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Geography, demographics, economy, history, and government
- Countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Puerto Rico, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela
- Total population: 524m
- Total area:
- Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and some 400 indigenous languages
- Religions: Predominantly Christian (Catholic)
Sources
- World Bank | Regional Brief - Latin America and Caribbean
- World Bank | Global Economic Prospects 2001 Report - Latin America and Caribbean
- OneWorld.net | regional database - Latin America & Caribbean - news articles selected from around the world
- Political Resources | - Central America-Caribbean
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(Click on map to go to surrounding locations)
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Portals, indexes, guides, searchers, phone directories
- Latindex.com
- LatinWorld
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Executive, legislature, judiciary, ministries, departments, agencies, and commissions
- Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPA) (Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe) (Santiago, Chile) - one
of five regional commissions of the United Nations, founded for the purposes of contributing to the economic development of
Latin America, coordinating actions directed towards this end, reinforcing economic relationships among the countries and with
the other nations of the world, and promotiing the region's social development
- Federation of Central American Local Governments (FEMICA) (Federación de Municipios del Istmo Centroamericano)
(Guatemala City, Guatemala) - regional non-profit organization of Central American municipalities, associations, unions, leagues
and federations, national, regional, departmental or provincial,
- Free Trade Area of the Americas Process (FTAA) - regional effort to unite the economies of the Americas into a single free trade
area in which barriers to trade and investment will be progressively eliminated
- Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) - organ of the Organization of American States whose purpose is to
promote cooperation among the American states to achieve their integral development and, in particular, to help eliminate
extreme poverty, in accordance with the standards of the OAS Charter, especially those relating to the economic, social,
educational, cultural, scientific and technological fields
- Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) (Comisión Interamericana para el Control del Abuso de Drogas) -
technically autonomous agency of the OAS for the multilateral evaluation of actions and cooperation to prevent and combat all
aspects of the drug problem and related crimes, based on the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity of States, shared
responsibility, and with a comprehensive and balanced approach
- Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) (Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura) (San
Jose, Costa Rica) - development agency that promotes the sustainable development of agriculture, food security and the
prosperity of rural communities in the Americas
- Latin American Economic System (SELA) (Sistema Económico Latinoamericano) (Caracas, Venezuela) - group of 28 Latin
American and Caribbean countries that promotes regional coordination with third countries or at international fora on economic
issues of common interest, encouraging cooperation among member states in support of economic and social development and
fostering articulation and convergence of the various integration schemes in place throughout the region
- Latin American Energy Organisation (OLADE) (Organización Latinoamericana de Energía) (Quito, Ecuador) - representative
organisation of the region's energy sector that aims to promote the integration and development of regional energy and to
strengthen it with new projects and activities
- Latin American Parliament (Parlamento Latinoamericano) (Sao Paulo, Brazil) - regional, permanent and unicameral
organisation, integrated by the national Parliaments of Latin America and elected democratically by means of popular suffrage,
to foment economic and social development of the Latin American community and to pursue total economic, political, social
and cultural integration
- Mercosur Organismo (Common Market of the South) - South American trading bloc, formed by the Treaty of Asunción signed by
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay in 1991 and joined later by Chile and Bolivia
- Organization of American States (OAS) (Washington, DC) ) - plays a central role in working toward the goals shared by the
countries of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean through the Summit of the Americas process, including
strengthening freedom of speech and thought as a basic human right, promoting greater participation by civil society in
decision-making at all levels of government, improving cooperation to address the problem of illegal drugs, and supporting the
process to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas
- Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (Washington, DC) - international public health agency whose mission is to
strengthen national and local health systems and improve the health of the peoples of the Americas, in collaboration with
Ministries of Health, other government and international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, universities, social security
agencies, community groups, and many others
- Summit of the Americas (Washington, DC) - brings together the Heads of State and Government of the Western Hemisphere to
discuss common concerns, seek solutions and develop a shared vision for their future development of the region, be it
economic, social or political in nature
- Unit for the Promotion of Democracy (UPD) (Washington, DC) - principal body within the General Secretariat of the OAS
responsible for activities in support of democratic consolidation in the member states
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Human rights & civil liberties, humanitarian aid, political parties, activism, environment, and labour
- Directories
