Since 1988, Brazilians have cleared more than 153,000 square miles of Amazonian rain forest, devastating the environment and driving global climate change forward ever faster. Recently, however, Brazil has changed its course, reducing the rate of deforestation by 83 percent since 2004. At the same time, it has become a test case for a controversial international climate-change prevention strategy that places a monetary value on the carbon stored in forests.

Over the past several years, the most talked-about trend in the global economy has been the so-called rise of the rest, which saw the economies of many developing countries swiftly converging with those of their more developed peers.

Brazil's rise never depended on the sale of commodities, and thanks to recent reforms, the country will continue to prosper, write Shannon O'Neil, Richard Lapper, and Larry Rohter. Ronaldo Lemos, meanwhile, claims that those reforms have not gone far enough.

Brazil's economy depends too much on high commodity prices, and as demand falls, so may Brazil.

Running down the list of the U.S. State Department's Latin America policy objectives in El País in September 2010, the economist Moisés Naím noted that they focused almost exclusively on domestic concerns.

Latin American countries are increasingly looking for solutions among themselves, seeking friends and opportunities outside of Washington's orbit.

Latin Americans must look in the mirror and confront the reality that many of our problems lie not in our stars but in ourselves. Only then will the region finally attain the development it has so long sought.

Brazil's rapid economic growth has transformed the country into a new global heavyweight, but Brazil must not let an overly ambitious foreign policy agenda distract it from lingering domestic challenges.

Brazil is on the cusp of fulfilling its potential as a global player. The next U.S. president should rethink relations with this important country.

Debating Venezuela's progress.

The former chief economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly argues that despite Hugo Chavez's pledge to fight poverty, the Venezuelan president's economic policies have hurt the poor most of all.

The peso crisis was a wake-up call for Latin America. Reformist political leaders realize their support will erode if the economies of the region do not turn around. But building robust economies requires deeper reforms, at a time when the people suffer from acute reform fatigue. For rapid growth with rising real wages, export growth must be higher and value added to exports increase. To foster these, Latin America must address long-neglected weaknesses with a next generation of reforms in education, infrastructure, banking, and the civil service.

Once the land of the unfree and the home of the coup, Latin America now exhibits many of the hallmarks of democracy: free and fair elections, smooth successions, free-market economies, and the birth of political parties. In spite of these recent advances, the region remains haunted by "fracasomania," or an obsession with failure. While Latin America has achieved the broad brushstrokes of democracy, it must confront corruption, protect the rights of indigenous peoples, and distribute wealth more evenly to resolve its crisis of representation.

This module features teaching notes for Living with Hugo: U.S. Policy Toward Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, by author Richard Lapper, along with other resources to supplement the text. This Council Special Report proposes a new strategic framework for U.S. policy toward Venezuela.

The so-called BRIC summit of emerging-market powerhouses raises new questions on whether Brazil, Russia, India, and China can overcome internal differences and pursue common goals.