Ecuador’s principal foreign-policy objectives have included defense of the national territory from external aggression and internal subversion; support for the objectives of the United Nations and the Organization of American States; and defense of its claim to 200 miles of territorial and fisheries jurisdictions off its coast; and revision of the 1942 Protocol of Peace, Friendship, and Boundaries which ended, at least officially, open warfare between Peru and Ecuador over a territorial dispute.

Ecuador and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations in 1969, but it was not until 1972, when Ecuador joined OPEC, that the Soviets showed much interest in Ecuador. By the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union maintained an embassy in Quito rivaling in importance that of the United States.

Ecuador’s membership in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the 1970s and 1980s allowed some Ecuadorian leaders to exercise somewhat greater foreign policy autonomy. Ecuador recently established diplomatic relations with Botswana on the ‘ambassor’ level. Both sides signed a communique noting that the formal relations between the two countries will promote their ‘mutual understanding and strengthen the friendship and cooperation between their people’.

On the one hand, dam construction plays a critical role in the government's large-scale infrastructure initiative called the Program to Accelerate Growth (P.A.C.). The P.A.C. is a multi-year public works program designed to advance economic development by promoting incentives for infrastructure expansion, including building large dams in the Amazon.

On the other hand, the president must confront the reality that the mega-projects in the Amazon could cause enormous and irreversible environmental and social impacts, and that they face considerable obstacles under Brazil's demanding environmental laws.

The hot-button issue is the plan to build two large dams at the Santo Antônio and Jirau rapids on the Madeira River in the Amazonian state of Rondônia. The projects would dam the Amazon's principal tributary, causing dramatic changes to the riverine ecology and affecting thousands of families who depend on the river for income, nutrition, and agriculture.

With a combined generating capacity of 6,450megawatts, government energy planners insist the Madeira dams are essential to avoiding blackouts in the next decade. Yet following more than two years of analysis, Brazil's environmental agency, IBAMA, recently issued a finding that it cannot give the go-ahead for the controversial project, citing insufficient information with which to make a decision.

The Brazilian electric sector has launched a torrent of criticism against the environment minister, claiming that IBAMA is holding up Brazil's development. The project's effects on Bolivia could eventually block the project from moving ahead. Brazilian government officials (other than IBAMA) have tried to ignore the fact that for Brazil to build a dam that floods the territory of a neighboring country would require negotiating a complex set of treaties, in the absence of which Brazil would be guilty of violating international law.

In addition to serious questions regarding the project's environmental feasibility, Brazil may have trouble attracting sufficient private investment in the project due to questions about its economic viability. Originally proposed as a source of cheap energy for the national grid, the project's budget continues to grow. The latest estimate by the Brazilian Electrical Agency, Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica (ANEEL), sets the cost for the Santo Antônio and Jirau dams at $13.2 billion, not including the additional cost—estimated by the government at up to $7.5 billion—of constructing 2,400 kilometers of transmission lines to connect with the central electricity grid.

It also doesn't include the costs of navigation locks, and the costs of building upstream dams to flood a series of rapids, making it possible for barges to travel from the mouth of the Amazon to the upper stretches of the Madeira's tributaries. President Lula faces a major dilemma with these dams plan and so far has responded with frustration and cynicism.

Calderon is now firmly installed as the president of Mexico, after having survived Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's strong post-electoral challenge. He has shown that he is ready to tackle his country's major problems, which are organized crime and gross impunity. In reality, he is having a tough time.

Drug trafficking overpoweringly is the prevailing social problem throughout the country, particularly along the border with the US. In spite of lengthy declarations by government officials in Mexico City and Washington, and their insistence that important battles are being won against drug trafficking, criminal organizations like the Tijuana cartel continue to thrive, ruling over whole sections of the Mexican countryside.

The drug cartels continue to rule with no sure sign of their power decreasing anytime soon. Looking over a long history of disappointment and failure of the government in controlling this, it is unlikely to save for episodic and criminal activities are likely to decrease.

To a great extent this is due to Mexico's unrefined corruption and the fact that the nation's institutions are not strong enough to stand up to threats, bribes, unremitting violence, and civic rectitude, when upward of 50 billions of tainted dollars are in play. During the US President G. Bush’s two day stopover in Mexico in recent past, he wasted no time in praising the accomplishments of the Calderon administration in combating drug trafficking.

Declarations made by Bush and Calderon should be seen as symbolic more than anything else. Both leaders likely realize that whatever initiatives taken to stop drug trafficking from Mexico into the US, including the recent operations by Mexican security forces as part of Calderon's offensive on organized crime, have not succeeded to any marked degree in changing the course of the drug war in Mexico.