- Cooperacció - non-government development organisation of alternative peace movements in the South
- LaNeta - a civil organisation created in 1991 to provide communications to non-government organisations (NGOs)
- and other non-profit organisations
- Charities & trusts
- Casa Alianza (Covenant House Latin America) (San José, Costa Rica) - independent, non profit organisation dedicated to the
rehabilitation and defense of street children in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua
- Our Little Brothers and Sisters (OLBS) (Alexandria, VA, USA) - humanitarian nonprofit organization, founded on Christian faith,
that serves orphaned and abandoned children in Latin America and the Caribbean, and that aims to provide shelter, food,
clothing, healthcare and education in a caring family environment based on unconditional acceptance and love
- Plan - Caribbean and Central America Regional Office (Plan ROCCA) () - invests private funds from donors and sponsors in
long-term projects in six countries, through its child-focused, community based networks, extensive partnerships with local
NGOs and technical capacity in health, education, habitat, livelihood and building relationships programs at the community,
national and regional levels
- Consumer Rights
- Consumers International - Latin America and Caribbean Office (Santiago, Chile) - features information on the concerns and
issues of consumers in Latin America and the Caribbean, along with news about the activities and proposals of consumer
organisations throughout the region and information on the programmes of Consumers International's regional office and its
impact in Latin America and the Caribbean (in Spanish, Portugese and English)
- Development & Assistance
- Latin American Association of Development Organisations (ALOP) (Asociación Latinoamericana de Organizaciones de
Promoción) (Costa Rica) - association of non-profit, non-government development organisations from 20 Latin American and
Caribbean countries, which aims to build a meeting place for its member NGOs to elaborate global and regional development
proposals, to promote the effectiveness of the NGOs in developing processes that promoted their modernization and
sustainability, and to increase dialogue and agreement between civil society organizations in the region
- Latin American Future Foundation (Fulano) (Fundación Futuro Latinoamerica) (Quito, Ecuador) - non-profit, non-governmental
organisation that aims to promote the move towards sustainable development in Latin America through the processes of
reflection and dialogue to build a diverse consensus
- North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) (New York, NY) - independent non-profit organization which provides
policy makers, analysts, academics, organizers, journalists and religious and community groups with information on major
trends in Latin America and its relations with the United States
- Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) (Washington, DC) - invests in the people of Latin America and the Caribbean,
empowering them to improve their lives by giving them the means to become self- sufficient
- Program of Urban Management, Regional Coordination for Latin America and the Caribbean (PGU-ALC) (Programa de Gestión
Urbana, Coordinación Regional para América Latina y el Caribe) (Quito, Ecuador) - urban information system aimed at
searching for solutions to major urban problems, via urban management practices and policies, promoting participative local
government, improving the management of the urban environments, and confronting urban poverty
- Economic Policy
- Consumers International (CI) - Latin America-Caribbean Region (Santiago, Chile) - supports, links and represents more than 260
consumer groups in almost 120 countries and agencies worldwide, striving to promote a fairer society through defending the
rights of all consumers, including poor, marginalized and disadvantaged people
- Enersol Associates (Nth Chelmsford, MA, USA) - nonprofit international development organization that uses clean solar energy
to improve people's quality of life in rural Latin America by promoting replicable models for introducing and disseminating
environmentally sound technologies that draw upon the strength of local institutional and private sector resources
- Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) Latin America (US-based, regional office in Guatemala) - provides
financial services (small loans, village banking) to the worlds poorest families so they can create their own jobs, raise household
incomes, and improve their standard of living, delivering these services through a global network of locally managed,
self-supporting institutions
- International Gender and Trade Network in Latin America (La Red Internacional de Género y Comercio) (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) -
gender advocates who actively work to promote equitable, social, and sustainable trade, utilizing research, advocacy and
economic literacy to address the specific trade issues of the Latin America region
- Environment
- Acción Ecológica (Ecological Action) (Quito, Ecuador) - 'radical' environmental organisation that promotes sustainable
development
- Deuda Ecologica (Ecological Debt) - monitors the debt accumulated by Northern industrialised nations to Third World nations
due to resource plundering, unfair trade, environmental damage, and the free use of environmental space to deposit waste, with
a particular focus on carbon debt as a consequence of greenhouse gas emissions
- EarthAction - Latin America (Santiago, Chile) - a network of more than 1,900 citizen groups in 161 countries which aims to
mobilize growing numbers of people around the world to press their governments for stronger action to solve global problems
- Ecoeduca.cl (Chile) - environmental education portal for Latin America
- Environmental Management Secretariat (EMS) for Latin America and the Caribbean (Montevideo, Uruguay) - one of seven
international secretariats managed by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, to coordinate donors in
promoting the use of best practices in environmental management within the region
- Latin American Center of Social Ecology (CLAES) (Centro Latino Americano de Ecología Social) (Montevideo, Uruguay) -
