El Periódico of Guatemala City observed that many countries in the region are considering the decriminalization of marijuana.  In Argentina currently it is not a crime to have drugs for personal use.  

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

In El Nacional of Caracas Demetrio Boersner argued that when “some progressives and democratic intellectuals” analyze problems in Europe or North America they are measured, reasonable democrats.  But when they “focus on the dynamics of developing countries, they become apologists for Stalinism or other authoritarian formulas.” 

In BNamericas of Santiago David Roberts pointed to the “irony of communist-run Cuba holding the presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations (Celac), and staging the second annual summit of the group in Havana.”   

Jorge Fernández Menéndez wrote in Excélsior of Mexico City that the “the legalization of marijuana,” such as the legislature of the Mexican federal district aspires to, is “ill-conceived” and will “make more problems than solutions.” 

An editorial  of Prensa Libre of Guatemala City recommended that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro take note of “the famous slogan of a U.S. presidential campaign,” and remember that “the main issue is the economy.”