Mexico City  - The year 2008 showed terrible violence from Latin American drug gangs, with over 5,500 dead in Mexico alone as drug traffickers fought each other for control and challenged the power of governments as far south as Argentina.

This was the year that the United States approved the Merida Initiative to assist Mexico and Central America, mainly, in the fight against drug gangs. The US supplied equipment and logistics worth 465 million dollars.

And it was also the year that Bolivia expelled from its territory the staff of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), accusing them of an alleged conspiracy against the Bolivian government.

Santiago - The economies of Latin American and Caribbean countries are forecast to grow a collective 1.9 per cent next year amid the global downturn, a commission on the region's economic affairs said Thursday.

This year, the national economies of the region with 500 million people are to gain 8 per cent, the group Cepal said in the Chilean capital.

Costa do Sauipe, Brazil - Raul Castro returned to the Latin American fold this week with a showering of hugs, back-slaps and vigorous handshakes. He could barely catch his breath.

At Tuesday and Wednesday's gathering of leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean at the northeastern Brazilian resort of Costa do Sauipe, the Cuban leader was greeted like no other at the event - "comrade," "friend," "brother."

With emotions echoing the Biblical return of the prodigal son, Cuba was accepted as an official member of the so-called Rio Group, which was holding the summit with three other regional blocs - Mercosur, Unasur and the Conference of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Costa do Sauipe, Brazil  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday that the Latin American and Caribbean region "will not attend passively" the debates on the global crisis, but will instead seek to make its voice heard in the definition of a new international financial structure.

"We will play an important role in the construction of a new political and economic architecture that is international, multipolar and multilateral," he said.

Costa do Sauipe, Brazil  - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that the multiple Latin American and Caribbean summit taking place in Brazil was a message for US president-elect Barack Obama, that the region wants to talk "with its own voice."

"Now that a new president is coming in the United States, it is very opportune that we should meet, without protectorates, without hegemonies. That is enough of empire," Chavez said in the northeastern Brazilian resort of Costa do Sauipe.

Costa do Sauipe, Brazil  - Mexican President Felipe Calderon advocated Tuesday in Brazil the creation of a safer environment for investment in Latin America, as a way to fight the current global financial crisis.

Calderon was speaking at a large gathering of Latin American and Caribbean nations, which is set to include the summits of four blocs Tuesday and Wednesday in the northeastern Brazilian resort of Costa do Sauipe.