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In Venezuela, the end is near: “President Hugo Chávez delegated to Vice President Nicolás Maduro increased administrative duties on a bunch of financial areas, further sparking rumors about the real health condition of the Venezuelan leader. In a decree issued Wednesday from his hospital bed in Havana, Chávez granted Maduro the power to perform all Read More
There has been much talk regarding the transparency of the non-binding referendum held on Nov. 6 of this year in Puerto Rico. Most recently, the singer and actor Ricky Martin suggested the last referendum election doesn’t reflect public sentiment. This statement comes as no surprise considering 54 percent of the population voted against Partido Nuevo Progresista Read More
Professor George Ciccariello-Maher thinks post-Chávez Venezuela needs to be more like it is today: “Since [Chávez's] election, Venezuela has been fundamentally transformed. Poverty has been cut in half and extreme poverty by three-quarters, education and health care —once reserved for the wealthy— are now freely available to all Venezuelans. More important than these considerable improvements Read More
Amidst unrelenting violence on the island of Puerto Rico, calls for peace. “Puerto Ricans on and off the island came together on Saturday night to show solidarity with their homeland, which is experiencing record-breaking levels of crime, in an event called ‘Un Abrazo Para Puerto Rico.’ With lit candles and signs reading ‘We are all Read More
BBC News provides an excellent overview of what’s at stake in Tuesday’s two-part referendum concerning Puerto Rico’s future political status: “The first asks voters whether they want to keep the island’s current status. The second asks whether they would prefer independence, US statehood, or an option known as ‘sovereign free association’ with the US that Read More
Che lives!… just not at Urban Outfitters anymore. “After drawing public criticism for offering shirts emblazoned with the image of Argentine-born guerrilla leader Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, the company no longer appears to offer the product. A total of 10 stores contacted by The Huffington Post said they no longer sell Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara shirts. The Read More
Tonight marks the last of 2012′s three presidential debates. This last one, which focuses on foreign policy, is being held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, perhaps the most ironic setting for a political debate. Most Americans may feel the urge to tune out of the last debate and return to their regularly scheduled programming. Read More
More of the same in Puerto Rico. From La Opinión: “Fifty-one percent of Puerto Ricans favor maintaining the current political status that connects the Caribbean island with the United States, according to a poll published today [October 10] in El Nuevo Día less than a month from the November 6th plebiscite that will ask the population Read More
As drug-related violence threatens to rip Latin America to shreds, some of the region’s key figures took to the podium at the United Nations on Wednesday to push for a better alternative to the “war on drugs.” From Fox News Latino: “In an unusually energetic address to the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly, Read More
The 23rd of September marks the anniversary of an important but much forgotten event in Puerto Rican history. On that day, in 1868, the struggle for an independent Puerto Rican nation was officially born when an island-wide uprising began in the western village of Lares. Placing the tricolor Revolutionary Flag of Lares on the altar Read More