South American neighbours, one heartless and one short, sent back copy (9)
I believe the answer is:
reproduce
'copy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
I don't understand the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reproduce that I've seen before include "Ape" , "To propagate" , "[DOUBLE]" , "Make a child" , "Make a copy of (something)" .)