President Hugo Chavez knows just how important Sunday's state and municipal elections are to his own grip on power.
George Bush, the outgoing US president, has continued his defence of free market ideology, despite widespread criticism of it being behind the global economic crisis.
Brazil has recalled its ambassador from Ecuador over the Andean country's suspension of payments on a Brazilian loan worth at least $320 million.
Barack Obama, the US president-elect, has ordered his advisers to produce an economic recovery plan aimed at creating 2.5 million new jobs across the country over the next two years.