Members of various student organizations assembled in Plaza Italia to express their interest in the process of education reform. 

Incumbent vice president turned opposition candidate, Juan Carlos Varela, won Panama’s presidential election. 

In Brazil, Guatemala, and El Salvador past dirty wars continue to reverberate, while in Colombia and Mexico they never actually ended.  Current practices of political violence (or the threat of its use) and torture show clear continuities with the past. 

Paramilitary groups and so-called “self-defense” groups are active in Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador (as well as other counties).  Some are community-based while others have clear ties to organized crime and regional elites. 

Many observers in Brazil and Argentina are pointing to the futility of the “war on drugs.” 

Archaeologist Walter Alva has praised Peru’s initiative in building new museums across the country.   

The archaeological site of Teotihuacán receives 5 ​​million visitors on average per year, which places it among the most visited in the world. 

The Dominican Republic recorded the arrival of 445,018 non-resident visitors in April, via air travel, representing a “historical” growth compared to the same period last year. 

Across the region the international day in celebration of labor was contested territory.  In several countries with center-left governments May Day festivities were used to reaffirm the government’s role in the economy, while opposition members used the day to complain about government overreach.  In countries with “neoliberal” governments opposition movements protested the lack of government

The Argentine Industrial Union, UIA, the country’s most powerful manufacturers’ lobby, released the results of a poll covering 300 corporations that decried the low level of economic activity expected this year, and predicate little in the way of jobs creation and more layoffs.