Weekly Roundup: Brazil's Presidential Race, Venezuela's Cabinet Shuffle, Mexico's State of the Union
Weekly Roundup: Brazil's Presidential Race, Venezuela's Cabinet Shuffle, Mexico's State of the Union
Chile tops Latin America in WEF’s competitiveness ranking, El Salvador gangs rekindle their truce, and Argentina sets a presidential election date for next year.
Peña Nieto’s State of the Union Address: From Infrastructure to Security
On September 2, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto gave his state of the union address, known as the segundo informe of his administration. The president highlighted the passage of wide-ranging reforms from telecoms to education, and promised there would be no new taxes for the rest of his term. He announced the construction of a $9.2 billion airport outside of Mexico City, one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects during Peña Nieto’s term. The current airport has the most take-offs and landings in Latin America, and the new project will relieve congestion. He also discussed the rebranding of the Oportunidades social programs, which will now be called Prospera and will now include college scholarships. On security, he said that homicides declined 12.5 percent since 2012.
Also this week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie—a potential 2016 U.S. presidential candidate—traveled to Mexico on a trade mission to meet with Peña Nieto and business leaders.
Learn more about Mexico’s reforms and the Oportunidades program from AS/COA Online.
Brazil’s Presidential Race Heats up
The upcoming October 5 presidential election could prove a close race, as President Dilma Rousseff loses ground to Marina Silva—the Brazilian Socialist Party candidate who stepped in after Eduardo Campos' death last month. Rousseff still leads in the polls, but surveys show Silva defeating the president in a runoff. Silva is considered a favorite in the country’s Southeast and among disaffected young voters. But James Bosworth of Bloggings by Boz pointed out that “Silva's coalition of voters is a diffuse group of people who are unhappy with the status quo…It's a tough challenge and cracks have begun to form.”
This week, candidates faced off in a second televised debate, sparring over issues ranging from LGBT rights to energy. Meanwhile, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened an account on Twitter to support Rousseff, and three ministers left office to work on her campaign.
Get the latest on the polls from AS/COA Online.
Venezuela’s Maduro Announces Cabinet Shuffle
In a bid to address economic woes, this week President Nicolás Maduro appointed new foreign, social development, and energy ministers, along with a new economic adviser. Rafael Ramirez—previously serving simultaneously as economic vice president, oil minister, and president of state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)—was reassigned as foreign minister. His three former roles have been distributed among Rodolfo Marco Torres (economic vice president), Asdrúbal Chávez (oil minister), and Eulogio de Pino (PDVSA president). Former Foreign Minister Elías Jaua is now social development minister.
Read more from AQ about the state of economic and political affairs in Venezuela.
Argentina Confirms 2015 Presidential Election Date
On September 2, Argentina’s electoral authorities released a timeline for next year’s vote, setting the date for the presidential election on October 25, 2015. Voters will also pick legislators on the same date. Campaigns will officially begin on September 20 next year.
Chile Ranks Number One in LatAm on WEF’s Competitiveness Report
On September 3, the World Economic Forum released its annual competitiveness report, which covered 144 economies worldwide on 12 measures. Chile, Panama, and Costa Rica ranked highest in Latin America. The report indicates a shortage of skilled workers as an important challenge for the region, even for top performers. Overall, the greatest changes among the top ten Latin American countries were Barbados’s eight-slot drop, and Guatemala’s eight-slot climb.
Examining Puerto Rico’s Economic Challenges
The University of Pennsylvania’s Knowledge@Wharton looks at Puerto Rico’s economic challenges in an article in late August. The island has had “seven years of stagnation and the measures taken during the past year and a half have only provided artificial life to the Jabba the Hutt-like government that we have here,” said Wharton management professor Mauro Guillen. “What we’ve seen is not only a migration of the labor force, but the middle class has disappeared also.” One of the island’s economic problems stems from expensive energy and an indebted Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). On September 4, PREPA selected a chief restructuring officer to address the public corporation’s $9 billion debt burden.
Find out more about Puerto Rico’s debt woes from the Americas Quarterly blog.
El Salvador Gangs Relaunch Truce
Leaders from El Salvador’s five most powerful gangs, including Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), said on August 29 that they would work to reinstate the truce process. This agreement was originally implemented in 2012 but crumbled this year. “We view this new effort as a second chance for the country to achieve peace," the leaders said in a statement. While the country’s murder rate fell by 40 percent following the start of the truce, other crimes did not abate, making the public “deeply suspicious” of the accord, writes El Salvador blogger Tim Muth.
Read more about the truce’s impact in US News & World Report.
Honduras Moves ahead with Charter Cities Plan
The government of this Central American country plans to move forward with plans to develop "zones for economic development and employment," or ZEDEs, which include the construction of semi-autonomous “charter cities” funded and planned by foreign investors. In May, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a constitutional amendment allowing for the zones’ creation, which proponents say will bring investment and jobs. This week, Foreign Policy reports on concerns among Hondurans who are unsure of what the charter cities’ construction would mean for their livelihoods and sovereignty.
Infographic: Where Do the World’s Migrants Live?
On September 2, Pew Research’s Global Attitudes Project published an interactive map cataloging the number of emigrants and immigrants of each country based on UN data from 1990 to 2013. For example, the largest group of immigrants living in the United States hails from Mexico (12.95 million), while U.S. citizens make up the largest group of immigrants living in Mexico (850,000).