President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is not exactly on a roll. Yes, oil prices remain close to $100 per barrel, and there are worse things that can happen than receiving tax-free revenues of up to $300 million every day. But on the eve of a Dec. 2 referendu
Etiqueta: venezuela
There Goes the Neighborhood
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
La indiferencia de los vecinos
El escándalo de RCTV en Venezuela comprende varias aristas. Desde la sorprendente movilización de estudiantes de universidades públicas y privadas en contra del cierre, hasta la inesperada tibieza de la comunidad internacional, e incluyendo la creciente e
An Answer for Hugo Chávez
MEXICO CITY — Each stop on President Bush’s upcoming swing through Latin America has its own mini-agenda: ethanol and the Doha round with Brazil; a Trade Framework Agreement in Uruguay; Plan Colombia and drug enforcement in Bogotá; immigration and securi
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