Castro's Comeback

NewsWeek
March 20, 2006 issue
by Joseph Contreras
Fidel has more fans in the region than he's had in years. But is the hype, like the resurgence of Latin America's left, more style than substance?

Anyone who doubts that symbolism matters to the Latin American left need only have looked last week to Venezuela, where fire-breathing President Hugo Chavez forced several critical changes to the country's flag through a pliant legislature. The new banner will incorporate a machete, bow-and-arrow and tropical fruits and flowers, to acknowledge the nation's peasantry. From it will shine eight stars instead of seven—the last added as a homage to Venezuela's 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar. And most important, a galloping white horse that once faced right—"into the past," according to Chavez—will now look, naturally, to the left.
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