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A longtime correspondent for Newsweek, Mac Margolis has traveled extensively in Brazil and Latin America. He has contributed to The Economist, The Washington Post, and The Christian Science Monitor, and is the author of The Last New World: The Conquest of the Amazon Frontier.

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Who Murdered Ms. Venezuela?

A cherished soap opera star and her British ex-husband were slain in a carjacking that spared their 5-year-old daughter.

Mac Margolis | Published Jan 09, 2014

Honduras Slams Chavez Pals

Latin America

The real losers in Honduras’s hotly-contested presidential election are ousted president Manuel Zelaya and the ghost of Hugo Chavez.

Mac Margolis | Published Nov 27, 2013

Central America’s New Cold War

Plus Ça Change

From an attack on an El Salvador group tracking down disappeared children to Daniel Ortega’s recent power grab, are Central America’s old, bloody faultlines reemerging?

Mac Margolis | Published Nov 23, 2013

Brazil’s Ban on Bios

Censorship

Thanks to an arcane law, the country’s rich and famous are able to block publication of books on their lives—but the Supreme Court may be set to loosen the publishing stranglehold.

Mac Margolis | Published Nov 21, 2013

Venezuela’s Pageant Politics

Que Bella

At least one thing works in Venezuela: the Bolivarian republic is world-class at churning out beauty queens. Maybe President Maduro should be taking notes.

Mac Margolis | Published Nov 13, 2013

Brazil's Shrinking Billionaire

Citizen Eike

Eike Bastista was the world’s eighth-richest man, and the poster-boy for the new Brazil, flashy and flush with wealth—until his oil and gas bubble burst.

Mac Margolis | Published Nov 09, 2013

Venezuela Moves Xmas

Que?

Embattled president Nicolas Maduro called an early Feliz Navidad in his latest bid to win hearts and minds at the ballot box.

Mac Margolis | Published Nov 08, 2013

Inside the Ministry of Happiness

Newspeak

Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, just unveiled the country’s euphemistically named Deputy Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness—to mockery in Latin America.

Mac Margolis | Published Oct 31, 2013

Brazil’s Trans Beauty Queen

Here S/He Comes

Brazil crowned a winner in its second annual Miss T competition, which is winning fans and challenging definitions of femininity and beauty in tradition-bound Latin America. Mac Margolis reports.

Mac Margolis | Published Oct 24, 2013

Strangling Democracy in Venezuela

Bolivarian Alliance

Venezuela’s embattled president is trying to convince the National Assembly to hand him extraordinary executive powers—but his opponents aren’t buying his naked power grab, says Mac Margolis.

Mac Margolis | Published Oct 10, 2013

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