All Americas
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.
Shakira, Obama help some Afro-Colombian communities threatened with displacementTwo Afro-Colombian communities received titles this Spring, but most are still at risk, lacking titles to their land despite decades of living in one place and a legal right, writes a guest blogger.
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.
- A Venezuela where race tracks glistened and hotels housed touristsPlans to transform a former greyhound race track into a 'socialist city' has a guest blogger asking what can be gleaned from Venezuela's changes over the past 25 years.
- 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.
Will Venezuela's violence undo Ch谩vez, or save him?The Venezuelan government and opposition are competing to promise security to voters leading up to the October election, but some warn a defeat for Ch谩vez could unleash further violence.
Former Argentine dictator Jorge Videla convicted of systemic theft of babiesJorge Videla led Argentina's 1976 coup. He and eight others were convicted for stealing babies from 'enemies of the state' during the military junta's rule.
