Latin America

CORRECTION: The review misspelled the name of one of the people who raised the author. It is Bernardine Dohrn. GRINGO A Coming of Age in Latin America By Chesa Boudin Scribner. 224 pp. $25 For too long, Latin America has been a proving ground for U.S. political passions. The right aspires to dominate it. The left sees it as a means to justify ideological ends. When we're not ignoring it altogether, we stage CIA coups there or sport Che T-shirts at anti-free-market rallies.

Will wonders never cease? In the midst of an unprecedented avalanche of negative media against traditional religious values and the groups espousing them, a strongly pro-traditional religious values story made the cover of the most recent Time (April 15, 2013). Titled "The Latino Reformation," the story's subtitle, "Inside the new Hispanic churches transforming religion in America," describes how the tremendous upsurge in Latino "born-again" evangelicals is transforming not only Latino culture, but American Christianity.

Latin America is going Brazilian. Previously, it was only Brazil, the region's biggest economy, that complained about the competitive devaluations generated by money-printing in the west, the so-called currency wars. Now, however, as Japan joins the rush to print money and devalue, the more orthodox and free-trading Latin economies — investor darlings such as Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru — also fear catching a bullet. The issue may well dominate this week's Group of 20 meeting in Moscow, given that Asian exporters such as...

HUGO CHAVEZ may be dead, but the offensive he led against democratic institutions in Venezuela and across Latin America has not slackened. In fact, it may be accelerating, especially with regard to independent media. Last week the beleaguered owner of the last Venezuelan television station not subservient to the government announced that he was selling his shares to a businessman close to the ruling party. Guillermo Zuloaga , the majority owner of the Globovision network, was forced into exile in the United States in 2010 by the...

IPOJUCA, Brazil — Here on Brazil's northeast coast, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dreamed of building an oil refinery and naming it after a Brazilian adventurer who had fought for Venezuela's independence. The joint venture with Brazil, he said in trips here, would help unify Latin America against his adversary, the United States. The $15 billion refinery is now two years away from completion, but with little input from Venezuela or its mercurial president, who for years backed projects regionwide in his drive to make Venezuela...

HUGO CHAVEZ may be dead, but the offensive he led against democratic institutions in Venezuela and across Latin America has not slackened. In fact, it may be accelerating, especially with regard to independent media. Last week the beleaguered owner of the last Venezuelan television station not subservient to the government announced that he was selling his shares to a businessman close to the ruling party. Guillermo Zuloaga , the majority owner of the Globovision network, was forced into exile in the United States in ...

Latin America has never mattered more to the United States. The region is the largest foreign supplier of oil to the United States and a strong partner in the development of alternative fuels. It is one of the United States's fastest growing trading partners, and its biggest supplier of illegal drugs. Latin America is also the largest source of U.S. immigrants, both documented and undocumented. No less important, nearly all Latin American nations are now vibrant, if imperfect, democracies.

LONDON — After his doctor advised him against making grueling transatlantic trips, Pope Benedict XVI faced a dilemma . If the ailing 85-year-old obeyed the advice, he would have to do the almost unthinkable: avoid World Youth Day, a huge jamboree of the young faithful set to take place this July in the most Catholic country in the world, Brazil. Latin America accounts for 40 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, and if temporal concerns such as majority voting have any sway over the cardinals' conclave,...

WASHINGTON -- My mother just wrapped up her annual visit. Usually, she would take over our house and our lives. But this time it was different. Two weeks in, she looked at me, pointed in my direction and said: "I hope you never get old. " This past year has not been easy for my mother -- one of the most energetic persons I've ever known. She has lost strength in her hands and often her legs don't do what she wants them to do. Opening a water bottle or using stairs and escalators are now nearly...

With his government increasingly isolated by sanctions and facing the U.S. Navy close to home, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flew Sunday to Venezuela to meet with a like-minded leader who shares his goal of challenging the United States, President Hugo Chavez. The arrival of Ahmadinejad in the Venezuelan capital, to be followed by a swing this week through Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador, allows Iran to show that it still has friends and economic partners despite sanctions designed to cripple its nuclear program.

