by the El Reportero news service
Cristina Fernández
On 10 December the prefects of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, Cochabamba and Pando announced that they did not recognise the new constitution and declared their departments autonomous.
The prefects’ move was inevitable, given the way the new constitution was drafted and the constituent assembly’s refusal to conform to their wishes on regional autonomy.
The key issue is whether the prefects will get political and international support for their stance. So far they have not. The main opposition party, Podemos, criticized their demands for being unconstitutional. Internationally, those presidents who mustered in Buenos Aires for President Cristina Fernández’s inauguration gave unequivocal backing to President Evo Morales and his new constitution.
Abstention costs Chávez referendum; moderate opposition triumphs
President Hugo Chávez suffered his first defeat in 12 national votes since he took office in 1998, when his constitutional reform proposals were narrowly rejected in a referendum on 2 December. He was undone by an abstention rate of some 44.1%. The defeat could, however, strengthen him: several Latin American heads of state praised his quick acceptance of the outcome as providing irrefutable proof of his democratic credentials. Dictators do not admit defeats.
FMI asks Nicaragua for complementary measures to support growth
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (Thomson Financial) – The International Monetary Fund (FMI) asked to Nicaragua ‘ to realize without delay ‘ a series of measures in the field of energy, fiscal, and financier, to support macroeconomic stability and to consolidate the climate of investment,’ according to a bulletin of this entity issued on Tuesday.
“To support growth in half term it will be necessary to carry out an agenda of complementary measures in the sectors of energy, fiscal, and financier,” the IMF assistant director, the Brazilian Murilo Portugal, proposed to the Nicaraguan authorities at the end of a visit to Nicaragua.
The official made a two-day visit to the country and held interviews with the government economic team and President Daniel Ortega to value the agreed economic program with this organism.
According to Portugal the measures in the field of energy, fiscal and financier, which were not detailed, will have to be carried out ‘ without delay ‘ to forge consensuses and to develop capacity of implementation.
During conversations with the economic team, there was coincidence in the importance of supporting macroeconomic stability and of consolidating the climate of investment to promote growth and social results, Portugal said.
Also he considered as encouraging ‘ the advances in the energy field ‘ that te government develops, and other actions that will be pushed in the next months to face the ‘endemic’ energy fraud problem.
Nicaragua has maintained growth and has improved social indicators, ‘ even if the level of poverty stays high ‘, admitted the official.
