Argentina is in southern South America. It ranks second in land area in South America, and eighth in the world.
Argentina occupies a continental surface area of 2,766,890 km² (1,078,000 sq mi) between the Andes mountain range in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east and south. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast, and Chile in the west and south.
The country claims the British controlled territories of the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Under the name of Argentine Antarctica, it claims 969,464 km² (374,312 sq mi) of Antarctica, overlapping other claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom.
Bolivia
President - Juan Evo Morales Ayma
Bolivia named after Simón Bolívar, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west.
Brazil
President - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula).
Brazil is the largest and most populous country in South America; and the fifth largest in the world in both area and population. Spanning a vast area between central South America and the Atlantic Ocean, it is the easternmost country of America and borders every other South American country other than Ecuador and Chile (viz. Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French department of French Guiana).
Brazil was colonized by Portugal and it is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas. It is a multiracial country with a population composed of European, Amerindian, African and Asian elements. It has the largest Roman Catholic population in the world.
Chile
Michelle Bachelet, first woman president
Chile is a country in South America occupying a long coastal strip between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
It borders Argentina to the east, Bolivia to the northeast, Peru to the north, and the Cape Horn to the south.
Colombia
President of Colom-bia. - Álvaro Uribe Vélez
Colombia is the northwesternmost country of South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the North by the Atlantic Ocean, through the Caribbean Sea; and to the west by Panama and the Pacific Ocean. Colombia is also the only country in South America that borders both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean.
Colombia is a large and physically diverse nation. It is the fourth-largest country in South America (after Brazil, Argentina, and Peru), with an area seven times greater than that of New England; more than twice that of France; or just slightly smaller than Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington States combined. Its vast territory is one of great physical contrasts, ranging from the towering, snowcapped peaks of the Andes to the hot, humid plains of the Amazon River Basin. Not only is Colombia large in area, but it also has a large population, containing more people than any other South American country except Brazil. The nation's population is not evenly distributed. Most of the people live in the mountainous western third of the country, where Bogotá, the capital, and most of Colombia's other large cities are located.
Colombia currently suffers from a low-intensity conflict involving rebel guerrilla groups, paramilitary militias, and drug trafficking. The conflict originated around 1964-1966, when the FARC and the ELN were founded and began their guerrilla insurgency campaigns against successive Colombian government administrations. However, since the election of Álvaro Uribe, the security situation has improved somewhat.
Costa Rica
The President - Óscar Rafael de Jesús Arias Sánchez
Costa Rica (literally 'rich coast'), is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south-southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.
Dominican
Republic
President - Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna
The Dominican Republic is a country located on the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, bordering Haiti.
Hispaniola is the second-largest of the Greater Antilles islands, and lies west of Puerto Rico and east of Cuba and Jamaica.
Ecuador
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado
Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bounded by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean on the west. The country also includes the Galápagos Islands (Archipiélago de Colón) in the Pacific, about 965 kilometers (600 miles) west of the mainland. Ecuador is the Spanish word for equator. Ecuador straddles the equator and has an area of 256,370 square kilometers (98,985 mi²). Its capital city is Quito, however its largest city is Guayaquil.
El Salvador
Elías Antonio Saca González
El Salvador is a country in Central America with 21,040 km², bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and Honduras with a population of approximately 6.9 million people. El Salvador is the most densely populated nation in the American mainland and the most industrialized nation in the region. The country was named after the Spanish word for "The Saviour," in honour of Jesus Christ, and its territory was known prehispanically as Cuscatlán. People from El Salvador are formally called "Salvadorans" or "Salvadorians".
Guatemala
President - Óscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the northwest, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize and the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast.
The largest and most populous nation in Central America, Guatemala is best known for its historical role as a major seat of Pre-Columbian cultures, particularly the Mayans. Numerous sites of major archaeological significance have been discovered, including the ruins of the ancient city of Tikal. The abundance of sites has led the BBC to name Guatemala as the first cultural destination in the world and helps supply the nation with a healthy stream of tourists (1.4 million in 2006). Other than tourism, Guatemala's economy depends largely upon agriculture, with coffee and sugar among its main exports.
Guatemala is a representative democracy with its capital at Guatemala City. Although the nation has been relatively stable since 1996, Guatemala's recent history has been plagued by civil war and military coups, which have slowed the nation's development. Large portions of Guatemala's interior remain wholly undeveloped, including the nation's many rainforests and wetlands.
