Americas

When Colombian President Andres Pastrana Arango took office in August 1998, many  Colombians thought that their country might be headed for better times. Gone was Ernesto Samper Pizano, whose four-year presidential tenure was marred by charges of drug money corruption and the worst diplomatic relations with the US in Colombia’s history. During this period, Colombia’s guerrillas had become a formidable military force, taking control of about fifty percent of the country and making it almost ungovernable. read more

It’s a community only dreamers could visualize, and only outcasts could build. Surrounded by rebel-infested llanos (savannas) and vast coca plantations in Colombia, the presence of its peaceful rhythms and homegrown technologies is as hopeful as it is unlikely. A super-efficient pump fills water cisterns every time children play on the teeter-totter. Innovative solar collectors have been designed for refrigeration. Ostracism, not jail, punishes criminal behavior, but is rarely needed in this society of no police and no politicians. read more

Augusto Pinochet, ex-dictator of Chile, was detained by British authorities during the first week of October 1998 and Chile will never quite be the same. Nor will international human rights law, for that matter, which has been rocked by this precedent-setting case.

In Chile, we were all taken by total surprise when a British judge, acting on a warrant issued by Spanish courts investigating the deaths of Spanish nationals in Chile during Pinochet’s rule, ordered the former dictator held under guard as he recovered from back surgery. read more

Echoing the Russian novelist Dostoyevsky, Winston Churchill once declared, in his inimitably authoritative voice of empire, that how a society treated those it imprisoned was the surest indication of how civilized it was. Churchill himself had been incarcerated in South Africa when he was a young reporter covering the Boer War. And although conservative in much of his thinking, when it came to prisons, his underlying humanity and progressive instincts always shone through.

Unlike most Euro-establishment politicians of his generation, Churchill was also fairly sympathetic to the concept of the United States. He understood all too well that the cultural and political momentum was shifting irreversibly westward across the Atlantic, and at least partially reconciled himself to the notion that, perhaps, such a movement wasn’t an altogether bad idea. read more

"Everyone has the right to take part in the government of their country, directly or through freely chosen representatives … the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be universal and equal suffrage."
-Article 21, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Shouts of "democracy" and "the dictatorship is going to fall" rose from the throng of 2000-some students, workers, and professionals gathered in front of Peru’s Congress. Inside, legislators rancorously debated a proposed referendum on President Alberto Fujimori’s bid to run for a third term before the resolution was defeated by his Change 90-New Majority party, which dominates the House of Representatives. When the results were finally announced, the crowd surged in collective anger and frustration at the corruption of their country’s democratic institutions. More than 200 riot police responded with violence to disperse the crowd. read more

Our lives are haunted by secrets — things kept from us by society, friends, even our own families. Just when we think the whole story is on the table, another revelation can force us to reconsider how we look at the world, our leaders, and ourselves.