South America, Deaths | featured news

In plazas across Venezuela today, Hugo Chavez's followers made it clear they want a continuation of the late president's policies.

President Hugo Chavez, the fiery populist who declared a socialist revolution in Venezuela, crusaded against U.S. influence and championed a leftist revival across Latin America, died Tuesday at age 58 after a nearly two-year bout with cancer.

All 21 people aboard a military plane that went missing off Chile's Pacific coast, near the Juan Fernandez islands, are dead, Defense Minister Andres Allamand said Saturday, CNN Chile reported.

Venezuelan prosecutors say a newspaper columnist who was also an opposition political activist has been shot to death.

The death toll from Chile's earthquake has more than doubled to 708 and is expected to rise further, President Michelle Bachelet has said.

A massive quake struck Chile early Saturday, shaking the capital of Santiago, bringing down buildings and setting off a tsunami. At least 78 were killed with the toll rising.