All Categories

Development: On 1 September the ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, removed in a coup d'etat two months ago, met the permanent council of the Organization of American States (OAS), in Washington, where he received fresh support from the 33 active members of the hemispheric group.

Significance: Zelaya, who also had a private meeting with the OAS secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, expressed confidence that the OAS would not recognise the legitimacy of the scheduled 29 November general elections, for which the campaign officially got underway, with one reported death, on 1 September.

Insulza said that all the council members had shown their continued support for Zelaya “as president of Honduras" and fully ratified all resolutions adopted so far by the General Assembly and the Council itself. He added, “after two months, the fact that both the OAS and the international community have kept a unanimous position is an important achievement. Hopefully we will obtain better results in coming months", in reference to the failed OAS-led diplomatic efforts to secure a resolution to the crisis to date.

Not all of the international community has shown unanimity towards de the facto administration led by Roberto Micheletti, it seems.

Yesterday (1 September) the Micheletti government revealed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had agreed to disburse US$163m (of which US$150.1m was transferred on 28 August) to Honduras under a G-20 scheme to assist developing countries through the global economic crisis.

The IMF does not have any agreement with Honduras, as Zelaya ended the last stand-by deal. The funds will boost the country's existing US$2.25bn in international reserves (3.5 months of imports).

The central bank president, Sandra de Midence, contrasted the IMF gesture “of respect" with the decision of regional multilaterals, including the Central American Integration Bank, the Inter American Development Bank and the World Bank, to freeze funds for Honduras following the coup.

De Midence revealed that she and the de facto finance minister, Gabriela Nuñez, had travelled to London in August for a G-20 organised meeting of low income countries to discuss the IMF funds.

Honduras was apparently the only Latin American country to attend that meeting, “to which we were invited as the economic authorities", she noted.

Venezuela: The government of President Hugo Chávez emitted fresh public debt to the tune of US$14.84bn in the first eight months of 2009, according to new estimates by local economists.

Friday 20 November:

Brazil: The President of the Palestine National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will visit Brazil (until 21 November).

Peru: President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, will visit Peru (until 22 November).

Saturday 21 November

Nicaragua: Two marches will take place in Managua, one by supporters of President Daniel Ortega to mark the anniversary of the November 2008 municipal elections and the other by government opponents to protest the supreme justice court's recent decision to overturn the ban on consecutive presidential re-election.

Venezuela: First Extraordinary Congress of the ruling Partido Unido Socialista de Venezuela (PSUV). The congress was scheduled to run for three weeks to 13 December but on 19 November President Hugo Chávez said it would run into the first quarter of 2009, without specifying any dates.

Colombia: President Alvaro Uribe will travel to the town of Cúcuta, on the border with Venezuela, for a local council meeting to discuss the situation for local residents in the area amid ongoing tensions on either side of the border resulting from the bilateral diplomatic and commercial crisis with Venezuela.

Sunday 22 November

Argentina: The President of the Palestine National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will visit Argentina (until 23 November).

Monday 23 November

Brazil: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad begins a state visit to Brazil, his first foreign trip since being re-elected in June.

Colombia: Andrés Terán, Ecuador's chargé d'affaires - the highest ranking official who replaces the Ambassador in his absence - will arrive in Botogá. Terán's Colombian counterpart, Ricardo Montenegro, will arrive in Quito on the same day.

Tuesday 24 November

Bolivia: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will travel to La Paz to meet President Evo Morales.

Wednesday 25 November

Venezuela: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will travel to Caracas to meet President Hugo Chávez .

Thursday 26 November

Cuba: The Bastion 2009 Strategic Military Exercise will take place over three days (until 29 November, National Defence Day). The exercise will include manouevres and different types of tactic exercises with the participation of units from the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Interior Ministry and other components of the territorial defence system. The stated objective is for training purposes and to prepare the island's defences against any enemy action.

Southern Cone: Amazon Forum. Amazon countries will attend a regional forum in Manaus, Brazil, hosted by President Lula da Silva to formulate a common position on climate change ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 7-18 December.

Friday 27 November

Southern Cone: Summit of councillors and defence ministers of the 12-member Union of South American Nations (Unasur) in Manaus, Brazil.

Development: On 13 January the government announced that it had arrested Eduardo Teodoro Garcí­a Simental, alias 'El Teo'.

Significance: 'El Teo' is one of the most wanted gangsters in the country and controlled a major faction of the Arellano Félix gang, which ran the drug business in Tijuana. His speciality was shipping marijuana and synthetic drugs from Mexico to the US. He is also accused of ordering the murder of over 300 people.  

