Latin America

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Cuban Vote Signals Future of Castro
Cuban Vote
Signals Future of Castro

Cuban Vote Signals Future of Castro

He could resign by leaving name off ballot next year

(Newser) - National parliamentary elections—which could mark a formal end to Fidel Castro's rule—will be held on Jan. 20, the AP reports. The ailing Castro must be re-elected to Cuba's National Assembly to regain his position as president. If he withholds his name from the ballot, "he is effectively...

Latinas Lead New Revoluci&oacute;n
Latinas Lead New Revolución

Latinas Lead New Revolución

Kirchner is the latest woman to take the reins in a Latin American country

(Newser) - Latin America is hardly crying for Argentines who elected Cristina Fernández de Kirchner president as the latest in the region's new wave of female leaders. Voters in countries still emerging from dictatorships and financial ruin are looking for new politicians, reports the NY Times, and Kirchner's election follows that...

Businesses Line Up for .Asia Domain Rush

Governments also get first dibs on coveted new address suffix

(Newser) - The regional internet domain .asia has opened for registration; businesses and governments will get first crack at trademarked and other protected names. The public will come rushing in to scoop up what’s left of the suffix in February 2008. The second regional domain—.eu began selling in April 2006—...

Che's Legacy Fading in Latin America

Today's leftists pick ballots over armed rebellion

(Newser) - Che Guevara’s face still adorns T-shirts, mugs, even bikinis, but today's Latin leftists are picking modern means to his ends, Reuters reports. Recent articles are blasting the cult of Guevara while lefty leaders plug elections over armed rebellion. “Ours is 21st Century socialism," says Ecuador’s president....

Che Killer Gets Free Gift From Cuba

Medical care extended to Bolivian who gunned down the hero

(Newser) - One week before the 40th anniversary of Che Guevera’s death, Cuban Communists are trumpeting the news that their own doctors recently saved the eyesight of the Bolivian who pulled the trigger. A Cuban program offering free surgery in Latin America removed cataracts from the eyes of Mario Teran, the...

Latin Neighbors Mistrust Chavez
Latin Neighbors Mistrust Chavez

Latin Neighbors Mistrust Chavez

'Chavismo' unloved in region, which is making democratic strides

(Newser) - Hugo Chavez's regional popularity is largely hot air, a Pew survey shows, concluding that the Venezuelan president is “widely mistrusted.” In large numbers, Latin Americans also agree that “most people are better off in a free market economy”—including 72% of Chavez’s countrymen, Weekly Standard’...

Dems' Miami Debate Makes Foray Into Spanish

First presidential debate translated live on Univision

(Newser) - Democratic hopefuls took part in a Spanish-language debate in Miami yesterday, having questions translated UN-style from Spanish to English, and answers back again into Spanish. Though he'd agreed to the ground rules, bilingual contender Bill Richardson couldn't resist  asking in Spanish if he could continue in Spanish, and Sen. Chris...

Beyond Chavez: The Other Latin America Is Booming

Brazil and Mexico lead in growth, reform

(Newser) - Despite the rhetorical drumbeat from Hugo Chavez, not all of Latin America is mired in poverty exacerbated by free-market extremes exported from the US, the Economist writes. Led by giants Brazil and Mexico, much of the region is actually better off now than at any time in 30 years; the...

CIA Superspy Unmasks After 3 Decades

Clandestine service head blows own cover before retirement

(Newser) - As he prepares for retirement, the CIA's chief spymaster has elected to reveal his true identity, the AP reports. Jose Rodriguez spent more than 30 years undercover, much of the time in Latin America; the Puerto Rico native has headed the agency's clandestine service since 2004. An agency spokesman says...

Gates Sambas Out of Latin American Tour

Stays home to bolster Iraq war support after GOP desertions

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled a tour of Latin America just hours before he was set to depart in an effort to help shore up faltering support for the Iraq War, Bloomberg reports. Gates will stay home to prepare for the administration's July 15 update to Congress on the progress...

Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control
Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control

Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control

Cheaper pills give poor women same right to family planning, says president

(Newser) - Just weeks after Pope Benedict XVI decried contraception as a threat to the future of Latin America on his visit to Brazil, Brazil's president announced that the government would subsidize birth control pills at private pharmacies so poor women can have "the same right that the wealthy have to...

Pope: Marxism, Capitalism Hold Latin America Back

Also, contraception and secularism

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI blamed both capitalism and Marxism for Latin America's problems in a speech yesterday in Brazil, the world's most Catholic nation. Benedict blamed Marxism for "a painful destruction of the human spirit," but also worried that capitalism gives rise to "degradation of personal dignity through...

Venezuela to Leave IMF, World Bank
Venezuela to Leave IMF, World Bank

Venezuela to Leave IMF, World Bank

Chávez government exerts state control over privately owned oil projects

(Newser) - Hugo Chávez said yesterday he will pull Venezuela out of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, institutions the leftist leader blames for contributing to poverty in Latin America. Venezuela will also take control of foreign oil projects previously run by multinational companies, some U.S.-based, in...

Mexico City Legalizes Abortion
Mexico City Legalizes Abortion

Mexico City Legalizes Abortion

City leaders defy bitter opposition from government and church

(Newser) - Mexico City has passed a law legalizing first-trimester abortions and offering them virtually free. The move by the city's predominantly leftist leadership was bitterly opposed by the Catholic Church and Mexico's conservative government, CNN reports.

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