The week at a glance...Americas

Havana

Hemingway’s bar reopens: In another sign of Cuban glasnost, Sloppy Joe’s, a favorite hangout of Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra, and other American luminaries, has reopened in Havana after being closed for five decades. The bar became popular during Prohibition, when Americans of means flew to the island to party with abandon, and into the 1950s it continued to draw jet-setters and performers, including Nat King Cole and Ava Gardner. After Fidel Castro came to power and nationalized nearly all private businesses, the bar closed. It was rediscovered by Cuban historians a few years ago and renovated as a tourist destination. “May all our clients breathe in that 1950s atmosphere,” said manager Ernesto Iznaga.

Caracas, Venezuela

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Protests after Maduro win: Violent protests erupted in Venezuela this week after a disputed election. Acting President Nicolás Maduro, the handpicked successor of the late Hugo Chávez, claimed a win with a tiny margin of votes and refused challenger Henrique Capriles’s demand for a recount. Capriles supporters banged pots and pans in outrage, while Maduro loyalists set off fireworks to drown out the noise. As protests mounted, an increasingly hysterical Maduro broke into TV and radio programs to rant that the U.S. was behind the unrest and that his opponents wanted civil war. He even compared them to Nazis. “I will use a hard hand against fascism,” he warned.

Maduro said the opposition had killed seven of his supporters during clashes; the opposition claimed some of the dead as theirs. The election rules were skewed toward Maduro, who enjoyed unlimited airtime and state resources, while Capriles was limited to a few ad spots. Even so, the center-right challenger amassed 49.2 percent of votes by the official count, which was not overseen by any independent observers. A recount is unlikely. “In a country with no judicial independence,” said Ignacio Arcaya, a former Chávez diplomat, “how could you expect that there will be any change?”

Montevideo, Uruguay

Gay marriage legal: Uruguay has legalized gay marriage, the third country in the hemisphere to do so, after Canada and Argentina. The drive to expand the definition of marriage was not particularly controversial in this most liberal of Latin American countries, where women were given the right to unilaterally divorce their husbands, no questions asked, back in 1912. “We will have a more just, more equal society with more rights for everyone,” said Sebastian Sabini, a lawmaker from the Frente Amplio ruling coalition.