Martin Espada is a poet and English professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He talks here with poet E. Ethelbert Miller.
Interview with Martin Espada
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Latin America & Caribbean
Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, and the Rest of the World
No Memorials for Pinochet
General Augusto Pinochet’s ashes have barely been scattered and already the debate in Chile has begun over how he should be remembered. Right-wing politicians have proposed a bill in the Chilean congress to erect three monuments in his honor. Municipal leaders of Las Condes, a wealthy Santiago suburb, plan to name a street after him. Chile’s Defense Minister has suggested that Pinochet might merit a bust to accompany other past presidents in La Moneda presidential palace.
Spirit of Christmas Pastand Future
> George Washington samples some rum.
Release Secret Documents Now
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s death robbed his victims and their families of the chance to obtain full justice. But they can still pursue the full truth. And the U.S. government can help.
The Pinochet Precedent
The news that a priest had performed "last rites" for Augusto Pinochet on Sunday was as disappointing for his opponents as his supporters. With a battery of human rights cases pending against the 91-year-old former Chilean dictator, there was still hope that he might one day see the inside of a jail cell, or at least a court room.
United Nations v. United States
This is a moment of several overlapping transitions at the United Nations. A new secretary-general will take over when Kofi Annan’s 10 years are up at the end of December. New countries will join the Security Council as temporary members. And UN agencies are choosing new leadership.
Hurricane Milton
While economists laud the recently deceased Milton Friedman for being Âa champion of freedom whose work transformed economics and changed the world, as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times put it, people in the South will remember the University of Chicago professor as the eye of a human hurricane that cut a swath of destruction through their economies. For them, Friedman will long be associated with two things: free-market reform in Chile and Âstructural adjustment in the developing world.
Walls, Amnesty, and False Choices
The national immigration debate largely is split between two camps.
Garca’s First 100 Days
Inaugurated last July, Peruvian President Alan García Perez completed the first 100 days of his second administration in early November. Winning a run-off in the June elections with 52% of the vote, García inherited a country torn by divisive socioeconomic and political issues. His first three months in office have been marked by a combination of policy innovation and continuity as he seeks to find workable solutions to difficult problems.