'El Teo' seems to have been arrested after a tip off from US sources. He was caught in La Paz, a resort near the tip of the Baja California peninsula. Mexico's public security ministry said that the federal police, the navy, the army, the federal Procuradurí­a General de la República, the state government of Baja California, and counter-narcotics agencies in the US were involved in the operation.

Development: On 23 February, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), the dominant party in both houses of congress and across the country, formally responded to President Felipe Calderón's 10-point political reform plan.

Significance: The PRI will decide the shape of the reforms. Under Mexico's constitution, all constitutional reforms have to be approved by both houses of congress and a majority of the 32 state congresses.

The PRI leader in the senate, Manlio Fabio Beltrones, who is a leading candidate for the PRI's presidential nomination in 2012, made the response. He accepted a trimming down of the number of federal deputies (from 500 to 400) and senators (from 128 to 96) and the idea of re-election of legislators (but not, apparently, mayors or state governors). He also wants the senate to approve all cabinet appointments and congress to appoint the country's top lawman, the Procurador General de la República.

Beltrones also wants to give congress the power to censure ministers and so force their resignation. The PRI has also come up with the idea of making the interior minister, effectively, the vice president. These changes, by definition, boost the power of the legislature at the expense of the executive.

The PRI is also interested in giving congress powers to suspend constitutional guarantees, something which President Calderón did not even hint at when he launched his 10 reform proposals on 15 December last.

Development: On 7 April two US state governors called for the military reinforcement of the border with Mexico.

Significance: California's Arnold Schwarzenegger is the only US governor of a border state who is yet to call for the deployment of the National Guard along the Mexican border. US politicians are concerned that the lawlessness in northern Mexico is spilling across the border into the US. They cite the murder, possibly by a Mexican, of an Arizona rancher, Robert Krentz on 27 March.

On 7 April the governors of Arizona, Jan Brewer, and Bill Richardson from New Mexico, made a well-publicised helicopter flight along the border to support their appeals for the deployment of the US National Guard along the border.

Richardson has already deployed 70 state national guardsmen along the border but both governors want the federal government to pay for increased border security. Richardson said that in the first week of the increased deployment, the state guardsmen had worked with Border Patrol agents and helped intercept 900lbs of marijuana which was being transported into New Mexico. In the 2009 fiscal year (which ended on 30 September 2009) the Tucson, Arizona office of the US Border Patrol was responsible for the interception of over 1m lbs of marijuana, a US record.

Brazil: A record 305,068 formal jobs were created in April, according to the labour ministry. Total formal employment creation was 962,327 in the first four months.

Development: On 24 June President Mauricio Funes ordered the security and justice ministry to come up with a law to outlaw 'maras', the country's ferocious gangs.

Significance: This is more difficult than it looks because in 2003 the supreme court ruled that a previous government's effort to outlaw membership of the maras was unconstitutional. Funes, the country's first left-of-centre president, is responding to the latest mara outrage, an attack on two buses on 20 June in which 18 people were killed.

The previous government led by President Francisco Flores (of the rightwing Arena, 1999-2004) tried to criminalise mara membership. The leftwing Frente Farabundo Martí­ para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN), which is now in government, opposed the Flores law. The FMLN waged a guerrilla war against rightwing, sometimes Arena governments, in the 1980s and 1990s until a peace deal was struck in 1992. Henry Campos, one of the FMLN's severest critics of the 2003 anti-mara law, is now one of the strongest advocates of the new law.

Even the human rights establishment, in the form of Oscar Luna, the ombudsman for the defence of human rights, believes something must be done. He agreed that the drafting of the new law will have to be deft.

One key problem is the legal principle of common purpose, which has been used in other countries to deal with gangs. This principle holds that the most junior and least involved gang members are as guilty as the most violent and senior members when a crime is committed under the gang's name. Under this principle, individual responsibility and guilt is irrelevant. The problem with common purpose is that it cuts across constitutional guarantees upholding the rights of individuals.

Congress gave an indication of how high feelings are running by voting on 24 June to extend the terrorism law to include attacks on buses. The change was approved by 75 of the unicameral chamber's 84 deputies. The law now goes to President Funes for signing.

Development: On 3 August a Haitian-American hip hop star and humanitarian activist, Wyclef Jean, 37,indicated that on 5 August he would formally announce his bid to run for president in the 28 November election.

