by the El Reportero’s news services
Hugo Chávez
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who played a key role in invoking the Inter- American Democratic Charter (IADC) against those who ousted Manuel Zelaya from the presidency of Honduras in June 2009 and in portraying as a coup d’état attempt the police mutiny against the government of Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa in September 2010, found himself accused in January this year of breaching the Charter. After trying to shrug this off as yet another U.S. maneuver against him, he bowed to pressure and announced that he was relinquishing the power to rule by decree until 2012.
Ecuador referendum gets go-ahead
Ecuador’s constitutional court approved President Rafael Correa’s 10 question referendum on Feb. 15. The nine person constitutional court voted, with six votes in favor and three against, to ignore the recommendations made by one of the judges, Nina pacari, which concluded that four of the five proposed constitutional amendments could not be changed by referendum. She (and the opposition) dismissed the court’s ruling as “political”.
Peru and Argentina dominate
This year, 2011, is another busy year for elections and referenda in the region.
Unlike last year, where no elections outside the Caribbean featured an incumbent running for re-election, this year will probably see President Cristina Fernández of Argentina and, more controversially, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, running again for their respective presidencies.
More unusual is that Peru’s ruling Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (Apra) is not fi elding a presidential candidate. Such a move revives memories of Ecuador in the late 1990s and early 2000s, where the once-dominant Partido Social Cristiano spurned presidential elections and dwindled as a national force.
Change in direction over drugs?
President Alejandro ToledoThe Peruvian elections are a microcosm of an apparent shift in counternarcotics policy thinking amongst former Latin American presidents and experts across the world. On Jan. 28 former Peruvian (2001-2006), who is also the current presidential candidate for Alianza Perú Posible, commented on the recently created Global Commission on Drug Policy (Idpc) and said that if elected, his government would look into legalisation “as an avenue to explore”.
Stunts and killings dominate Mexican headlines, obscuring big development
The most eye-catching event in Mexico last week was the erection of a banner in the lower chamber, at the start of the fi rst congressional session of 2011, by deputies from the leftwing Partido del Trabajo accusing President Felipe Calderón of being a drunk.
