Your headlines of 2008

Over two weeks this month you voted for the top headlines of the year based on a variety of topics. Fifty-two votes were made as dozens of our readers let their voices be heard. Thanks to those who participated in our poll and many thanks to you, our readers, for making this blog worth the effort.

Here are the final results:

1st - 25%

• Violence is out-of-control in Mexico

2nd - 21.15%

• Ingrid Betancourt and fourteen other hostages are rescued

3rd - 9.62%

• Regional economic growth slowed by the global financial crisis

4th – 5.77%

• Fernando Lugo is elected to the Paraguayan presidency

5th (tied) – 3.85%

• Argentine farmers strike against the government.
• Authorities turn the screw on Puerto Rican "macheteros”
• China strengthens ties to Latin America.
• Honduras, Bolivia, Venezuela, and the U.S. are in a diplomatic spat
• Junot Diaz wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  

10th (tied) – 1.92%

• Broadway audiences love “In the Heights”
• Electoral fraud alleged in Nicaragua.
• Haiti’s poverty (somehow) worsens.
• Immigration is an ignored topic during presidential campaigns.
• Latino voters pivotal during U.S. elections
• Leaders debate pros and cons of free trade
• No significant changes in Cuba under Raul Castro.
• Raul Reyes killed across the border in Ecuador
• Russia’s president tours several Latin American countries
• Unrest does not stop in Bolivia.
  

May you all have a happy new year; see you tomorrow!

Image- Time (Mexico’s rampant and seemingly never-ending violence was cited by blog readers as the top news story of 2008)