by the El Reportero’s news services
Rafael Correa
In the final opinion polls, published on April 6, for the general elections on April 26, President Rafael Correa appears to be stretching his lead.
The polls show Correa with about 57 percent support, easily enough to win the presidency in the first round. The big question, which the polls do not really answer, is what will happen in the simultaneous congressional elections.
Correa’s personal vote will boost his Alianza País (AP), but whether this will be enough to give the AP a majority in the 124-seat congress is far from clear.
Fidel Castro open to Cuba-US dialogue
Development: On 5 April Cuba’s former president, Fidel Castro (1959-2008), said that Cuba was not afraid of dialogue with the U.S., and slammed as “fools” those external analysts that suggested the Communist-led regime needed confrontation to exist.
Signifi cance: Castro’s comments capped some interesting developments over the weekend that indicated the growing outreach on both sides of the Florida Straits.
A visiting delegation of seven U.S. congressionals (all Democrats) met the head of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, and the foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, and declared that the US and Cuba should restore diplomatic relations first and then begin talks.
A senior oil advisor at the Ministry of Basic Industries, Manuel Marrero Faz, said Cuba would welcome US investment in its fledgling offshore oil sector.
Finally, White House officials hinted that President Barack Obama would shortly fulfill his 2008 campaign pledge to allow unlimited family travel and remittances to Cuba.
Castro praised the US senator, Richard Lugar (Indiana), the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who on March 30 wrote to President Obama asking him to sanction Cuba’s re-admission to the 32-member Organization of American States and appoint a special envoy to establish direct talks on issues like drugs and migration with the government of President Raúl Castro. Lugar, Castro said, has his “feet on the ground”.
Castro pointed out that Cuba and the US have been co-operating on anti-drug traffi cking efforts for several years. Senior officials meet once a month.
Vázquez Mota quits cabinet in Mexico
Development: On 4 April Josefina Vázquez Mota resigned as education minister to run for congress on July 5.
Significance: Vázquez Mota is a heavy hitter. She is now a possible presidential candidate for the ruling Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) in 2012. It seems that she will take over the leadership of the PAN in the lower chamber after the elections.
Vázquez Mota was brought in to shake-up Felipe Calderón Hinojosa’s election campaign at the beginning of 2006 when he was lagging badly in the polls. She had previously been running the Fox government’s welfare programmes, which were delivered by a web of NGOs, so she knew which strings to pull to get the votes out for Calderón. Vázquez Mota made a major contribution to Calderón’s narrow win in the 2006 presidential election. Vázquez Mota won a seat in congress in 2006, but joined the government as education minister.
(Latin News contributed to this report.)
