Obesity weighs on Latin America after success in fighting hunger.  More than half of Latin American adults are overweight, and the percentage increases for the region’s poorest inhabitants. 

Honduras wants to target 400,000 illiterates, and the government expects to double the number of people who attend literacy programs. 

President Rousseff’s ruling PT party has been accused of receiving millions in the Petrobras graft scandal. But some commentators say the company’s troubles have been engineered by forces that do not want to see healthy state-run enterprises. 

According to information from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the United States was the main destination for fresh Colombian flowers between January and November 2014, with exports reaching US $975.5 million, in value, growing by $21 million over the same period of 2013. 

The level of “informality” rises during Carnival. 

In Venezuela increasing fuel prices is “almost a taboo,” especially after a 1989 fuel price increase was one of the triggers of the “Caracazo,” as the “bloody social explosion” was known. 

Peru asked Argentine energy company Pluspetrol to leave a restive Amazonian town in a natural gas block to calm tensions after protests against the company this week left one dead and dozens injured. 

Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita’s decision to go forward with Alberto Nisman’s case set the stage for more political maneuvering. Some commentators argue that the political crisis worsened with the accusation of concealment against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Yet others claim Nisman’s original charge of a cover-up of an alleged government plan to shield Iranian officials

Since the beginning of the year, Maduro has redoubled allegations of coup plans and assassination attempts, with plenty of accusations against media, businessmen, and foreign dignitaries. 

Colombia’s central political battles have nearly been reduced to “Communists” vs. “Fascists.”