Smart Reads April 16, 2013
♦ JP Rathbone looks at the fading of Chávez’s political dream in Venezuela, arguing that the results of Sunday’s election represent “no kind of mandate for [Nicolás] Maduro or the radical socialism he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Venezuela and its Mad Max reality
Supporters of Henrique Capriles protest on April 15 (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images) “I will continue governing the country with its people. Street government.” So tweeted Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cyber-snooping: how do they do it where you are?
News that the US government monitors vast amounts of private communications data has divided opinion at home and caused outrage in Europe. But what lengths do other countries go to in order to keep...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Waiting for Snow in Havana
Edward Snowden is fast becoming a hot potato nobody wants to handle. Russia does not want him – so he can’t leave the legally-grey area of the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on foot. He...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Venezuela: the Revolution will not be televised
First protests; then inevitable casualties and recriminations. Life is getting harder on the mean streets of Venezuela’s cities. But that does not mean that a change of regime is in the offing. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Venezuela as Ukraine?
“We could turn Venezuela into Ukraine!” a student protester shouted in Caracas this weekend. It is striking how similar the situations are in the two countries, despite the significant differences....
View ArticleSmart Reads April 22, 2014
The pragmatists have won out over the radical idealogues in Venezuela’s administration and Nicolás Maduro is starting to take orthodox steps to repair the economy. Israel is staying out of the fracas...
View ArticleSmart Reads 14 November 2014
A sea patrol to help cope with a surge in the number of migrants heading for Italy via the southern Mediterranean was launched this month, but at least 100 miles of dangerous water between Lampedusa...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cigars all round: the thaw in US-Cuba relations
US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy signs the order of naval blockade of Cuba, on October 24, 1962 in White House. Getty. It was on February 7 1962 that John F Kennedy signed the US policy now known...
View ArticleSmart Reads March 6, 2013
We look back at the life of the quixotic and controversial Hugo Chávez. The reaction to his death has been low key in China, raising questions about its relationship with Venezuela. China may think...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Was Chavez the last of a kind?
In recent years, it was Hugo Chávez – far more than Fidel Castro – who was the international face of Latin American radicalism: the spiritual heir to Che, Perón and Castro himself. Now that Chávez is...
View ArticleSmart Reads March 7, 2013
The Pentagon’s warnings about the threats it faces are falling on deaf ears. Geoff Dyer explains why “if the military is to fend off much bigger cuts to its budget in the coming years, it will need to...
View ArticleSmart Reads April 8, 2013
Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died after suffering a stroke. “She changed us all,” said Charles Powell, one of the Iron Lady’s closest aides. David Gardner’s Global Insight column is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How can-do Colombia left Venezuela in the shade
The optimism of the early Chávez years is fading (Getty) Landing in Maiquetia, Venezuela’s main international airport, is always a bit like stepping through the looking glass no matter where you’re...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Venezuela: six challenges for Chávez’s successor
(JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images) On April 14, Venezuelans will choose a president for the second time in less than a year. Hugo Chávez won October’s election; following his death, it’s expected that his...
View ArticleSmart Reads April 12, 2013
♦ Kenya’s new leader Uhuru Kenyatta is proving deft at politics even with a charge for crimes against humanity hanging over his head. ♦ Jonathan Soble looks at the dilemma that Haruhiko Kuroda faces...
View ArticleSmart Reads, 9 February 2015
Venezuelan émigrés in Florida with fierce anti-Chavez views are aiming to steer US foreign policy on their homeland, just as exiled Cubans did The postponement of Nigeria’s elections offers President...
View ArticleSmart Reads February 4, 2013
Olfa Riahi, a blogger who published bills for the Sheraton hotel in Tunis which allegedly show a stay by the foreign minister at government expense and the suggestion of an extramarital affair, has...
View Article
