Free Republic

Cuban President Raul Castro and US Vice-president Joe Biden are among the guests expected at the inauguration of President Tabare Vazquez this coming Sunday in Montevideo. According to HavaTimes, The encounter will come two days after the second round of negotiations between the US and Cuba set for Friday February 27 in Washington. The two countries are trying to pave the way to a reopening of embassies in their respective capitals. Also expected in Montevideo for the beginning of a new term of Vazquez (following Jose Mujica, the current leader) are the presidents of Brasil, Dilma Rousseff, Chile, Michelle Bachelet,...

Communism is not dead in Latin America. In fact, the dominoes are falling south of the border, but no one seems to be noticing. “It’s a new day. Communism is dead. It’s even dead in Cuba.” So declared Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in May 2002. “I hate to say it,” she continued, “it’s dead.” The senator’s proclamation was a surprise, no doubt, to Fidel Castro, whose regime was (and is) alive and as Red as ever. It also must have come as welcome news to the people of Cuba, still suffering, after nearly half...

Betting against the stocks that CNBC host Jim Cramer promotes appears to be a surefire way to make a fortune in the current stock market. Cramer dumped a new load of bad stock advice during the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse. He tweeted March 10 that “[First Republic Bank (FRC)] is new focus... very good bank.” However — just three days after Cramer’s tweet — FRC’s stock value took a 65 percent nosedive during premarket trading on Monday morning after declining 33 percent the prior week, according to CNBC. Cramer just can’t seem to catch a break...

The Platteville police sergeant who left his patrol vehicle on railroad tracks last month with a handcuffed prisoner inside was hired by Platteville even though a commander at his previous department recommended he be demoted, his colleagues labeled him "incompetent" and another officer said Sgt. Pablo Vazquez "has a dangerous lack of radio awareness." As prosecutors weigh possible criminal charges, a CBS News Colorado investigation reveals a troubled past at previous departments Vazquez worked at, including how colleagues felt about him. But despite those concerns, the Platteville Police Department hired Vazquez directly from the Federal Heights Police Department, where he...

(Translation) The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested former constitutional Governor of Puerto Rico Wanda Vázquez at her residence in the Montehiedra neighborhood in the early hours of the morning today. It has been indicated that Vázquez is at the FBI building. Vázquez's arrest comes a little over two months after the team of attorneys of who is also the [island's] former Attorney General anticipated her possibly being charged at the federal level with election fraud. [News/talk-radio station] NotiUno 630 reported that a group of prosecutors from the Division of Public Integrity of the federal Department of Justice based in Washington...

Former Pittsburgh Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez has been found guilty of 15 counts of sexual misconduct, including statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with minor, corruption of minors and indecent assault, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Mick Stellini. Vazquez was reportedly found not guilty of 10 charges of unlawful contact or communication with a minor. Vazquez still awaits charges in Florida for allegations involving the same girl. Once one of the most feared relievers in MLB, the 29-year-old Vazquez was arrested in Sept. 2019 on charges stemming from an alleged relationship with a girl that started when she was 13. MLB...

Authorities in Massachusetts have charged an undocumented immigrant with murder after he allegedly stabbed three fellow crew members, one fatally, on a fishing boat 55 miles off the coast. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced the charges on Monday, one day after they say Franklin Freddy Meave Vazquez got into a fight on the ship he was working on, the Captain Billy Haver, and three people were injured. One of those members of the crew died. The 27-year-old Vazquez, a native of Mexico, was in the country illegally, according to the Department of Justice.

Ecuador aligns itself with Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba In speeches against imperialism and neoliberalism, the presidents of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and Bolivia, Evo Morales, and the Ecuadoran President-Elect Rafael Correa, who should assume the government of his country Monday, expressed common ideological and political agreement Sunday. Chavez, Morales, and Correa, who also exalt the figure of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, met together in Zumbahua, an indigenous [Ecuadoran] locality 90 kilometers south of Quito, for a symbolic inauguration of Correa before the indigenous peoples [of Ecuador]. In a speech before a multitude congregated in the central plaza, Correa emphasized that "[Latin]...