Mario Vargas Llosa defies simplistic political labels. The Nobel Prize-winning writer from Peru has built an impressive reputation as a freethinker. His recent comments in support of Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and his open criticisms of the Venezuelan government have made him a punching-bag for dogmatists on both sides of the aisle. 

Influential theorist Ernesto Laclau, Argentine born and London-based, and a strong ideological mentor of Kirchnerism dies at 78. 

The “young writer” Juan Pablo Castro Rodas has so far produced poems, novels, and essays.  Written from Quito, they are “not necessarily” about the place, but (reminiscent of Javier Vásconez, known as “the great narrator of Quito”) Castro Rodas “recognizes that there is a dialogue” that comes from “the vision he has acquired after twelve

The “art of catching moments” appealed to the young Ismael. 

During a tribute to Octavio Paz on his one hundredth birthday, President Enrique Peña Nieto stressed the work and legacy of the only Mexican to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1990). 

Pablo Cerda argued in The Santiago Times that “one of South America’s biggest music festivals, the Festival Internacional de la Canción de Viña del Mar is a marketer’s dream and music lover’s nightmare.” 

Alexandra Jolly wrote in Colombia Reports of Medellín that the 54th annual Cartagena Film Festival began with promise with “many famous faces” in attendance to see films ranging in origin from Latin America to Iran.  

Página/12 of Buenos Aires reported that archaeologists have found the remains of a Spanish ship that sank with 193 people, but is well known to history because the crew managed to build another vessel from the wreckage and return home. 

El Tiempo of Bogotá noted with sadness that Venezuelan singer and composer Simón Díaz, known to his compatriots as “Tío Simón” and author of the renowned song “Caballo Viejo,” died at age 85, said his daughter Bettsimar Díaz.  “With tears I announce to my beloved country that my father passed this morning in peace,” she

El Universal of Mexico City reported that poets from 60 countries and five continents at the X International Poetry Festival in Granada, Nicaragua made a declaration to the various Spanish Language Academies concerning the validity of Rubén Darío’s work.