This weekend marks one year since Nicolas Maduro became president of Venezuela in a narrow election victory. Maduro promised to carry on the legacy of his mentor, Hugo Chavez. While Maduro's supporters say he has done a lot for a country struggling with high crimes rates, unemployment and soaring inflation, his rioting opposition label him a failure.

An investigation into the political wing of Peru'sShining Path has revealed the extensive nature of the imprisoned guerrilla commander Abimael Guzman's involvement in directing the group, as recently arrested Movadef leaders face up to lengthy prison sentences for ties to drug money.

The US government must increase diplomatic and financial support to help Colombia prepare for the possibility of a post-conflict scenario, stated a report published Monday by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

For obvious reasons, many Paulistanos still consider this megacity’s decrepit old center a no-go zone. Carjacking and kidnapping gangs preyon motorists at stoplights. Squatterscontrol dozens of graffiti-splattered apartment buildings. Sinewy addicts roam through the streets smoking crack cocaine in broad daylight.

In the dark before dawn one night last February, Colonel Googlis Martín Caballero was driving a white Ford Explorer through the Venezuelan countryside not far from the Colombian border. With him were his wife, his daughter and roughly half a ton of cocaine. 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition coalition representatives agreed Tuesday to hold talks on ending two months of anti-government protests that have left 39 people dead in their oil-rich nation.

The seventh session of the World Urban Forum, started Saturday, is set to discuss a wide range of urban issues facing the world today inColombia’s second largest city and 2013′s most innovative city of the year, Medellin.

Authorities in Colombia’s capital Bogota have agreed to not remove graffiti as long as the street art is performed “in a responsible way,” following a meeting with graffiti artists who previously had claimed they were being persecuted.