by El Reportero’s news services

­Orlando Zapata Tamayo

On the evening of Feb. 23 Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a 42-year old political prisoner, died in hospital following an 83-day hunger strike. It is the first time in nearly 40 years that a dissident has died of hunger strike, prompting immediate condemnation from leading opponents of the Cuban government on the island and in the Miami–based exile community. His distraught mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo, accused the authorities of assassination. The timing is very awkward for Brazil’s President Lula da Silva, who arrived in Havana last night on his final official visit to Cuba before leaving office at the end of this year.

The changing pattern of oil investment in the region

International oil companies are once again interested in the Andean region’s oil. Colombia and Venezuela, for different reasons, are attracting most interest, and Ecuador least. Colombia, which had endured something of an exploration drought after BP made its major discoveries in Cupiagua and Cusiana in the 1990s, is now very firmly back in the game. Colombia’s two great attractions are its government’s enthusiasm for foreign investment and its oil, which tends to be light (and low sulphur) crude. Venezuela’s oil is generally heavy and sour, but the country has almost 100 times more of the stuff than Colombia.

A decisive year for Brazil
da Silva, Brasil

This year, 2010, is a busy year for elections in the region. Brazil’s presidential and congressional elections dominate the calendar and the big question is whether President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva can transfer his popularity to his preferred successor, Dilma Rousseff. The example of what has happened in Chile shows how difficult this is. Chile elected Sebastián Piñera as its first democratically-chosen, rightwing president for 52 years in January. This was despite the 80 percent plus opinion poll approval ratings of the leftwing incumbent, Michelle Bachelet.

Argentina’s presidential couple face big political test

Cristina Fernández

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández, and her husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner are battling to preserve their political credibility amid dwindling approval ratings, persistent allegations of illicit enrichment, savage criticism of their economic policymaking, damaging disputes with the judiciary, and the impending return from recess of an-opposition controlled congress. All of this coincides with fresh protests planned by the country’s four powerful farming unions.

­Venezuela Election Council ready for primaries

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council announced on Wednesday to be ready to organize primary elections for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and opposition organizations that are interested in holding internal elections to nominate deputy candidates. The institution said in a press release the PSUV leaders had already requested technical support, while a so-called opposition Unity Table asked for information on technical and logistic support, if automated primaries are held. The PSUV, led by President Hugo Chavez, announced that it would hold primary elections on May 6, at the 87 constituencies set up for the parliamentary elections on September 26. The PSUV leaders said this is in line with the organization’s principles of internal democracy. With over seven million registered members, the party hopes to win two thirds of the 165 parliamentary seats. Meanwhile, the opposition is trying hard to reach agreements for a unified front, but has decided to hold primaries at only 28 constituencies.

by Luis Carlos López

Schwarzenegger at CPAC

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Feb. 18-20 Conservative Political Action Conference ushered in some of the nation’s top leaders in the movement, media personalities and frustrated taxpayers to talk about a wave of resurgence for the Republican Party and conservative values.

With sights, sounds and seminars calling for limited government and a halt on federal spending came hints of a GOP effort to win a larger share the growing Latino vote.

Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and commentators Leslie Sánchez and Glenn Beck were among the high-profile conservatives in attendance.

Columnist and political pundit Ann Coulter tapped the mood and sentiment of the crowd by sharing, “For the first time in my life I am sometimes not proud of my country,” mocking First Lady Michelle Obama’s one-time comment, “For the first time in my adult lifetime,

I am really proud of my country.”

The 37th annual CPAC event attracted a record turnout of nearly 10,000 to the Marriott Wardman Hotel in northwest Washington. It emphasized the movement’s influence as the GOP builds momentum for a congressional comeback in November.

Although Latinos and other persons of color were sparse in the crowd, the program did touch on ethnic involvement and empowerment, as well as immigration — issues of concern to a Latino constituency.

“The Rise of Latino Conservatism,” a onehour seminar sponsored by the American Principle Project along with Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, cited the strong connection between the Hispanic culture and conservative values.

Partnership senior fellow Alfonso Aguilar said the Obama administration is promoting a “policy of entitlement,” countering that Latinos believe in a “policy of aspiration.”

Ron Paul at CPAC.

He said his organization has half a million dollars to help conservative candidates who are for immigration reform.“For the conservative movement to grow, want us to work together. If they are working to defeat radical Islam, they want us to work together. However, if the goal is to abandon our free enterprise economy… if the goal is to convert America into a submissive member of the international community… if the goal is not to fix America, but rather to “change” America… the American people are looking for leaders that will fight those efforts.”

Economy: “This severe economic downturn is a perfect time to reinvigorate, not abandon, America’s free enterprise system.”

Jobs: “Jobs aren’t created by politicians. They are created by people willing to use their money to start a business or expand an existing one.”

National Debt: “The expansion of government at home has implications for America’s interests abroad. This growth is being funded with borrowed money. Almost half of our debt is now held in foreign countries. And one of them, China, reminds us of this every time the U.S. says or does something they do not like… [Voters] are looking for clear signs that Washington is serious about creating growth, controlling spending and ending the monetization of our budget shortfalls… let’s show we are serious about getting control of our national debt.”

