Out of Town: Mario Vargas Llosa, the...

Out of Town: Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian novelist and failed presidential candidate, left Mexico in a hurry over the weekend after calling Mexico “the perfect dictatorship.” Mexican intellectuals shot back, calling him “a right-wing writer who deserved to be defeated” in his run for Peru’s presidency, a Mexican newspaper said. But Mexican poet Octavio Paz, who had invited Vargas Llosa to a televised round-table discussion, said he left for personal reasons.

Trouble in Troublesome: Former presidential candidate Gary Hart has started locking at night a gate at the edge of his ranch in Troublesome Gulch, Colo., prompting a neighbor to file suit. “They resist being a good neighbor,” Lois Choate, 80, said near Kittredge, Colo. The suit claims the locked gate blocks a longtime access to the Choate property. Hart was unavailable for comment. Choate’s grandson, Scott Carson, 37, said the family won’t back down “just because we’re bumping up against a rich and powerful man. Dadgum it, we feel like we’re in the right.”

Mondale-Henley Ticket: Eleanor Mondale, 30, daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale, is dating 43-year-old Grammy-winning singer Don Henley, according to People magazine. The couple were first spotted in Minneapolis in July when Henley performed there, and he was back for a Mondale family birthday party in August. Mondale is a disc jockey at WLOL in Minneapolis.

Royal Break: Prince Charles is resting comfortably after three hours of surgery Saturday to repair the broken right arm he suffered in a polo accident two months ago. a spokesman at Queen’s Medical Center in Nottingham, England, said: “He is already moving his arm. He will experience some pain but the pain is under control.” Doctors implanted a metal plate on the break, which had not been healing well.