Panamanians are doing their best to register indifference to the return of Manuel Noriega. The 77-year-old former military dictator, drug-trafficking convict and all-around banana-republic creep, who’s been rotting behind bars …
Latin America
A New Iron Lady: Why Dilma Is Brazil’s Best Bet to Revive Its Economy
Brazil is widely regarded as the first Latin American country to win membership to the club of developed nations, or at least to get its foot in the door. For that, it can thank leadership. In the past two decades, from former …
Did a Gaddafi Scion Try to Enter Mexico?
TIME’S Dolly Mascareñas reports out of Mexico that Saadi Gaddafi, one of the sons of the late Libyan dictator, attempted to enter Mexico on Sept. 6 under the name Daniel Bejar. The Mexican government said Saadi Gaddafi’s wife and two daughters would have accompanied him. Mexican intelligence sources said they prevented them from using …
Latin America’s CELAC Summit: A Definitive Rejection of the U.S.?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez brands himself the standard bearer of all things revolutionary in Latin America – including the Community of Latin American & Caribbean States (CELAC), the new hemispheric organization that …
Art Basel Miami: How the City on the Beach Became an International Cultural Hotspot
A decade ago, Miami was considered a tropical beach paradise but hardly an international arts oasis. In fact, after the violent Miami Vice-style scenes of the 1980s and 90s, followed by the Elián González fiasco and the Flori-duh images of the presidential vote recount in 2000, the Magic City was better known, fairly or not, as a …
Five Faulty Foreign Policies from the GOP National Security Debate
As all surely expected from a field of candidates with little genuine foreign policy experience, a lot of silly things were said during last night’s GOP national security debate. Rick Santorum called Africa a “country.” Michelle Bachmann, who, as a sitting member of the House Intelligence Committee should know better, claimed …
Death of Danielle Mitterrand, Hailed Human Rights Activist (And François’ Wife, Too)
It might be inviting to react to the death of former French first lady Danielle Mitterrand as the closing of the historical book on the legacy of her husband, France’s late president François Mitterrand. That reading, however, would unfairly short-change both the impact that Madame Mitterrand herself had on public affairs, and her …
Is the Party of Mexico’s Old Dictatorship Poised to Return to Power?
It’s rarely a good sign for the leader of any country when his party loses a governor’s election in his home state less than a year before the next presidential election — especially when that party’s candidate is the president’s own sister. So while I was in Mexico City this week it was hard not to notice Mexican President …
Why a Marathon Man Got Mocked: Venezuela’s Leftist Revolution Again Faces Anti-Semitism Questions
Few stories at this month’s New York City Marathon were as inspiring as Maickel Melamed’s. The 36-year-old Venezuelan man, born with a severe muscle-depleting condition that makes it difficult to move across a room let alone a 26-mile marathon course, finished the race in 15 hours and 22 minutes to “help people realize the things …
Nuke Report Unlikely to Break the Stalemate, Could Iran Be the New Cuba?
Game changer? Hardly. As the dust settles on this week’s release of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report on Iran, it’s become clear that pre-release hype from Western officials that it would produce a dramatic shift in the international standoff over that country’s nuclear program appears to be wishful thinking. …
The Wilson Ramos Kidnapping: Another Major League Reminder of Venezuela’s Crime Crisis
When I was a graduate student in Caracas in the 1980s, some of my best memories were hanging out at the Estadio Universitario during the winter baseball season, when Venezuela’s Major League Baseball stars would come home to play for teams like the Leones and the Tiburones. I used my expired Chicago Sun-Times intern press pass to …
Memo to Otto Pérez: Central America Needs Fewer Iron Fists and More Decent Cops
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s re-election victory on Sunday, November 6, is widely regarded as an affront to democracy in Central America, since his Sandinista allies on the Supreme Court twisted the Constitution into a pretzel so he could run for another term. But even though Nicaragua is under caudillo rule again, many …
Why the U.S. Should Drop the Embargo and Prop Up Cuban Homeowners
It wasn’t too surprising when Cuba announced on Thursday, Nov. 3, that people on the communist island may now buy and sell private homes. They can buy two, in fact – one in the city and one in the country, perhaps for those weekends when you just need to get away from your neighborhood’s Committee for the Defense of the …