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You've heard of skunks at the garden party? Such as still-ruling Nicaraguan socialist strongman, Daniel Ortega, who got his famous nickname from none other than the great Ronald Reagan? Well, now we have pigs at the garden party of democracy, the Organization of American States' Summit of the Americas, and this time, quite literally. At the globally watched summit, locals released a bunch of pigs through the streets of the Peruvian capital of Lima, around the Plaza San Martin, which is one of its main public spaces, spray-painted with the names of Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, and Cuba's dictator, Raul...

Claiming he was just trying to free Josh Holt, a devout young Mormon from Utah held hostage by Venezuela's Maduro regime on phony charges, left-wing Illinois Democratic senator Dick Durbin isn't exactly credible about his real mission in his secret visit to Caracas this past week. Rep. Pete Sessions, a Dallas-based Republican, isn't exactly believable, either, given that he called his secret trip with Durbin "a peace mission" to Caracas last week.

Another 296 pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails were released Tuesday — exposing key Clinton aides doing favors for billionaires and, on one occasion, leaving the then-secretary of state’s daily schedule in an unlocked hotel room. The documents were released by Judicial Watch, which is suing to recover Clinton’s emails under Freedom of Information Act laws. In an April 2009 email to Clinton’s State Department aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, President Clinton’s former body man, Doug Band, the founder of corporate consultant Teneo, urgently asked them to set up a meeting with an ambassador for a major donor to the...

President Obama erred during a speech at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, when attempting to call the disputed archipelago by its Spanish name. Instead of saying Malvinas, however, Mr Obama referred to the islands as the Maldives, a group of 26 atolls off that lie off the South coast of India. Cristina Kirchner, the Argentine president, has renewed her country's sovereignty claim to the Falklands in the build-up to the 30th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the islands, which triggered the Falklands War, on April 2. She has accused David Cameron of maintaining a "colonial enclave"...

Note: The following text is a quote: Former State Department Official and Wife Arrested for Serving as Illegal Agents of Cuba for Nearly 30 Years Couple Allegedly Conspired to Provide Classified Information to Cuban Government A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government. The arrests were announced today by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Joseph Persichini, Jr.,...

U.S. President Barack Obama won praise on Saturday for reaching out to the Americas at a regional summit but Latin American and Caribbean leaders pressured him to end the long-standing U.S. embargo on Cuba. Obama, attending his first Summit of the Americas, has promised an era of better cooperation with the hemisphere and offered a new start to communist-ruled Cuba. He won early approval from left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The warm reception for Obama from countries from Brazil to Venezuela contrasted with the last Americas Summit four years ago in Argentina, where leftists like Chavez attacked the "imperialist" policies...

Incoming Global Warming Czar Carol Browner was — until last week — listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group that advocates what's called "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change. The Washington Times reports Browner's name and biography were listed on the Web page for Socialist International . Mr. Obama's transition team says Browner's membership in the organization is not a problem and that it brings experience in policymaking to her new role. But House Minority Leader John Boehner’s spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier asks, “Does she agree with the group's positions...

MADRID, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming G20 Summit will help establish a new world economic order, and become the "beginning of the economic recovery", Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Tuesday. In a video broadcasted on Internet, Rodriguez Zapatero said he is convinced that the summit, which is set to start on April 2 in London, will help open a new stage, and establish a new transparent, safe, efficient and reliable international system.

Surprise! Last week's completion of U.S. free trade talks with Colombia - and the likely signing of similar deals with Ecuador and Panama in coming weeks - may mean that U.S. plans to create a hemisphere-wide free-trade area may not be dead after all.     Four months after the disastrous 34-country Summit of the Americas last November in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made big headlines by proclaiming that the U.S.-backed free-trade plan would be "buried for good" at the meeting, U.S. officials are boasting that the free-trade agenda is enjoying new momentum.     In...

The fourth Summit of the Americas was a success because the democratic leaders of the Western Hemisphere reaffirmed the importance of strong democratic institutions and sound macro-economic policies, says John Maisto, U.S. national coordinator for the Summit of the Americas. The summit was held November 4-5 in Mar del Plata, Argentina. In November 16 remarks at George Washington University in Washington, Maisto outlined the results of that summit as well as the challenges ahead in the Western Hemisphere. He said that going into the summit, the United States wanted to reaffirm the importance of strong democratic institutions, to emphasize the...

