Across the region the international day in celebration of labor was contested territory.  In several countries with center-left governments May Day festivities were used to reaffirm the government’s role in the economy, while opposition members used the day to complain about government overreach.  In countries with “neoliberal” governments opposition movements protested the lack of government

The Argentine Industrial Union, UIA, the country’s most powerful manufacturers’ lobby, released the results of a poll covering 300 corporations that decried the low level of economic activity expected this year, and predicate little in the way of jobs creation and more layoffs. 

The bad news is that the Colombian exports to the United States have fallen; the good news is that the informal economy is shrinking. 

Combined coffee exports from nine countries in Latin America (not including Brazil) fell 2.85% in the first half of harvest that began in October. 

In Guatemala there are two farming systems: a “modern” and “technological” version located on the southern coast, and another, “based on the colonial model of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries” remains “rooted in the departments of Alta and Baja Verapaz.” 

With car production down 16% in Argentina and 8.4% in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same three months last year, both Argentina and Brazil are keen to extend their existing agreement. 

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.