Weekly Roundup: Bolivia's Constitution, Canada's Budget, and LatAm Unemployment

Bolivians Approve New Constitution

In a decisive political victory for President Evo Morales, Bolivians voted in support of a new constitution on January 25. The long-delayed constitution seeks greater political representation for the country’s indigenous majority and will allow the president to seek reelection for one term. The charter also limits new land purchases to 5,000 hectares. Oxford University’s John Crabtree writes for openDemocracy about the political fissures dividing the country, the laws enshrined in the new document, and the long road ahead for implementation.

Evo Nationalizes Fourth Largest Gas Provider

Two days before a referendum on a new constitution, Bolivian President Evo Morales signed a decree to nationalize the energy company Chaco S.A. The order forces the transfer of 51 percent of current stocks into the hands of the state-owned Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos. Chaco commands the fourth largest natural gas company in a country that holds the second largest gas reserves in the region behind Venezuela.

Canada’s Conservative Party Holds On

After months of a rocky ride involving a shaken economy and political challenges from an opposition coalition, Canada’s minority Conservative government submitted a budget Tuesday and will likely stay in power. The Globe and Mail reports that that the opposition coalition appears to have crumbled and that Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff said the budget passes enough muster to avoid another federal election. However, Ignatieff demanded regular updates on the implementation of the budget presented by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "We are putting this government on probation," Ignatieff said, according to the Toronto Star. "This budget does not include one word about accountability."

A recent Angus Reid poll found that 44 percent of Canadians are open to their government running a federal budget deficit.

Read an Americas Quarterly web exclusive by Huguette Young about the Canadian political standoff that took place in recent months.

Gates Worried over Iran’s Influence in Latin America

Speaking at a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he felt greater concern about Iran’s “subversive activities” with Latin America rather than with recent Russian military operations undertaken in conjunction with Venezuela and Cuba. "I felt that our best response to the Russian ship visits to Venezuela was nonchalance," said Gates in a Senate committee, reports Voice of America. "In fact, if it hadn't been for the events in Georgia in August, I probably would've tried to persuade the president to invite the Russian ships to pay a port call in Miami, because I think they would've had a lot better time than they did in Caracas."

Memos to President Obama

Nicaragua’s La Prensa newspaper highlights a number of the memos written for the incoming U.S. administration featured in the Fall 2008 issue of Americas Quarterly. The article includes articles written by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Colombian journalist María Teresa Ronderos, and the Secretary general of the Organization of American States José Miguel Insulza.

A New U.S. Approach to Latin America

Miami Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer writes that the new U.S. administration has shown it can weaken the anti-American sentiments of Latin American leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Cuba’s Castro. Oppenheimer urges President Barack Obama to strengthen U.S.-Latin American relations further by following suggestions made in AS/COA’s new report Building the Hemispheric Growth Agenda. Recommendations in both the column and report include proposing expansion of the G8 to include Brazil and Mexico, reinstating the White House special envoy to the Americas, creation of a hemispheric energy alliance, and approval of pending trade pacts with Colombia and Panama.

Chávez-Uribe Summit Focuses on Economics

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez visited his Colombian counterpart Álvaro Uribe in Cartagena over the weekend to discuss their bilateral agenda on trade, security, and infrastructure. Bogota and Caracas focused on ways to boost two-way trade from its current level of $7 billion to $10 billion, according to Chávez. According to Cambio magazine’s Rodrigo Pardo, an emphasis on economic affairs can help normalize the countries’ ties, which have been shaky in recent years.

Global Struggle against Colombian Hit-Man Scourge

Semana magazine reports on a troublesome Colombian export: Trained hit men who, for relatively low prices, commit executions to settle scores between organized crime cartels. The report explains that authorities in Spain and Latin American countries lag the expertise to combat the phenomenon. In recent years, Colombian authorities quelled drug violence at home, forcing dozens of mercenaries and assassins to move out of the country and set up shop abroad.

Brazil Announces Import Restrictions

In a move designed to ease the pain inflicted by the impact of the global crisis on its trade balance, Brazil’s foreign trade department announced that it will require licenses in 17 trade sectors that represent 60 percent of the country’s imports. During the first four weeks of January, Brazilian imports were $645 million higher than exports.

Super Tucanos Take Flight in Latin American Air Forces

Defense Industry Daily reports that Embraer’s Super Tucano has become the flagship aircraft to perform drug interdiction missions and combat insurgency in Latin America. Colombia already received 25 planes while Chile has ordered 12. The Dominican Republic purchased eight Super Tucano at a price tag of $93 million, thanks to a loan from Brazil’s National Development Bank.

Universal Health Care: The Brazilian Example

Three quarters of Brazilians receive access to medical care through the country’s universal health care program. Worldfocus reports that, since health care became a constitutional right two decades ago, infant mortality has dropped and life expectancy has risen. Health care professional receive higher pay to work in poor and dangerous areas. Yet hospitals “often come up short,” with patients facing long waits or even substandard care.

Raúl Castro Visits the Kremlin

Cuban President Raúl Castro made his first trip to Moscow in 24 years on Wednesday to strengthen ties between the two countries. Havana and Moscow have developed deeper relations in recent months, with agreements ranging from hydrocarbons’ exploration to military cooperation. In an interview with the Itar-Tass news agency, Castro said that Russo-Cuban relations “passed the test of time,” and hoped to sign multiple accords with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. According to the Miami Herald’s Cuba Colada blog, Havana abruptly ended its production-sharing contract Canadian energy firm Perbercan. Meanwhile, on Friday Russian and Cuba signed an agreement to would help Cuba’s oil agency with oil production.

Cuba’s IT Drought

The Brookings Institution’s Kevin Casas-Zamora writes that Cuba falls well behind the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean in the field of information technology (IT). Fewer than 2 percent of Cubans subscribe to mobile phones, a rate that is one fifteenth that of Haiti’s, the country with the second lowest rate in the region. Casas-Zamora writes that the main fault lies with the Cuban regime, but that Cuba’s IT drought is also a byproduct of the U.S. embargo and that Washington should lift bans on sales of communications equipment to the island.

Colom's Plans to Reform Guatemala’s Constitution

After congratulating the people of Bolivia for approving their new constitution, Guatemala's President Álvaro Colom announced his intentions to call for referendum on a reformed constitution by the end of 2009. Colom didn’t elaborate on his proposal but said that it will tackle “structural problems” in the government. Infolatam reports that Guatemalans refused another reform at the polls in 1998.

The U-Visa Backlog

The Los Angeles Times offers a status report on the U-Visa, a system created by U.S. Congress in 2000 to protect and give visas to undocumented immigrants who find themselves victims of certain types of crimes and come forward with related information. After eight years of delays, the first U-visa was issued last summer. 13,300 people have filed applications but only 65 visas were issues by the end of 2008.

Mexicans Sent Less Money Home in 2008

Its official: remittances sent to Mexico last year dropped for the first time since the country began tracking the inflow of immigrant cash, reports the Houston Chronicle. According to new data from the Bank of Mexico, remittances fell by 3.6 percent last year, likely because of the global economic downturn. The figures mean as many as 500,000 Mexican households will stop receiving money from abroad.

Read AS/COA coverage about how the U.S. recession affects immigrant jobs and remittances.

Regional Unemployment on the Rise

The International Labor Organization (ILO) Regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean released the Panorama Laboral 2008 report, highlighting that fact the gains made against unemployment in the region thanks to several years of steady economic growth may be lost in 2009. The ILO estimates that 1.5 to 2.4 million Latin Americans could join the unemployed, which already number 15.7 million.