All Americas
Ready for landing: Mexico City airport expansion could make it one of largest in worldWhen engineers finished work on the existing airport in 1952, the capital had only 3 million residents. Since then, the metropolis has swollen to more than 20 million inhabitants.
Why are Nicaraguan youths staying put while neighbors migrate north?Of the 62,998 unaccompanied children who've been detained at the US border between Oct. 1 and the end of July, only 194 have been Nicaraguan.
A failed journey: Central American migrants turned back before US borderMore than 60,000 child migrants have arrived on the US-Mexican border since October. But tens of thousands more never make it that far. They are often returned home to existing violence and poverty - compounded by debt and despair.- Costa Rica: A new model for prison standards in Latin America?Prison overcrowding is widespread in Latin America, but Costa Rica has slowly started to implement politically sensitive, but needed, reforms. This includes vocational training programs and resisting tougher drug-sentencing laws.
Minimum-wage debate roils Mexico, where rock-bottom pay rulesMexico is both home to one of the richest men in the world and one of the lowest minimum wages in Latin America. Mexico City's mayor is pushing for an increase, but some worry it will have detrimental effects on the national economy.聽
Social workers channel Indiana Jones to deliver welfare checks to Brazil's AmazonMany聽Brazilians are still in dire need of state assistance, and teams of social workers 鈥� equipped with chainsaws, but no maps 鈥� are traveling to remote corners to find the poorest of the poor.
FocusKeeping count of Mexico's missingEstimates of the number of disappeared people in Mexico during a decade of drug and gang violence rival numbers from Argentina's Dirty War and Colombia's armed conflict. New laws protecting victim's rights require the government to establish a national registry of those who have disappeared.
FocusSearching for Mexico's disappeared: One mother's journeyAt least 60,000 people were killed in Mexico between 2006 and 2012 and tens of thousands more disappeared. But the burden of proof is on the family of the missing, who are stuck battling an unprepared and often intransigent bureaucracy as they try to find answers.
FARC peace talks: Colombia struggles to pinpoint 'who is a victim'The FARC and the Colombian government have reached peace talk deals on half of their six-point agenda.聽No issue has sparked such heated debate as the compensation and recognition of victims.
Candidate Campos' death dims Rousseff's reelection hopesFormer governor and presidential candidate Eduardo Campos was killed in an airplane crash in Santos, Brazil today. His death makes a runoff more likely for incumbent Dilma Rousseff.
Has prison sentence given Venezuela opposition leader L贸pez a leg up?The trial of Leopoldo L贸pez is set to kick off again today after multiple delays. The government jailed him nearly six months ago, which had some unexpected benefits.- Has Rio's 'pacification' simply pushed violence to city limits?Yes, homicides are increasing in the municipalities that surround Rio de Janeiro, but these areas have traditionally witnessed higher rates of violence than the city itself.
Passport, job, marriage still out of reach for many Dominicans, despite new lawA law paving a path to citizenship for Dominican-born individuals of foreign descent has been praised internationally. But difficulty of getting crucial national ID documents is likely to leave many vulnerable.- US export? Central America's gang problem began in Los AngelesBy 2011, El Salvador had an estimated 28,000 gang members, almost half of whom were in prison. Many were deported from the US in the late 1990s, bringing US-based gang activity back home with them.
- El Salvador struggles to keep business investment at homeIn order to kickstart El Salvador's economy, convincing local investors to keep their money at home could be critical first step.
With HIV regime-change ruse in Cuba, another black eye for USAIDThe US Agency for International Development was alleged to have been using its programs as cover to undermine the Cuban government. It's far from the first recent claim of political meddling for the US aid arm.
The ExplainerWhy child migrants head to the USFor many minors from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, making a dangerous journey north outweighs the risks of staying behind.- Is your wardrobe human-trafficking free?A new label launched in the US and Colombia this week will certify products that were made without forced labor or trafficking victims.
Argentina defaults - but isn't using the 'd-word'This will not deliver the blow of its 2001 default. But analysts warn that no matter how you spin it, the default is likely to hurt an already faltering economy.
Will US sanctions offer Venezuela's Maduro a helping hand?The US imposed visa bans on more than 20 Venezuelan officials, citing alleged human rights abuses. The timing of the sanctions could聽bolster President Maduro's anti-US credentials.
