BASPORTS.COM | LATIN AMERICAN NEWS

1. U.S. Turns Its Focus on Drug Smuggling in Honduras

Drawing on lessons from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military has established outposts to join Honduran forces against narcotics barons who use the country as a cocaine transit hub.

2. Brazil’s Rush to Develop Hydroelectric Power Brings Unrest

Brazil is a leader among South American nations rushing to build hydroelectric dams in the Amazon, but workers demanding better pay are disrupting the projects.

3. Riff: Hugo Chávez’s Totally Bizarre Talk Show

Hugo Chávez’s long-running, totally bizarre talk show, “Aló Presidente,” is both a throwback to an earlier era and a completely different kind of reality TV.

4. The Saturday Profile: Angélica Moreno, an Entrepreneur at Talavera Pottery’s Vanguard

Angélica Moreno is celebrated in Mexico for being the first to market a form of this region’s traditional handmade Talavera pottery that features contemporary high-end design.

5. World Briefing | The Americas: Jamal Yousef Pleads Guilty in FARC Conspiracy Case

Jamal Yousef, a former member of the Syrian military pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court in Manhattan to conspiracy to provide material support to a Colombian terrorist organization.

6. World Briefing | The Americas: Mexico: 23 Bodies Discovered

Twenty-three bodies, nine of them hanging from a bridge and the rest decapitated and found in a van, were discovered Friday in Nuevo Laredo, officials said.

7. Brazil Sending Troops to Guard Amazon Borders

In an effort to protect its wealth of resources, Brazil is increasing its military presence along the Amazon borders near Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana.

8. Mexico Photographers Found Dead in Veracruz State

Days after the murder of a magazine reporter, the bodies of three photojournalists were found dismembered Thursday in the eastern state of Veracruz.

9. Mexico Antitrust Agency Drops Telcel’s $925 Million Fine

Telcel, a unit of América Móvil, settled a dispute with Mexico’s antitrust commission, which agreed to drop a $925 million fine.

10. World Briefing | The Americas: Honduras: Neglect Cited in Prison Fire

A commission delegation said Wednesday that the the Feb. 14 fire that killed 361 people at the Comayagua national prison was the result of decades of neglect.

11. Havana Journal: Soccer Gains in Cuba, Where Baseball Is King

Even with a less storied past than baseball, which has long been considered as Cuban as hand-rolled cigars, soccer has made inroads in Cuba in recent years.

12. Senators Reject Claim That Torture Helped Hunt for Bin Laden

The Democratic senators who lead two Senate committees rebutted a former C.I.A. official’s defense of the Bush administration interrogation program.

13. Memo From Mexico: In Mexico Presidential Race, a Bruising Battle Online

A law passed in 2007 that was intended to keep campaigning orderly and clean has been undercut by the unpredictable and uncontrollable Web.

14. YPF Nationalization Draws Praise in Argentina

The takeover caused an uproar outside the country, but many Argentines supported the move, and the economy is still projected to grow, albeit more slowly.

15. U.S. Is Seeing Positive Signs From Chinese

China’s changing positions on Iran, Syria and North Korea, among others, are hailed as steps toward unity among the world’s major powers, but its motives are a mystery.

16. Secret Service Employee’s Plea in Colombia Proved True

Officials determined that a Secret Service employee had been wrongly linked to the prostitution case because a hotel guest had given an incorrect room number.

17. World Briefing | The Americas: Brazil: Panetta Pushes Boeing

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta used a speech in Rio De Janeiro to focus on smoothing a sometimes thorny relationship and promoting American weapons sales.

18. Panetta Presses Brazil to Buy Boeing Fighters

Brazil is deciding whether to buy 36 fighter jets worth about $4 billion in a competition between Boeing in the United States, Dassault Aviation in France and Saab in Sweden.

19. Cartagena Journal: Cartagena’s Prostitutes Perplexed by Global Glare

Cartagenans have struggled to come to terms with the commotion over the Secret Service scandal, but are also feeling anger and wounded national pride over an agent’s behavior.

20. Wal-Mart’s Permits to Be Reviewed by Mexico

The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón decided Wednesday to look into bribery payments after pressure from lawmakers and good government groups.

21. With Wal-Mart Bribery Case, More Attention on a Law

The bribery allegations surrounding Wal-Mart cast into relief the transformation of the once-obscure Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law enacted in 1977 that was rarely enforced.

22. | The Americas: Venezuela: Chávez Appears on TV

President Hugo Chávez appeared on television for the first time in 10 days on Tuesday, to show supporters that he remained vigorous despite his cancer treatment in Cuba.

23. World Briefing | The Americas: Brazil: Political Reporter Shot to Death

Décio Sá, a crusading reporter who was shot and killed Monday night, was probably singled out because of his work, colleagues said Tuesday.

24. | The Americas: Chile: Pinochet’s Will to Be Opened

Chilean officials will open the last will and testament of Gen. Augusto Pinochet on Wednesday, a crucial step in determining just how large his fortune was.

25. | The Americas: Haiti: Rogue Force Refuses to Disband

A rogue band of armed men pushing for the revival of Haiti’s military are refusing to disband and leave old military bases, the leaders of the group said Tuesday.

26. At Wal-Mart in Mexico, a Bribe Inquiry Silenced

Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico, top Wal-Mart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out wrongdoing, an examination by The New York Times found.

