Colombia: On 3 October Colombia’s Ambassador to Washington, Gabriel Silva Luján, told the Colombian publication ‘Portafolio’ that President Barack Obama’s submission to congress of the 2006 Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with the extension of ATPDEA (Andean Trade Promotion and Eradication Act) until July 2013, is clear evidence of the US’s commitment to Colombia. Luján believes the FTA, which President Obama sent to congress on 3 October could be ratified by congress and sanctioned by Obama within a month’s time. Obama also sent the FTA with Panama to congress the same day.
Colombia: The US-Australian media tycoon and owner of the influential US TV channel ‘Fox News’, Rupert Murdoch, made a quick and secretive trip to Bogotá between 17 and 19 September to inspect the local franchise of the 24-hour news station, the Colombian media reported on 4 October. Apart from this visit to the facilities of ‘Fox Telecolombia’, which produces for the ‘Fox Channel’, very little is known about the magnate’s stay in the country. Such was the secretiveness of his visit that even the vice-president of operations and production at Fox Colombia didn’t know about it, according to local media reports. This has raised speculations about the real purpose of the trip. With regards to this, there are unofficial reports that Murdoch met with former President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010). ‘Semana’, a local weekly political analysis publication, reported that the purpose of the visit was commercial, with Murdoch’s eyes set on investing in Grupo Planeta, the seventh-largest publishing house in the world with a dominant position in Spanish-speaking markets. Another theory, posited by the local daily ‘El Espectador’, is that Murdoch met President Juan Manuel Santos in an effort to find out more about the president’s strategy to improve Colombia’s image abroad.
Honduras: On 5 October US President Barack Obama hosted a meeting with his Honduran counterpart, Porfirio Lobo, at the White House. The meeting took place as Lobo nears two years since his election (in November 2009), following the June 2009 coup d’état against president Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009). The presidents discussed a broad range of bilateral and regional economic and security issues during their Oval Office meeting, according to the official statement by the US government. On 25 September, President Obama said he was looking forward to meeting Lobo as it was an “opportunity to underscore the strong bonds of friendship between the American and Honduran people, as well as President Lobo’s efforts to restore democratic and constitutional order in Honduras and the country’s return to the Organization of American States (OAS) earlier this year”. He welcomed “a new chapter” in bilateral relations.
Mexico: On 3 October a group of retired casual labourers demonstrated in front of the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles and delivered a letter addressed to President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, condemning the obstacles introduced by US authorities in the proceedings aimed at recovering money they were promised by Mexico but never paid. Around 100 people gathered in front of the consular building to claim the money that the Mexican government offered as compensation payments to those labourers working in the US between 1942 and 1964. During World War II, the US established the ‘causal laborer program’, which gave work permits to Mexican workers and peasants in an attempt to fill the void left in the national labour force as a result of the deployment of troops. In exchange, the Mexican government deducted 10% of wages from each pay check to be added to the ‘Peasants’ Union Savings Fund’. Initially, these savings were paid to workers returning to Mexico, but this never happened; only after the labourers began legal proceedings against the state did the Mexican government agreed to pay US$3,200 to each one, but the payments have yet to materialise.
Region: On 5 October President Barack Obama appointed the Colombian singer Shakira to the President’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for Hispanics. There are some 11m Hispanic students in US public primary and secondary schools, which represents almost a quarter (22%) of the entire public school system student body up to 12th grade. However, only 13% of those move on to obtain their Bachelor’s degree and only 4% complete postgraduate studies. In 1995, Shakira founded the Fundación Pies Descalzos (barefoot foundation, named after her first album which propelled her to stardom in the Spanish speaking world), which has funded educational projects in Colombia, South Africa and Haiti, benefitting some 6,000 children. Ten years later, she founded Acción Solidaria en América Latina, grouping artists and businessmen lobbying better education for young children.
