Search results for: carlos alberto montaner

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 3 September 2016 — It may have been the largest march in Venezuela’s history. Did it serve for anything? We’ll get to that. I begin my analysis with a view of the government. Maduro and the Cuban DGI agents, who actually rule the country, faced a dilemma: in the face of … Continue reading “Do Massive Marches Serve a Purpose? / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 26 March 2016 – Spanish children used to play a game of imagination, listing the things carried in ships from the colonies: “A ship has come from Havana carrying: pineapples, lace, sugar,” whatever. It was a playful exercise in which fantasy and vocabulary mixed as a teaching tool. Barack Obama, … Continue reading “A President Has Come to Havana Carrying… / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 19 March 2016 – The United States president has not yet set foot in Cuba and the regime has already begun the bombardment. First it was a long editorial in the Party newspaper Granma. The essence? Cuba will not move its socialist and anti-imperialist positions a single millimeter, including its … Continue reading “Obama in Cuba / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 20 February 2016 — Obama will go to Havana in March. The trip is part of his change of policy regarding the island. He wants, as John Paul II asked, for “Cuba to open itself to the world and the world to open itself to Cuba.” That includes, as suggested by … Continue reading “Obama and Raul Castro: Encounters and Disagreements / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 31 January 2016 – Let’s get right down to it. The current conflict that divides half the planet, and especially Latin Americans, is between neo-populism and authoritarian democracy, against liberal democracy. I just developed a short course on the subject at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala. I do not know … Continue reading “Our Everyday War / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 24 January 2016 — Evo Morales has already served 10 years as president of Bolivia. He is the person who has occupied the post for the longest consecutive time since Simón Bolívar was inaugurated in 1825. He is in his third term. It will end in 2019. It seems too little. He … Continue reading “A Calamity Called Evo / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 16 January 2016 — Again, thousands of Cubans are preparing to enter the United States. The first have already arrived. It is an old and exhausted story. They have come in massive numbers since 1959, when the Castro brothers’ communist dictatorship began. This time they are coming via Costa Rica. Since 1966, Cubans have … Continue reading “The Unfinished Cold War / Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 9 January 2016 – I couldn’t avoid the sense of déjà vu. It brought to mind Eduardo Suarez, formerly with El Mundo, a professional of the image with a fine instinct for the news. Hugo Chavez’s photographs being expelled from the new Venezuelan National Assembly brought back to me the unforgettable … Continue reading “The Day the Prisoners Are Freed in Venezuela / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 2 January 2016 — The Castros have been in power for 57 years. At this point, general curiosity is limited to formulating three disturbing questions. Why have they lasted so long? Is it a failure, as their opponents say, or a success, as their supporters claim? What will happen after … Continue reading “Cuba And The Three Questions / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 12 December 2015 — Has the Latin American Spring finally sprung? Perhaps. There are signs. Antonio Machado records the doubt in his Canciones: “Spring has come, nobody knows how.” All springs are different. Eastern Europe’s, in the second half of the eighties, was possible because the stars surprisingly aligned themselves under … Continue reading “The Latin American Spring / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 9 December 2015 – We are gathered on Human Rights Day, a great opportunity to offer Ricardo Bofill the tribute he deserves. Bofill, Gustavo and Sebastian Arcos, Martha Frayde and another handful of patriots, changed the history of Cuba from the depths of a cell. They were imprisoned for opposing the … Continue reading “Tribute to Ricardo Bofill / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 23 November 2015 — The victory of Mauricio Macri in Argentina is the triumph of common sense over strained discourse and failed emotions. It is also the arrival of modernity and the burial of a populist stage that should have disappeared long ago. There is a successful way of governing. It is the … Continue reading “Macri And The End Of Populism In Argentina / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 21 November 2015 — Another stampede of Cubans. It happens from time to time. An editorial in Costa Rica’s La Nación offers a strong description of how the government of that country reacted: “First duty, to protect the victims.” The Costa Ricans gave them transit visas and, as they are stranded at the border, quickly … Continue reading “The Sad Ballad of Cuban Emigration / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”