MEXICO: VIGILANTES — FRIEND OR FOE?
Self-defence units are springing up all over Mexico.The Peña Nieto government has signed a pact legalizing many of them, but will it be able to control their activities?
Peru: Green light for Marañon dams?
Bad news: the government has approved the energy companies' environmental impact report.
The Zapatistas: learning their philosophy and practice
A textbook from the Escuelita, the Zapatista 'little school', to help you learn about autonomous government.
Colombia: Santos under pressure from rural activists
Agrarian, indigenous and other communities and an emergent centre-left opposition are piling on the pressure in the run-up to presidential elections in May.
Peru: Giant phosphate mine threatens fisheries
Opencast mining at Bayovar, owned by a subsidiary of Brazilian giant Vale, is polluting the bay and the local environment.
Chile: no quick fix for Mapuche crisis
President Bachelet is finding that dialogue is not enough to resolve Chile's long-running dispute with its Mapuche peoples.
Brazil: Plinio dies
Leading left-wing intellectual Plinio de Arruda Sampaio has died.
Mobile Phones: The new vox pop
Across Mexico and Central America cell-phones bring benefits and some dangers, especially for women.
Brazil — upsurge in rural violence
Rural leaders are being targeted as a result of the government's failure to clamp down on impunity in the countryside.