#latin-america-criticism

#latin-america-criticism

The Korean wave or hallyu that brought the country's culture to the world has now well and truly engulfed Latin America.

The January 3rd Operation Absolute Resolve ousted Venezuelan Dictator Nicholas Maduro, marking a significant shift in US policy towards countering adversarial influence in the western hemisphere.

Valeria Luiselli, an acclaimed author, discusses the intricacies of Julio Cortázar's 'The Night Face Up,' highlighting its themes and narrative structure that intertwine reality and dreams.

Espina humorously admitted to oversleeping on a significant news day, stating, 'Breaking news, mi gente! I can't believe it.' His videos celebrated Maduro's fall but also expressed concern about the complexities of the situation.

There are politics in my songs, but not propaganda, says the musician, who receives EL PAIS on Wednesday at the Ojala studios in Havana. He speaks of the government's orthodox and closed vision in the economic sphere, and of his commitment to a less rigid socialism.

Cuba's government said Thursday night that it would release 51 people from the island's prisons in an unexpected move. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the release in the upcoming days stems from a spirit of goodwill and close relations with the Vatican. The government did not identify who it would release, except to say that 'all have served a significant part of their sentence and have maintained good conduct in prison.'

She explained that she was facing bureaucratic hurdles in obtaining her degree to qualify as a senior technician in dental prosthetics. And, even with the diploma, it would be difficult to survive on a monthly salary of 3,000 pesos (about $6). In Cuba, she said, you have to be a magician to survive the nonexistent transportation, the inflation, the corruption, [or] the fact that the country is operating with a currency that not everyone can access.

Jose Antonio Kast, a 60-year-old ultra Catholic whose father was a member of the Nazi party, has consistently blocked progressive bids for women's rights and equality across his three-decade career in politics. As a congressman, Kast voted against divorce when Chile became one of the last countries of the world to legalise it in 2004 and vehemently opposed the legalisation of abortion under limited exceptions when it was passed in 2017.

This is not a simple administrative issue, but a renewed attempt by the center-right government of Rodrigo Paz to sweep aside the memory of the world's most famous guerrilla fighter, who was assassinated in the Bolivian village of La Higuera in 1967. Since Bolivia's Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) lost power to the new government last year, several attempts have been made to rid the country of Guevara's legacy.

I believe Venezuela is a different country after January 3. An external factor became an event that dramatically altered the internal landscape. Obviously, there's a new dynamic: the players have shifted. These events caught the opposition off guard. The U.S. government has made controversial and complicated decisions, but they offer the country an opportunity.

The 1980s bring revolutionary wars, CIA-backed conflict and the violent birth of a new democratic era. Episode 2: Wars begins with Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution, which promised egalitarian transformation through literacy crusades. But civil war erupted as United States President Ronald Reagan's administration covertly backed the Contra rebels, plunging the nation into turmoil and suffering. Panama transitioned from Omar Torrijos's diplomatic triumphs over the Panama Canal to Manuel Noriega's sinister collaboration with both the CIA and drug cartels.

Otherworldly forms greet you at the entrance to the exhibition, transporting you into a kaleidoscopic, dream-like space. A voice speaks in the background as projected images dance across the forms, animating the space. "It's been really beautiful to see her work come alive, become a landscape ... where you can traverse and kind of get lost," curator Fabiola R. Delgado says of Lisu Vega's "The Uncertain Future of Absence (El Futuro Incierto de la Ausencia)" (2025).

Taking a taxi in Havana is an increasingly difficult mission, growing more complicated and expensive from one day to the next as drivers run out of the rationed gasoline they receive. When you say taxi, you might find an almendron—a classic car used for public transportation—a gacela—one of the government's yellow minibuses—a cocotaxi—a motorized tricycle with a shell—a bicitaxi—a man pedaling for tourists under an umbrella—a motorcycle, an electric tricycle, or even a horse-drawn carriage.

The Cuban Revolution was more successful at exporting its epic narrative than any other tangible commodity. Not even sugarcane, tobacco or rum can compare. The face of Che Guevara transformed into left-wing merchandise, the stoic image of Fidel Castro with a cigar in his mouth defying the 600 assassination attempts orchestrated against him by the CIA, and the slogan that Cuban education and healthcare are the best in the world have been an important part of the global progressive ideation from 1959 to the present.

Mexico's defense of Cuba hasn't been limited to President Sheinbaum's daily press conferences. Prominent Morena figures from parliamentary spokespeople to party president Luisa Alcalde have publicly aligned themselves with Havana. Within Morena, a broad and sometimes divided political family, the party's more orthodox or nostalgic left wing has embraced the Cuban crisis as an ideological cause and is pushing for even closer ties with Havana.