Costa Ricans will head to the polls this weekend to elect a new president. A woman, Laura Chinchilla, hailing from outgoing President Oscar Arias’s centrist Liberal National Party (PLN), continues to be the favorite, despite seeing her numbers decline in the last four months. Latest poll numbers from the country show Chinchilla taking some 45% of the vote, down from 53% in October. Her nearest rival is the right-wing Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement (ML) who is expected to win just over 30% of the vote Sunday, according to current polls. Chinchilla must win at least 40% of the vote to avoid a second round runoff.
As AQ reports on the election, the main topics of debate leading up to this weekend’s vote have become a bit bizarre. Guevara, who has campaigned on a platform of slashing taxes, dollarizing the economy, and declaring rising crime a national emergency, recently took a lie detector test on public television to dispel rumors that his campaign had accepted campaign money from questionable sources. Some even said Panama’s mega millionaire President Ricardo Martinelli was partly bankrolling the law and order libertarian. AQ’s reporting also includes one of the strangest pieces of campaign propaganda I’ve ever see—singing pregnant women and grown men wearing bibs. The ad is from Luis Fishman of the Social Christian Unity Party. Fishman, however, is currently running in a very distant fourth position.
Working through other stories this morning:
· Boz highlights some Latin America mentions in two major US “strategic” documents released or leaked this week. First, in the DOD’s QDR (full document here)—a four year assessment of budgets and policies at the Defense Dept.—there are just two Latin America mentions: one related to how DOD seeks to continue to develop “regional defense partnerships that address domestic and transnational threats such as narco-terrorist organizations, illicit trafficking, radical populism, and social unrest.” The report particularly highlights DOD’s desire to further build relationships with Brazil and Mexico. Also there’s also mention of disaster relief support and DOD’s desire to keep a “limited footprint while seeking to improve relationships with regional states and militaries in pursuit of common hemispheric security goals.”
Second, Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, testified yesterday (full testimony here) before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, presenting his annual “threat assessment.” On Latin America, Blair stated that “Democratic governance remains strong” in a region where “a vast majority of countries are committed to representative democracy, economic liberalization, and positive relations with the United States.” But, Blair added, “crime, corruption, and poor governance” “threaten” “democracy and market policies” in some places. Among those countries Blair specifically mentioned: Mexico and Central America (crime and drugs) and Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador where a “authoritarian and statist political and economic models” are being pursued by “populist leaders.” (all Blair’s words). For more of the details, again I recommend Boz’s breakdown which excerpts all the Latin America mentions in the intelligence assessment.
Also, Ass’t. Sec. of State, Arturo Valenzuela—speaking at a Spain-US-Latin America integration forum yesterday, called for increased “triangular cooperation” between the three regions/countries. Valenzuela added that “risks of democratic ruptures” and the “consolidation of a State that can guarantee justice” are currently the major challenges he believes are facing the region.
· On Haiti, the AP and the Washington Post both highlight aid bottlenecks that are causing a growing sense of frustration in the country. It’s not for a lack of goods, says the AP, but rather because of a poor delivery system. “There's no top-down leadership. ... And since the Haitian government took control of our supplies, we have to wait for things even though they're stacked up in the warehouse,” Dr. Rob Maddox, a physician now aiding with medical treatment in Haiti, tells the wire service. A Post editorial, meanwhile begins by saying that $2 billion in aid has been pledged to Haiti already, but more than 85% of that aid has not been delivered or disbursed. That’s not unusual, the paper writes, particularly given the magnitude of the disaster. However, it does mean that monitoring of funds and accountability measures will be required for some time to come. Meanwhile, FP’s The Cable examines where in the US government Haiti aid money is currently coming from, as a Haiti supplemental awaits approval. Hint: those working with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance in Somalia (and perhaps other places) are not very happy. And with an opinion on Haiti looking forward, Newsweek interviews journalist Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine.
· In Venezuela, Russia and Venezuela agreed to increased cooperation in the oil sector over the weekend. Ditto with China where oil minister Rafael Ramirez arrived Tuesday for talks about a joint-venture refining project. Facing discontent over electricity rationing, President Hugo Chavez also announced the creation of a $1 billion electricity fund which will finance “59 projects having to do with the generation and distribution of electricity and another 50 for the operation and maintenance of the system.” This news comes as public demonstrations over electricity rationing and the closure of RCTV seem to have simmered down a bit, at least for the time being. However, earlier this week, a group of former Chavez loyalists which includes former foreign minister Luis Alfonso Davila; former defense minister Raul Isaias Baduel and one of the main drafters of the new Chavez-era constitution, Hermann Escarra called for President Chavez’s resignation. The group, calling themselves the “Constitutional Axis” argued that the president has demonstrated an “autocratic, totalitarian and self-centered way of governing.”
In unrelated news, Venezuela deported accused Colombian drug smugglers to the US and France Tuesday. As the AP writes, “Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami hailed the deportations as evidence that President Hugo Chavez's administration is effectively fighting drug trafficking.”
· In Brazil, Lula’s handpicked successor, Dilma Rouseff has seen her poll numbers rise significantly in recent weeks. She still trails the likely center-right candidate, Jose Serra, however.
· Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher came out yesterday with a statement publicly opposing the United States “pro-truth commission” position in Honduras. The congressman argues that “the book should be closed” on the events of the last 7 months in Honduras and all eyes should be looking forward, not back.
· And finally, three opinions at the Huffington Post this week. Aldo Civico sits down with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) to talk about human rights, Plan Colombia, and the possible (yes, apparently still possible) re-election bid of Alvaro Uribe. Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas presents the absurdity of US policies that allow American engagement and travel to nuke-wielding North Korea but not Cuba. And Eduardo Bertoni, Director of the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression at Palermo University School of Law in Argentina, writes on the future of journalism in Latin America. He maintains that “The idea to transform newspaper companies into some sort of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that would be supported by the revenues from a wealthy endowment will not work in Latin America.” Nor is the use of public advertising a good idea as it does not promote independence. Rather, he writes, “Governments must adopt clear public policies to strengthen democracies by, for example, granting subsidies and tax benefits in favor of newspapers.”
No comments:
Post a Comment