The last week of June was probably the Bush administration’s worst period ever in terms of Latin America policy. Its nemeses in the hemisphere—Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael
Categoría: Newsweek
Mexico Goes to War
Felipe Calderon is on a roll these days. Mexico’s young president has an approval rating of between 57 percent and 68 percent, according to various polls: twice his score in last year’s election. The reason is his war on drugs, which has convinced most of
The Moment of Truth
April 30, 2007 issue – The United States today is both closer to and farther than ever from enacting a major, substantive and cooperative immigration-reform bill. The emerging deal may address all the core issues: what to do about unauthorized workers alr
In Search of Calderón
In style, at least, Mexico’s president Felipe Calderón’s first 100 days have been a success, for reasons on display when he met President George W. Bush last week. Calderón runs a tight ship, speaking only under highly controlled circumstances. In fact, h
Chávez Lives Castro’s Dream
Fidel Castro used his reappearance on TV late last month to show that his health has finally improved. But he also carefully staged the event to send a serious message to the world. He could have had himself filmed alongside his family or his brother and
A Blessedly Boring Year
In the last year or so, 11 Latin American countries held presidential elections. Citizens in Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Haiti, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela all went to the polls. The confluence of so many elections was
Hugo Faces His Toughest Test
Dec. 4, 2006 issue – Next Sunday Hugo Chávez will put his electoral charmed life on the line. Since 1998, when he was elected president of Venezuela in a landslide, he’s never lost a national vote. Chávez won re-election in 1999, won the referendum on the
Latin America’s New Proxy War
Sept. 25, 2006 issue – The summit of nonaligned countries held last week in Havana was an occasion for all sorts of things: speculating on Fidel Castro’s health, supporting all the “worthwhile” causes in the world—from Iran’s nuclear program to Bolivia’s
What Else Ends With Castro
Aug. 21-28, 2006 issue – As always in countries like Cuba, speculation is by definition idle. No one knows whether Fidel Castro is alive and well, dead or dying, recovering or permanently incapacitated. The biological outcome of the current drama in Havan
The World’s Toughest Job
This may be a long hot summer in Mexico, but the outcome seems not to be in doubt. Perhaps by only half a percentage point, possibly with huge demonstrations taking place through the end of August, with or without the vote-by-vote recount demanded by form