Weekly Roundup: Latin American Must Reads This Week – Peru's Poverty Reduction, U.S. Officials on Venezuela, Nicaragua's Cocoa Potential

Top U.S. officials weigh in on Venezuelan unrest. Tensions in Venezuela continued this week as the latest round of government talks with the opposition was postponed and, on May 8, hundreds of police forcibly removed student protest encampments in Caracas, arresting nearly 250 people. During his address at the May 7 Washington Conference on the Americas, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern about the situation in Venezuela, saying the U.S. government supports the government-opposition dialogue. “We believe the future of Venezuela is for the people of Venezuela to decide,” he said. “The serious and worsening economic and social challenges in Venezuela can only be resolved with the input of those people.” Also this week, Human Rights Watch released a report on abuses carried out during Venezuela’s protests, prompting a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations hearing. During the hearing, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson said Venezuelan opposition asked the U.S. government to hold off on sanctions.

For the latest on the situation in Venezuela, check out AS/COA Online’s guide.

Drought leads to water rationing in the Caribbean and Venezuela. This week, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela began rationing their water supplies due to a drought from an extended dry season. St. Vincent and the Grenadines instituted rationing last month, and other affected countries include Antigua and Barbuda, Haiti, Jamaica, and St. Lucia.

Panama’s vice president proves polls wrong, wins presidential bid. On May 4, Panamanians elected Vice President Juan Carlos Varela as the next head of state, although no major polls put him in the lead prior to the vote. Infolatam profiles Varela—who takes office on July 1—and his rise to power.

Mexico: Autodefensas turn in thousands of weapons during disarmament. As part of a disarmament agreement with the federal government, vigilante groups known as autodefensas in Mexico’s Michoacan state have registered over 6,000 guns so far, reports Animal Político. Also, as of this week, over 3,300 people signed up to join a volunteer rural force to allow civilians to keep watch on their communities.

Poll shows Brazilian president could face runoff in reelection bid. A May 9 Datafolha survey shows President Dilma Rousseff at 37 percent of voter support with Senator Aecio Neves at 20 percent and former Pernambuco Governor Eduardo Campos with 11 percent. To avoid a runoff, a candidate must receive over 50 percent of the vote or more votes than all other candidates combined. 

Hear an interview with Campos on the sidelines on AS/COA’s São Paulo conference.

Costa Rica's new president sworn in, requires code of ethics from cabinet. President Luis Guillermo Solís took office on May 8, and in his first act as head of state, he asked his cabinet members to sign a code of ethics before being sworn in.

Thousands of students march in Chile's capital for education reform. Roughly 40,000 students took to the streets of Santiago on May 8 in the first major student demonstration since President Michelle Bachelet’s new administration began. Bachelet has promised education reform, though student leaders expressed concern about lack of clarity in the plan.

Half a million Peruvians rose out of poverty last year. The Andean country's poverty rate dropped nearly 8 percent in 2013 as 491,000 Peruvians rose above the poverty line, the National Institute of Information and Statistics said this week.

Aires no tan buenos. A new World Health Organization report found that Lima, Peru has the worst air pollution in Latin America, while Salvador, Brazil has the best air quality in the region.

LatAm media outlets using drones to report news. When El Salvador’s La Prensa Gráfica bought three drones in January, it became one of the country's first media outlets to use unmanned aerial vehicles for news reporting. A Lima news outlet covered a massive fire using a drone in December, and Mexico's Grupo Reforma covered protests using the machines, writes Voxxi.

Study: The Spending Power of LatAm Households. A May 6 report from Euromonitor International says that in 2013, the lowest-earning 10 percent of households in the 13 Latin American countries studied had a combined spending power of $77 billion. (H/T Nearshore Americas)

Could Latin America have too many small businesses? Despite having the world's highest rate of business creation, Latin America faces a challenge of having too many small businesses employing too few people, writes Pablo Sanguinetti for Financial Times' beyondbrics blog.

Nicaragua wants to capitalize on global cocoa demand. As Central America's top cocoa producer, Nicaragua exported 60 percent of the nearly 6,000 tons of cocoa it produced last year. The industry has potential to grow, reports El País: only 11,000 hectares of land are cultivated for cocoa production when 1.9 million are available for use.

Meet the hosts on the field: Brazil World Cup team picked. Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari announced the national team on May 7, including soccer star Neymar.