ECUADOR’S decision to grant asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks wanted in Sweden for questioning over claims of rape and sexual molestation, has put the country in a political standoff with Britain, where he is holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy.

Last week, in a show of increasing political unity, Venezuela’s opposition parties -- grouped under the umbrella “Table for Democratic Unity” (MUD for its acronym in Spanish) -- made an important step forward. They announced that they would go to the next presidential election with a “unitary card”.

MEXICO CITY – Prior to Mexico’s just-concluded presidential election, public disaffection with the state of affairs in the country was palpable. Mexicans from all walks of life seemed concerned about spiraling violence, anemic economic growth, and the lackluster rule of the National Action Party (PAN). With 60,000 people killed in the war on drugs, Mexicans – like Russians following the first chaotic years of democratic transition under Boris Yeltsin – opted for political regression, underpinned by nostalgia for rule by a firm, if corrupt, hand.

FOR Brazil’s government recent weeks have brought some long-awaited victories. The overvalued currency has weakened to two reais to the dollar, from its peak of 1.54 last July. At 9% the Central Bank’s policy interest rate is near to historic lows and should fall further after President Dilma Rousseff’s brave decision to cut returns on government-backed savings accounts, which had previously acted as a floor.

Hugo Chávez will be returning soon to Caracas after undergoing cancer surgery in Havana. It will not be an easy homecoming.

As I sat on the curb in front of central Havana’s Capitolio, the impressive domed hall that resembles the U.S. Capitol building, and watched the 1950s-era Plymouths and Soviet-made Ladas go belching by, I was sure I had entered a surreal time warp a mere one-hour flight from Miami. And yet, after a week of meetings with Cuban and foreign diplomats, journalists, academics and artists, I became convinced that Cuba, indeed, is changing in many ways.

MANAGUA – Amid accusations of fraud and expressions of serious doubt by international observers, Daniel Ortega’s re-election as Nicaragua’s president constitutes a new kind of “incumbent’s” coup – one that establishes a dangerous precedent for Latin America. What to do about it poses a grave dilemma for the Organization of American States (OAS).

LIMA, Peru—Voters in one of the world's most dynamic economies went to the polls Sunday to choose between two divisive presidential candidates espousing starkly conflicting economic visions.

Organised crime is moving south from Mexico into a bunch of small countries far too weak to deal with it

Last month, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez received total power to rule by decree from an outgoing subservient National Assembly. "For the Obama administration, this is an important - watershed moment," says Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) International Affairs Fellow Joel Hirst. "The OAS appears to be willing to discuss Venezuela's faltering democracy at a forum of its peers, but only if it receives support from a large group of democracies in the region. The administration, always the proponent of multi-literalism, has a perfect opportunity to see this philosophy put to action."