by the El Reportero’s news services
Alvaro Uribe
The results of the March 14 legislative elections demonstrated that Colombians want to see a continuation of President Alvaro Uribe’s conservative policies after he leaves office on Aug. 7 next. The vote also set the field for a hotly contested presidential election on May 30, not least because of administrative difficulties that marred the vote counting process.
While all the presidential candidates can now start their campaign in earnest, Colombians and international observers alike will be worried about the ability of the registrar’s office to perform its duties on May 30.
Commentary: Mexico’s drug-related violence isn’t widespread across the country
After the murder of two U.S. consulate workers in Mexico’s border city of Ciudad Juarez, many of you have written to me wondering whether it is safe to travel to Mexico. The answer is: If you are courageous enough to travel to Washington, D.C., you can safely visit most parts of Mexico.
Despite the escalation of drug-related violence in several Mexican cities, and the pictures of mutilated bodies dumped on the streets of Ciudad Juarez and other cities along the U.S. border, a dispassionate look at Mexico’s murder rates shows that some parts of the country are indeed dangerous, but the country as a whole is safer than what the latest headlines suggest.
Lugo and opposition prepare to square up in ParaguayPresident Fernando
Lugo appealed to congress last week to drop its incessant threats to impeach him and to engage in a dialogue process to address the deeper, more intractable, problems 1afflicting Paraguay.
Lugo’s remarks, part of a Holy Week message to the nation, came days after he participated in the launch of a new left-wing coalition movement, some of whose more radical members called for congress to be “swept away” if it sought to impeach Lugo. In the coming two months pro-Lugo parties and opposition parties are planning to stage large rallies to gauge their respective support. With campaigning for municipal elections in November also starting, any dialogue process is unlikely to get off the ground.
Regional security attracts international concern
Guatemala’s President Alvaro Colom last month fired his fourth interior minister, his fourth police chief and two other top anti-drugs officials for alleged corruption and drug-trafficking, underlining once again the struggle in Central America to make progress in the fight against the illegal narcotics trade and its associated violence, in the face of the corrosive power of international criminal gangs.
The latest scandal, which comes on the heels of a series of reports highlighting the region’s increasing importance as drug trafficking hub, broke just days before the U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton visited Guatemala to discuss security with regional leaders.
According to Casas-Zamora’s figures, based on United Nations 2008 data, Mexico’s murder rate is nearly five times less than that of sunny Jamaica and about half that of Brazil, a country that was recently awarded the much-coveted 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.
