Many hope an agreement on the TPP will provide a much-needed boost to a still prostrate global economy, but what is being widely hailed as profound progress in the evolution of trade integration globally is having the opposite effect in Latin America.

Now that Venezuela's larger-than-life Hugo Chávez has vanished from the political landscape, what does the future hold for South America?

Efforts to prohibit teen smoking throughout the region escalates the conflict between governments who seek to legislate behavior and businesses and some politicians who view tobacco as a question of economics.

Brazil is nearing the end of Lula's second term and must decide whether it wants to continue to pursue a more independent foreign policy which could ultimately risk Washington's ire.

Brazil is impressive to international observers for its economic growth, low inflation, and firmly established democratic institutions. But the question remains: what kind role in the world does Brazil want to play?

What international association brings together 18 countries, straddling three continents thousands of miles apart, united solely by their sharing of a common body of water?