by the El Reportero’s news services
Felipe Calderón
Whether it was his intention or not, President Felipe Calderón has raised the level of the debate over the convenience of legalising drugs as a means of delivering a blow to the finances of the drug cartels. He himself has admitted that the argument has its merits, but remains opposed to legalisation on the grounds that it would make no sense for Mexico to adopt it unilaterally.
An ominous month for Calderón
President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa opens this September, traditionally one of the most difficult months of the year for any president, in a fast weakening position. The opinion polls disguise this slippage: his support, at 55% (well above the 36%of the voters who backed him in the 2006 elections) is still considerably higher than his disapproval rating of 37%. Nevertheless, his support is the lowest since he took office.
Changing perceptions: the U.S. military in the region“Important economic and political trends have emerged [in Latin America] in recent years. […] New regional, economic, political and defense [sic] structures have evolved, some excluding the US. These trends present both opportunities and challenges for US policy.” That is how a US Southern Command July 2010 white paper, “Command Strategy 2020: Partnership for the Americas”, defi nes the current situation in the region [Latin America]. For the US, the emergence of a new type of sub-regional cooperation ceptical about the northern giant has provided the opportunity to re-shape perceptions on the role of its military in the region, placing special emphasis on its humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts (HA/DR).
Latin America’s moment
Latin America’s economic policymakers, apart from those in Mexico and Venezuela, are basking in an unusually unanimous chorus of praise. according to international organisations such as the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America (Eclac), South America will be one of the fastest growing regions, if not the fastest growing, in the world this year.
Bomb attack on Colombian DAS
Around 4pm on 8 September, a mediumpowered explosive device was activated outside the offices of Colombia’s intelligence agency, the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), in the city of Pasto, capital of the southern department of Nariño.The explosion, which left 12 people seriously wounded but no fatal victims, is the latest in a series of deadly attacks launched by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), the two largest leftwing guerrilla groups in Colombia, whom the government believe to be acting together; three individuals have been arrested. The attacks have led local security analysts to question if the democratic security policy (DSP), which has been the central pillar of Colombia’s security improvements in the last decade, may have reached its zenith, as the guerrillas appear to have adapted their modus operandi.
Latin America pays for China ties Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean will grow again this year, driven large ly by demand from China. The high proportion of commodities may increase dependency on China, and Asia as a region, according to a report by a United Nations agency for the region.
“Clearly, trade relations between the region and China could give rise to center- periphery dynamics. We supply it with raw materials, with little added value, and it sends back manufactured goods,” Claudia Casal, a researcher at the non-governmental National Center for Alternative Development Studies (CENDA) in Chile and a contributor to an earlier non-UN report related to China, told IPS. (Latin News and China Times contributed to this report).
