by the El Reportero news services
Evo Morales
On 28 February Bolivia’s congress set the dates for two referendums on the new constitution and land reform and passed a law giving congress the power to call departmental referendums.
This is a triumph for President Evo Morales and his ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) and another step forward in approving the new draft constitution while blocking the opposition prefects’ demands for autonomy.
The problem for the government is the way congress approved the legislation. The proposal was approved in under an hour with almost no formal debate, in a joint session of both house of congress by a two thirds majority of those present.
Many opposition legislators were reportedly blocked from entering the congressional building by flag-waving Morales supporters and miners in hardhats.
Venezuelan oil buying votes?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rode to the rescue of his Nicaraguan counterpart by providing discounted oil has raised concerns among U.S. and Salvadoran officials that he will do the same in El Salvador, reported AFE.
A report from the director of U.S. national intelligence suggests Mr. Chavez will bankroll a Marxist presidential candidate there.
SANTA CRUZ, El Salvador — Officials in the United States and El Salvador fear that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez plans to use his nation’s oil wealth to back the presidential candidate from the Marxist FMLN, which waged an armed insurgency during the 1980s.
The concern stems from recent gains by the Sandinista front in Nicaragua, where party leader Daniel Ortega won the presidency in 2006 after 16 years in the opposition.
Local press reports claim the widespread availability of discounted oil supplied by Mr. Chavez’s government prior to Nicaragua’s election contributed to Mr. Ortega’s win.
U.S. officials fear Mr. Chavez will do the same in El Salvador.
“We foresee that Chavez will provide generous financing to the campaign of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front [FMLN] in El Salvador in an attempt to secure the presidential elections of 2009,” said a report presented to Congress this month by National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell.
Mexico impinges on US elections
In a crucial TV debate on Feb. 26 the two leading Democrat candidates for the party’s presidential nomination threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). Neither candidate appeared to have thought through the implications of the proposal, which could further destabilize Mexico.
The market turns Latin America’s way
Fidel Castro, one of the rare revolutionary leaderssecure enough to announce his retirement, has been lauded for the wrong reasons. Cuba had the best health and education indices in Latin America when Fidel’s revolution succeeded in 1959. So maintaining them was not a tremendous achievement, despite the US embargo.
Fidel’s greater achievement, in the eyes of many Latin American nationalists, was withstanding 49 years of almost constant pressure from the US. The price Cubans had to pay for this, in human rights, lack of foreign investment and, perversely, a growing gap between rich and poor, is high.
The assessment submitted by Mr. McConnell, who oversees and coordinates the work of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, warned that Mr. Chavez seeks to “expand the activities of Venezuela in Central America,” where he already counts Mr. Ortega as an “unconditionally.”
Speaking on his weekly TV show, “Hello President,” Mr. Chavez called the reports a “lie” and insisted that the FMLN “doesn’t need” his help.
