This week’s big news: the helicopter crash that killed to Cabinet Secretary Francisco Blake Mora; he was Mexico’s second-in-command.
ARGENTINA
Argentina Can’t Slow Drain on Dollar Reserves
Currency control efforts worry Argentines
BRAZIL
Will Brazil become like Venezuela?
How Brazil can benefit from helping Europe
Brazil’s growing economy and 200 million people make it a major market
A financial contribution by Brazil to help the EU combat its debt crisis would be small, but provide an opportunity to improve ties with Europe and play a bigger international role. (h/t Gates of Vienna)
COLOMBIA
Se derrumba otro mito: El Caso Mapiripán
CUBA
Che’s Secret Diary
The guerrilla hero as a dispirited racist.
Michael Moore Salutes Our ‘Hispanic’ Veterans
EL SALVADOR
NYTimes book review: In the New Gangland of El Salvador
HAITI
The UN in Haiti
Damned if you do
MEXICO
Border: The helicopter crash Friday that killed Mexico’s top Cabinet official, Jose Francisco Blake, couldn’t have come at a worse time. Cartels are acquiring heavy arms to challenge the state and to move their war to the U.S.
In Mexico, Blake, the Interior Secretary, was the best hope of winning the war against the vicious cartels, who’ve killed as many as 86,000 people.
Blake, 45, had managed to crush the cartels and cut crime in his native Tijuana before he was asked to do the same for the country in the top Cabinet job in 2010.
He had some success — five of the top seven cartel capos were knocked off by the end of his watch.
But he’s the second interior secretary killed in a helicopter crash since 2008, and that leaves a great sense of uneasiness. Mexico’s currency fell on news of his death, the cause of which is still undetermined.
Grassley: Holder refusing to provide 11 witnesses for Fast and Furious interviews
PERU
Leaders of China, Peru seek new cooperation
PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico matches last year’s record for second-highest number of killings
URUGUAY
Quiet Success in South America
The underappreciated economic achievements of Uruguay and Paraguay
VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s Perez would revise Cuba oil deal
