HAVANA – War! Imperialism! Formal attire! One after another, the leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean denounced the ills of the world at a regional summit in Cuba.
It fell to famously casual President Jose Mujica of Uruguay to tackle a subtler evil plaguing humankind: the business suit.
Mujica complained Wednesday about "the suit that industrialization imposed on the world." He called it dressing "like English gentlemen."
His tirade against the suit was a light moment in an otherwise mostly sober gathering focusing on hunger, poverty and inequality.
But Mujica was also trying to make a serious point about leaders staying faithful to their cultural roots and not alienating the common man in a region where the wealthy are a tiny minority.