Todo intento - tal como este buen trabajo de investigacion - de desenmascarar la corrupcion de grandes corporaciones y la de funcionarios de gobiernos, merece ser bien recibido y difundido.

In Bordering on Chaos, Oppenheimer does a very good job of depicting the events and digging up the dirty that led to many of the most important events in mid-1990s Mexico, including the murder of the leading presidential candidate, the rise of the Zapatistas and the choice of Zedillo for president.

However, instead of pure history, we are presented with deep character development for the two main actors in this process, Zedillo himself (the president to be) and Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista movement. In this process, we learn of the political ploys adopted by the PRI, the almost monarchic party that led the country for most of the century. These include forays into education, health, and the most important social services. Another important area is the corruption going on at the top levels of the PRI, requiring, for example, that business people contribute a minimum of [several] million to participate in the government, or else be excluded, with all that it entailed. There is less than I would like to know on Carlos Salinas, the now disgraced but formerly darling leader.

Overall, a good history and a well written book. If you have an interest in Mexico, or in the crisis period of the mid-1990s, this may offer some of the pieces that build up a puzzle of it.

I read this book as a person who has visited Mexico on a number of occasions for both business and pleasure. I found it to be highly informative and also entertaining. Having experienced firsthand the struggle of Mexicans to catch up with their wealthy neighbors across the border, while simultaneously putting up roadblocks in their own way, I had no trouble believing some of the outrageous political wheeling and dealing Mr. Oppenheimer described. A great book if you want to get insight into the modern Mexican political and economic climate.

Mr. Oppenheimer has talked to those outside and inside the government of Mexico to describe in careful detail the myopia and success of the PRI which has kept Mexico "stable" for seventy years but has looted the country in a form of political machismo that now affects the middle class which no longer applauds such audacious machismo. The Zapatista movement is particularly well detailed in both its true meaning and its sad hijacking by idealistic middle-class Marxists who have no more concern for the Mayas than does the PRI for the majority of the Mexicans. If one is to begin to understand Mexico one should begin with this book.

This wonderful piece of literature gives Oppenheimer's educated and interesting perspectives on so many peculiarities that make Latin America the unique and fascinating region it is.

...compared with "Bordering on Chaos", this book makes me question Oppenheimer a bit. And, there has yet to be Castro's "final hour" eight years after this book has been published. But I did enjoy the in depth reading of certain events he covers, and I think it must be pretty difficult to write such an intensive work on such a controversial subject. I look forward to more good readings on Cuba.

"Castro's Final Hour" - The Secret Story Behind the Coming Downfall of Communist Cuba is written by the Miami Herald foreign correspondent Andres Oppenheimer.

This is an excellent book, a good overview over Cuba and the political situation there. This book touches on many interesting topics, Cuba's history, politics, drug trafficking, and money laundering to mention a few. This book taught me a whole lot of things. (I read first Che's biography, and followed up with this one. It certainly helped me a lot to have Che's biography as a base when reading this book). The fact that the book is nearly ten years old is not so important. The situation hasn't changed much, unfortunately. ...

Oppenheimer shows extensive knowledge about Cuba's history and culture. The research undertaken to write this book is no less than impressive. Especially when considering the fact that Castro is rather paranoid when it comes to criticism. How Oppenheimer got the Cubans to talk I don't know... But the fact that he is a fluent Spanish speaker definitely helped him while researching for this book.

I truly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the political situation in Cuba.

An interesting read!

I read this book with great reluctance and skepticism. It was recommended to me a cousin who had recently emigrated to Mexico from Cuba, where I read it in Spanish on the eve of my own trip to the island to visit family (this trip took place Nov 97). While many of the hardships of the Special Period in Time of Peace -- Castrospeak for the crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet block -- have eased, this book is an honest, unflinching portrait. It accurately describes Cuba as a nation struggling to keep what is best in the revolution while moving past what is worst, primarily through the words of its own people and key events not widely reported in the US. It makes it clear that the US embargo not only worsens the lives of ordinary Cubans, but provides Fidel with a catch-all excuse for not dealing with internal economic problem. After reading this book it is easy to see the US embargo as the most bass-ackwards US foreign policy move of the last 20 years -- virtually guaranteeing that Fidel remain in power with his ultimately empty anti-imperialist rhetoric. The details of how Fidel is turning the nation into Europe's and Canada's bargain brothel are heartbreaking.

This book is a must for supporters of the Cuban revolution because it forces us to confront the realities Cubans face in their daily lives, without the rose-colored glasses of socialist idealism.

For someone who portrays himself as the expert on the reality of Latin America, Openheimer once again displays his ignorance of the facts.

My advice to Openheimer is to write about something which he knows better. The corruption tied to neo-liberalism and it's failure to rescue Latin America from economic despair.

With this book he pays lip service and tribute to a very narrow segment of the cuban american population in the city where he resides, comfortably writing from an ivory tower.

More telling than any other cold-war era work compiled over the last 15 years, Andres Openheimer dives into the case that almost brought Fidel Castro and his regime to its knees in late 1980's Havana. With accurate and never before revealed information, the writer investigates an array of characters from simple citizens to famed and personal friends of the dictator. A must read if you are looking to brush up on recent Cuban history and politics.