TABLE OF CONTENTS FREE TRADE • How Free Trade Can Help Solve the Energy Crisis POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS • Felipe Calderon's Daunting To-Do List for Mexico DEMOCRACIES • 2009 will be Last Lap for Lula • Mexico Losing Drug War & Mexico Appears Lost • American Kidnappings Surge at U.S.-Mex Border ECONOMIC GROWTH • When Chocolate Is a Way of Life • Brazil is Pumped up over Offshore Oil Field • Brazil Becomes a Global Power • Brazil Becomes the New Food Superpower • Wanted: Skilled Workers for a Growing Brazil • Brazil Eclipses Venezuela ENVIRONMENT • Ways of Ancient Mexico Reviving Barren Lands ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS • The Maya World Lives on in Jaina, in Miniature • Olmec • Portal to Mythical Mayan Underworld Found • First Humans in America TRAVEL • Mexican Wines Make Comeback in Land of Tequila RETIREMENT IN LATIN AMERICA • Many USA Americans Retiring in Latin America

WRITERS • Armed With Pen, Ready to Save Incas’ Tongue • Chileans Embrace Pablo Neruda at 100 • Out of the Slums of Rio, Paulo Lins Finds Fame OTHER HEADLINES • Mexico Exports Its Drug Wars to Guatemala • In Cuba, Pinning Hopes on Obama • Food Prices Soar, Brazil & Argentina Differ • Brazil Grows as Larger Economies Struggle • Clouds Gather again over Argentina • PEMEX, Trying to Reform but Going No Where • Troubling Economic Signs in Mexico • Brazil Discovers Oil Field Can Be a Political Tool • Considered Invincible, Chávez Takes a Hit • Mexico Votes on National Oil Industry • Drug Addiction Soars in Mexico • Mexican Professionals & Businesses Flee Mexico • Mexico’s War Against Drugs Kills Its Police • Drug Massacre Leaves Mexican Town Terrorized • Chávez Decree Tightens Hold on Intelligence • Mexican Industry Shaking in its Boots • Mexico Drug War Escalates • Monterrey, Mexico Is Invaded by Drug Violence • Mexico's Journalists Feel Heavy Hand of Violence • Police Corruption Undermines MX's War on Drugs • Crime, Unrest Hurting Tourism in Mexico • Mexico City One of Dangerous World Cities