Havana Journal

Baseball in Their Veins, but a New Ball at Their Feet

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Baseball may still be the national sport, but pickup soccer games can be seen in Havana.

Even with a less storied past than baseball, which has long been considered as Cuban as hand-rolled cigars, soccer has made inroads in Cuba in recent years.

Tomás Borge Martínez, Sandinista Rebel and Nicaragua Interior Minister, Dies at 81

By ELISABETH MALKIN

Mr. Borge, the last surviving founder of the Sandinista rebel group that toppled Nicaragua’s dictatorship in 1979, went from student radical to one of the leading officials of his nation’s government.

Bolivia Seizes Local Assets of Spanish Utility

By RAPHAEL MINDER

The expropriation of Transportadora de Electricidad, which operates a large part of Bolivia’s national electricity grid, is another abrupt setback for Spanish companies in Latin America.

Role of Torture Revisited in Bin Laden Narrative

By SCOTT SHANE

The Democratic senators who lead two Senate committees rebutted a former C.I.A. official’s defense of the Bush administration interrogation program.

Bin Laden Death Anniversary Prompts Increased Security

Wal-Mart’s Good-Citizen Efforts Face a Test

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

With controversy building over its role in a Mexican bribery scandal, Wal-Mart’s desire to stay out of the limelight grows.

Memo From Mexico

A Race Recast by YouTube and Twitter

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and ELISABETH MALKIN

A law passed in 2007 that was intended to keep campaigning orderly and clean has been undercut by the unpredictable and uncontrollable Web.

Secret Service Tightens Travel Rules for Its Staff

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

New restrictions came two weeks after the Secret Service began investigating the activities of 12 agents and officers on a trip with President Obama to Colombia.

Common Sense

Bribes Without Jail Time

By JAMES B. STEWART

The Wal-Mart bribery allegations have the makings of a gripping criminal prosecution. But if precedent is any guide, no one is likely to be jailed.

U.S. Sees Positive Signs From China on Security Issues

By MARK LANDLER and STEVEN LEE MYERS

China’s changing positions on Iran, Syria and North Korea, among others, are hailed as steps toward unity among the world’s major powers, but its motives are a mystery.

Secret Service Agent’s Plea in Colombia Proved True

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITT

Officials determined that a Secret Service employee had been wrongly linked to the prostitution case because a hotel guest had given an incorrect room number.

Recent Features on the Americas

Wal-Mart Hushed Up a Vast Mexican Bribery Case

By DAVID BARSTOW

Josh Haner/The New York Times

Signs for several Wal-Mart properties outside Mexico City.

Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico, top Wal-Mart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out wrongdoing, an examination by The New York Times found.

Wal-Mart Shares Down After Bribery Allegations 10:12 AM ET

Customers lined up at 6:30 a.m. outside a government-subsidized store in the Santa Rosalía neighborhood for a chance to get whatever groceries were available.

With Venezuelan Food Shortages, Some Blame Price Controls

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Staples like milk, meat and toilet paper can be hard to find in Venezuela, and many blame the government’s price-control policies.

Slide Show

Prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, where a woman said the fee she had charged a Secret Service agent reflected her escort status.

Woman Recounts Quarrel Leading to Agent Scandal

By WILLIAM NEUMAN and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

A dispute over what a Secret Service agent owed a Colombian woman working as a high-priced escort led to a scandal that has now prompted the exit of three employees from the agency.

Maria das Graças Foster, Petrobras chief, with a portrait of Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president, nearby.

Brazil, Where Oil and Women Mix Powerfully

By SIMON ROMERO

Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, has made it her priority to secure leadership positions for women.

Tourists and locals enjoying the view at a restaurant and bar in Nassau, a beneficiary of China's largess.

China Buys Inroads in the Caribbean, Catching U.S. Notice

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

China’s economic might has rolled up to America’s doorstep, with loans from state banks, investments by companies and outright gifts from the government.

Slide Show

Antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array being installed, 16,597 feet above sea level.

At the End of the Earth, Seeking Clues to the Universe

By SIMON ROMERO

High in the Chilean desert, scientists have installed one of the world’s largest ground-based astronomical projects to look for clues to the origins of the universe.

Slide Show

Political Memo

Josefina Vázquez Mota, the candidate for the National Action Party, greeted supporters in Mexico City.

A Wary Mexico Sizes Up Contenders for the Presidency

By DAMIEN CAVE

Still recovering from decades of single-party rule and facing many challenges, Mexico has scant faith that any of the candidates will confront its problems.

A protest of cyclists after the death of Wanderson Pereira dos Santos. The sign reads “We are all Wanderson,” in Portuguese.

