El Periódico of Guatemala City reported that the State Department’s annual report on the world situation highlighted problems in Central America.  These include Guatemala’s “widespread institutional corruption, particularly in the police and judicial sectors.”

El Universal of Mexico City observed that U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto for his efforts to carry out “promising” reforms to make Mexico more competitive and give greater opportunities to the Mexican people. 

In La Tercera of Santiago David Muñoz proudly pointed to the U.S. State Department’s inclusion of Chile into its Visa Waiver Program, which eliminates the requirement of a visa for Chileans to enter the United States. 

MercoPress of Montevideo reported that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said he was expelling three U.S. consular officials, accusing them of conspiring with the opposition forces to foment unrest as violent protests ran into a fifth straight night.

El Periódico of Guatemala City took note of the fact that a U.S. federal judge sentenced Jorge Sosa, a former Guatemalan military officer, to 10 years in prison.  Judge Virginia Phillips of the Central District of California also withdrew Sosa’s U.S. citizenship. 

Clarín of Buenos Aires noted that U.S. policy towards Cuba remains out of sync with the rest of the hemisphere. 

MercoPress of Montevideo reported that former Brazilian president Lula da Silva has lobbied strongly in New York, “trying to convince U.S. investors” to do business in Brazil, during a conference of the American Society and Council of Americas, which organized the event.  The day before, the U.S Federal Reserve classified Brazil as the emerging market

Sebastián Lacunza wrote in the Buenos Aires Herald that Marco Rubio and Robert Menéndez, both members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee, “anticipated a deep crisis in Argentina and criticized the local democratic standards during the heated hearing” to confirm Barack Obama’s nominee for US ambassador to Buenos Aires, Noah Mamet, who happens to

La Jornada of Mexico City wrote that pleas were to no avail.  The Mexican Edgar Tamayo was executed for the murder of a Houston police officer in 1994.  Tamayo received a lethal injection and took 17 minutes to die in the execution chamber of Huntsville Prison after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the defense’s appeals. 

Prensa Libre of Guatemala City noted that the U.S. Border Patrol made ​​420,000 arrests last year.  That’s an increase of 16% over the previous year, but still 42% below the 2008 level.  More than 98% of those arrests were made at the southwest border, especially in Texas.