Significance: The deadline for registering is 7 August. It is not clear whether Jean is eligible, but his considerable popularity built up through his music and charity (he was appointed Haiti's ambassador-at-large in 2007 by the current president René Préval), together with his considerable financial resources suggest that he is a strong contender.

Jean will reportedly run on the ticket of a newly formed coalition “Ansanm Nou Fo", which translates as "together we are strong" in Creole, set up by a former deputy, Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques.   So far the only other declared candidates include Jean's uncle, Haiti's ambassador to the US since 2005, Raymond Joseph, and Jean Hector Anacacis, a senator said to be close to Préval, (who under the constitution is ineligible to stand again). Joseph, 79, has not lived in Haiti for 50 years.

Although Jean holds a Haitian passport, he fails to meet the constitutional requirement that any candidate have resided in the country for any five consecutive years before the election. Jean's spinners suggest this condition could be waived in Jean's case because as a presidentially appointed Haitian goodwill ambassador since 2007, he is Haiti, wherever he is.  

Serious doubts also persist, particularly among the international community, that Jean is ready for a role beyond that of goodwill envoy given his controversial management of his humanitarian organisation, Yéle Haiti Foundation. Established in 2005 in the US to provide aid and assistance to Haiti, Yéle Haiti came under serious scrutiny following the 12 January earthquake for alleged financial mismanagement. There were reports that Jean had paid his own Haitian TV station US$250,000 using money from the charity and watchdogs questioned the foundation for filing tax returns that were “beyond late". Jean acknowledged the anomalies and sacked his accountant.

Another factor which will affect Jean's chances is the question of who Préval himself will endorse. Although Préval's handling of the earthquake crisis has been widely criticised, and any candidate from his INITE movement, such as the current prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, is likely to be punished electorally, Préval retains control of what remains of the state and the provisional electoral council (CEP), both of which are key in the election.   Aside from Bellerive, other potential INITE candidates include former prime minister, Jacques-Edouard Alexis, who was fired by the senate in April 2008 over the food crisis, and reportedly been in South Florida drumming up support.

Pointer: Préval is refusing to restructure the highly questioned CEP despite coming under increasing domestic and international pressure. Richard Lugar, the senior Republican on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has called for the council to be restructured “in consultation with international partners", and to include the participation of opposition parties such as the Fanmi Lavalas of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide which despite being Haiti's largest political grouping remains barred on a technicality. Aristide himself is still in exile in South Africa.

Development: On 9 September congress voted to increase jail terms for people convicted of supplying weapons to gangs, while President Mauricio Funes said he would not yield to “blackmail" before signing a controversial new law outlawing gang membership.

Significance: The challenges facing Funes are escalating. This week's 72 hour transport strike called by the country's two main gangs, Mara Salvatrucha and Mara-18, is the most dramatic demonstration of the law and order problems facing his government. Other looming issues include a weakening economy. Funes will also have to persuade Mexico to do more to protect Salvadorean migrants travelling, usually illegally, through Mexico en route to the US.

The transport strike caused widespread disruption and prompted the army's chief of staff, Colonel Ví­ctor Daniel Maldonado Melara, to cancel all leave and deploy an additional 7,000 soldiers to support the civil authorities. The bulk of these soldiers are patrolling streets but some are now running the country's five biggest jails and others are engaged in efforts to prevent weapons and other materials from being smuggled into the country.

The Maras' show of force was designed to intimidate the government into watering down its new anti-gang legislation. This stunt failed. The president signed the congressional bill outlawing gangs on 9 September. Once published in the official gazette the legislation will become law.

Separately, congress overwhelmingly voted yesterday (by 74 votes, of a possible 84) to increase penalties for those convicted of supplying weapons to gang members. Sentences will be tightened, to range from five to 16 years and, unprecedentedly, there will be no possibility of parole. This is the only offence in the criminal code for which there is no parole.

The Maras said that they wanted to negotiate with the government and put up a priest, Antonio Rodrí­guez López Tercero, as their spokesman. He read out a message from the gangs on TV and radio on 7 September, claiming that the country was facing a “social war". On 9 September, the government dismissed Rodrí­guez, a Spaniard, from his position on the three person Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de Niñas y Niños Desparecidos (The National Committee to find Disappeared Girls and Boys).

The committee was set up by president Funes in January 2010, on the suggestion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICHR), to investigate disappearances during the civil war (1980-1992). The other two members of the committee are: Oscar Humberto Luna, the human rights ombudsman, and Gregorio Rosa Chávez , the auxiliary bishop of San Salvador.

