Nasere Habed López argued in El Nuevo Diario of Managua that “hedonism is a pervasive feature” of Nicaraguan youth culture today in a way that it was not in “previous generations.” 

Emir Sader argued in Página/12 of Buenos Aires that the wave of progressive governments in Latin America has made significant strides “to turn the page on neoliberalism.” 

In The Tico Times of San José, Costa Rica, Corey Kane noted that while Latin America and the Caribbean have around 9% of the world’s population, the region accounts for more than 30% of global homicides. 

In the Buenos Aires Herald James Neilson argued that “nobody has a solution for the drug-trafficking problem.”  He noted Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman’s response to the U.S. State Department’s annual survey “of how things are going in the endless ‘war on drugs’,” which said that the drug trade is “making inroads in Argentina.  

The Buenos Aires Herald noted that in its annual Report on Human Rights the U.S. State Department has drawn attention to cases of “torture by provincial police, harsh prison conditions and gender violence,” as cause for concern in Argentina. 

In El Universal of Mexico City Karla Casillas and Valentina Pérez Botero spoke with Renato Sales Heredia, head of the National Anti-Kidnapping effort.  Sales said that the practice casts a “huge dark shadow” over Mexico. 

DominicanToday of Santo Domingo reported that the Dominican Republic’s tourism sector has recovered completely this year, as evidenced by the expected arrival of some 250,000 Germans to all regions including the south. 

La Nación of Buenos Aires observed that some 1.6 million Argentines traveled around the country for Carnival, generating $1.935 billion in receipts. 

In Semana Magazine of Bogotá Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos addressed the issue of military interceptions of his communications, including emails.  He confirmed that his communications were intercepted, including those of his family members. He “did not hesitate” to call such actions “serious criminal activity” that were “unusual and unacceptable.” 

In Clarín of Buenos Aires Leonardo Mindez noted that “with barely concealed tensions” the peronistas have started talking about who will follow President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at the top of the Justicialist Party.  The Peronistas of Buenos Aires province met for four hours of speeches in which “the mantra that was repeated was that