In Guatemala City during the weekend of October 19, 2009, vicious attacks were carried out against prison guards that left two officers dead and one wounded. Five suspects have already been detained, however, there have been at least 10 other attacks since September that has left 7 people dead and 8 wounded. It is evident that this violence will continue unless there are drastic changes made. Samuel Logan, an expert on Lain American gangs, says that this prison, which holds some of the worst criminals of their time, can be broken up into two criminal elements: drug lords that deal with large exports and street gangs that sell drugs on a local level. However, these problems exist because the drug trades that did on the outside continue once they are put into prison. The attacks are a result of finding the corrupted officers as well as the intensified rules of what privileges well-behaved inmates are able to achieve, such as cell phone use. Officials continue to try and cut down the attacks and violence that happens against prison guards.

In the article printed in the Guatemala Times published on May 21, 2009, the Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala calls for the investigation into the murder of Lorenzo Rosebaugh, a catholic priest that was killed in Ixcan on the May 18th. The article continues to discuss the big issue of violence and the lack of leadership that exists in Guatemala today. They call for the government to make a strategic plan in order to protect their citizens against this violence, especially those that are involved in many of the illegal activities that are occurring.

In this New York Times article, dated May 22, 2009, the conspiracy surrounding the death of Rodrigo Rosenberg, a prominent lawyer in Guatemala, was discussed. Even though there was a peace accord signed in 1996 to end the civil war, violence and corruption still exists in the society. In a video shot days before Rosenberg's death, he not only predicted that he would be next to be killed, but also pointed out the president and his wife, who is also his secretary, as the main figures involved in this corruption. Rosenberg said that the scandal involved the Rural Development Bank and had already resulted in the death of one of his clients and his client's daughter. The president and his wife have publicly stated they had nothing to do with the murders, but Rosenberg predicting his death is a chilling aspect to the accusations.

This article from CNN explains the clash between police and indigenous protestors who were blocking a highway in Macas. Three people were killed and ten were injured. The protest was for the new mining and water law that is being proposed since it will cut off some of the people water sources and, therefore, hurt their crops.

At this years UN meeting in New York the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frias, explains the rise in violence against the Honduran people. this violence has grown because of the return of the de facto regime and the return of president Manuel Zelaya.

This article is about the olympic bid that took place on October 3. The city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil won the bid beating Madrid. However, the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula, is very scared to host the games because of the crime in Rio de Janeiro.

An article published in February 2009 discusses the change in attitude of towards homosexual people in Latin America. Ten years ago the area still promoted "macho" attitude and took on a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude, however, today groups are fighting for gay rights and making improvements. In 2003 Mexico even passed an anti-discrimination law that included sexual orientation. This new toleration is mainly due to the region no longer being authoritarian as well as gay and lesbian activists groups making a different in government and their local areas.

This article explains the issues of gender roles in Latin America. Julio César González, the Cuban General coordinator of the Ibero-American Masculinity Networkstates, "Until we scrutinise men's social roles and the concept of masculinity, we'll just be drawing circles around the women victims of the system." After completing 20 years of research in gender studies he tried to implement his findings in the real world, but faced resistance from people who only wanted to continue with the traditional stereotypes. Although the Cuban authorities have allowed women to be integrated into once all-male domains, there is still a long way for women to go to reach full equality.

Almost all of Latin America is required to provide sexual education classes for their students, however, these laws are widely ignored. Many children do not receive the proper knowledge about sex until the age of 12 or 13, even though a study conducted in Cuba shows that this is the age children are becoming sexual active. Without the knowledge of the issues of sex it leads to an increase in sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and many abandoned babies. The article also states that children in Argentina do not receive sexual education at all because of the conservative sectors in the area. Many committees and groups are lobbying to help make sexual education more prevalent in students education.