As is always the case, the closer you get to an issue, the more complex it is. Chileans are arguing about how to make their society a more equitable one. Peruvians worry about a pause in the country’s spectacular growth, and public opinion polls show that Peruvians think corruption is the biggest challenge facing the country. The Colombian government is both negotiating with the FARC and dealing with an agrarian sector that feels it has been left out of the boom.

Medellin authorities announced Thursday that Colombia’s second largest city aspires to be the principal technological innovation city of Latin America by 2021 aspires to be the principal technological innovation city of Latin America by 2021.

Will the mermaid rescue Juan Valdez? Or will she send the mythical Colombian coffee farmer and his faithful donkey over an Andean mountain cliff? That’s the question Colombians are debating following the Aug. 26 announcement that Seattle-based Starbucks plans to bring its famous green sea nymph logo to Colombia by opening 50 coffee houses over the next five years.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said he was ready to start negotiating peace with the country's second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), "as soon as possible". The announcement comes a day after the ELN released a Canadian hostage it had been holding for months, Gernot Wober. Santos hailed the rebels' release and said "the government is ready to start a dialogue with the ELN as soon as possible," in a statement released by his office on Thursday.

Colombia's government and protesting coca farmers have reached an initial agreement that could provide a starting point for crop substitution measures being discussed in peace talks with the FARC, but which is unlikely to succeed unless followed by long term solutions.

Peace talks to end Colombia's half century of conflict resumed today following a brief but tense suspension amid complaints from leftist rebels that the government moved too quickly on some of the thorniest issues the two sides must tackle. Delegates from the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) met this morning in Havana, Cuba, despite a surprise “pause” in negotiations declared by the FARC on Friday.

Colombia's police are already strategizing for the end of the country's conflict with Marxist rebels, even as the task of combating the guerrillas is increasingly falling to the police instead of the military. With talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) now almost a year old, General Jose Roberto Leon Riaño, who was director of the Colombian National Police until earlier this month, declared "the new model of service [for the police] is anticipating a post-conflict scenario, a scenario of peace."

After buying coffee from Colombia for almost half a century, Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) is finally opening a cafe there, part of its accelerating expansion in Latin America. The world’s largest coffee-shop operator will open a cafe in Bogota in the first half of next year and then five more locations later in 2014, Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz said in a telephone interview. The stores will be operated through a joint venture between Alsea SAB (ALSEA*) and Grupo Nutresa SA (NUTRESA), and will sell locally sourced and roasted espresso and coffee.