Venezuela

Megalomania and farce: a visit with the unique Hugo Chávez

In 2010, Christopher Hitchens described his audience with Hugo Chávez. It is reprinted here.

2013 FLORIDA LEGISLATURE

The freshman 15: South Florida’s newest lawmakers

There are 59 new members of the Florida Legislature and they have a variety of different experiences. Here are the 15 locals.

CUBA

Five years later: Cuba under Raúl: He’s tinkered but it’s the same old machine

Fidel’s brother has tinkered with the Soviet-style model, but it is still the Soviet-style model.

Brothers to the Rescue remembered

Opinion: Salute to the Brothers to the Rescue fliers shot down on this day by Cuba

The writer was a little girl adrift on a raft in the Florida Straits when Brothers to the Rescue lived up to their name.

To Our Readers

From the editor: A reporter’s pursuit of a bid to rig votes

The item that caught Patricia Mazzei’s eye was only a few paragraphs in a 49-page grand jury report released in December.

Memorial Day

South Florida vets cope with wounds not always visible

Home from overseas wars, South Floridians cope with wounds that aren’t always visible

Does wanting to tax millionaires more help re-elect Obama?

The White House and congressional Democrats think they have the ideal issue to use against Republicans all year — that the GOP is eager to give tax breaks to the rich.

The war on terror

Why Obama hasn’t closed Guantánamo camps

The president is himself a prisoner, hemmed in by rules that make releasing captives nearly impossible.

CIA’s Bay of Pigs foreign policy laid bare

A recently released, and brutally honest, look at the run-up to the disastrous Bay of Pigs Operation focuses on the CIA’s prominent role.

With tour lined up, Palin's looking more like a candidate

Since former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shot to fame after her 2008 vice presidential bid, she's kept her intentions — if not her ambitions — closely held. But on Thursday, Palin's ambitions began to look increasingly presidential. Her political action committee announced that she'd launch a multi-state tour over the Memorial Day weekend, beginning at a motorcycle rally in Washington and winding its way up the East Coast to New Hampshire, the site of the nation's first presidential primary.

IN MY OPINION

Stadium plan a 'bifurcated rip-off'

The Dolphins will seek a new state law that could increase bed taxes in both Miami-Dade and Broward, and would allow Broward officials to send its revenues across the county line to help renovate the football stadium. This is what you call a bifurcated rip-off.

IN MY OPINION

Don't censor Mark Twain's N word

While intentions to delete the N word from 'Huck Finn' are good, the fix is profoundly wrong. Here's why.

TO OUR READERS

A year’s worth of agony, hope, courage in one-hour documentary

This Tuesday, on the eve of the first-year commemoration of the earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000, The Miami Herald will have a premiere screening of Nou Bouke: Haiti’s Past, Present and Future, a one-hour documentary that is a collaboration between The Herald, El Nuevo Herald, award-winning filmmaker Joe Cardona and WPBT Channel 2, one of South Florida’s PBS affiliates.

CULTURE WARS

The politics of coming out of the closet

George W. Bush's 2004 campaign manager announced recently that he is gay. The reaction has been a primer on the politics of sexual identity.

GAYS IN THE MILITARY

Gay sailor Keith Meinhold, who fought for his career, is still vigilant

Keith Meinhold of Miami Shores doesn't want to be known simply as the ``gay sailor.'' But he is gay, he did serve in the Navy, and he played a pivotal public role in the events leading up to today's rekindled debate over whether gays can serve openly in the military.

ISSUES AND IDEAS

In Haiti, funerals become eulogies for a nation

Death in Haiti takes a twisted turn for the Miami Herald's Caribbean correspondent Jacqueline Charles.

Budget cuts: Where the hurt is

Miami-Dade Commission budget cuts are affecting more than the bottom line.

TO OUR READERS

New series explores 50 years of events that bound U.S., Cuba

From the day she landed on one of the Freedom Flights as an excited, frightened 7-year-old, Luisa Yanez has been fascinated by the massive U.S. airlift that brought her and 265,000 other Cubans to the United States four decades ago.

NORTHWESTERN HIGH GRADUATION

Mom attends killed son's Northwestern High graduation

A young victim's mother made the difficult decision to attend a graduation ceremony in his place.

OVERTOWN

Overtown grandmother haunted by loved one's violent death

A grandmother who thought she'd always live in her neighborhood has lost two loved ones and now just hopes to get out.