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.” 

The competition is beginning to heat up as Peronista políticos jockey for position in a crowded field of would-be successors to the Kirchner dynasty, while the opposition hopes to fish in the troubled waters. 

It’s finally official: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will be the presidential candidate for the Workers’ Party (PT) in the October elections; she has also received the support of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. 

Costa Rica’s new President Luis Guillermo Solis pledged to run his administration as a “glass house” and tackle the corruption “eating away” at the country and the economy. 

It can be said that the main purposes of political debate are to establish a position on a matter of public interest, and to open the door to negotiation with adversaries to reach a workable compromise and agreement. 

Bolivian President Evo Morales, the longest serving president currently in power in Latin America, is a favorite to win another five-year term in October, which would make him the longest serving leader in the history of Bolivia. 

Demonstrations continued in Venezuela in early May 2014, as the government of President Nicolás Maduro moved to dismantle protest camps created by students.  His government also started to come under more international criticism of its handling of the crisis.  While Maduro contends that opposition forces want to destabilize the country, human rights groups, the United

Among its proposals for deregulation, neoliberalism emphasizes “labor flexibility.” Yet behind the “attractive words” lurks a “precarious” reality of work without contracts, rights, or guarantees.