The Dominican Republic’s 2013 visitor numbers grew by 3.6% over the previous year, outpacing the entire Caribbean region, which recorded growth in tourism of only 1%.  Tourism minister Francisco Javier García described it as “an extraordinary year.” 

Michael Allen went to meet his wife for a vacation on Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast and found that having arrived two weeks earlier she “had bought some land near the town of Ojochal” in the jungle.  He wondered if she had gone crazy. 

Chile will propose to open the Pacific Alliance to other countries in the region. 

The Universidade São Paulo (USP) of Brazil had been knocked off top spot after three years. 

The Drug Enforcement Unit of Peru and the Federal Police in Brazil have been deployed to the border area with Colombia as part of an operation aimed at stopping the flow of drugs to Brazilian cities, many of which will be World Cup venues. 

The three largest economies in Latin America are not feeling overly peppy. 

Latin American nations should pursue a “productive transformative agenda” if they want to keep their rates of economic growth above 5%, said the Director of Public Policy and Competitiveness at the Development Bank of Latin America-CAF, Michael Penfold. 

Gone are the young people who do not look at the label. 

The Dominican Republic’s State-bank could be signaling a closer embrace of mainland China. 

In its handling of e-waste Central America is a model for the rest of the world today, said a leading international expert.