by the El Reportero’s wire services
Enrique Peña NietoIn a coruscating climax to the political year, President Enrique Peña Nieto won approval for probably the most significant reform in Mexico’s modern history. To push through an energy reform, entailing amendments to sacrosanct constitutional articles at the heart of the Mexican Revolution and ending the 75-year monopoly of the state oil company Pemex, just one year after he took office is a remarkable feat.
The left-wing Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) was powerless to prevent the bill’s passage through congress at both a federal and state level, but it is adamant that it has merely lost a battle and not the war. It is simultaneously challenging the reform before the supreme court and pushing for a referendum to be held on it in 2015. In the meantime Peña Nieto will need to get secondary legislation through congress to enact the reform and convince potential private investors in the oil sector not to be deterred by judicial uncertainty.
Once supportive Latinos turning backing on President and Affordable Care Act
They were among President Obama’s best supporters, but support for the president and his signature health insurance scheme is quickly dying among Hispanics.
A recent Gallup poll showed Obama’s approval rating among Hispanic down 23 percent, to 52 percent in November from 75 percent in December 2012.
“Hispanics’ approval ratings of Obama have shown the most variation of any group’s ratings throughout his presidency,” the pollsters said when they released their report Dec. 5. “That means their views of him are less firmly anchored than those of other groups, which may help explain why their opinions of the president soured more than any other group’s in recent months.”
That’s not good news for the president, who is in desperate need of Hispanic support for the Affordable Care Act. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report found that Hispanics account for 32 percent of the nation’s non-elderly uninsured population — just the group he needs to buy into Obamacare to make it a success.
Highly Respected Colombian Journalist Antonio Jose Caballero
Colombian journalist Antonio Jose Caballero, who covered assorted incidents involving late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and was an expert on Vatican issues, died Tuesday in Bogota, RCN Radio – for which he worked – reported. He was 68. Caballero, an excellent and widely respected reporter, died in the Clinica del Country of an illness that had afflicted him for some time, the medical center said in a communique.
Born in Santander de Quilichao, in southwestern Cauca province, Caballero studied at Madrid’s Complutense University and at Italy’s RAI Television Directorate, after which he returned to Colombia, where he worked for some of the country’s most important media outlets.
Cuban Woman Arrives in US to Donate Bone Marrow to Sister in Miami
A Cuban woman finally arrived in Miami to donate bone marrow to a sister suffering from leukemia, after a month of uncertainty due to U.S. authorities’ initial rejection of her visa request, El Nuevo Herald newspaper said Tuesday. The emotional meeting of Alina Ortega Reyes and her ailing sister, Damay Ortega, took place Monday night at Miami International Airport. The visa is “the best gift of my life,” Alina, 47, said upon arriving in Miami, El Nuevo Herald reported.
