All Latin America Monitor
Ending gang violence and creating peace: Colombia's lessons for El SalvadorA truce between El Salvador's rival gangs this year is off to a good start, but it's worth looking at lessons from Colombia, which created a program to demobilize paramilitaries a decade ago.- Rumored Zetas split: Would this bring more violence or peace for Mexico?A weakening of the Zetas in the northeast may discourage the drug gang's forays into other parts of Mexico, but internal strife often leads to more murders, writes InSight Crime.
Venezuela's liberation hero Simon Bolivar turns 229Celebrations in honor of Bolivar's birthday come in the middle of Hugo Chavez's reelection campaign, and include the opening of a personal mausoleum, writes a guest blogger.
Cuban dissident Oswaldo Pay谩 blazed path for democracy in CubaMr. Pay谩 was one of the only dissidents whose work for democratic reform reached thousands of Cubans, writes a guest blogger. He died in a car accident on Sunday.
Why is Google picking a fight with the mafia?Last week's Google gathering on how to combat organized crime garnered headlines, but many questions remain unanswered.- Venezuela's 'Thomas Crown Affair?' Stolen Matisse discovered in Miami.In 2002, a Caracas art museum discovered the Matisse hanging there since 1981 had been swapped with a fake. This week an FBI sting in Miami recovered the original. What happened?
'Roberto' and other tales of the Cuban economyAsk any self-employed Cuban how she came to possess the goods she's selling, and she might tell you they came from 'Roberto,' a euphemism indicating the goods are stolen, writes a guest blogger.- The controversy behind Venezuela's sweeping judicial reformsThis is the seventh set of reforms to Venezuela's penal code since Chavez took office. But changes, like allowing trials to proceed behind closed doors, could lead to an abuse of power.
Armed with sticks, Colombia's Nasa tribe attacks a military baseThe Nasa tribe has long been caught in the crossfire between the Colombian government and the FARC. As fighting has increased in recent months, the tribe has asked both sides to leave its area.- The 'precariousness' of life in VenezuelaToday you find cooking oil on the shelves, but tomorrow, who knows, writes a guest blogger.
- Nicaragua zoo starts lion sponsorship programThe Nicaraguan government has blocked zoo funding in the past, so the national zoo is seeking a benefactor for its new African lion. A successful breeding would be a first for Central America.
- Brazil's solution to prison overcrowding: time off for reading booksBrazil's prison population is 66 percent larger than the system has room for, writes a guest blogger. In an effort to curb overcrowding, new policies offer reduced sentences for things like reading.
- Long subsidized, gasoline now rationed in parts of VenezuelaVenezuela is rationing gas by car in certain border states. This could have 'unintended' economic consequences, like increasing the demand for cars, writes a guest blogger.
Is Hugo Chavez a US security threat?The biggest problem in Venezuela is not ties to Iran or the degradation of democracy, it's the lack of citizen security, writes a guest blogger.
Mexico: victory of president-elect Pe帽a Nieto challenged in courtLeftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost Mexico's July 1 presidential election, officially challenged the results last night. He accuses the victorious party of buying votes.
Can Colombian expert reform Mexico's troubled police force?Retired Colombian police chief Oscar Naranjo was appointed Mexico's new security adviser. But the bureaucratic and political challenges he will face in Mexico may surprise him.- Who would be better for Cuba: Romney or Obama?US elections always matter in Cuba, writes a guest blogger. The island has been under a half-century US embargo.
Argentina takes steps to bring Dirty War-era criminals to justice before deathArgentina is taking steps, like limiting pre-verdict statements, to speed up their judicial process in an effort to bring closure to victims of dictatorship-era crimes before alleged perpetrators die of old age.- Brazil's growing middle class debtDebt could be the defining factor of whether Brazil's middle class families can maintain an improved standard of living or slide backward, writes a guest blogger.
- US Drug Enforcement Agency kills another suspected drug runner in HondurasThe DEA shot an alleged drug runner in Honduras 鈥� the second since June 鈥� but if you rely on Honduran media, you may not have known that, writes a guest blogger.
