AS/COA Online - Second Time's a Charm: Dilma Wins Brazil's Runoff Vote

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Brazil elected its first female president on October 31, when voters chose Dilma Rousseff—and continuity—over ex-Governor of São Paulo José Serra. With 99 percent of ballots counted, the Worker’s Party (PT) candidate won 55.4 percent of votes compared to the roughly 43.5 percent garnered by her opponent from the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PDSB). Most commonly referred to by her first name, Dilma offered supporters the pledge of carrying on the policies of her popular predecessor President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. She served as his cabinet chief and went on to become his handpicked heir. “Twenty-eight million Brazilians have been lifted out of poverty,” said Dilma Friday. “I will remove the remaining 20 million.”

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AS/COA Online - Resource Guide: Brazil's Runoff Election

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Dilma Rousseff and José Serra face off October 31 in a runoff presidential election. Dilma, as she is commonly known, is popular President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva’s handpicked successor and former cabinet chief and remains the favorite in polls. Still, Serra, the former governor of São Paulo, has seen the gap ebb and flow since the first round on October 3. One of them will take office in January 2011. AS/COA Online offers an overview of polls, coverage, and primary sources as the country’s 1.36 million voters prepare to head to the polls.

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AS/COA Online | Costa Rica, U.S. Ink Conservation Deal

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Costa Rica, long seen as a model for environmentalism, inked a debt-for-nature deal that could put it on the global map for meeting conservation targets. The agreement paves the way for Costa Rica to expand protected marine and rainforest areas and become the first developing country to meet its environmental protection commitments spelled out under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. At the heart of the program is an accord signed Friday by Washington and San José whereby Costa Rica will draw down its debt to the United States and invest $27 million in conservation efforts over the next 15 years. The Nature Conservancy, which donated nearly $4 million, and the Central Bank of Costa Rica also signed the deal.

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AS/COA Online - Covering Chile's Rescue from above and below

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Luis Urzua, the last miner rescued, stands with Chilean President Piñra (R). (Photo: HUGO INFANTE / GOVERNMENT OF CHILE)
 The rescue of the 33 miners trapped in a collapsed Chilean mine captured the world’s attention this week in ongoing and emotional coverage of the 22-hour operation. AS/COA Online offers an overview of official coverage, exceptional graphic and multimedia reports, and news about what comes next for those rescued and Chile’s mining industry.

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AS/COA Online - Exclusive Interview: Governor Bill Richardson on Washington's Latin American Ties

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“It’s not going to be easy, but I believe we need that comprehensive immigration bill more than anything or the country is going to be torn apart.”


Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM) spoke with AS/COA Online Managing Editor Carin Zissis about Washington’s Latin American ties, saying, “It’s our own region and if I might say so, we’ve kind of neglected it in a bipartisan way.” The former U.S. ambassador to the UN discussed the need for a hemispheric accord on transnational crime as well as the shifting U.S.-Cuban relationship, which he called “the best that I’ve seen in a long time.” But he cautioned that movement on trade deals and immigration reform may have to wait until next year. “What you will see if there isn’t bipartisan, comprehensive [immigration] reform is more patchwork laws like Arizona’s, which are not just unconstitutional—they’re very discriminatory, they’re divisive,” he said. He added: “They hurt our foreign policy relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean.”

AS/COA Online: To start off, I’d like to talk about Mexico. The Obama administration has referred to a “shared responsibility” in the fight against organized crime in Mexico. As a border-state governor who also has a personal connection to Mexico, if you had to name one area for the U.S. to prioritize in its policy toward Mexico’s security situation, what would it be?

Gov. Richardson: It would be in the area of more shared intelligence with Mexico, and secondly, more cooperation in the area of restricting automatic weapons going into Mexico—a cooperative effort that I believe can be improved. On the issue of shared intelligence, it’s going to mean our joint security operations not just having more opportunities to do training and law enforcement activities. I support the Merida Initiative’s plan makes of additional helicopters. But we have to more effectively share intelligence, especially on the Mexican side.

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AS/COA Online - Taking Stock of the Hispanic Vote in U.S. Midterms

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On November 2, Americans head to the polls for mid-term elections that will likely have a profound impact on the ability of U.S. President Barack Obama to advance his legislative agenda. Among those who could play an integral part in deciding the balance of power are Hispanics, who account for more than 15.8 percent of the overall U.S. population and close to 8 percent of registered voters. But even if Latinos are far more likely to vote for Democrats than the electorate at large, the question remains as to whether they’ll turn out to vote in large numbers.
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AS/COA Online - Venezuela's Vote: Opposition Breaks Pro-Chávez Supermajority

