John Otis

Of the 177 environmental activists killed around the world last year, 60 were murdered in Colombia, says the advocacy group Global Witness. In most cases, no one is tried or convicted.

After the U.S. lifted its sanctions, Venezuela is trying to revive its beleaguered oil industry. But ramping up production is causing more oil spills.

Millions of Venezuelans have migrated to escape authoritarian rule and their country's worst economic crisis. For the first time, they're the largest group detained for entering the U.S. irregularly.

Colombia's capital is home to 11 million people — and to some of the worst traffic jams in the world. Now Chinese companies are building its first metro line.

Mayor Edilberto Molina relocated to a nearby town last year after drug-trafficking guerrillas threatened to kill him. He's not the only Colombian politician forced away by threats from criminal gangs.

Colombian artist Fernando Botero has died at the age of 91. "I don't paint fat women," he once told Spain's El Mundo newspaper, "I am interested in volume, the sensuality of the form."

"Everywhere you dig, you will find something — because Lima was home to great civilizations," says a museum director in the capital. "But it's impossible to save everything in a poor country."

In Peru, so many former leaders have been accused of crimes that the country has designated a small prison specifically to house them. It's a symbol of corruption, but also of political dysfunction.

Led by their eldest sibling, who is 13, they managed to find food and shelter. All four, including a year-old baby, stayed safe until Colombian special forces and Indigenous guides rescued them.

A popular immigration passageway saw a drop right when the U.S. passed new rules imposing criminal prosecution and requiring proof an asylum-seeker was previously denied in another country.