The stabbing of a municipal secretary of the PRD in Villahermosa, the ambush and execution of a former mayor of Ahuacuotzingo, Guerrero, and journalists shot in Concepción and Amambay are just a few of the violent stories coming out of Mexico and Paraguay recently.

Large Gay Pride parades appeared across the region as the community of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Transvestite people called for societies to respect their rights.  

President Michelle Bachelet announced a plan to buy and return disputed ancestral lands to Chile’s indigenous communities, while teachers went on strike across the country for better public education. 

Depression is a major cause for psychiatric consultation in Latin America; statistics show that the bulk of those affected are between 20 and 50 years of age. 

The richest 1% accounted for 14% of total revenues in Uruguay. 

Just when the Catholic Movement for a Free Choice gave its semiannual report on femicide, reporting 51 dead women (46 in Nicaragua, and 5 abroad), police of Bonanza reported the death of Nicasia Inés Hernández Salgado, 35, shot to death by her partner.  And in Guatemala few cases of violence against women are ever resolved

The reelection of President Juan Manuel Santos presents Colombia with many choices.  It won’t get easier. 

The discussion of violence in Mexico today is crucial because for decades Mexicans have lived through a spiral of fear and insecurity that has come to overshadow their very existence. 

The first round wasn’t even over when the verdict came in: Brazil 2014 is the best World Cup since Spain 1982, and may go down as the best ever if the superb level of play continues through the final. 

UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) had been silent about abuses in Venezuela, though voices in the human rights community and on the Venezuelan left are beginning to speak out against President Nicolás Maduro.