Teachers are generally responsible to create future citizens and leaders but needs to step up and protest the injustice as well, and that’s exactly what, these teachers have done. The protesters set up squatter camps downtown and vowed to remain until their demands are met. Led by the National Education Workers Coordinating Committee, the teachers carried posters condemning the reforms to the Social Security Institute for State Employees Act (ISSSTE), approved in late March.

State governor Ulises Ruiz told in a press conference that his administration would spare no effort in seeking a dialogue with the protesters before considering the use of force. Mexico's Interior Ministry now needs to step up for negotiations. The action was reminiscent of last year's five-month-long takeover of the city that ended in October when federal police dislodged protesters in one of Mexico's worst chapters of political unrest in recent years.

The government was forced to meet their demand, but only partially. Neither the protesters' numbers nor their tactics compared to the events of 2006, when demonstrators hijacked and burned buses to create roadblocks and chased police out of the city.

According to the report, cultivation of coca grew eight percent in Bolivia and seven percent in Peru but fell in Colombia by nine percent; which looked at cultivation in the Andes, the main cocaine-producing region in the world. A total 156,900 hectares were used to grow the plant last year in the region, down from 159,600 in 2005 a 2% drop – the report concluded.

On the whole, demand for cocaine has remained steady throughout the world, with a slight increase in Europe offset by a decline in the US. Even, since 2000, coca cultivation in the Andean region has fallen by almost 30 percent to 158,000 hectares. This is a dramatic decline, and a signal that governments and farmers are committed to eliminating drug cultivation.

Though in the Andean region, the struggle is still on between, on one side governments and citizens committed to legitimate industry and prosperity, and on the other side, narco-traffickers intent on preserving the status quo. Despite observing a decreasing tendency, Colombia is a leading producer of coca and much of the country's coca is grown by poor farmers because it generates more income than any other crop.

According to the director of Amazon Institute of Scientific Investigation, 1.8 million hectares of rainforest in Colombia have been destroyed to make room for drug plantations. Government has long battled a cocaine-fueled insurgency in its remote regions. In an effort to destroy the rebels' chief source of income, the Colombian government has targeted coca fields with aerial spraying of herbicides.

Coca provides the key ingredient in cocaine and its eradication is a fundamental part of the US-backed war on drugs. But despite a lower area of cultivation and efforts by local law enforcement agencies to destroy clandestine laboratories and seize merchandise, Colombia remains the world's biggest coca grower and is responsible for 62 percent of the world's supply of cocaine. Reducing coca cultivation requires tackling other aspects of the drug trade, including cutting supply and demand and halting trafficking. Measures taken in Peru to tackle coca production paid off.

All Andean countries require greater support for development assistance that can generate growth and create brighter prospects for communities at the beginning of the supply chain. While the coca plant can be found throughout most of Latin America, varieties containing the cocaine alkaloid are cultivated and converted primarily in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. While methods of cultivating the coca plant are similar in many ways throughout Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, there are differences in techniques because of terrain, tradition, and other factors.

However, Chile's Michelle Bachelet and Peru's Alan García over the years established a positive diplomatic relationship and it is very unlikely any hostilities will break out because of the dispute.

Peru claims at least 38,000 square km of sea from Chile at the Concordia coastal site. While Peru does not acknowledge that there is a boundary established, Chile states that the maritime border was set in agreements in 1952 and 1954. The wordings of the agreements were too vague.

In 2005, the Peruvian Congress unilaterally approved a new law which modified the sea limit with Chile. Peru's position was that the border has never been fully demarcated, but Chile disagreed to this. Chile also expressed its concern about the installation of a United States military base in Peru.

Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile assumed a two-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2003 and is an active member of the UN family of agencies, serving as a member of the Commission on Human Rights and participating in UN peacekeeping activities. Ties between the two countries were strained back in 1995 after Chile's alleged arms sale to Ecuador when it was at war with Peru.

Chile all through denied the allegations, saying it just sent ammunitions to Ecuador according to bilateral negotiations before the war. The differences were triumph over with the apologies of the Chilean government after wards. Peruvian President informed his Chilean counterpart about the move on taking the maritime dispute to the International court. Chile seems to be okay with it.

The objects were seized by the US officials in south Florida after they arrested Ugo Bagnato, an Italian immigrant, specialized in the purchase and sale of rare artifacts. Some of the items that were returned included a ceramic vessel dated over 3,500 years old, and a royal cape enclosed in fire-red, yellow, sea blue and green macaw and parrot feathers.

Ugo Bagnato was investigated after Broward County law enforcement officials tipped off federal authorities after an informant came across a regal cape decorated in multi-colored feathers.

