El Salvador and Costa Rica held presidential elections last week widely viewed as referendums on political stagnation, though with no clear winner. Both Central American nations will hold another ballot round pitting the top two candidates. The family of a Salvadoran fisherman who says he survived at least 13 months at sea in an open boat had thought he was dead after losing touch with him eight years ago. Jose Salvador Alvarenga’s family reacted with joy after two phone calls from their long lost son in the Marshall Islands. After 54 years away, Cuban baseball was back in the Caribbean Series, a regional tournament it used to dominate with seven championships from 1949 until 1960, when Fidel Castro outlawed professional sports on the island. But it was Mexico who walked away with this year’s title in Porlamar, Venezuela, its eighth since joining the competition in 1970. A Brazilian cameraman was seriously injured while covering violent clashes between police and demonstrators protesting an increase in bus fares in Rio de Janeiro.

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