Weekly Roundup: Latin American Must Reads This Week - Brazil's Amnesty Law, Venezuela's Mediation, Costa Rica's New President

Venezuela starts mediated talks amid political strife. This week, the Venezuelan government and opposition agreed to sit down for a series of talks mediated by a Vatican representative and the foreign ministers of Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. The meeting—which was also televised—took place on April 10 and marked the first sit-down with President Nicolás Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles since the country’s protests began in February. The New York Times notes that “it was not clear that the participants viewed the encounter as much more than a chance to score propaganda points on television.” Notable figures were missing from the table, including student leaders and opposition figures such as María Corina Machado. Talks are slated to continue on April 15. 

Find out the latest with Venezuela’s protests and political fallout in our timeline.  

Brazil’s Congress reconsiders its Amnesty Law. On April 9, two Brazilian Senate committees approved a bill that would repeal a key part of the country's dictatorship-era Amnesty Law, which protects military and police who committed crimes during the dictatorship. 

More border agents, but not more oversight—yet. The number of southwest border patrol agents jumped two-thirds from 2005 to 2012, but oversight funds stayed the same. Vox covers cases of excessive force by agents against immigrants and why greater accountability may be on the horizon.

From professor to president: Costa Rica gets a new leader. La Nación profiles President-elect Luis Guillermo Solís, who went from relative obscurity to the national spotlight with his April 6 electoral victory. 

Learn more about Solís and Sunday’s election in a post from our election blog. 

LatAm growth continues while revenue flows shift. The region has diversified financing resources away from portfolio and credit flows, moving toward foreign direct investment and remittances, says a new World Bank report. However, the institution predicts 2.3 percent growth for Latin America this year, slightly below the 2.4 percent rate for last year. 

Ecuador sees $700 million in bonds in its future. On April 6, President Rafael Correa announced Ecuador’s plans to issue its first international bond since the country’s 2008 default, reports beyondbrics.  

Which parts of Colombia rake in the most remittances? Valle del Cauca took in $1.1 billion in remittances last year, more than any department in Colombia. Dinero lists the top 10 of Colombia’s 32 departments that receive the most remittances. 

Who lives in Bogota's Las Torres Del Parque? Monocle profiles Rogelio Salmona’s Torres Del Parque, a residential development built in the 1970s that attracts a different type of bogotano to the city's downtown. 

Latin America faces challenges in social progress. The Social Progress Imperative’s new index ranks countries on basic human needs, wellbeing, and rights. No Latin American country made it to the top 20. 

Sotomayor: “Life experiences play a role in every judge’s judging.” The U.S. Supreme Court justice spoke with Der Spiegel about gender quotas in the United States, being the first Latin American justice on the Supreme Court, and working in a male-dominated field. 

New report sheds light on violence in the Americas. A new report from the UN Office on Drug finds that in 2012, over a third of the world’s homicides took place in the Americas, which had the highest percentage of gun murders of any world region, at 66 percent. 

Peru Village, Little Venezuela, Paseo Colombia. Latino leaders in Los Angeles hope to carve out Latin American communities in the city the likes of Chinatown, Thai Town, and Little Tokyo, writes The Los Angeles Times.