Weekly Roundup: Brazilian "Bombshell," Asia-Latin America Links, and a U.S.-Colombia FTA Delay

Another Brazilian “Bombshell”

BusinessWeek examines the latest round of what “are becoming known as Brazilian bombshells: a barrage of announcements about oil and gas discoveries—some confirmed, others speculative, and each more spectacular than the one before.” Brazil revealed the latest find on Monday: a reservoir known as Carioca that could hold as many as 33 billion barrels of oil and gas, making it larger than any other oil reserves in the world except for those of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Credit Suisse warned the field may be far smaller than claimed, though still as large as the Tahiti field discovered by Chevron six years ago in the Gulf of Mexico.

Colombia’s Pro-FTA Labor Leaders

U.S. President George W. Bush expressed “big disappointment” in a congressional decision to delay consideration of the U.S.-Colombia Free-Trade Agreement. The bill has met resistance in the U.S. Congress over charges that the Colombian government fails to provide enough security to trade union members. The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes about support for the free-trade deal by nine Colombian labor leaders who visited Capitol Hill last week. A

A new Christian Science Monitor op-ed co-authored by AS/COA’s Susan Segal argues that the pending U.S.-Colombia free-trade pact could help to keep lowering human rights abuses in Colombia. 

It appears increasingly likely that Paraguayan voters will select former leftist bishop Fernando Lugo as the nation’s next president when they head to the polls on April 20. Lugo’s election would bring an end to the monopoly on executive power held by the Colorado Party for over six decades. While the ruling party has been given to political in-fighting, the power shift is also related to the Paraguayan public’s hope for sharing in the benefits of the country’s growing economy coupled with Lugo’s emphases on the needs of the rural poor. Yet Lugo’s ability to govern may be hindered by the fact that the Colorado Party’s will probably maintain control over parliament after the new president takes office in August as well as the fact that Lugo’s coalition is made up of loosely aligned opposition parties.  

Mexican Congress’ Trading Places

With Mexican lawmakers protesting a proposed energy reform bill by barricading Senate and Chamber of Duties, fellow legislators have moved to a nearby government building to continue operations. The Economist says the reform package proposed by President Felipe Calderón’s government may not offer enough to foreign investors but is a good start for restructuring Pemex, the state-owned oil company. 

A new AS/COA Online analysis takes a closer look at the debate over the Pemex reforms.

Biofuels Take the Blame

The effect of rising global food prices was evidenced this weekend in Haiti, where riots led to the ousting of the country’s prime minister. Germany’s Spiegel takes a look at responses to soaring food prices around the world, including focuses on Haiti and Mexico. A feature in Colombia’s Semana examines the role of biofuels in rising prices. A Voice of America analysis looks at possible solutions, such as moving toward sugar-based ethanol from Brazil or new types of biofuels. 

Indian PM Takes Latin American Tour

In her first state visit since taking office, Indian Prime Minister Pratibha Pabil travels to Latin America, stopping in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. India’s Financial Express attributes the visit to growing “trade and economic interaction” between India and Latin America. Latin Business Chronicle examines the boom in trade between India and Latin America, the volume of which rose from $6 billion in 2005 to $11.2 billion in 2007. 

During a four-day trip to China, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet pledged to deepen cooperation with Beijing. Bachelet said that Chile, the first country to sign a free-trade agreement with China, continues to benefit from growing ties with its largest trading partner, and that "Chinese companies can take Chile as a good platform to go through into the Latin American market.” China and Chile signed two agreements during Bachelet’s visit; one concerned bilateral banking cooperation and the other collaboration between small- and medium-sized enterprises. 

LatAm World Economic Forum Opens

The two-day World Economic Forum on Latin America opened in Cancun, Mexico on April 15, bringing together 500 attendees from 40 countries and seven heads of state. “The situation of Latin America to deal with what’s happening with the world economy has never been stronger,” said summit Co-Chair Alejandro Baillères of Mexico’s Grupo Nacional Provincial. Leaders attribute the region’s strength to deepening economic ties between Asia and Latin America. The forum opened with the release of a report examining how to tackle meeting the world’s growing energy demand through innovation. 

Ricardo Lagos, former president of Chile and a UN special envoy on climate change, tells Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital blog that the high price of oil makes energy efficiency more economically viable; Lagos suggests efficiency, forest protection, and a “sectoral approach” to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

Reconciling Oil and the Environment in LatAm

Latin American petroleum companies increasingly move towards widespread adoption of practices that attempt to be less harmful to the environment. As Tierramérica reports, decades of social and environmental degradation have led many Latin American governments to realize the economic incompatibility of exploiting natural resource wealth without measures to improve the livelihood of people in poverty and preserve ecosystems and water sources. 

In an interview on CNN’s GloboEconomía, AS/COA’s Christopher Sabatini discusses the growing corporate social responsibility movement in Latin America.

A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that Venezuela served as Latin America’s biggest importer of arms last year, spending $887 million in 2007—a dramatic increase over $477 million in 2006. Moscow accounts for roughly 92 percent of arms sales to Caracas, but is also making deals with Venezuela’s neighbors; Brazil and Russia signed an agreement Tuesday to develop sophisticated jet fighters and satellite launchers. 

A high-level shake-up of Ecuador’s security forces followed allegations by President Rafael Correa that the country's intelligence services had been infiltrated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Ecuador’s Defense Ministry announced a civilian-led investigation to determine the scope of ties between Ecuador’s intelligence agencies and foreign organizations. According to Correa, the failure to share critical information gave rise to errors in the country’s military and diplomatic handling of the recent conflict with Colombia.

Using NAFTA to Resolve Immigration, Enviro Debates

Princeton University’s Douglas Massey argues that deepening integration through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would help raise Mexican incomes and reduce illegal migration to the United States. Froma Harrop of the Providence Journal writes that, even though Mexico “continues to face many environmental crises” that NAFTA has improved the country’s environmental regulations. 

A new service unveiled by Western Union that will enable U.S.-based Latinos to transfer money to Mexico via mobile phone. The venture allows Western Union another way to tap into the global remittance market—estimated at $300 billion a year. In an op-ed for the Houston Chronicle, Trinity University’s Char Miller writes that the new model for transferring cash could have political ramifications, and could “make obsolete our current fortress-America insularity.” 

While violence occurring along the U.S.-Mexico border has drawn widespread media attention, the Mexico-Guatemala border also serves as a problematic “second front” in Mexico’s fight against organized crime, according to analysis by the Southern Pulse Network. According to the article, the most porous sections along Guatemala’s border draws illegal immigrants from as far away as Iraq and the lawless nature of the border region attracts large scale smuggling operations.

Listen to an audio podcast with Assistant Secretary of State David T. Johnson, who led an AS/COA roundtable discussion about the Merida Initiative, a proposed program requiring cooperation between the United States, Mexico, and Central America to combat drug trafficking, transnational crime, and terrorism.