Much as been made of a brief quip by Fidel Castro in his recent set of interviews with Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic. To wit: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." These nine somewhat ambiguous words, offered without any further elucidation from the Bearded One, have sparked a voluble reaction across the political spectrum...

Latin America solidarity activist Rev. Lucius Walker, 80, died of a heart attack on Sept. 7 at his home in Demarest, New Jersey. Walker, a Baptist minister, was also active in the US civil rights movement; in 1967 he founded the New York-based Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO).

On Sept. 10, Puerto Rican politicians from across the spectrum praised leftist independence activist Juan Mari Brás, who died earlier that day at 82 of lung cancer in his home in Río Pedras, San Juan. Mari Brás was a "legendary leader who fought for his ideals," according to Gov. Luis Fortuño, of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP). Héctor Ferrer, president of the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD), called Mari Brás "an example for all of us who believe in an ideal and seek the best for Puerto Rico," while Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) president Rubén Berríos Martínez said: "Thank you, Juan, for your life and your example."

We just had to call out Cuban elder statesman and global rad-left icon Fidel Castro for his recent embrace of right-wing conspiracy theory (which nearly always has strong undertones, at least, of anti-Semitism). So we are particularly vindicated to see this. Jeffrey Goldberg interviews El Barbudo for his blog on The Atlantic this week. Amid a discussion of the threat of nuclear war arising from the West's showdown with Iran (a recent obsession of interviewer and interviewee alike) Goldberg writes that Fidel offered the following advice for his pal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

Students at the Faculty of Ethnology at the State University of Haiti (UEH) in downtown Port-au-Prince said on Sept. 4 that they are planning to file complaints with international agencies about a May 24 incident involving soldiers from the 9,000-member United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The soldiers invaded the campus and arrested a student, Frantz Mathieu Junior, for allegedly throwing rocks. MINUSTAH released the student the same day, and the force's acting head, Edmond Mulet, apologized on May 25, but the students asked why more than three months later no soldiers have been disciplined. Various groups are planning a demonstration against the UN force on Oct. 15, the date on which the UN Security Council is expected to renew MINUSTAH's mandate for another year.

In the largest protest to date by Haitians left homeless by the massive Jan. 12 earthquake, hundreds of people marched in Port-au-Prince on Aug. 26 to demand that the authorities take immediate measures to provide decent housing. The protesters threatened not to take part in presidential and legislative elections scheduled for Nov. 28. "There can be no elections with 1.5 million people living in tents," demonstration organizers said.

A one-day strike by Puerto Rican teachers over budget issues and the need for additional teachers shut down about 90% of the island's 1,500 public schools on Aug. 26, according to the Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR). The walkout was the largest teachers' strike since early 2008, when the FMPR led a militant 10-day strike. Interim education secretary Jesús Rivera Chávez called the Aug. 26 strike's effect "devastating."

On Aug. 20 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced that it had approved 19 and rejected 15 of the 34 people who had applied to run for the presidency in general elections scheduled for Nov. 28 [see Update #1043, where we gave the number of applicants as 33, following our sources]. The approved candidates included Jude Célestin (Unity); former prime minister Jacques Edouard Alexis (Movement for the Progress of Haiti, MPH); former senator Myrlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP); economist Leslie Voltaire (Together We Are Strong); Chavannes Jeune (Alliance of Christians and Citizens for the Reconstruction of Haiti, ACCRHA); and singer Joseph Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky," Peasant Response).