AS/COA Online provides a guide to help understand the tight race between Keiko Fujimori and Ollanta Humala.

"These reforms—if implemented as President Correa has promised—will vest the executive with a troubling degree of discretionary power over two areas key for democratic stability," says AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini of the Ecuadorean referendum that would give the president increased control over the media and judiciary.

Nearly two years after Honduran head of state Manuel Zelaya was forced into exile, a deal signed with current President Porfirio Lobo allows for the ousted leader's homecoming and the country's return to the OAS.

"Guatemala is on the brink." writes COA's Eric Farnsworth for Poder360. "A multinational donor strategy designed to lock in policy, no matter who the next president is, would be the most promising place to begin."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives snatched up a parliamentary majority during Canada’s May 2 election. The National Democratic Party cruised to second, winning the role of official opposition for the first time.

The Cuban Communist Party's Sixth Congress, held on April 16, was "a big deal in the sense that it did confirm a number of economic reforms, but politically it mounted to nothing," says AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini on Business News Network's Headline.

Nationalist Ollanta Humala won Peru's April 10 election, with conservative Keiko Fujimori taking second place. The two candidates will face each other in a June 5 runoff.