LATAM flight changes
I can not help you with your specific issue, but I can warn you and others that this sort of thing seems to be standard operating procedure at LATAM. To paraphrase deGaulle, 'LATAM is not a serious airline.' I am a regular Brazil traveler and unfortunately LATAM is the country's largest domestic carrier. Last trip in I confirmed the entire itinerary from LAX 48hrs prior as advised, but when I got to GRU I discovered that LATAM had inexplicably cancelled my connection to FOR. Of course, there was no assistance from LATAM and I had to fight their byzantine and nightmarish ground operations in Sao Paolo until I finally got help. I eventually had to cross town with my luggage in a taxi to the old airport and even then had to argue to get my international baggage allowance onto the plane.
This summer I booked through onetravel a similar itinary with AA and LATAM connections, returning next February. Onetravel dutifully notified me last Thursday that LATAM had made a flight change for the return next year. Friday I got on the horn with onetravel and we discovered that the outbound flight from FOR now left 1.5 hours later, leaving me with a 40 minute connection time to the AA flight and they will not wait. I had carefully constructed my trip to have sufficient time at GRU in view of my past experiences, LATAM's poor departure record from FOR, the need to change terminals in Sao Paulo and the long, slow line through the understaffed late night federal police queue. The onetravel agent agreed and we further discovered that LATAM now shows a flight with another number leaving at precisely the same time as the original one! Onetravel agreed to work on getting me onto that flight to preserve my connection time in Sao Paulo. It took 5 days and multiple calls with long phone queues to finally get that. As part of that ordeal, onetravel related to me their multiple contacts with LATAM, as well as AA (the ticket holder), with LATAM repeatedly trying to shirk their responsibility and AA insisting that they can and should do so.
Here is what a professional airline would have done: Go through the passenger list of the delayed flight and identify every passenger with a connection, then manually switching them into the 'new' flight at the original time.
Here is what customers need to do: Avoid booking LATAM flights whenever possible.
Here is what AA and the alliance should do: Consider dropping LATAM!