While 2013 [was] an incredibly interesting year for Brazil, 2014 promises to be even more fascinating. Beyond the World Cup, which promises to occupy much of the year's headlines, here are some of the big issues to watch.

One of the unintended consequences of Peru’s booming economy is that life in the capital is becoming more stressful. Lima is covered in construction sites, competition for the best jobs, and housing is brutal, and traffic is horrendous. Still, people there are finding creative ways to relax in the midst of all that. Some of them are turning to Buddhist meditation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations declared 2013 as the International Year of the Quinoa, a high-protein, grain-like crop from the Andes. Whether consumers of quinoa around the world associate this crop with Peru, a major producer of quinoa, is debatable. Nevertheless, quinoa’s widespread popularity is helping the Peruvian government expand its international presence via culinary diplomacy.

Michelle Bachelet was elected as Chile's president again on Sunday in a landslide victory that hands the center-leftist the mandate she sought to push ahead with wide-reaching reforms. Bachelet won with about 62 percent support, the highest proportion of votes any presidential candidate has obtained since Chile returned to holding democratic elections in 1989.

Throughout the fall, things looked bad for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. His popularity was tanking; most Venezuelans blamed his government for the economic crisis that had been plaguing the country since the end of 2012. In just one year, inflation had soared from 20 percent to more than 50 percent, and shortages of electricity, food, and other essentials had become a part of everyday life. Efforts to control pandemic criminal violence hadn’t yielded significant results, either.

Colombia's largest rebel group, the Farc, has announced a 30-day-long ceasefire starting on 15 December. The announcement came a day after five soldiers, one police officer and three civilians were killed by a Farc car bomb attack against a police station. The Farc declared a similar ceasefire when peace talks began in Cuba a year ago. It was abandoned on 20 January. The Colombian government insists it will only stop fighting the rebels when a final peace accord is reached.

The bumpy ride in the rickety van heads up the steep hill into Morro da Providência, this city’s oldest favela. Last stop: a small, silent square with a hardware shop, bar and pair of young policemen in armored gear toting machine guns, patrolling the still-unopened cable-car station that the city has recently built. The port spreads out below. Spurred by two looming mega-events — the World Cup next year and the Summer Olympics in 2016 — local officials are struggling to reinvent this onetime third-world city with a first-world economy.

Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos praised his country’s relationship with Ecuador during a visit of his Ecuadorean counterpart, Rafael Correa, to the border region on Monday. Santos specifically was positive about Correa’s support for ongoing peace talks with the country’s largest and oldest-living rebel group, the FARC.