mexico
‘Without them, the city would be lost’: the art of preserving Mexico City’s ancient floating gardens
The Mexican capital’s Unesco-listed wetlands are being brought back to life by the Indigenous chinamperos, who are striving to overcome the effects of urbanisation and the climate crisis
Displaced people
‘Children were dying. We didn’t even have aspirin’: the Indigenous Venezuelans forced far from home
Economic crisis has driven Warao communities from their traditional life in lush forest to a Brazilian slum
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Explore
Extreme weather
Brazil is reeling from catastrophic floods. What went wrong – and what does the future hold?
In the country’s south, up to half of the annual predicted rain fell in just 10 days – the third such event in a year. Experts say it is time to plan for a new normal
Charles Darwin
Darwin in Patagonia: tracing the naturalist’s route around the foot of South America
Oil exploration
‘We can’t hunt or fish’: the villages in Ecuador’s Amazon surrounded by abandoned explosives
Low-carbon milk to AI irrigation: tech startups powering Latin America’s green revolution
Smallhold farming
‘My dream is to buy a piece of land’: the ‘outsiders’ farming at the Amazon’s last frontiers
Wildfires
‘We are in an era of megafires’: new tactics demanded as wildfires intensify across South America
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
People
Fossil fuels
‘Just by breathing we are contaminated’:schoolgirls fight to extinguish Ecuador’s gas flares
Colombia
The Wayúu people live on land rich in resources. So why are their children dying of hunger?
Franz Tattenbach
‘This country is what the world would like to be’:can Costa Rica’s environment minister keep its green reputation intact?
Honduras
Eight years after Berta Cáceres’ murder is there new hope for justice?
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
Resources
Mining
Gold fever: big mining companies circle as El Salvador prepares to reverse ban
Agribusiness
Murder, drought and peyote: the deadly struggle for Mexico’s water
Water wars
‘We cannot be cowards’: the Brazilian village fighting for the right to have water
Illegal mining
‘Leave the gold in the ground’: Ecuador’s forest guardians mobilise against illegal mining in Amazon