In South American countries, like in many developing countries of the world, biotechnology is an area of research that is seen with much hope, some respect and sometimes terror because of the safety issues that concern the area and are not completely understood. In technical grounds, many countries are beginning to develope their capabilities to work on such approaches and also many are developing their respective legislation in regard to biotechnology products, field tests of such products, and their releases when and if they are eventually approved. Private investments in biotechnology research in those countries are often limited and research priority setting for public investments is mainly done by representatives and experts of national government with the occasional help of international agencies and experts. In agriculture, most of the released transgenic crops are herbicide-resistant plants and a few are improved for disease or insect resistance and product quality. There is a large concern and much misunderstanding about the potential risks of transgenic releases in "centers of diversity"(many of the South American countries are). The present paper draws some information from a so far unpublished survey conducted by Dr. Claudia Golz, FEDA (German Federal Environmental Protection Agency), made available to the REDBIO (FAQ Network for Biotechnology in Latin America). The status of biotechnology research for agriculture, biosafety legislation and data on field tests of transgenic plants in South American countries is presented. There were already more than 60 releases in South American countries, the great majority of them in maize, mainly made by private companies (most transgenics are herbicide-resistant: glyphosate and glufosinate resistance).