Published in The Miami Herald
July 15, 2010
Women in Latin America have come a long way but aren’t there yet. The legacy of Iberian colonialism, male-centered Catholicism and an undemocratic past all contributed to societies that subjugated women to men. Economic backwardness also compounded the unfriendly ambience for women in the region.
Expanding [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
July 1, 2010
In 1988, Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, the Bar Association of the City of New York and, most notably, the then-U.N. Commission on Human Rights all sent delegations to Cuba.
A year earlier the UNCHR first [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
June 3, 2010
Until Tuesday, we were in a holding pattern. Then Havana finally began the transfer of six men out of 53 still imprisoned during the Black Spring of 2003 to jails closer to their homes.
On May 19, Raúl Castro met with Jaime Ortega — cardinal and archbishop of Havana — [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
May 20, 2010
At a meeting of the Río Group in February, a Group of Friends led by Dominican President Leonel Fernández offered to mediate the conflict between two neighbors. Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chávez accepted. When Colombia’s constitutional court banned Uribe from seeking a third consecutive term, however, [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
May 06, 2010
Last Sunday the Damas de Blanco — dressed in white with coral gladioli in their hands — resumed their customary walk after Mass at the Church of Santa Rita. Freedom again rang along the stately Fifth Avenue in Miramar, a Havana suburb.
For three weeks, government mobs had prevented the [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
April 23, 2010
Iran is a pariah regime. Claiming only peaceful purposes for its nuclear program, Tehran is processing uranium in quantities that say otherwise. In 2006, the U.N. Security Council first imposed sanctions while offering incentives for the regime to come clean. It hasn’t. Is an Iran armed with nuclear weapons [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
April 8, 2010
Things aren’t going well for Havana, and the regime simply doesn’t get it.
On Sunday, Raúl Castro said: “Today, more than ever before, the economic battle is the main task.” Yes, the economy is a battle but only because the regime stubbornly refuses to take the market [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
March 11, 2010
On March 8, Granma, the Communist Party daily, foretold the death of Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez. On a hunger strike since Feb. 24, he is demanding that two dozen political prisoners in ill health be freed. Cuba can’t be blackmailed or pressured, Granma noted, nor would it [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
February 25, 2010
It happened in Cancún where 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries were meeting. At a private lunch, the group witnessed an unseemly encounter between Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chávez. Speaking off the record as is customary in these gatherings, Uribe called on Chávez to end Venezuela’s hindrance of trade [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
February 11, 2010
Until June 30, Spain holds the presidency of the European Union. Madrid has always taken the lead on Cuba, and so it has been since the Socialists won the 2004 election. Under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain prodded the EU to lift sanctions imposed after the Black Spring of [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
January 28, 2010
Politics is swirling everywhere. Such are the ways of democracies, especially when oppositions come alive and defeat or threaten incumbents.
On Jan. 17, Chileans elected Sebastián Piñera their president, the first time in 52 years that a conservative won at the polls. It’s tempting to cast his victory as Right [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
January 3, 2010
Cuba’s problems can’t be addressed under the leadership’s passé reformism. Raúl Castro is neither Gorbachev nor Deng Xiaoping, both of whom thought outside the box while in power. He is stuck in the old mold of market socialism: a tinker here, a nudge there, even though Europe’s 1989 should [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
December 17, 2009
Nicaragua is nearing the brink. In 2006 Daniel Ortega campaigned in sheep’s clothing but freed his inner wolf once inaugurated. He joined ALBA, Venezuela’s alliance of autocrats, traveled to Iran, Cuba, Libya and Algeria and used then-U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli as a punching bag. The Sandinista machinery of clientelism, [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
December 3, 2009
Along the Jersey side on the Hudson River, New York City stands vibrant if now forever scarred. Between 1892 and 1954, 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island, where a must-see museum renders tribute to their hopes and the country that blessed them.
Union City welcomed immigrants [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
November 5, 2009
The Obama administration may be going down a dead end. In an Oct. 13 meeting with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Obama said: “Tell Raúl that if he doesn’t take steps, I won’t be able to go further.” A few days later the Spanish foreign minister met [...]
Published by The Miami Herald
October 22, 2009
On Sunday, The Miami Herald’s ombudsman, Edward Schumacher-Matos, wrote about me. His thoughtful column gave due consideration to my personal story and the spy charges levied against me — not by the U.S. government but by a small clique on the blogosphere. What saddens me is that the column [...]
Published by The Miami Herald
October 8, 2009
The United States and Cuba are taking baby steps toward each other. Since President Obama called for a “new beginning,” his administration has allowed unlimited family travel and remittances, resumed migration talks, proposed direct-mail service and given its blessing to the concert by Colombian pop star Juanes. In the [...]
Published by The Miami Herald
September 10, 2009
Miami is an immigrant city. Heartland Americans often come here full of excitement. “So near and yet so foreign,” said a 1940s promotion by the Cuban Tourist Commission to attract American tourists. Not a bad motto for today’s Miami.
What heartland Americans would not find at all foreign are Miami’s [...]
Published by The Miami Herald
August 27, 2009
It’s been two months since the coup in Honduras. The Arias plan — issued by the Costa Rican president — calls for Manuel Zelaya’s return with diminished powers and an amnesty for all parties in the events before June 28 and since then. Hondurans and foreigners brandish powerful legal [...]
Published in The Miami Herald
July 30, 2009
I don’t know what else to call it. If a president is awakened by soldiers pointing their weapons in his face, what is it if not a coup? Still, Manuel Zelaya’s removal on June 28 can’t be treated as if it were a return to the 1970s when brutal [...]