Even Peruvians are calling it an election between the lesser of two evils.

In today’s second round of their presidential elections, Peruvians have to choose between Keiko Fujimori, the neophyte daughter of former president Alberto, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for… Read full post »

Well, I guess if all else fails, blame the Jews. It worked for Hitler; why not for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez? After all it is not the first bout of antisemitism endorsed through Chávez’s personally-approved messengers -- or even expressed by Chávez himself.

But this… Read full post »

Last Tuesday, the US State Department announced that it will impose sanctions on the Venezuelan government owned oil company PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.) for its deliveries of two shipments of fuel valued at $50 million to Iran between December 2010 and March 2011 that includes… Read full post »

CNN on Friday carried the story that a new report by Amnesty International ranks Latin America amongst the most dangerous regions for journalists.

According to the report, nearly 400 journalists were threatened or attacked in the Americas in 2010, and Mexico is one of the worst offending countries,… Read full post »

While Anderson Cooper and many other media are focused on the one-year anniversary of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there is another anniversary that has been largely ignored in America -- except in Miami, of course: today is 50 years since the disastrous Bay of Pigs landing.… Read full post »

Taking a page out of his “revolutionary brother” Qaddafi’s playbook, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has accelerated the creation of a militia that would fire on protesters. He and his generals have already acknowledged that they would not accept electoral defeat in the upco… Read full post »

Well, Chávez may not be pleased, but I was.

I spent three days on the Yale University campus this week: first, in my March 31st panel discussion with Prof. Steve Ellner, “Evolution of the Revolution: An Evaluation of Chavismo Today and 2012;”  then for the Plan País con… Read full post »

The tabloid-worthy gossip emanating from diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks may be mocked by many (including me, in my Caracol radio interview last November 29th) as amusing and proving just how good American ambassadors are at their jobs, but it has claimed a few heads along the way. The latest… Read full post »

So what was Pres. Obama doing in El Salvador yesterday, just before bombing campaigns in Libya forced him to cut his South American tour short? 

It was, after all, at first glance, an odd choice after stops in economic and natural resource powerhouse Brazil and oh-so-civilized Chil… Read full post »

Just moments ago, Pres. Obama landed in Santiago, Chile, highlighting a Latin American political agenda that seems to be coming into its own -- namely, Pres. Obama’s arrival in Chile today underscores his strategy of spanning the Latin American political spectrum and engaging those governments… Read full post »

Call it the multilateral two-step. Or is that a square dance? 

Either way, Pres. Obama has been doing some fancy footwork trying to keep East and West together, even as he bridges North and South. 

It was on his trip to Brazil, whom America desperately needs to woo, that Obama authorized… Read full post »

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a day of celebration for which everyone has to find her own meaning: what it is to be a woman, what there is to celebrate about womanhood, what women have been the greatest influence on other women or what women want or… Read full post »

“Call no man happy until he is dead,” claimed Aeschylus, Aristotle and a whole slew of Greek virtue ethics philosophers. While they were talking about the concept of eudaimonia, there can be another interpretation: while the dead rest in peace, they often leave behind a bickering family l/… Read full post »

It was a rare opportunity I could hardly pass up: to meet Senatorial candidate Rep. Joe Sestak at a small gathering at the home of my high school friend Kevin Gates and his wife Julie.

Joe Sestak rose to national prominence as the insurgent who beat Sen. Arlen Specter in the… Read full post »

“It’s a new dawn,

It’s a new day,

It’s a new life 

For me,

And I’m feeling good.”

So good, in fact, I couldn’t stop crying. 

Tears of joy streamed down my cheeks as I looked out from our terrace over Caracas, a city nestled in a valley… Read full post »

Well, for such a hyped, anticipated and even feared day, it has gone surprisingly smoothly. 

MInd you, Caracas had been almost ominously quiet in the past week, as if everyone had been waiting for something to happen. Even at rush hour in what is now rainy season, there was barely… Read full post »

If politics makes strange bedfellows, economics makes even odder ones. After years of escalating tensions that brought them to the brink of war (or so they claimed), Venezuela and Colombia are burying the hatchet. 

Former Colombian Pres. Álvaro Uribe complained to anyone who… Read full post »

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the cinema, there’s yet another tale of impending apocalypse to scare the pants off you. 

Not it’s not the latest summer blockbuster -- at least not one starring Will Smith or Bruce Willis; it’s the latest document… Read full post »

I had an unexpectedly poignant reaction to the announcement that WS Merwin is going to be the next Poet Laureate of the United States. It brought back a pivotal moment in my adolescence.

I was seventeen and had competed to get an internship at The American Poetry Review, America’s/… Read full post »

Montana cowboy, October 2009

Montana sunrise, October 2009

cowboy boot, Montana, October 2009

  Read full post »

Ever been in the middle of dinner when you suddenly wondered what it all means? Well, now there’s an app for that.

AskPhil, an app for iPhones and other smart phones launched by AskPhilosophers.org, will now give people instant access to professional answers to philosophical questions ev… Read full post »

Alright, yes, yes, I get it, Oliver. America has been an imperialist pig; the media spread lies to an ignorant audience, and South Americans have a right to self-determination.

I can't actually say I disagree with any of these points.

And yet South of the Border, Oliver Stone's hagiography of Venezue… Read full post »

In Spanish we have a saying: “De árbol caído se hace leña” -- roughly: “a fallen tree gets made into firewood.” No doubt BP can empathize as it’s nicked and hacked from every angle. 

First there was the horrific oil spill and the PR nightmare fo… Read full post »

They call it practicing safe policy. (That’ll be the day.) The rest of us call it safe something else.

As I meandered my way out of Central Park winding through the panoply street vendors and portrait sketchers, one woman caught my eye: she had a giant banner attached… Read full post »