Last year’s debate on immigration reform centered on discussions on improving border security for the nearly 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico by adding new fencing, more electronic detection technology including drones, and beefed-up numbers of security patrol.

In a rare demonstration of public dissent, dozens of Cuban artisans and vendors protested in the city of Holguín this week, marching to local government offices and demanding the right to work without government harassment, witnesses said.

Just over a year ago, as President Enrique Peña Nieto started his administration, the domestic and international press were touting “Mexico’s moment” and the rise of “the Aztec tiger.” Now, the naysayers have returned. Their pessimism stems in part from disappointing economic results: Mexico’s GDP growth has fallen, from nearly four percent in 2012 to around an estimated one percent in 2013.

Brazil is known worldwide for its soccer players and supermodels, its lively parties and an appreciation for living life passionately. Another well-known characteristic of the country is its high inequality spurred on by ineffective income distribution practices and clientelistic political systems.

Gender is once again on the World Economic Forum’s agenda. At this year’s Annual Meeting, a series of sessions will focus on the desirability of advancing the rights and economic power of women and girls around the world, and of continuing to close the gender gap in Western C-suites, boardrooms, parliaments and presidencies. These discussions will build on the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published last November.

Five years ago, Central and Eastern Europe was home to one of the world’s most impressive growth stories. Annual GDP growth was close to 5%, just behind China and India. Foreign direct investment poured into Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia at a rate of more than $40 billion per year. One in six cars sold in greater Europe was being exported from factories in the region. Productivity and per capita GDP were rising briskly, narrowing the gap with Western Europe.

Paddington Bear is a much-loved children’s character from deepest, darkest Peru. He’s also an illegal immigrant. According to Michael Bond’s classic books, Paddington is an illegal stowaway who entered Britain with no partner or means of supporting himself, then adopted a different identity before staying in the UK indefinitely.

Over the last two decades, Brazil’s trade policy has centered on two main negotiations. At the regional level, Brasília has spent much of its time and effort trying to lay the groundwork for a common economic space in the Southern Cone of South America. Since 1991, Mercosur, the Common Market of the South, has been the centerpiece of that strategy.