His name is Fernando Lugo, a former Catholic bishop, and he projects the image of a good person, genuinely concerned by the calamities afflicting his Paraguayan compatriots.
LATIN AMERICA
Hugo Chávez is going to nationalize the steel mills and the big cement factories in Venezuela. Instead of creating a communist revolution, the Venezuelan president is buying it on the installment plan with his private river of petrodollars. He does not intend to stand the capitalists before a firing squad; he'll simply buy them out. He did it with the Caracas power plant and the telephone company, and he plans to do it again with every other important sector of the economy. Presidents...
CUBA
Raúl Castro will fail as a leader. When he inherited the presidency of Cuba, he took on three tasks: to hold on to power; to substantially improve the living conditions of fellow Cubans; and to strengthen the nation's current institutionality, so as to ensure the future transfer of authority without any surprises, especially after he and Fidel are dead.
LATIN AMERICA
The Rio Group somewhat resembles a school yard during recess. The kids insult each other, sometimes hit each other. Then the bell rings, the teacher arrives, stops the fight, tells them to shake hands, and they all return cheerfully to class.
CUBA
F idel leaves, but he stays. The first decision his brother Raúl made as brand-new president of Cuba was to delegate his powers and consult with Fidel on all the important issues. Parliament supported that proposal unanimously. There is a reason why these hapless deputies are known as ''the Havana Choir Boys.'' They form a puerile, pliant and well-tuned choir. They've been obeying for half a century and know nothing else. Surely, that was the condition demanded from Raúl so...
CUBA
Fidel Castro has decided to die as former president. He can no longer bear his infirmities. After half a century of being gloriously dressed in olive drab, disguised as a heroic guerrilla, it is very difficult to rule a country in a jogging suit, sitting on a rocking chair in a hospital.
LATIN AMERICA
The big oil companies are not much loved in Latin America. In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez has pounced on Exxon-Mobil. He has decided to punish it because the U.S. company sued his government in international court for nonobservance or violation of contracts. To Chávez, the exercise of a right in response to the violation of some accords is an affront to the nation and the Bolivarian revolution.