In Brazil Cyclist’s Death, a Clash Between Wealth and Life on the Fringes

By SIMON ROMERO

The death of a cyclist in a car accident involving Thor Batista, the 20-year-old son of Brazil’s richest man, has awakened a debate over wealth, influence and traffic deaths.

One of the indigenous Ayoreo who live in the Chaco forest. About 10 percent of the area has been cleared in recent years by ranchers, amid a rising global demand for beef.

Vast Tracts in Paraguay Forest Being Replaced by Ranches

By SIMON ROMERO

Huge sections of the Chaco forest are being razed by local Mennonite farmers and Brazilian cattle ranchers amid a surge in the global demand for beef.

Video: Paraguay’s Fading Forest

Zynthia Cazares showing photographs of, from left, her brother, husband and father, all still missing after they were kidnapped.

In Mexico, a Kidnapping Ignored as Crime Worsens

By DAMIEN CAVE

Six years into a mostly military assault on drug cartels, impunity has worsened, and justice is harder to find.

Women pack themselves onto and even under bunks at El Salvador's Ilopango prison, where overcrowding is typical of the region.

Inmate’s Lament: ‘Rather Be Dead Than Here’

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

A Honduran fire and a Mexican massacre have drawn new attention to dangerous conditions in Latin American prisons, which have outlasted scrutiny before.

Photographs: In El Salvador, Prisons Packed to the Bars

Memo From Paraguay

The group Invidente plays typical Guaraní music on a Guaraní-language television show. The language is spoken by an estimated 90 percent of Paraguayans.

An Indigenous Language With Unique Staying Power

By SIMON ROMERO

Unusual features of Paraguay’s history and politics mean that Guaraní is widely spoken, despite a relatively small indigenous population.

The Saturday Profile

A Keeper of a Vast Garden of Art in the Hills of Brazil

By SIMON ROMERO

Bernardo Paz, a mining magnate, employs 1,000 people at Inhotim, his 5,000-acre complex of contemporary art and exotic gardens.

Slide Show: An Oasis of Art

A slum slated for razing in Rio de Janeiro in plans for the soccer World Cup and the 2016 Games.

Slum Dwellers Are Defying Brazil’s Grand Design for Olympics

By SIMON ROMERO

Ambitious development plans for the 2016 Summer Olympics, as well as the 2014 soccer World Cup, involve large-scale evictions from numerous slums, whose residents are refusing to leave.

Video: Rio Relocates For 2016 | Slide Show: Slum Dwellers Push Back

Cochrane Journal

The gaucho are still very much part of life in the Patagonia region of Chile. But change is approaching and residents are struggling to grasp where they fit in.

In Patagonia, Caught Between Visions of the Future

By AARON NELSEN

Within eyeshot of a proposed dam project near Cochrane, Chile, is the entrance to a different view of the region’s destiny: the 660,000-acre Patagonia National Park.

Havana Journal

Encouraged by legal and economic changes in Cuba, Carmen Martínez says she hopes she can finally repair her house in Havana.

Cuba Unleashes the Pent-Up Energy of Real Estate Dreams

By VICTORIA BURNETT

Cubans are injecting money into real estate, spurred by government measures to stimulate construction and a new law that allows property trades for the first time in 50 years.

A man with a relative's body found last year in Acapulco, now Mexico's second most violent city.

Mexico’s Drug War Bloodies Areas Thought Safe

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

The drug carnage is spreading to Mexico’s interior and south, a trend believed to be linked to a widening turf war between the country’s two biggest criminal organizations.

Still Painting Messages on Buildings, but No Longer a Vandal

By NIKO KOPPEL

A love of graffiti has gained Steve Powers notoriety on the streets, fame in the art world and a long arrest sheet. It has also earned him a Fulbright scholarship.

Slide Show: Outlaw No More

A subway station in São Paulo, Brazil, which has a thriving financial sector. Some analysts see the situation in the West as “Latin America, circa 1985.”

Latin America Looks at West’s Fiscal Crises, and Sees Its Own Past

By SIMON ROMERO

After years of hearing lectures on fiscal prudence from the West, many in Latin America are left with bewilderment, and even a little schadenfreude, at the West’s problems.

A New Series

Multimedia Feature

Immigration Upended

Articles in this series explore the changing dynamics of migration in Mexico, Latin America and the United States.

Multimedia

Video

Letters From

Latin America Opens Up to Equality

By LUISITA LOPEZ TORREGROSA

The Latin America-Caribbean region has more female heads of state and heads of government than any other area and a higher percentage of female members of parliament.