Guyana
President - Bharrat Jagdeo
Guyana is the only nation state of the Commonwealth of Nations on the mainland of South America. It is north of the Equator but in the tropics and has coast on the Atlantic Ocean. Guyana is bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil and to the west by Venezuela. It is the third smallest country on the mainland of South America and approximately the size of Great Britain. Guyana is the only South American country whose official language is English, and is one of only two remaining countries on mainland America whose traffic still drives on the left.
Honduras
President - Mel Zelaya
Honduras is a country in Central America, bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean, at the Golf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras and the Caribbean Sea. The Pre-Columbian city of Copán is located in western Honduras, near the Guatemalan border. It is a major Maya city that flourished during the classic period (A.D.150-900). It has many beautiful carved inscriptions and stelae.
Mexico
President - Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
The United Mexican States or simply Mexico is a country located in North America, bounded on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the North Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico.[1][2] Mexico is a federal constitutional republic, consisting of 31 states and a federal district, Mexico City (Ciudad de México), which is one of the most populous cities on Earth.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometers[3], Mexico is the 6th largest country in America by total area and 15th largest in the world. With a population of about 108 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
Nicaragua
President - José Daniel Ortega Saavedra
Nicaragua is a democratic republic in Central America. It is the largest nation in the isthmus, but also the least densely populated with a demographic similar in size to its smaller neighbours. The country is bordered on the north by Honduras and on the south by Costa Rica. Its western coastline is on the Pacific Ocean, while the east side of the country is on the Caribbean Sea.
Panama
President - Martín Torrijos Espino
Panama is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on an isthmus, Panama is a transcontinental nation which connects North America and South America. It borders Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south.
Much of Panama's domestic politics and international diplomacy in the twentieth century was tied to the Panama Canal and the foreign policy of the United States.
Under the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, the United States returned all canal-related lands to Panama on December 31, 1999, but reserves the right to military intervention in the interest of its national security. Panama also gained control of canal-related buildings and infrastructure as well as full administration of the canal.
The people of Panama have already approved the widening of the canal which, after completion, will allow for post-Panama vessels to travel through it, increasing the number of ships that currently use the canal.
Paraguay
President - Óscar Nicanor Duarte Frutos
Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America. It lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, bordering Argen-tina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest, and is located in the very heart of South America. The name "Paraguay" is derived from the Guaraní word pararaguay meaning "from a great river". The "great river" is the Paraná River, which produces the greatest amount of hydroelectric power in the world.
Europeans first arrived in the area in the early sixteenth century and the settlement of Asunción was founded on August 15, 1537 by the Spanish explorer Juan de Salazar. The city eventually became the center of a Spanish colonial province, as well as a primary site of the Jesuit missions and settlements in South America in the eighteenth century. Paraguay declared its independence after overthrowing the local Spanish authorities on May 14, 1811.
Peru
President - Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez
Peru is a country in western South America, bordering Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the south-east, Chile to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
In addition to being known as the cradle of the Inca empire, Peru is the home of many indigenous ethnic groups, and it was the seat of the Viceroyalty of Peru, with jurisdiction over all of Spanish South America.
Uruguay
Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas
Uruguay is a nation located in the southeastern part of South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north, the Uruguay River to the west, the estuary of the Río de la Plata (literally "River of the Silver", but commonly known in English as "River Plate") to the southwest, with Argentina on the other bank of both, and finally the South Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. About half of its people live in the capital and largest city, Montevideo. The nation is the second smallest independent country in South America, larger only than Suriname (it is also larger than French Guiana, which is an overseas department of France), and is the most politically and economically stable. The only inhabitants of Uruguay before European colonization of the area were various tribes of hunter-gatherer native americans, the most well known being the Charrua Indians, a small tribe driven south by the Guaraní Indians of Paraguay.
Venezuela
President - Hugo Chavez
Venezuela is a country on the northern coast of South America. Compris-ing a continental mainland and numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela borders Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south, and Colombia to the west. Trinidad and Tobago, Curaao, Bonaire, Aruba, and the Leeward Antilles lie just north of the Venezuelan coast.
A former Spanish colony, Venezuela is a federal republic. Historically, Venezuela has had territorial disputes with Guyana, largely concerning the Essequibo area, and with Colombia concerning the Gulf of Venezuela. Today, Venezuela is known widely for its petroleum industry, the environmental diversity of its territory, and its natural features.
Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America; the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north, especially in the largest metropolis, Caracas. Other major cities include Maracaibo, Barquisimeto, Valencia, Maracay, and Ciudad Guayana.