• Alex Cuadros, “Open Talk of a Military Coup Unsettles Brazil” (The New Yorker, October 13, 2017).

The military high command is making disturbing signals. And a large minority of the population, along with a leading presidential candidate, are OK with it.

• “Corruption on the Rise in Latin America and the Caribbean” (Transparency International, October 10, 2017).

Transparency International asked more than 22,000 people in Latin America and the Caribbean about corruption in their daily lives. The survey also looks at how institutions are perceived and how corruption has been developing in each country

• Michael Paarlberg, “Don’t Believe the Trump Administration: Ms–13 Is Not Ravaging the United States” (The Washington Post, October 11, 2017).

Data shows how surprisingly small MS–13’s footprint is in the United States. In Central America, though, it’s huge.

• “Sustitucion de Hoja de Coca: Entre Lentitud del Gobierno y Presion de Criminales” (Verdad Abierta (Colombia), October 11, 2017).

“Presión de grupos armados ilegales, erradicación forzada, contradicciones en la política antidrogas y falta de recursos pronostican un futuro adverso.”

• Garance Burke, “Engineers: Lives Lost in Mexico Quake Could Have Been Saved” (Associated Press **, October 10, 2017).

“Corruption has allowed hundreds of structures to be built outside the rules atop the soft soils of Mexico City’s ancient lakebed.”