The Mexican elections that occurred on Sunday will be closely scrutinized and intensely analyzed after 49 million of Mexico’s 80 million registered voters went to the polls to select a president for a single six year-term (2012–2018), 128 senators, 500 deputies, and six governors, as well as the mayor of …
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was embarrassed at a recent U.N. conference in Rio de Janeiro by perceived snubs by leaders of host country Brazil and other nations. Iran’s blowhard president, who has trumpeted his own role in fostering closer Iranian ties to Latin America, found himself relegated to the sidelines …
When it comes to dealing with the Castro dictatorship inCuba, there are several schools of thought. The one preferred by Washington liberals, idealists, and the architects of the Obama Administration’s Cuba policy holds that increased travel, remittances, and diplomatic engagement is softening hearts, opening Cuba, and loosening the regime’s unwavering …
On June 19, Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, breached his bail conditions and secretly made his way to Ecuador’s embassy in London. There he made a request for political asylum. Assange was under house arrest and facing extradition to Sweden to stand trial for charges of sexual assault reportedly committed …
Valiant Cuban dissident and democracy activist Jorge Luis Garcia Perez (Antunez) delivered a message of solidarity from the island to The Heritage Foundation in May. On June 7, Antunez testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee via video conference from Cuba. On both occasions, he urged real solidarity with those …
In a ceremony in Bogota on June 11, the position of Secretary General of UNASUR passed from Colombian Maria Emma Mejia to Venezuela’s Ali Rodriguez. An ex-Marxist guerrilla, former foreign and energy minister, and former Ambassador to Cuba, the anti-American Chavista will serve as General Secretary for the next year. …
On May 12, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights will focus a spotlight on the case of Jacob Ostreicher, an American imprisoned without charge for almost a year in a Bolivian prison. The 53-year-old American from Brooklyn is being held for an investment opportunity …
Although numerous uncertainties surround Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s secretive battle with cancer and his ability to live until the October presidential elections, Chavez was sufficiently active to appear recently on television defending Syria’s sovereign right to massacre its citizens, mass graves and all, and to meet with a senior emissary …
Since 1999,Venezuelahas continued sliding deeper into authoritarianism, populism, militarism, and anti-Americanism. Displaying formidable skills in winning elections, demagoguery, and public showmanship, Hugo Chavez has dominated Venezuela’s polarized politics and run his country as a personal fiefdom for more than a decade. This situation may be about to change. In the …