27. Venezuela Faces Shortages in Grocery Staples

Staples like milk, meat and toilet paper can be hard to find in Venezuela, and many blame the government’s price-control policies.

28. Colombian Escort Speaks About Secret Service Scandal

A dispute over what a Secret Service agent owed a Colombian woman working as a high-priced escort led to a scandal that has now prompted the exit of three employees from the agency.

29. Women Take the Reins of Power as Brazil’s Energy Industry Expands

Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, has made it her priority to secure leadership positions for women.

30. U.S. Alert as China’s Cash Buys Inroads in Caribbean

China’s economic might has rolled up to America’s doorstep, with loans from state banks, investments by companies and outright gifts from the government.

31. High in Chilean Desert, a Huge Astronomy Project

High in the Chilean desert, scientists have installed one of the world’s largest ground-based astronomical projects to look for clues to the origins of the universe.

32. Political Memo: Mexico’s Presidential Race Could Be Pivotal

Still recovering from decades of single-party rule and facing many challenges, Mexico has scant faith that any of the candidates will confront its problems.

33. Fatal Car Crash in Brazil Spotlights Class Division

The death of a cyclist in a car accident involving Thor Batista, the 20-year-old son of Brazil’s richest man, has awakened a debate over wealth, influence and traffic deaths.

34. Paraguay’s Chaco Forest Being Cleared by Ranchers

Huge sections of the Chaco forest are being razed by local Mennonite farmers and Brazilian cattle ranchers amid a surge in the global demand for beef.

35. In Mexico, a Kidnapping Ignored as Gang Crimes Go Unpunished

Six years into a mostly military assault on drug cartels, impunity has worsened, and justice is harder to find.

36. In Latin America, Prisons Condemned to Crisis

A Honduran fire and a Mexican massacre have drawn new attention to dangerous conditions in Latin American prisons, which have outlasted scrutiny before.

37. Memo From Paraguay: In Paraguay, Indigenous Language With Unique Staying Power

Unusual features of Paraguay’s history and politics mean that Guaraní is widely spoken, despite a relatively small indigenous population.

38. The Saturday Profile: Bernardo Paz’s Inhotim Is Vast Garden of Art

Bernardo Paz, a mining magnate, employs 1,000 people at Inhotim, his 5,000-acre complex of contemporary art and exotic gardens.

39. Brazil Faces Obstacles in Preparations for Rio Olympics

Ambitious development plans for the 2016 Summer Olympics, as well as the 2014 soccer World Cup, involve large-scale evictions from numerous slums, whose residents are refusing to leave.

40. Cochrane Journal: In Patagonia, Caught Between Visions of the Future

Within eyeshot of a proposed dam project near Cochrane, Chile, is the entrance to a different view of the region’s destiny: the 660,000-acre Patagonia National Park.

41. Havana Journal: Real Estate Fever Spreads in Cuba

Cubans are injecting money into real estate, spurred by government measures to stimulate construction and a new law that allows property trades for the first time in 50 years.

42. Mexico Drug War Bloodies Areas Thought Safe

The drug carnage is spreading to Mexico’s interior and south, a trend believed to be linked to a widening turf war between the country’s two biggest criminal organizations.

43. Latin America Sees Own Past in West’s Economic Crises

After years of hearing lectures on fiscal prudence from the West, many in Latin America are left with bewilderment, and even a little schadenfreude, at the West’s problems.

44. Amid Brazil’s Rush to Develop, Workers Resist

As the country moves to tap one of the world’s last great reserves of hydroelectric power, the Amazon basin, strikes and worker uprisings at the biggest projects are producing delays and cost overruns.

45. WORLD: Damming the Amazon

Brazil is planning to build at least 20 hydroelectric dams in the Amazon region by 2020, but indigenous residents say they are threatened and so is the rainforest.

46. Honduras Becomes the Focal Point in America’s Drug War

The United States military has brought lessons from the past decade of conflict to the drug war, constructing remote base camps with little public notice but with the support of the Honduran government.

47. WORLD: TimesCast | Soccer Scores in Cuba

Soccer has been gaining popularity in Cuba, where baseball is king.

48. Life Inside a Brothel in Cartagena

Though the recent scandal involving American Secret Service agents has cast new scrutiny on prostitution in Colombia, life in the brothels goes on as it always has.

49. The Lede Blog: Argentina Tweaks Britain With Olympic Ad Shot Secretly in Falklands

Britain's defense minister demanded an apology from the Argentine government on Friday for a "provocative" television commercial tied to the London Olympics that restates Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands.

50. The Lede Blog: Discovery Shuttle Makes Final Flight

Before being permanently brought down to Earth, the space shuttle Discovery hitched a final ride to its new home at the Smithsonian on the back of a 747.

51. The Lede Blog: Coast Guard Fires Cannon on Unmanned Japanese Ship Set Adrift by Tsunami

The United States Coast Guard began its operation Thursday afternoon to sink a Japanese vessel that was set adrift by the 2012 earthquake and tsunami.

52. The Female Factor: Latin America Opens Up to Equality

The Latin America-Caribbean region has more female heads of state and heads of government than any other area and a higher percentage of female members of parliament.

53. News Analysis: Chen Guangcheng’s Final Escape?

Chen Guangcheng has escaped from Chinese government detention before — and he was severely punished. But this time, the world is watching.

54. News Analysis: North Korea’s Fizzling Missiles

Repeated failure to launch a nuclear missile could have sexual overtones.