international center devoted to the study of human-human and human-environment relationships
- Latin American Network of Urban Agriculture Research (Red Aguilla) (Lima 27, Perú) - network of institutions, investigators and
promoters who work in the field of Urban Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean to unite and to articulate efforts of the
organizations that they foment Urban Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean, through actions of investigation,
communication, qualification, management, interchange and cooperation
- Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA) (Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales)
(Santiago, Chile) - advises communities in conflict to harness their management capacities in favor of their environmental rights,
pursuing environmental conflicts and developing management methodologies to investigate and disseminate aspects related to
environmental protection and civil rights
- Pan American Center for Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Sciences (CEPIS) (Centro Panamericano de Ingeniería
Sanitaria y Ciencias del Ambiente) (Lima, Peru) - specialized center for environmental technology of the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO), which cooperates with the countries of the Americas to evaluate and control environmental risk factors
that, directly or indirectly, affect the health of the population
- Promotion of Sustainable Development (IPES) (Promoción del Desarrollo Sostenible) (Lima, Peru) - promotes the initiation of
permanent, profitable and quality assured projects (economically, socially and environmentally) in pursuit of sustainable
development, focussing on the poorer sections of the Latin American community
- Sustainable Development Network (REDESMA) (Red de Desarrollo Sostenible) (La Paz, Bolivia) - virtual community of
developmental and environmental institutions which work in governmental, non-governmental, academic and private areas of
sustainability
- Health
- Volunteers for Inter-American Development Assistance (VIDA) (Emeryville, CA, USA) - provides assistance to health institutions
and development projects that support people in need in Latin America, regardless of race, religion or politics
- Human rights
- Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) (New York) - monitors abuses against the press and promote press
- freedom around the world
- Peace & conflict resolution
- Witness for Peace (Washington, DC) - politically independent, grassroots organization committed to nonviolence and led by
faith and conscience to support peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing US policies and
corporate practices which contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Social policy
- Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) (San José, Costa Rica)
- international, independent, regional organisation created in 1957 by an initiative of UNESCO and some governments of the
region, with the objective of promoting the social sciences in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Women's issues
- Fempress (Santiago, Chile) - developed by the Latin American Institute of Transnational Studies (ILET) as a means of
information and communication that promotes greater fairness between men and women in latin America
- International Gender and Trade Network in Latin America (La Red Internacional de Género y Comercio) (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) -
gender advocates who actively work to promote equitable, social, and sustainable trade, utilizing research, advocacy and
economic literacy to address the specific trade issues of the Latin America region
- International Planned Parenthood Federation - Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF-WHR) (New York, NY) - aims to improve the
health of women throughout the Americas, ensuring access to family planning and addressing the range of sexual and
reproductive health issues that affect the integral health of women, men and adolescents
- Servicio de Noticias de la Mujer (SEM) (Women's News Service) (San José, Costa Rica) - international news agency staffed by
women journalists from all over Latin America who write news articles and features with a gender perspective, in order to give
women greater visibility and present a more positive image of them in the mass media
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Education, health & public safety, religion, women, children & youth, and associations & societies
- Latin America and Caribbean Regional Health Sector Reform Initiative (LACHSR) (Washington, DC) - project of the Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO) in support of national reform processes to promote more effective basic health services,
using a participatory approach and working in partnership with key decision-makers in the region to build capacity to access
health sector problems and to design, implement and monitor reforms
- Inter-American Childrens's Institute (IIN) (Instituto Interamericano del Niño) (Montevideo, Uruguay) - specialized organization of
the OAS, responsible for promoting improvement to, and respect for the rights of children
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Ethnicity, language, the arts, history & heritage, performance, costume, and literature
- Americas Society - Council of the Americas (New York, NY) - promotes understanding of the politics and cultures of the
Western Hemisphere, providing art exhibitions, concerts, literary readings and other activities through radio broadcasts
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Associations, competitions, leisure, and hobbies
- Sporting Associations
- Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) - one of six continental
confederations of FIFA and serves as governing body of football in the region, which is composed of 38 national associations,
from Canada in the north to Suriname in the south
- Latin American and Caribbean Masters Swimming Championship (LatyCar) (Campeonato Latinoamericano y del Caribe de
Natación Master)
- Lo Mejor Del Boxeo
- Pan American Taekwondo Union (PATU) - one of the four regional Taekwondo organizations under the World Taekwondo
