ARGENTINA | Wave of looting. Four people were killed, dozens were injured and at least 500 were arrested in a wave of looting across much of urban Argentina between 20 and 24 December. It began in the north Patagonian ski resort of Bariloche, Río Negro, days after the mayor had warned supermarkets of growing tension in the poorer quarters and urged them to offer free food parcels and lower prices on household appliances. About a hundred took to the streets and sacked two supermarkets, of the Changomás and Todo chains, and a number of shops and warehouses across the city.…

The government of President Sebastián Piñera has come in for a drubbing from the Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos (INDH), an official body created two years ago to monitor the authorities’ performance in the area of human rights. Prominent among its criticisms, as last year, is police violence. The problems it highlights are still continuing, particularly in the Mapuche heartland in the south. The INDH’s annual report, Situación de los Derechos Humanos en Chile 2012, was delivered to the President and made public on 10 December. It does acknowledge progress towards a culture of human rights in Carabineros, the paramilitary…