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
After Mexico’s Election
Close elections are no big deal; they happen nearly everywhere and very often. If the close July 2 vote in Mexico, my country, seems surprising and confusing, it’s simply because there have been very few real elections, close or otherwise. Most scholars w
No Need for Soul-Searching
June 19, 2006 issue – That Mexico has an election too close to call is in itself news: with the exception of the previous presidential vote in 2000, this has never happened before. Perhaps this is why it seems such a strange contest, and why the real cons
Mexico’s Sinking Front Runner
Mexico’s July 2 presidential election has all of a sudden become a tossup. Polls before last week’s debate already showed a close race; former front runner Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s decision to forego the debate clearly hurt him and confirmed his decl
Good Neighbor Policy
THERE are many excellent reasons to salvage the immigration bill that collapsed two months ago in the Senate. But one of the most overlooked lies not in the protests that have filled streets in Los Angeles and Washington, but in the wave of populism that
Why Chile Really Matters
In the reams of commentary about newly inaugurated Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, two statements are systematically repeated. The first contrasts the supposedly conservative nature of Chilean society against the fact that Bachelet is the first woman
Time to Step Up to the Plate
Later this month the U.S. Senate is likely to begin one of its most frustrating and recurrent exercises—and at the same time one of its most important deliberations, at least for nations in the Western Hemisphere. The Judiciary and Foreign Relations commi
Mending Fences South of the Border
At the inauguration tomorrow of Evo Morales as Bolivia’s new president, the United States — which has a significant military and aid presence in that country — will be represented by a deputy assistant secretary of state. This is just further evidence –
Latin America’s Two Left Wings
Jan. 9, 2006 issue – Is Latin America swerving left? Is that the right question? Clearly, the people who are winning elections today are not the ones who won them 5, 10 or 15 years ago; their rhetoric is not the same, and their views of the world are mile