by the El Reportero’s news service
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
On Nov. 15 the left-wing Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) surprisingly chose Andrés Manuel López Obrador, rather than Marcelo Ebrard, as its 2012 presidential candidate.
Elections expose limits of democracy in Central America
The re-election of a former Marxist guerrilla in Nicaragua and the victory of a right-wing ex-military general in Guatemala would suggest both countries were heading in radically different directions.
Yet the two elections, which took place on 6 November, were more significant – and similar – in revealing the fragility of democracy in the region. The case of Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega won an illegal re-election in a process slammed as fraudulent, is the most obvious test of democracy, with Ortega under growing international and domestic pressure to address these concerns.
In Guatemala, the run-off was in line with institutional procedure (see page 3). But the success of Otto Pérez Molina marks the first time since the restoration of democracy in 1986 that an ex-military official has won the presidency. This implicit rehabilitation of the military, together with Pérez Molina’s proposed mano dura (iron fist) response to crime that won him the vote, has its own implications for the country’s democratic institutions.
Even more of a haven?
The long drawn out saga of the Euro-debt crisis, which even prompted China to abandon its mask of inscrutability and express impatience with European policymakers, again underlines the attractions of Latin America as a place to invest. Latin America’s greatest economic asset is not its raw materials but its democratic approach to economic policymaking.
Mexican leaders air drug-war differences using US forums to impress at home
The debate over solutions to the escalating violence associated with the wars between drug cartels and the government’s response has been taken once more to US audiences. President Felipe Calderón has used an interview with the New York Times to portray at least a sizable sector of the opposition Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) as favouring an ‘understanding’ with the cartels, while his predecessor Vicente Fox (2000-2006) aired before a forum in Washington his proposals for a truce and eventual amnesty.
Santos scores twice in one week
It seemed that President Juan Manuel Santos’s honeymoon with Colombian public opinion was heading for a rough patch; his right-wing detractors were gaining strength ahead of the Oct. 30 regional elections, expressing concern over what they deemed was a rapid deterioration of the country’s security situation.
The argument was simple: as President Santos concentrated on social issues, he was taking the eye off the ball in the state’s fight against the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc), which would allow the Farc to strengthen again and renew its call for peace talks in which it would still have enough strength to make demands.
Public Consultation on Communication Law in Venezuela
The National Assembly of Venezuela begins on Wednesday a public nationwide consultation of a Draft Law on Communication for Peoples´ Power, a law that emerged through an initiative of community groups.
The draft was approved by the Parliament on November 10 during a first discussion. The objective is to achieve “a real and timely communication, whose main protagonist is the sovereign people.”
