John Otis

NPR ventures into a Colombian emerald mine — which used to be more dangerous, with potential explosions inside and gunfights outside. The CEO, a former U.S. diplomat, says he wanted to change that.

The pirarucu, the giant fish of the Amazon, was an endangered species. Due to conservation efforts, it's making a comeback.

Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is heading to the COP27 summit this week, to reassure the world that Amazon rainforest is in safe hands.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted the Biden administration to extend an olive branch to Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro.

The Biden administration has extended olive branches to Venezuela. It might sway Caracas to stick with talks with the opposition, and eventually let Venezuelan oil back on the world market.

The results bring to a close the most consequential election in Brazil in decades. Now, President-elect da Silva faces the huge task of reinvigorating Brazil's economy.

Plans to pave Brazil's highway BR-319 through the Amazon rainforest have raised alarm from environmental groups.

"He's been canceled," a Chilean activist says of 20th century poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda. Five decades after his death, feminists are denouncing him as a male chauvinist and sexual predator.

Music has brought solace and companionship for some of those who were blinded in the 2019 mass protests in Chile.

All members of Hacía la Victoria ("Onward to Victory") sustained eye injuries during clashes with police in anti-government protests in 2019. Their lyrics focus on police brutality and their own pain.