Federation
- South American Football Federation (CONMEBOL) (Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol)
- Sports News
- FOX Sports Latin America (in Spanish)
- Latin America Sport - news service of the WorldNews Network
- Sobregolf.com (in Spanish)
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Guides & advice, accommodation, attractions, transport, agents, and organisers
- Guides and Travel Agents
- gotolatin.com - Latin America travel site: hotels, travel, tourism and tour reservations
- Latin American Vacation Guide - full-service Latin America vacation planners
- TerraMagica.com - quotation and reservation center for hotels, tours, transfers and programs in Latin America
- Travel Latin America - international source for independent information on business, adventure and leisure travel in Latin America
- Accommodation
- Hotel Discounts Guide - accommodation bookings for main cities in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Airlines
- Fly Latin America (San José, Costa Rica) - on-line provider of discounted flight tickets in Latin America
- BWIA International Airways (Port of Spain, Trinidad-Tobago)
- Groupo TACA International Airlines (El Salvador) - connects Central America with more than 35 cities in the United States,
Colombia and Mexico, through code-sharing alliances with Air France, American Airlines, Alianza Summa, Aeromexico and
Copa Airlines
- LLoyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB)
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Statistics, government, economy, geography, demography, and society
- CSIS Americas Program (Washington, DC) - program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies that aims to shape
policy debates and policy formulation throughout the Americas, with a strong involvement of U.S. congressional and regional
interparliamentary constituencies, a focus on young leadership development and project participation from the private sector
- Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) (University of Texas, USA) - facilitates access to Internet-based information
to, from, or about Latin America, with a target audience including people living in Latin America, as well as those around the
world who have an interest in the region
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Newspapers & magazines, journals, television & radio, publishing, and entertainment
- Inter Press Service (IPS) Latin America - news coverage focused on events and global processes affecting the economic, social
and political development of the peoples and nations of South and Central America
- Inter American Press Association (IAPA) (Miami, FL, USA) - non-profit organization dedicated to defending freedom of
expression and of the press throughout the Americas
- Mundo Latino - news and information
- Revista del Sur (Magazine of the South) (Montevideo, Uruguay)
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Resourcing, manufacturing, distribution, trade, and regulation of goods and services
- Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA) (Washington, DC) - leading advocate of increased
trade and investment between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean
- Caribbean Latin American Action (CLAA) (Washington, DC) - private, independent organization that promotes private sector-led
economic development in the Caribbean Basin and throughout the Hemisphere, aimed at facilitating trade and investment by
stimulating a constructive dialogue between the private and public sectors to improve the policy and regulatory environments for
business on both the international and local level
- Council of the Americas (New York, NY) - business organization committed to free trade and open markets throughout the
Americas, and whose programming and advocacy aim to inform, encourage, and promote free and integrated markets for the
benefit of the companies that comprise our membership, as well as of the United States and all the people of the Americas
- Latin American Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (AIGLP) (Asociación Iberoamericana de Gas Licuado del Petróleo)
(Santiago, Chile) - group of companies with scientific and technical aims dedicated to the storage, containment and distribution
of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
- Petroleum World - news and information about the Latin American energy, oil and gas industries
- Trust for the Americas (Washington, DC) - foundation that fosters partnership among corporations, foundations, governmental
bodies, and academic institutions operating in the Americas
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Banking, investment, insurance, stockmarkets, and market regulation
- Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) (St Michael, Barbados) - regional finance institution that aims to contribute to the
harmonious economic growth and development of the member countries in the Caribbean and to promote economic cooperation
and integration among them, having special and urgent regard to the needs of the less developed members of the region
- Central American Bank of Economic Integration (CABEI) (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) - financial development organization that
promotes and executes the economic integration of Central America, by means of its sectarian investment policy
- Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (Washington, DC) - established to help accelerate economic and social development in
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) (Washington, DC) - multilateral financial organization that promotes economic
development in Latin America and the Caribbean by financing small and medium-scale private companies
- Latin American Association of Development Financial Institutions (ALIDE) (Asociacion Latinoamericana de Instituciones
Financieras para el Desarrollo) (San Isidro, Peru) - international non-governmental organisation representing institutions that
finance development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which aims to promote the cohesion, strengthening and participation
of financial institutions in social and economic fields of the region
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