All Latin America Monitor

The NBA drew 19,000 people to a game in Mexico City last night, as the US basketball league seeks to broaden its international appeal.

Rio de Janeiro's military police announced its fifth change in command in seven years. The security institution has been plagued by challenges including controlling troops during 2013 street demonstrations.

Mexico's attorney general ended a press conference last week about the 43 missing students by declaring that exasperated line, fueling outrage at the government's handling of the case – and launching a new hashtag on social media, #YaMeCansé.

A recent Senate resolution calls on Bolivia's attorney general to suspend the 300 public prosecutors who have been formally accused of corruption or some other offense.

Four new suspects in the case of 43 missing college students pointed Mexican authorities toward a mass grave this week. A month after the students' disappearance, families still have no answers.

Bolivia borders Brazil, the second biggest consumer of illegal drugs in the world; Peru, the world's top producer of cocaine; and Paraguay, South America's primary producer of marijuana. 

The US is the biggest financial donor to Ebola-infected countries in West Africa. But the largest number of healthcare workers deployed in the field hail from an island nation with a cash-strapped communist government.

Forty-three students disappeared late last month after a confrontation with police. Many fear that Mexico's grim record of impunity will thwart an investigation into their fate. 

If the newly discovered burial site holds the remains of the 43 students missing after a confrontation with police last weekend, this would be the nation's worst known massacre since President Peña Nieto took office.

Brazilians head to the polls Sunday to vote for their next president. Marina Silva raised hopes for reform when she entered the race, but her flip-flopping on issues like gay rights has many flocking back to the ruling Worker's Party.

Hector Beltran Leyva was more adept and more connected than most pursuing him imagined. He reconstituted his family's criminal group, working his business and political contacts and operating in some of the least violent places behind his inconspicuous cover.

An Argentine judge stepped down from prosecuting a criminal group with ties to national security forces this week after an incriminating photo emerged. How the justice precedes from here could set an important precedent for the nation's ability to go after organized crime.

A candidate in next month's presidential election controversially said he would use registries of marijuana buyers and sellers in Uruguay – where the substance is state-regulated – for drug rehabilitation purposes. That could dissuade users from registering with the state in the first place, critics say.

Speakers from Latin America hit on global and regional themes, and scored some diplomatic points. Domestic politics shaped many speeches at the UN General Assembly, which continues today in New York.

Brazilians go to the polls Oct. 5 to elect their next president, and no candidate is safe. From political corruption to lagging public services, voters may not cast their ballots with salient topics – like the faltering economy – in mind. 

In recent weeks, citizens in El Salvador and Guatemala have protested efforts by foreign countries and companies to require the nations to abide by international treaties, despite local objections. 

Reports by Esquire Mexico and the Associated Press have painted a very different picture of a June incident that killed 22 people. 

A small isthmus connects the skirts of two volcanos to form Ometepe Island, one of the Western Hemisphere’s emerging adventure destinations. President Ortega's plan to challenge the Panama Canal would cut across Lake Nicaragua, just south of the island.

Two young Brazilians from some of Rio's poorest favelas say their community reporting connects Brazilians with the realities of living in challenging communities, and brings global attention to poverty and inequality. They recently traveled to New York on a youth journalism exchange program.

President Maduro's changes to his cabinet did little to address pressing problems like the economy - and he may have increased the challenges facing his country.