In 1498, Christopher Columbus came to Venezuela’s eastern coast and was convinced that he had found paradise on Earth. Upon visiting the nation’s Los Roques archipelago, I can see why. Los Roques’ more than 300 islands, its white-powder beaches, lagoons and coral reefs are all still pristine. Neither giant hotels nor expansive tourist developments can be found in the area.

I’ll begin by stating the obvious, and I do hope that officials at the Vatican read this. Anyone who protects a criminal who has sexually abused a child or is involved in child pornography should himself be arrested, put on trial and imprisoned. And it does not matter whether that person is a priest.

The grisly massacre of 52 people at a casino in late August has ended any lingering pretense of normalcy in Mexico. This became quite apparent when I was covering the murders here. Upon hearing about the attack, I immediately went to Monterrey. I wanted to be there so that I could see for myself what was happening on the ground; so that no one could say that all I do is criticize my native Mexico from a distance.

U.S. President Barack Obama. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Luis Fortuno, governor of Puerto Rico have all broken promises made prior to being elected. Obama, during his 2008 campaign, promised to return to the gathering at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials annual conference, As president, he has been invited back three times but declined. "That is a lack of respect for our community," Juan Carlos Zapata, chairman of the NALEO Education Fund.

If the stealthy operation to capture and kill Osama bin Laden had failed, Obama would be a step closer to leaving the White House in 2012. Since the operation was a success, with bin Laden dead, Obama can now recoup the widespread popularity he enjoyed just after his election. About 56 million people viewed Obama’s televised speech delivered on May 1, to announce the news of bin Laden’s death. It turned out to be the most viewed presidential speech in a decade.

Maria Corina Machado is not afraid of Hugo Chavez. Through the years, many of the Venezuelan president's political adversaries have opted to leave the nation after being targeted and harassed by the regime. The ones who remain dare not confront Chavez directly or challenge him publicly.

On a recent Florida evening, hundreds of Republicans gathered at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables to discuss a growing concern for the party: attracting Hispanic voters as the 2012 presidential race begins to heat up. You don’t have to be very perceptive to know that many Hispanics in the U.S see the Republican Party as the enemy. It was Republicans who passed anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona last year. It was Republican senators who made up the majority of votes that defeated the Dream Act, ending the hopes of 2 million Hispanic immigrants who were brought to the U.S.

The recent stream of confidential American foreign policy documents revealed on WikiLeaks’ website confirms that we live in a more transparent world than ever. The function of WikiLeaks seems to be the new premise of the 21st century: The publication of over 250,000 US State Department documents allows us to inspect the internal gears of American diplomacy.

In her latest book, “Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle,” the former presidential candidate recounts her time as a prisoner of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the guerrillas better known as FARC. “To me, it was very important, the exercise of writing, because I never was able to tell my children, my mother, or other people I love, what had happened.”