Too much of the world is getting poorer, not richer. That's bad news for us all. The failure of the recent Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and the unrest in the streets surrounding it were further evidence that despite years of ballyhooed attempts at reform, the political wedge issue in Latin America remains as it has for decades: social inequity. Democracy, it turns out, is not in and of itself enough to enfranchise the poorest or to knit fragmented societies together. Not even when linked with freer markets. Not even when tied to stirrings of growth,...

In the aftermath of the 2005 Summit of the Americas, the clash between two giants has reached full swing. Mexico and Venezuela, both within the top five economies in Latin America, are in the midst of an escalating diplomatic conflict in which they have recalled their ambassadors—a rare diplomatic move for Latin-American countries. It’s the resounding clash between two competing visions for Latin America, and this time, it’s not Venezuela vs. the U.S. Rather, it’s Venezuela vs. Mexico—or, more precisely, Chavez against those in Latin America who favor free trade. The dispute climaxed when the Venezuelan president called Mexican president...

[The following is an editorial appearing in the Herald on November 8, 2005, followed by a letter to the editor]OUR OPINION: HOPES FOR IMPROVEMENT IN LATIN AMERICA DEALT A SETBACK To judge from conventional wisdom, President Bush's trip to Latin America was a flop. Mr. Bush failed to gain ground on a free-trade agreement, and he was greeted by riots in Mar del Plata, Argentina, while U.S.-bashing President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela basked in the limelight of popular adulation. In this case, however, conventional wisdom is dead wrong.The trip may not have been a great victory for Mr. Bush and...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush was furious with the staff preparation for last week's inter-American summit in Argentina where his trade proposals ran into unexpected opposition. The president was reported as particularly unhappy with the work by his National Security Council staff in getting ready for the meeting. That added to Bush's distress in Buenos Aires, dealing with violent street demonstrators and hostile fellow presidents led by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and including Argentina's Nestor Kirchner. The crowning indignity for Bush was the Friday night state dinner starting at 10 p.m., an hour when the president normally is in bed. He left...

Latin America: If you heeded the hype from gloomy hand wringers or news photos of shop-trashing anti-American thugs, you'd think President Bush left the Argentina summit in failure. It's nothing but rubbish. Seldom has news been so distorted against facts. Most of the U.S. media claim that because the 34 states were obstructed from full agreement on a declaration to kick-start free trade by a few holdouts, it's some sort of victory for the chief obstructor, U.S. antagonist Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Just by the numbers, it's a false impression. Only five states at the Organization of American States summit...

Over the weekend the President and the First Lady continued their visit to South America visiting Argentina and Brazil and travelling to Panama on Sunday evening. Today the President and First Lady attended various sites and events in Panama. British Defence Secretary John Reid visited with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. Today Dennis Hastert, speaker of the House of Representatives, spoke at the Bank of America Program on Volunteerism Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

On November 4-5, the fourth Summit of the Americas took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The heads of state of the hemisphere’s democratic countries met to discuss economic, political, and social issues – and to lose another opportunity to create a new and healthier relationship between the United States and its Latin American neighbors.Indeed, the Summit amounted to nothing more than an outsized photo opportunity. No important issues were resolved, and no progress was made on the many topics that increasingly divide the countries of Latin America and the US. In particular, no progress was made on the creation...

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina -- President Bush left the Summit of the Americas Saturday with no more than he expected: a cold shoulder from some Latin American leaders, no consensus on a free trading bloc for the hemisphere and biting criticism from anti-U.S. protesters and Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez. It amounted to a nothing-lost-and-little-gained two days for the president. He may have made progress on setting up a Free Trade Area of the Americas that would stretch from Alaska to Argentina. After hours of talks, 29 of the 34 summit nations expressed a desire to keep negotiations alive but...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: The Summit of the Americas wrapped up in Argentina, and the presidential party headed for Brazil. President left the summit on schedule, before leaders reached any agreement on a declaration concerning the future of hemisphere-wide trade talks. Discussions at the summit were more than three hours behind schedule when the presidential party left as planned at 3:30 p.m. local time. Tom Shannon, assistant U.S. Secretary of State for the western hemisphere, stayed behind to represent the U.S. in the talks. On Friday, President Bush said he was disappointed by the decision by Senate Judiciary Chairman...

Leaders from across the Americas ended their two-day summit Saturday without agreeing whether to restart talks on a free trade zone stretching from Alaska to Chile. Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa said the summit's declaration would state two opposing views: one favoring the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, and another saying discussions should wait until after World Trade Organization talks in December. The decision came after negotiations extended eight hours past the scheduled deadline. Almost all the leaders - including President Bush - left during the discussions and put other negotiators in charge. Mexico, the United States and...