Dreyfus and Fidelity declined to comment.
Latin America is not the only weak spot: Funds focused on Russia, China, emerging Europe, and some other emerging market areas, are also down 9 percent or more so far this year.
Some hedge funds have not been immune to the plunge.
Brevan Howard's Emerging Markets Strategies Master Fund, one of the world's largest EM funds, was down 1.6 percent by January 24, data seen by Reuters shows. This follows losses of 15 percent racked up last year.
Computer-driven funds that bet on price trends their models seek to predict -- commonly known as commodity trading advisors -- sank after volatility upended those models.
Aspect Capital's main fund fell 5.64 percent in January alone, following a drop of 4.4 percent last year and 10.7 percent in 2012, data seen by Reuters shows.
Winton Capital -- a $25-billion plus fund that ranks as one of the largest in Europe -- had lost a little more than 2 percent in its Futures Fund through January 29, performance figures show. It rose 9.4 pct in 2013 but fell 3.56 pct in 2012, according to data seen by Reuters.
Not All Submerging
Still, some funds have gained, outperforming benchmarks.
Among those are the Ashmore Emerging Markets Frontier Equity Fund, up about 2.5 percent, the HSBC Frontier Markets Fund, up 1.3 percent, and the Harding Loevner Frontier Emerging Markets Fund, up 1 percent.