Taxes: “Let’s reform the tax code and reduce tax rates. Let’s eliminate double taxation by abolishing the taxes on capital gains, on dividends, on interest, and, yes, on death. Let’s significantly lower the corporate tax rate to a rate that makes us competitive with the rest of the world.

Alternative Energy: “Let’s stop big government energy mandates like cap and trade, and instead rely on the American innovatorto make us energy independent.”

Health Care: “Instead of having the federal government open up a new health insurance company, let’s make some simple changes that put the consumer in charge of health care spending. And while we are at it, let’s pass lawsuit abuse reform.”

National Security: “There is no greater risk to our security than radical Islamic terrorists… They attack us because they want to impose their world view on others. We will do whatever we have to do to defeat terrorism. We will punish their allies like Iran and stand with our allies like Israel. We will destroy terrorist cells and their leaders. We will capture the terrorists that survive and, after we get useful information from them, bring them to justice by trying them before military tribunals in Guantanamo, not in civilian courts in Manhattan.

Role of Government: “Almost every other country in the world chose to have the government control the economy. They chose to decide which companies should survive, 1which industries should be rewarded… Americans have chosen differently. America chose individual liberty instead of the false security of government. America chose a limited government – one that exists to protect our rights, not to grant them. And America chose a free enterprise system – one that aims to provide equality of opportunity, not compel equality of results… But now some of our leaders are asking us to choose something very different.”­

­by Elizabeth Glass

Border patrol agents arrest undocumented immigrants.

Undocumented immigration into the United States decreased substantially between 2007 Released Jan. 9, it estimated the number of persons in this country without papers last year at 10.8 million, down from 11.8 million in 2007.

That coincided with the start of this country’s recession.

The drop takes into account both a reduction in newcomers and those who departed for lack of work.

Differing views are put forth as to whether the decrease will benefit or hinder efforts to advance an immigration reform bill through Congress.

Advocates for greater border enforcement and a freeze on legal quotas see the drop as an indicator that the problem can be resolved without letting persons who crossed the U.S. border without documents remain here.

Latino and other humanitarian advocates point to the contributions these immigrants make and warn of the harsh impact on families, businesses, established communities and our society in general that would result by forcing their departure.

For more information on the report, visit ­http//www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2009.pdf.

by the Universidad of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—New SEC rules will require public firms to disclose what role, if any, diversity plays in appointing members to their corporate boards, but University of Michigan researchers say any forced restructuring of boards in the name of equality could hurt companies.

“Boards are chosen in order to increase shareholder wealth,” said Amy Dittmar, associate professor of finance at Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “Placing restrictions on the composition of a board will reduce value.”

Currently, there is no SEC-mandated definition of what constitutes diversity and there are no restrictions on who companies can appoint to their boards.

Corporate nominating and governance committees may consider such factors as professional experience, education, gender, race or national origin.

A new study by Dittmar and Ross School colleague Kenneth Ahern, assistant professor of finance, analyzes the impact of a 2003 Norwegian law requiring all public-limited firms to have at least 40 percent representation of women on their boards of directors by 2005. At the time, only 9 percent of board seats in Norway were held by women. After voluntary compliance failed, the law became effective Jan. 1, 2006, with a two-year transition period. Firms that did not comply by January 2008 would be forced to dissolve.

Using a panel of 130 publicly listed Norwegian firms from 2001 to 2007, the researchers found a negative impact of the mandated board changes on firm value—a result that may be applicable to the United States and Britain since Norway’s system of governance is similar. A few other European countries are also considering gender quota laws or initiatives.

Dittmar and Ahern found that the stock price of an average firm dropped 2.6 percent in the three days following the first announcement of the new law and 5 percent for firms that had no women on their boards at the time of the February 2002 announcement.

The researchers also used a common market-based measure of corporate governance to determine firm value: Tobin’s Q, a ratio of a company’s market capitalization to the replacement cost of its assets (the sum of total assets and market equity less common equity divided by total assets).

They found that when a firm experienced at least a 10-percent increase in the proportion of women on its board, Tobin’s Q dropped 18 percent.

“The negative effect of the regime shift supports the hypothesis that board structure affects value,” Ahern said. “Firms that were required to make the most drastic change to their boards also suffered the largest negative returns. Our results indicate that boards do matter and that constraining the selection of board members has a large negative impact on value.”

Dittmar and Ahern are quick to point out, however, that a loss in firm value was not caused by the gender of the new board members, but rather by their young age and lack of high-level work experience. In fact, gender effect is not significant once you account for these other experience-related differ­ences, they say.

“The constraint imposed by the 40-percent women quota led firms to recruit women board members that were younger and had different career experiences than the existing directors,” Dittmar said. “It is reasonable to suggest that these changes led to decreases in firm value because new directors did not have the same monitoring or advising capabilities of the other directors before the imposed change.

“When firms were free to choose directors before the rule, they tended to choose women that were similar to men directors. This is consistent with the idea that the large demand and small supply for women directors after the adoption of the 40-percent quota forced firms to choose directors that they would not have chosen otherwise.”