As relations between Colombia and Venezuela deteriorate, Argentina has stepped in to restore diplomatic ties between the two neighbors.

With Colombia and Venezuela on the brink of war, the South American community is trying to find a peaceful solution.

Rogelio Segovia Hernandez, top drug lieutenant in a Mexican drug cartel, has been arrested in northern Mexico, federal police say.

The senior drug dealer, believed to be one of the top officials in the Juarez drug cartel, was captured in Chihuahua on Tuesday, the police said in a statement on Wednesday.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro says he will recount the story of how he came to power in his memoirs to be released in August.

The book, to be called The Strategic Victory, is the first volume of his memoirs.

Colombia has rejected Venezuela's peace plan to end the dispute over allegations that Venezuela is sheltering leftist guerrillas.

“A true peace plan begins with not interfering in the internal affairs of any country,” Colombia's Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said on Wednesday, the VHeadline website reported on Wednesday.

Venezuela has beefed up its troop presence along the border with Colombia amid heightened tension between the two South American nations.

Caracas has sent about one thousand troops to the border, citing the threat of an armed conflict with Bogota.

Prosecutors in Mexico have accused the director and guards at a prison of letting inmates out and lending them guns and vehicles to carry out drug-related killings.

The inmates, who are members of drug cartels, were believed to be behind three mass shootings, including the massacre of 17 people at a party earlier this month, the attorney-general's office said on Sunday.

Canada has imposed a fresh round of sanctions against Iran's energy sector hours after the European Union approved similar unilateral measures.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters on Monday that the new sanctions include a ban on Canadian investment in Iran's oil and gas sectors.

About 300 indigenous protesters have surrounded a hydroelectric plant under construction in the Brazilian Amazon city of Aripuana, preventing 100 workers from leaving the site.

Government officials were expected to arrive in the region on Monday to negotiate with the indigenous, who object to the Dardanelos dam being built on an ancient burial ground.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has denied a pardon to aged and long-serving inmates convicted of crimes committed under Augusto Pinochet's military rule.

Pinera said the proposal submitted by Chile's Catholic Church leaders had caused division in the South American nation and reopened old wounds.

President Hugo Chavez threatened Sunday to halt oil sales to the United States if Venezuela is attacked by its U.S.-allied neighbor Colombia.

Chavez said during a speech to thousands of supporters that if there were an "armed aggression against Venezuela" from Colombia backed by the U.S., "we would suspend shipments of oil."