by El Reportero
Cristina Fernández de Kirchnerschools
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner gave her second nationally televised speech of the week on March 4. This speech, and its predecessor, show that the president, and Néstor Kirchner, her husband, predecessor and, he hopes, successor, believe that they have a better chance of intimidating their opponents in congress than trying to fix up alliances with them. The initial signs are that this confrontational strategy may be successful.
HEIRS APPARENT FIGHT FOR COLOMBIA’S TOP JOB AS COURT BARS URIBE’S RE-ELECTION
President Alvaro Uribe will not be able to stand for an unprecedented second re-election on 30 May. The question that has dominated Colombian politics for over a year was answered emphatically by the constitutional court (CC) on Feb. 26 when it voted against the legitimacy of a referendum on whether the country’s most popular head of state should be permitted to seek re-election once again. With Uribe out of the running, the presidential race is suddenly wide open. While Uribe was still in the contest, it was difficult for opinion polls to gauge the support of potential surrogates: the favourite is his former defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos, but the former agriculture minister, Felipe Arias, also lays claim to his legacy. Chávez and Uribe pay lip service to mediation by ‘group of friends’ Colombia and Venezuela have accepted an initiative of the joint Latin American and Caribbean summit to form a ‘group of friends’ to facilitate a rapprochement. This came after another round of escalating acrimony, which at one point threatened to derail the summit. Signs are that little will happen until after Colombia’s impending president elections.
U.S. WILL RESTORE AID TO HONDURAS
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the United States will restore aid to Honduras that was suspended after a coup and urged Latin American states to recognize new President Porfirio Lobo’s government.
CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO LOOK INTO REGIONAL SECURITY
Porfirio Lobo y Hillary Clinton
Representatives of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and Mexico will meet on Monday in San Salvador to discuss the problems of security in the region. According to the Secretary General of SICA, Juan Daniel Alemán, the regional bloc has the will of promoting the strategies and plans of action adopted in the meeting. Drug trafficking, organized crime, youth gangs and illicit arms trafficking are the main scourges afflicting the region. The problems have increased in the last years due to the use of the isthmus as a route for drug trafficking from the south of the continent to the United States, the world’s largest market and with the highest consumption.
TAKING A STAND AGAINST INTERVENTIONIST COLONIALISM
The Declaration of the Rio Group on the ‘Question of the Falkland Islands’ expresses the support of the heads of state of the region and “the legitimate rights” of Argentina in the dispute with the United Kingdom’s sovereignty over the archipelago. The leaders asked the governments of two countries “to resume negotiations to find as soon as possible a just, peaceful and definitive resolution in the fight for sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and their surrounding maritime areas, in accordance with the relevant resolutions and declarations of the United Nations and the Organization of American States.” (Latin News, World News Prensa Latina and Pravda contributed to this report.)
