Marcela Sánchez

In 2002, the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim received preliminary permits to explore gold-mining possibilities in northern El Salvador. The company's representatives assured residents of nearby San Isidro that the El Dorado mine project would create much-needed jobs and development.

In 2002, the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim received preliminary permits to explore gold-mining possibilities in northern El Salvador. The company's representatives assured residents of nearby San Isidro that the El Dorado mine project would create much-needed jobs and development.

L'Atelier du Chocolat es una fábrica de chocolates gourmet en México, con $2 millones de dólares en ventas anuales y 63 empleados. Aunque cuenta entre sus clientes a Liverpool, una de las cadenas más grande de tiendas departamentales de México, L'Atelier du Chocolat solo puede proveer a siete de sus 130 tiendas.

L'Atelier du Chocolat is a gourmet chocolate factory in Mexico with $2 million in annual sales and 63 employees. Among the factory's clients is Liverpool, one of Mexico's largest department store chains, but L'Atelier du Chocolat can only supply seven of Liverpool's 130 stores.

"To be able to serve them all I would have to invest in machinery," says owner Marisol Alfaro. "But I don't have access to financing because I don't have the contract." And Alfaro can't secure the contract until she can prove that she has the means to fulfill it. "It is a vicious circle," she says.

Si pudiera, América Latina se aplaudiría a si misma. Analistas de instituciones públicas y privadas, expertos en política y en economía, todos coinciden: una combinación inusual de reformas pro-mercado e intervenciones gubernamentales adoptadas a mediados de los 90, le permitieron a la región resistir la peor recesión económica global en 80 años. No está mal para una región que se conocía como la más volátil del mundo económica y financieramente.

If it could, Latin America would pat itself on the back. Analysts from public and private institutions, political and economic experts, all seem to agree: An unusual combination of government interventions and pro-market reforms adopted in Latin America since the mid-1990s have enabled the region to weather the worst global recession in 80 years. Not bad, considering Latin America is widely viewed as the most economically and financially volatile region in the world.

En el momento en que el derrocado Presidente hondureño Manuel Zelaya puso pie en la embajada de Brasil en Tegucigalpa, el 21 de septiembre, Brasil fue lanzado al centro de la crisis hondureña.

The moment deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya walked into the Brazilian embassy in Honduras' capital, Tegucigalpa, on Sept. 21, Brazil was thrust into the center of the Honduran crisis.

The South American giant has since requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council and called for a U.N. investigation of human rights abuses perpetrated by Roberto Micheletti's de facto government in Honduras. At the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demanded Zelaya's "immediate return to the presidency."

Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez's first computer had a hand crank. The Swedish-made Facit calculator, a 13-pound device he used while working for a wholesaler in the 1960s, was heavy, unforgiving, and with its various keys, levers and pointers, not very user-friendly.

So it's not surprising that Vazquez shows an almost childlike joy in talking about "the jewel" of his administration: his plan to put a laptop computer into the hands of every Uruguayan child.

La política estadounidense hacia América Latina adolece de la falta de experiencia en los altos mandos. Ni el Presidente Obama ni el Vicepresidente Biden, o ninguno de los miembros del gabinete puede considerarse honestamente un latinoamericanista. Y Arturo Valenzuela, el nominado por Obama para ser secretario asistente de estado para asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental -- el principal diplomático para la región -- continúa sin ser confirmado, víctima de maniobras políticas baratas por parte de un senador republicano.