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In the early morning hours of September 27, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced, via Twitter, “a solid victory” in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. Indeed, with all 167 seats in the National Assembly up for grabs, early results showed Chávez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) nabbing at least 95 seats. Yet, as The Economist blogged: “Seldom has an election victory tasted so bitterly of defeat.” The opposition coalition’s Coalition for Democratic Unity (MUD) ended the chavistas’ two-thirds majority by picking up at least 61 seats. Moreover, the opposition parties won roughly half of the popular vote. “The Venezuelan people have spoken. May the voice of the people be heard,” said the MUD’s representative Ramón Guillermo Aveledo as the results came in.
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AS/COA Online - Measuring Mexico's Bicentennial Mood

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Mexico celebrates its bicentennial this week amid a glut of pulse-taking media coverage reflecting on the country’s mood. As Mexicans prepare for the September 15 grito—the shout marking the climax of Independence Day festivities—the country celebrates its birthday but mourns the more than 28,000 lives claimed over the past four years by the drug war. A week before party time, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton caused a stir when she commented on Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s war against organized crime, saying Mexico is “looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago” and compared the cartels’ strength to an “insurgency.” Her remarks drew criticism from the Mexican government and some observers, forcing U.S. President Barack Obama to smooth over the controversy. In an interview with La Opinión, Obama described Mexico as a “progressive democracy and, as a result, you cannot compare what is happening in Mexico with what happened in Colombia 20 years ago.”
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AS/COA Online - Latin America Looks to India

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Latin America already has significant Chinese investments and trade agreements under its belt, but the region could set its sights on another resource-hungry Asian giant: India. A new report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recognizes that, even though Latin America’s commercial ties with India have been on the upswing in recent years, more could be done to build up the South Asian country as a Latin American market. “The region and India are increasingly together at the table when major decisions are taken,” said IDB head Luis Alberto Moreno in comments about the report’s release. “We are starting to see greater integration among them and there is a tremendous opportunity for more trade and cooperation.”

His comments allude to India as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with GDP growth rates forecast to hit 8.5 percent for 2010, as well as areas for partnership with Latin America, such as with Brazil as a fellow BRIC member. India has fostered trade links with the region, including a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with the Mercosur bloc that went into effect in June 2009 and covers roughly 900 products. A PTA with Chile came into force three years ago. 

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AS/COA Online | DOJ Files Suit against Arizona over Immigration Law

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The Obama administration had hinted at it and the wait is now over: On July 6 the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit  to halt enforcement of Arizona’s controversial immigration law. The brief argues that SB1070, passed in April and scheduled for July 29 implementation, obstructs Washington’s authority over immigration law and that “the Constitution and federal law do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country.” By including such language, the Justice Department not only hopes to achieve an injunction against the law in Arizona’s U.S. District Court, but also to stem a spate of copycat legislation in other states. Moreover, the brief makes the case that SB1070 will hinder both local policing and national security efforts. “Arizonans are understandably frustrated with illegal immigration, and the federal government has a responsibility to comprehensively address those concerns,” said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. “But diverting federal resources away from dangerous aliens such as terrorism suspects and aliens with criminal records will impact the entire country’s safety.”

The brief came from the Justice Department, not the White House, but was filed within days of U.S. President Barack Obama’s delivery of a speech urging comprehensive immigration reform in which he described Arizona’s law as “ill conceived.” Critics of the immigration law say it will lead to racial profiling, given it inclusion of a clause allowing police officers to request identification in cases “where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States.”  While SB1070 has fanned the flames of the immigration debate domestically, it has drawn attention abroad as well. While touring Latin America in June, the first question posed in a televised interview with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the Arizona law. In her response, Clinton revealed the Justice Department’s plan to file a lawsuit.

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AS/COA Online | Colombia Readies for Runoff Vote

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Juan Manuel Santos appears to be a shoe-in for the June 20 presidential runoff in Colombia. Polls place the former defense minister as many as 37 points ahead of his rival, ex-Mayor of Bogota Antanas Mockus. As a former cabinet member for popular president, Álvaro Uribe, Santos could represent safe continuity for voters on Sunday. Moreover, the June 14 release of four hostages held for over a decade by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) coincided with the close of campaigning and could win more support for Santos. But electoral victory does not depend on polls alone, as the first round of elections proved.

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AS/COA Online | Sec. Clinton Lays out U.S.-LatAm Policy in Andean Tour

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Updated June 10 - With the 40th OAS General Assembly hosted by Peru this week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Latin America and Caribbean for the seventh time since joining the Obama cabinet. The summit marked nearly a year since the overthrow of then-Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as well as continued disagreement between members over whether the Central American country should be brought back into the OAS fold. Clinton not only urged for Honduras’ readmission, but petitioned OAS members for support on sanctions against Iran over that country’s nuclear policy. In a trip that takes the secretary to Ecuador, Colombia, and Barbados, she delivered remarks in Quito outlining the shared U.S.-Latin American responsibility too reduce social inequality in the region.

