Word: regionals
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...turned out that an Italian seismologist, Giampaolo Giuliani, had warned a few weeks ago that an earthquake was likely to strike the region, but officials had poured cold water on his work and accused him of spreading false information. Many scientists still believe that it is impossible to predict earthquakes, and many people that it is impossible to adequately guard against them...
When I started covering Latin America 20 years ago, a leftist source asked what books I'd read to help myself understand the region's manera de pensar, or psyche. I fidgeted and mentioned Octavio Paz's Labyrinth of Solitude. He shrugged. José Martí's Our America? Eh. How about everything by Gabriel García Márquez? (Although I had to admit that was to impress women.) He shook his head and handed me Eduardo Galeano's The Open Veins of Latin America - the same book Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez made a show...
...Pillage of a Continent - and you know why the left-wing, anti-U.S. Chávez would present it to a U.S. President. The book's thesis is that Spain, then Britain, the U.S. and Latin oligarchs ransacked Latin American resources, from copper to crude, bleeding the region of its natural wealth and its sovereign dignity. But even if you don't subscribe to its Marxist-tinged polemic, The Open Veins is one of the best introductions to the longstanding Latin grievances that keep producing populist leaders like Chávez. It was an appropriate gift for Obama...
...recent months, with Obama suggesting that Chávez supported Colombian guerrilla violence and Chávez suggesting, as a result, that Obama was an "ignoramus." To many observers it was a toss-up whether Chávez - who has pledged that he and his leftist allies in the region will not sign the gathering's final declaration, to protest the fact that communist Cuba is still not invited to these summits - would upbraid Obama in Port of Spain or, given Obama's international popularity, reach out to him. But they shared a warm handshake Friday night, during which Obama...
...seems, does the rest of the region after this summit. To most Latin Americans, Obama could not present a starker contrast to his predecessor, George W. Bush, whom Chávez once called "the devil" and whose relations with the hemisphere were strained at best. Even Bill Clinton as President didn't set foot south of the border until five months into his second term. Latin America, according to many experts, has the worst gap between rich and poor of any region in the world - a big reason why the U.S. has so many immigration-policy headaches. And what Obama...