Global Voices – Latin America boasts a very dedicated team of volunteer authors, who have helped track their respective country's blogosphere over the course of 2007. Knowing the local context by the authors, many of whom are regular bloggers themselves have help make this region well-covered in the past year. For technical purposes, the region spans the 16 Spanish-speaking countries of North, Central and South America, and does not include the Portuguese-speaking country of Brazil. The country is ably covered by Brazilians Jose Murilo Junior and Paula Góes. Some coverage of the Caribbean countries that speak Spanish is shared with Caribbean editor Janine Mendes-Franco. This year also witnessed the launch of the Spanish-language site of Global Voices as part of Project Lingua. Juan Arellano and his excellent and growing team of volunteer translators have helped make Global Voces en Español, one of the most active translation sites. Global Voices – Latin America also recently opened its own Facebook group in order to bring people interested in Latin American blogs, as well as to share recommendations on interesting blogs that should be included in future articles and links. Here is the first in a three part set of articles looking back at some of the topics covered by bloggers in 2007: Argentina Jorge Gobbi sought to find topics that took place out of the “Gran Capital” Buenos Aires, as topics such as these tend to receive less attention as others in the metropolitan capital. Stories about the effects of mining in the provinces and the role of blogs in conflict coverage in Neuquen are two examples of stories outside of Buenos Aires. Culture also plays an important role in Argentina, as the campaign to recognize the site of Mafalda, a famous cartoon character and the disruptive events at the music concert, Personal Fest also were covered. In politics, the biggest story was the election of Cristina Kirchner, the wife of outgoing president Nestor Kirchner, in the rather apathetic election, as Gobbi wrote: The recent elections in Argentina are over. Some say that these elections have probably been received with the most amount of apathy since the return to democracy in 1983. A couple of days before the elections, there was almost no sign of them in the streets, except a few posters. Most citizens did not take active part in the process, but that doesn't mean there were no repercussions afterwards. Bolivia Much of the coverage in Bolivia centered on the ongoing conflicts in the country, such as what happened in Cochabamba on January 11, which pitted different groups of citizens against one another. By far, the most well-known Bolivian is President Evo Morales. Two years after his world tour featuring the infamous “sweater”, bloggers were always willing to critique the head of state. They also were surprised at the Morales’ appearance on the Daily Show. Other topics of note include the waves of Bolivians migrating to Spain, as well as one blogger's use of technology to cover a historic rally. Regardless of political leaning or geography, Bolivian bloggers also rallied together behind a ban placed by FIFA. Recently, the international football governing body, FIFA, announced that international matches will no longer be permitted to be played in stadiums above 2500 m, putting many stadiums in Bolivia off-limits, and dashing the hopes for qualifying once again for the world’s biggest sporting event. The decision mobilized the Bolivian government headed by President Evo Morales, a self-professed football fanatic, who sent a high-ranking delegation to Zurich, Switzerland to speak directly with FIFA President Sepp Blatter and declared it “Challenge Day“. Marches and demonstrations against the ban took place across the country. Bloggers also joined the united voice against this decision. The decision is drawing the ire of Bolivians across the country and cutting across ideological lines. Chile Rosario Lizana provided coverage of a wide range of issues including the problematic public transport system Transantiago and its accompanying student protests. A lot emphasis was also placed on environmental issues, such as oil spills, biofuels, and natural disasters. Technological concerns also captured the attention of bloggers with the issue of broadband and net neturality. However, perhaps the most highly blogged about issue was the proposal, which many indicated was as good as an agreement between the Chilean government and the Microsoft Corporation. Lizana wrote: There is a feeling among Chilean bloggers that the agreement signed between the Economy Minister, Alejandro Ferreiro and Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer de Microsoft Corporation on May 9th is not good for Chile.