Ecuador is no human-rights darling. Left-wing President Rafael Correa has built a decidedly authoritarian reputation that includes a yen for prosecuting journalists who irk him. This week he won passage of a media bill that …
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro seems on a constant quest to deflect attention from his country’s economic mess, its violent-crime crisis and the fact that he only narrowly won last month’s special election to succeed …
On the Latin American street, the Organization of American States has always borne a reputation, often undeserved, as Washington’s lackey. But the OAS, based in Washington, just sent the western hemisphere a message the White …
President Barack Obama is sending Vice President Joe Biden on a swing through Brazil, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago later this month. Which means two things: first, the prospect of off-the-cuff gaffes in three different …
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We tend to think of mean-spirited homophobia as the political purview of right-wing conservatives. But Nicolás Maduro showed us that, in Venezuela at least, it can be one of socialism’s ugly undercurrents too. Maduro narrowly …
Here is the one unmistakable reality of Sunday’s special presidential election in Venezuela: even if Nicolás Maduro won, he lost. This race had a rarefied gauge, and it wasn’t simply the vote tally. It was whether the …
By all accounts, the world tour of Cuban dissident Yoani Sánchez, which shifts today from the U.S. to Europe, has so far proven a Buena Vista Social Club-caliber success. For those weary of the feckless, half-century-long …
Interfaith relations have always been awkward for the Roman Catholic Church. That may change—if the new Pope’s statements are any indication
To their discredit, some princes of the church live like princes. But Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Argentina’s most powerful Roman Catholic prelate, isn’t one of them: he’s a priest who leads a humble lifestyle that reflects his …
I couldn’t be happier that Mexico’s economy is rebounding. After barely 2% average annual growth between 2000 and 2010, the country’s GDP expanded almost 4% in 2011 and 2012. Investment is booming and the middle class is …
Like his idol, Fidel Castro, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was one of the most garrulous and pugnacious leaders Latin America has ever known. That makes his death in Caracas today, March 5, at age 58, after a long and …
Many of the dead in the fire were young science and engineering students — just the kind of experts the country needs to advance into the ranks of the first world. Has the time come for Brazil to make sure its legal system …