South America, a continent known to many Americans largely for roiling politics, economic turmoil and good beaches, now finds itself in possession of the global image trifecta: a World Cup (in 2014), a Summer Olympics (2016) and a new pope (Francis). When the College of Cardinals decided to go to the Western Hemisphere for a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, they didn't choose the archbishops of Boston or New York or a cardinal from Quebec. They tapped the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.

With her friend President Hugo Chavez dead, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner came to Venezuela dressed in black and ready to mourn. Jose "Pepe" Mujica, a former rebel turned president of Uruguay, flew at once from the other side of the continent. Evo Morales, the Aymara Indian president of Bolivia, choked up as he spoke of "being very hurt" by Chavez's passing as he stood just feet from where El Comandante lay in state. From Central America to...

‘To lead" and "to seduce" have a single root in the Latin language. They are intimately tied in Venezuela, as well. For all of President Hugo Chavez's failures as a leader, he was a supremely successful politician, a brilliant beguiler. It is a testament to his seductive powers that after 14 tempestuous years of rule — two of them in the clutches of a devastating illness, which finally claimed his life Tuesday — he continues to have a near-mythical hold on...

LONDON — After his doctor advised him against making grueling transatlantic trips, Pope Benedict XVI faced a dilemma . If the ailing 85-year-old obeyed the advice, he would have to do the almost unthinkable: avoid World Youth Day, a huge jamboree of the young faithful set to take place this July in the most Catholic country in the world, Brazil. Latin America accounts for 40 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, and if temporal concerns such as majority voting have any sway over the cardinals' conclave, the ...

Latin America is going Brazilian. Previously, it was only Brazil, the region's biggest economy, that complained about the competitive devaluations generated by money-printing in the west, the so-called currency wars. Now, however, as Japan joins the rush to print money and devalue, the more orthodox and free-trading Latin economies — investor darlings such as Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru — also fear catching a bullet. The issue may well dominate this week's Group of 20 meeting in Moscow,...

Pope Benedict XVI's sudden announcement that he would resign by the end of the month took the church and the world by surprise, in large part because it was a move without precedent in the modern world. But what comes next is as old and familiar as the papacy itself: Speculating about who will succeed to the Throne of St. Peter. Indeed, within months of Benedict's own election in 2005, church insiders and online oddsmakers were trying to figure out who might be...

BOGOTA, Colombia — Quite suddenly, whether intentional or not, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner became the standard-bearer of populist nationalism in Latin America when her country seized a Spanish oil company last week. The takeover of YPF enthralled Argentines and drew praise from nationalists as far away as Venezuela, even as the radical political left in Latin America struggles with questions about its future. The region's most bombastic leader, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez , who says his...

Guns. Drugs. Poverty. These three words sum up the view too many people in the U.S. have of Latin America. Fueled by media reports of massacres in Mexico , Maoist rebellions in Peru , and grinding poverty in the hillside favelas of Brazil, this view of Latin America is ingrained in Americans' collective conscious. Except, of course, this view is no longer valid. Yes, Latin America struggles with these problems but to a far lesser degree than we may think. And, in fact, Latin America is both more economically...

Now those bats sound scary . . . and they do exist, but only in Latin America. Vampire bats are the only mammals that live entirely on blood — usually that of horses or cattle. They seldom bite humans, but they might if their usual food sources are not available. The danger that vampire bats present is not that they will drink all of an animal's blood but that they might pass on a disease.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Management Sciences for Health Jonathan Quick, MD, MPH , a family physician and health management specialist, is the President and CEO of Management Sciences for Health (MSH). An international non-profit organization with teams in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, MSH builds local capacity to achieve greater health impact through stronger health systems. Dr. Quick was director of Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy at the World Health Organization from 1996 to 2004.