A moderate leftist president seeks a new way to rule a traditionally polarized country, where moderate options have often failed.

The president-elect is expected to maintain pro-business and pro-free trade policies while ramping up the fight against crime and narcotics trafficking.

Laura Chinchilla, hand-picked successor of President Óscar Arias, won the February 7 election. She will be the first woman to serve as Costa Rica's president.

After sustaining losses in Mexico's 2009 midterm elections and with 12 governorships up for grabs this year, the National Action Party and the Party of the Democratic Revolution could build an unlikely alliance against the Institutional Revolutionary Party ahead of the 2012 presidential vote.

AS/COA's first conference in Madrid explored Spain's strong cultural ties and significant investment relations with Latin America and the United States. Speakers included U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela and Ibero-American General Secretariat Enrique Iglesias.

Seven months after the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya, Honduras could turn the page on a protracted political crisis with the January 27 inauguration of Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo.

The Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts could have an impact on U.S. policy in Latin America, writes COA's Eric Farnsworth. He adds that "an administration that has shown little appetite for pending trade agreements with Colombia and Panama, for example, will not likely decide that now is a good time to take action."