Castro's Comeback; Fidel has more fans in the region than he's had in years. But is the hype, like the resurgence of Latin America's left, more style than substance?

Byline: Joseph Contreras

Anyone who doubts that symbolism matters to the Latin American left need only have looked last week to Venezuela, where fire-breathing President Hugo Chavez forced several critical changes to the country's flag through a pliant legislature. The new banner will incorporate a machete, bow-and-arrow and tropical fruits and flowers, to acknowledge the nation's peasantry. From it will shine eight stars instead of seven--the last added as a homage to Venezuela's 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar. And most important, a galloping white horse that once faced right--"into the past," according to Chavez--will now look, naturally, to the ...