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AS/COA Online | Strong Showing for Santos in Colombia's First Round

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As predicted, Colombia will need to hold a second round of elections to decide who will take over when President Álvaro Uribe steps down in August. But the results from the first round on May 30 were surprising nonetheless: Although polls placed the two top candidates in a dead heat a week before elections, the U Party’s Juan Manuel Santos won more than double the number of votes of his main rival from the Green Party, Antanas Mockus. Santos, who earned 46.6 percent of the vote, came within a few points of winning the requisite simple majority to avoid a runoff. Mockus pulled in 21.5 percent. The results indicate that voters may feel more comfortable with the continuity of Uribe’s security policies represented by Santos, the ex-defense minister, than the change symbolized by Mockus, Bogota’s former mayor. When campaigns closed a week ago, Mockus polled five points ahead of Santos in the case of a second round. He now faces an uphill battle as the two candidates prepare for the June 20 runoff.

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AS/COA Online | Colombian Election Runs Close in the Home Stretch

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As campaigning closes for Colombia’s May 30 presidential elections, polls placed the two frontrunners neck and neck in what has become a dramatic race between Bogota’s ex-Mayor Antanas Mockus and former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. Green Party candidate Mockus surged on what’s become known as the ola verde—or green wave—to become a top contender. He faces Santos, seen as an heir to the popular president, Álvaro Uribe. After a long wait for an official decision on whether Uribe would be able to pursue a third term, Colombia’s Constitutional Court rejected a reelection referendum in February and the presidential race got off to a gallop. Although several candidates remain in the running, the competition became a two-horse race between Mockus and Santos in recent weeks. Still, Colombians may face another wait come May 30. Polls show neither Mockus nor Santos winning more than 50 percent of the vote, the needed portion to avoid a runoff election. A second round of elections would occur June 20.

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AS/COA Online | Security and Immigration Frame Calderón's DC Visit

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President of Mexico Felipe Calderón pays a visit to Washington this week amid ongoing drug-war worries and rising U.S. tensions over immigration. In his first state visit to Washington since his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama took office, Calderón will also address a joint session of Congress. He is expected to stress bilateral responsibility in combating organized crime and cartel-related bloodshed in Mexico. But controversy over Arizona’s passage of immigration legislation SB1070 has pushed immigration higher up Calderón’s agenda as well. Moreover, with Mexico’s financial health tied to that of its northern neighbor, the visit will also focus on bilateral trade and economic cooperation, particularly a dispute over a cross-border trucking plan.

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AS/COA Online | Arizona Law Stirs Immigration Debate

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Arizona’s tough new immigration legislation has put federal immigration reform back into the spotlight, even as the Southwestern state’s decision attracts condemnation and debate. SB1070, signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on April 23 and scheduled to take effect over the summer, allows local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws and arrest undocumented immigrants. It also paves the way for police officers to request identification in cases where they have “reasonable suspicion” that a person may be in the country illegaly, sparking criticism that the legislation would lead to racial profiling. Individuals caught transporting undocumented immigrants will also face charges. The law could face an uphill battle, given that some lawyers deem it unconstitutional and the U.S. Attorney General’s office is weighing the possibility of a federal lawsuit. With cries to boycott the state in response to the bill, Arizona could endure economic repercussions and has already drawn harsh words from Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón, who branded the law as “unacceptable racial discrimination.”

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AS/COA Online | Latin America Springs Forward

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Latin American economies appear to be waving goodbye to the global financial crisis and welcoming recovery. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) released reports this week predicting regional growth will hit at least 4 percent in 2010. With recovery occurring faster than previously predicted and emerging markets leading the charge, Latin America’s rebound ranks second only to Asia’s. Still, challenges remain, such as increased poverty rates stemming from the recent downturn and worries about future asset bubbles similar to those experienced in advanced economies.

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AS/COA Online | Beijing Pledges $20 Billion to Venezuela

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Beijing and Caracas underscored their burgeoning ties over the weekend with $20 billion in Chinese financing, largely for Venezuela’s energy sector. The series of accords signed includes plans for a joint venture for exploration in the oil-rich Orinoco belt and secures Venezuelan oil for energy-hungry China. “This is a larger scope, a super heavy fund. China needs energy security and we’re here to provide them with all the oil they need,” said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in televised remarks. “China is going to give financing to Venezuela, to the Venezuelan people, to the Bolivarian Revolution…over the long-term and in large volume.” The funds could help salve the Andean country’s battered economy and infrastructure. 

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AS/COA Online | Sec. Gates Tours Region to Boost Security Ties

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The Obama administration sought to bolster security ties with Latin American and Caribbean allies this week when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to Peru, Colombia, and Barbados. Before kicking off his tour in Lima, Gates and Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim met at the Pentagon on April 12 and signed the two countries’ first bilateral defense pact since 1977. Gates’ hemispheric tour focused on military ties and antinarcotics efforts. But the defense secretary also took the opportunity while in Bogota to voice support for the long-stalled U.S.-Colombia trade pact. 

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