Latin America and the Caribbean

The term Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)[1] is an English-language acronym referring to the Caribbean and Latin America region. The term LAC covers an extensive region, extending from The Bahamas and Mexico to Argentina and Chile. The region consists over 670,230,000 people as of 2016, and spanned for 21,951,000 square kilometres (8,475,000 sq mi).

List of countries and territories by subregion

Central America

* The UN includes Mexico in Central America[2].

South America

* Disputed territories administered by the United Kingdom.

West Indies

Caribbean

* Disputed territories administered by Colombia.

Lucayan Archipelago

Somewhat are included

Economy

It is estimated to attribute for over 400 billion dollars that form the core for economic stability, however, few countries, notably Venezuela, are parts of the OPEC.

Instability

The region has a unique history and varied between stability to instability, included various deadly conflicts, though its level remains conflicted. The two deadliest conflicts in the region are Colombian conflict and Mexican Drug War; and more recently, the crisis in Venezuela. Some other bloody conflicts also include the Internal conflict in Peru and gang wars in Brazil, Honduras and Argentina. Other conflicts include Mapuche conflict in Chile and Argentina; and Insurgency in Paraguay. These conflicts, however, have received lesser attentions from international media, and varied by time, with Colombia in headline in 1990s, Mexico in the 2000s and currently, Venezuela.

Culture

Religion

Most countries are dominated by Christianity, the largest being Roman Catholic. Smaller groups include Orthodoxy and Protestantism.

Music

The region is extremely popular for its own distinct music which can't be found somewhere in the world. Began since the conquest of Spain, France, Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal in 15th century, due to the greater diversification including indigenous, Asian, African and European population merged together, it expanded popularity of their music, dated from 1950s and rampant globalization, music from the region has become widely noticed, and has been nominated for several music awards.[3]

Sports

The region is rich at sporting activities, especially in association football, which have some of the world's strongest football teams like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, etc; though baseball, tennis, cycling, volleyball, rugby union, basketball, hockey, cricket, also gain recent popularity.

See also

References

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