Latin America and the Caribbean

A top State Department official in Washington, D.C. said Central America — which relies heavily on diesel and fuel oil for power generation — is now in an ideal position to cut electricity costs by introducing alternative sources like natural gas and renewable energy.

Long simmering subjects like the U.S. embargo against Cuba were the subject of a special declaration from the bloc, and several leftist governments called for the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico to have a seat the table next year.

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís hosted 21 heads of state from across the Western Hemisphere in San José on Wednesday and Thursday for the third annual summit...

Several leaders – including Cuban President Raúl Castro and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro – mentioned the topic that was the subject of a special declaration earlier in the week during the meetings of foreign ministers, but none made quite the splash that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega did when he ceded his time to address the summit to a pro-Puerto Rican independence advocate, Rubén Berríos.

There are more laws on the book than ever in Latin America criminalizing human trafficking, but these laws rarely lead to prosecutions or convictions, according to a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Despite having only 9 percent of the world’s population, Latin America and the Caribbean register more than 30 percent of the world’s homicides, according to a security expert at the World Bank. INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: Explore homicide statistics and their relationship to economic growth across Latin America.