Drought in the coffee-growing areas of Brazil is likely to lead to losses both for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, though consumers are less pessimistic about unemployment and inflation. 

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) expects that Bolivia, along with Peru, will lead economic growth in South America during 2014. 

Productive development in Peru needs to rely more on competitiveness and diversification, the country needs 5.5% growth to continue reducing poverty, and Peruvian publishers expect to do good business in Colombia. 

The Venezuelan government extended the decree annulling or simplifying procedures for the importation of basic consumer goods in short supply. 

More than 350 women, mostly single mothers who have up to five children, have started their own businesses in Honduras as “microentrepreneurs.” 

Mexican manufacturing reported annual declines in the first quarter of 2014 in 9 of its 21 subsectors, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (NEGI).  

Used by Colombian rural people for centuries to clear land, machetes are becoming a significant business for Colombia, which has become the world’s largest exporter. 

Havana is turning more state businesses into cooperatives as part of its political balancing act in allowing the slow but controlled rise of capitalism. 

Chile needs to get used to more volatile copper prices, says Codelco’s CEO Thomas Keller. 

Half a century after the 1964 coup that plunged Brazil into a dictatorship, ghosts of the military regime’s economic policy still walk the earth, in the manipulation of prices to control inflation, and in an industrial strategy of choosing “national champions” through strong government support.