LOS ANGELES TIMES

Most-wanted Mexico drug trafficker is found everywhere

He appears in a restaurant, picks up everyone's tab, then vanishes with his many guards. He stars in his wedding, government officials among the guests. He is captured, then released. Twice. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted drug-trafficking fugitive, chalks up more sightings than Elvis.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Central American immigrants adopt Mexican ways in U.S.

Many who come to the United States from El Salvador and elsewhere say it's easier to adopt the language habits and customs of Los Angeles' largest Latino population. Others fiercely stick to their own traditions.

TICO TIMES

Economic crisis hitting Costa Rica

The financial crisis sweeping the globe is creeping up on Costa Rica, with a dip in foreign investment leading a pack of problems prompting some of the country's economists to predict a recession.

U.S. cuts off trade benefits to Bolivia over drugs

The U.S. is suspending a trade deal with Bolivia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday, calling the decision unfortunate but necessary because Bolivian President Evo Morales has failed to improve anti-drug efforts.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Colombian cocaine ring linked to Hezbollah

U.S. and Colombian investigators have dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money laundering ring that allegedly used part of its profits to finance Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite militia, officials said Tuesday.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Venezuela, Iran, Russia face oil reckoning

As the price of oil roared to ever higher levels in recent years, the leaders of Venezuela, Iran and Russia muscled their way onto the world stage, using checkbook diplomacy and, on occasion, intimidation. Now, plummeting oil prices are raising questions about whether the countries can sustain their spending — and their bids to challenge United States hegemony.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Latin America feels the pinch of global economic crisis

The abrupt end of the worldwide commodities boom has stunned Latin American nations that had bet the farm on the idea that raw materials were a ticket to boundless prosperity in the globalized economy.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Acclaimed Colombian institution has 4,800 books, 10 legs

A whimsical riff on the bookmobile, Luis Soriano’s Biblioburro is a small institution: one man and two donkeys. He created it out of the simple belief that the act of taking books to people who do not have them can somehow improve this impoverished region, and perhaps Colombia

E-mail hints at alliance in Cuban American's kidnapping

A possible alliance between Colombian leftist guerrillas and factions of El Salvador's Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front , could be behind the kidnapping this year in Panama of Cuban-American Cecilio Padrón, according to a source within the Salvadoran Intelligence Service

Evo Morales: Bolivia should not fear US 'blockade'

The U.S. is set to suspend a trade deal with Bolivia that is worth 20,000 Bolivian jobs and $150 million a year, but President Evo Morales says South America's poorest country shouldn't worry.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Killing of Mexico mayor sends message

Until he was gunned down over the weekend, the mayor of an important resort town outside Mexico City, apparently felt sufficiently at ease to travel without a specially assigned team of bodyguards despite receiving death threats from purported drug lords.

Colombia's Alvaro Uribe eyes one more run

Enjoying great popularity after suppressing guerrilla violence, Colombia's president has declined to discourage a movement to let him run for a third term.

TICO TIMES

U.S. envoy tackles tricky relationship with Nicaragua

As the political gods would have it, Robert Callahan is now the U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua, where his mandate is to work in cooperation and support of the Sandinista government he worked against 25 years ago during the CIA-backed contra war.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

In Bolivia, a Croat and a critic is cast in a harsh light

For many, Branko Marinkovic, whose parents emigrated to Bolivia in the 1950s from the former Yugoslavia, is an example of entrepreneurial resilience and leadership. But for President Evo Morales, Marinkovic is the kind of magnate who symbolizes all that is wrong in rebellious eastern Bolivia.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Latin America has reason to worry over U.S. financial crisis

After being lectured for 20 years about the superiority of the free market, officials in Latin America see no small irony in the effort to bail out the U.S. banking system.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

In Mexico City, bicycles rule the Sunday streets

Every Sunday morning, some of the biggest streets of car-flooded Mexico City are handed over to bicyclists, who roll in by the tens of thousands. Joining them are skateboarders, rollerbladers, toddlers on push toys and parents behind strollers in what has become a weekly festival on wheels.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Panama could become next narco battleground

FARC insurgents are increasingly crossing the border from Colombia. Authorities fear that they will spread the drug violence that has convulsed parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.