Airlines of Latin America

I've been asked to contribute to a presentation about arranging business events in Latin America, and one of the topics that came up is dealing with airlines. For example, what are some of the things that one might need to know if, say, you are contracting to fly large numbers of people from the US to whatever the LatAm destination is.

Obviously, there is no real issue if you are dealing with a US-based carrier, other than customs or airport issues on the other end. But what if you end up dealing with a local airline, in light of potential situations like Varig's financial meltdown or the region's several safety-related shutdowns, e.g. AeroCalifornia etc.?

Of course, not all airlines in Latin America are in poor financial health or unsafe, but these are factors an event planner needs to consider in picking an airline for a convention or other business event down there, whereas domestically the decision is almost always driven by lowest fare. Anyone have any thoughts on this or any experience in actually doing it?