Central and South America

Stunning archaeological discoveries made in Brazil in recent years have upended conventional wisdom about the forests of the western Amazon.

On the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Sara Miller Llana assesses the rebuilding effort.

Farmers are enjoying high corn prices and may not even have noticed the end of the subsidy on Dec. 31 according to the agricultural economist interviewed on NPR.

Your probably heard of ecotourism -- responsible tourism to natural areas. Apocalypse tourism celebrates the the end of the world on December 21, 2012, and Mexico's tourism board has the event locked up.

Five years after Gilberto Kassab, the mayor of São Paulo, Brazil passed the "Clean City Law", banning all visual pollution around the city, both citizens and businesses are thankful.

After the earthquake, Haiti's recovery has not been in rebuilding the center city, but through decentralization and the development of farming. But even this plan, reports Randal Archibald, is fraught with challenges.

Can Honduras develop it's own Hong Kong by enabling free market "startup cities"? The sleepy city of Trujillo is selected for the country's first experiment.

Maria Fernanda Cavalcanti, a resident of Brazil, writes that folding bicycles "...have been catching the attention of urban cyclists everywhere."

Brazilian cities dominated the list compiled by AméricaEconomía. Many traditional Brazilian metropolises rose in the list, while many of its B-level cities like Campinas (20th) and Manaus (29th) were included for the first time.

In Guatemala City, Campus Tec, a single tech firm building, shows early signs of promise for the city's "Silicon Valley dream."

Americans are driving less and more efficiently, resulting in reduced gas consumption - yet prices are rising. What gives? For a nation that relies on oil imports despite surging drilling, the answer is unusual.

USA Today reports that efforts to increase cycling in Mexico City have succeeded in getting middle and upper-class residents on two wheels.

Brazil, Venezuela and Columbia have all hired a curious sort of police force to encourage pedestrians and drivers to follow the rules -- mimes, who hang out at busy intersections and make fun of bad behavior.

The City of Rio de Janeiro announced the winner of its design contest for the 2016 Olympic Park. Contestants also designed a master-planned, mixed-use neighborhood to take over the space post-Olympics.

Stación-ARquitectura Arquitectos has designed a modular home to house poor families in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Big Worm is a 2.2 mile elevated highway carving its way through South America's biggest city, carrying 80,000 vehicles a day past the bedroom windows of once elegant art deco apartment buildings.

In the dense center of Mexico City, an architect has proposed a 65-story building - straight down.

At least, according to the city's urban planners. The two-mile elevated highway is a hindrance, reports Juan Forero, to the city's modernization.

Brazil's economic boom has revitalized the five-block Rua Augusta and turned it into a "cultural blast furnace," writes Vincent Bevins for the Los Angeles Times.

New technology is allowing massive investment in oil drilling in North and South America, from Canada to Argentina. This article centers on the investment in the region's two largest economies, U.S. and Brazil, and its effect on energy geopolitics.