by the El Reportero’s news services
Enrique Peña Nieto
Report by Latin News – The newly confirmed President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto of the traditional Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) has assembled a transition team of 46 to liaise with a counterpart team assembled by the outgoing President Felipe Calderón. Peña Nieto represents broad continuity with the outgoing administration in economic policy terms, but has pledged to follow through on long since pending structural reforms. For that to happen though, the PRI will have to construct alliances in parliament.
Veil is lifted on Santos’s secret peace negotiations with Farc
Report by Latin News – The government of President Juan Manuel Santos is embarking upon the fourth attempt to negotiate with the Fuerzas Armadas Revoluncionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerrillas an end to the internal conflict that had already lasted half a century.
The previous attempts, by presidents Belisario Betancur (1982-86), César Gaviria (1990-94) and Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002), never really got off the ground. Indeed the last attempt created a ‘distension zone’ of 43,000 square kilometres in which the Farc were able to rebuild their strength unhindered for three years. This time round, the Santos administration has the advantage of a Farc that has been greatly weakened by 10 years of strong military offensives by two governments.
Massive protests against austerity measures continue in Spain
(Prensa Latina) Already the epicenter of 10 days of mass demonstration, the Spanish capital see another day of protests against social and labor cuts applied by Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government.
On Tuesday morning the headquarters of the Congress of Deputies was protected by more than a thousand policemen, due to the call of several popular organizations to carry out a demonstration of “nonviolent civil disobedience”.
Under the slogan Surround the Congress, organizers urged citizens to surround the grounds of the lower house with three simultaneous marches that will converge at the public plazas of Puerta del Sol, Neptuno and Cibeles.
Costa Rican businesses disadvantaged by FTA with Colombia
Costa Rican industrialists announced that the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia may cause layoffs and bankruptcies especially in small and medium companies in this Central American country.
Industrialists warned that both countries economies are rivals and not complementary, and such an agreement can damage the chemical, plastics, textile, leather, footwear, electronics, paper and cardboard sectors.
He added that the industry is seeking the exclusion of the vast majority of their products from the agreement, as well as the textile, food and printing industries in their entirety.
Colombians produce or import industrial raw materials from nearby nations, its production costs are almost 30 percent lower and companies have greater credit facilities and tax benefits, he stated. He said that Colombia offers energy and electricity to the productive sector at a cost that is 31 percent cheaper than that offered by Costa Rica and also has a less expensive workforce.
Costa Rican and Colombian businessman have unequal advantages, which would lead to a greater trade imbalance between exports and imports, favoring Colombia, he warned.
