A group of populist Latin American states—led by Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela—hopes to reduce the role of an international human rights commission and watchdog. These radical states aim to weaken the commission because it goes against their political ambitions, as it entails scrutiny and judgments of human rights violations by …
If cancer revokes President Hugo Chavez’s mandate for indefinite rule in Venezuela, it will leave leadership of the radical-left, anti-liberty Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) in Latin America up for grabs. New faces will inevitably emerge. Chavez’s vice president, the uncharismatic Nicolas Maduro, will most likely runVenezuela in the near future, backed …
The recently launched “Americas Barometer,” by Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), includes important insights about day-to-day corruption burdening citizens in every country in the Western Hemisphere, including the U.S. and Canada. According to a LAPOP poll, one in five people report that they had to pay at …
Homer’s epic The Iliad tells the story of Achilles’s near-fatal encounter with the Xanthus River. After Achilles slays many Trojans in the river, the river rises up in the Trojans’ defense, nearly killing Achilles in the ensuing struggle. While Homer took poetic license in his personification of the river, New …
Earlier this month, Ecuador’s National Assembly passed legislation that would nationalize the country’s private credit reporting industry. President Rafael Correa has to decide by November 4 whether or not to sign it. The legislation would permit only the government’s central public data agency to provide credit reports and scores. Private …
Yesterday, WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange, a 41-year-old Australian fleeing rape charges, stood on the balcony of Ecuador’s London embassy and told the President of the United States to get off his back. “I ask President Obama to do the right thing: the United States must renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks,” …
After hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for two months, Julian Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador yesterday to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on charges of two counts of sexual assault. Assange wanted to take on the mightiest government in the world by publicizing massive …
On April 5, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa rashly declared the U.S. Ambassador Heather Hodges persona non grata. Hodges has been ordered to leave the country in short order. The U.S. State Department rightly called the action “unjustified.” The reason for Correa’s pique is the unauthorized release via WikiLeaks of a …
The radical left in Latin America often prides itself in its ability to stir up the masses and make nations ungovernable by elected officials and representative governments, especially centrist or conservative regimes. But when popular unrest or insubordination, threatens a Leftist leader, the Left cries “coup” and “conspiracy.” The current …
While Colombia’s new president Manuel Santos was at the United Nations today, he received welcomed news: Colombia’s military had located and attacked a camp belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Killed in the assault was Jorge Briceno (born Victor Julio Suarez, AKA El Mono Jojoy) second highest …
