A U.S.-funded naval base has been a source of debate in the Dominican Republic at a time when the country faces mounting drug-trafficking woes.

With Brazil poised to become one of the world’s top petroleum producers, a sugar-production slump and rising biofuel prices have left its ethanol industry is in an uphill battle against corn-based imports and an ever-growing gas sector.

A new law years in the making will provide compensation and land to victims of Colombia’s protracted armed conflict. The Santos administration, which lobbied for the bill’s passage, rallied support for the law after it went into effect in 2012.