A specialist was brought in from a university to assist officials identify the pieces which were disrespectfully packed in a number of boxes. Authorities believe the artifacts were dug up from graves in Peru by looters and then illegally taken from the country and sold to black market dealers in the US. The United States and Peru on 18 June, agreed to extend for an additional five years the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) restricting pre-Columbian archaeological material and ethnological colonial material from importation into the United States without an export permit issued by Peru.

The rich accomplishments of ancient Peruvians make the cultures of the Andean region among the most important in the development of human civilizations of antiquity and Mesoamerica. Their achievements include the construction of city complexes; advances in metal alloy technologies; and the production of unequaled textiles and jewelry, as well as unique polychrome ceramic vessels and effigies.

Over time, the systematic looting of archaeological sites in Peru and the removal of ethnological material important to the religious and social mores of indigenous populations has caused irreparable loss to history and traditional practices. Back in 1997, Canada gave back 83 items to Peru include painted ceramic vessels, textiles and feathered objects, some dating back as far as the 5th century A.D. The objects were intercepted and seized by Revenue Canada customs officers because their importation into Canada was in violation of the Customs Act and the Cultural Property Export and Import Act.

Bagnato, served a 17 month federal prison sentence and is now in custody awaiting deportation back to Italy.

The main target of the operation codenamed ‘Strike’ was uncontrolled crimes in the state such as robbery and murder. Some 18,000 police officers participated in the operation, in which at least 103 kg of drugs and 135 weapons were seized, and 700 stolen vehicles were recovered. Police also dismantled a network of private investigators that allegedly bribed local telephone operators and offered the taped materials to their clients.

A gang of three people charged with frauds in the banking system were also arrested. Police recovered 2,000 cloned bankcards from their possession. Among those arrested, were three suspects charged with the robbery of a bank in February2007 in which a 13-year-old girl was shot during the confrontation between the robbers and security guards. Among them over 1,400 who were wanted by the courts, common criminals and police criminals, 160 of them were minors. Not so surprisingly, authorities detained a fire department soldier, a corporal from the military police air division and a bank guard among the criminals.

Operation ‘Strike’ took place simultaneously in 645 municipalities.

In February 2007, President Rafael Correa backed the plan and signed the bill which is also supported by the Democratic Left Alliance Network. But the bill was opposed by deputies from the Christian Socialists, the Democratic Network and the opposition Renewed National Institutional Action Party (Prian).

If the bill is passed, the new province will be made up of the counties of Libertad, Salinas and Santa Elena, who believe that they are not receiving their due share of benefits from Las Guayas province. Last week, hundreds of Santa Elena residents rallied outside the legislature house, chanting and shouting in favor of becoming a province.

Some 6000 people arrived in the capital Quito to back the plan.

The sustained economic growth saw the employment figures rise, which will help drive the property market and attract larger numbers of foreign investors in the months to come. International Monetary Fund figures show that financial market conditions in Brazil are currently the best in many years. Despite the successes, vulnerabilities and challenges remain in Brazilian economy. For example, public debt in the country is still high and sensitive to global financial conditions.

Brazil has a free market and export-oriented economy. Measured in purchasing power parity, its Gross Domestic Product surpassed a trillion dollars, making it the ninth largest economy in the world and the largest in Latin America. The country’s scientific and technological development is argued to be attractive to foreign direct investment, which has averaged S$ 20 billion per year the last years, compared to only US$ 2 billion/year last decade, thus showing a remarkable growth. The agricultural sector, has also been remarkably dynamic.

For the last two decades, this sector kept Brazil amongst the most highly productive countries in areas related to the rural sector. The Brazilian Census Bureau, recently adjusted its methodology for measuring GDP growth to better reflect activity in the informal sector and the growing importance of technology and financial services in the economy, among other factors. An industrial power with the largest population in Latin America and the Caribbean, Brazil has made big strides in reducing social and economic inequality, which are both cause and consequence of the poverty that continues to afflict millions of people.

The country also rose to the challenge posed by the single biggest health threat in the modern world, pioneering an anti-HIV/AIDS strategy that became an international model by guaranteeing universal access to retroviral medication.

Despite Brazil's significant recent advances, the poorest one-fifth of Brazil's 182 million people account for only a 2.4% share of the national income. Brazil is second only to South Africa in a world ranking of income inequality. Other challenges include creating jobs and improving human capital stock and labour markets, continuing and sharing benefits of agricultural growth, and reconciling development and environment in the Amazon. Brazil's impressive economic achievements over the last four / five years reflect the

Brazilian authorities' continued pursuit of strong macroeconomic policies and steady progress with structural reforms; and the cautious monetary policy kept the inflation within the target band despite few supply shocks.