Rodrí­guez, a specialist in programmes to prevent youngsters slipping into a life of crime, suggested that the gangs represented young people in El Salvador and that the government should negotiate and sign a peace deal with them. He said that a peace treaty should not be political - as with the 1992 treaty ending the civil war - but should aim to create “an inclusive economy". He argued that social problems could only be solved by public investment in training.

Rodrí­guez, who has been in the country for 11 years, claimed that the gangs had 28,000 members, of which 8,000 are in prison.

Pointer: On 8 September, Fitch, an international ratings agency, said that the outlook for the economy, already one of the slowest in Central America, was worsening. This will add to the country's social problems. The unemployment rate appears to be rising and the traditional safety valve of emigration to the US may be closing. Funes is in Mexico today (10 September) for a summit with President Felipe Calderón. Thirteen Salvadoreans were killed in the massacre of 72 undocumented migrants discovered on 24 August in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Cuba: On 18 October the US State Department revealed that the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, met Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodrí­guez, on the margins of the recent UN General Assembly (13-29 September). These are the highest ranking government officials from both sides to have met since US President Barack Obama took office in January 2009. According to Philip Crowley, spokesperson for the State Department, the meeting was exclusively about the release of Alan Gross, an American government contractor arrested by the Cubans in December 2009 on suspicion of spying and since then imprisoned in Havana. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly requested his release in June. Gross, a USAID subcontractor, was arrested in Cuba where he was distributing portable computers, mobile phones and other technological equipment to the Cuban-Jewish community. He has not been charged, but Cuban authorities accuse him of espionage on the grounds that he was distributing illegal satellite equipment to what it claims are local dissident groups. On 19 October at a press conference with Hispanic media, President Obama stated that he would take only further steps to establish closer relations with Cuba if Cuba demonstrates that it is “serious" about adopting measures that will increase freedom. Obama added that although the recent release of political prisoners was “positive," he had not seen “the complete results of the promises" made by the Castro regime.    

Honduras/Guatemala: On 19 October, Honduras's security minister Oscar Alvarez hailed a visit to Tegucigalpa by the US Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, David T. Johnson, as a boost to the country's “security credibility". The US official's two day visit to Honduras ends today (21 October) and included meetings with President Porfirio Lobo, Alvarez, and the US-Honduras Mérida working group, which is tasked with monitoring actions carried out locally under the US-funded Mérida Plan, aimed at combating organised crime in Mexico and Central America. The local media in reported that Alvarez was also seeking Johnson's support in developing an anti-drugs programme. Alvarez's visit to Honduras followed a two day trip to Guatemala, where he met Guatemala's interior minister, Carlos Menocal, the acting attorney general, Maria Mejia de Contreras; the human rights activist and advisor on police reform, Helen Mack and; the head of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), Francisco Dall'Anese.

Venezuela: On 19 October President Barack Obama called on Venezuela to act “responsibly" after it signed a new nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia. Earlier in the week, the US State Department issued a statement saying that it was closely following the nuclear cooperation agreement signed by Venezuela and Russia on 14 October, which, if it comes to fruition, would provide Venezuela with its first nuclear base. During the conference, Obama recognized that Venezuela “has the right to develop a peaceful nuclear energy programme, but noted that it also has the obligation not to use any nuclear capacity for weapons. He also highlighted that his administration “had no interest in increasing the friction between the US and Venezuela, or between Venezuela and its neighbours; but that “Venezuela must act responsibly". Obama also noted out that “we want Venezuelans to have a voice within their own government. It is not something we can impose externally, but we will continue to promote freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and political freedom".

Development: On 6 December, the rhetoric at the UN's summit in Cancún, Mexico, over climate change became fiercer as the deadline of 10 December loomed.

Significance: The 194 countries attending the summit, which started on 29 November, mostly agree that key decisions will have to be taken by political leaders in the next few days. The summit was shocked by Japan's threat not to extend the Kyoto protocol, which expires at the end of 2012 and is the only major international agreement to combat global warming.

The summit should move up a gear today (7 December) as heads of government start to arrive to take over the negotiations from environment ministers. The European Union's commissioner on climate action, Connie Hedegaard, said that an agreement was possible, but that the pace of negotiation needed to speed up. The most likely outcome of Cancún is that there will be enough progress for a comprehensive global agreement on climate change to be signed at the next summit in Durban, South Africa, in 2012.

The first part of the summit has produced two working papers. The first covers a long term structure for controlling carbon emissions with plans to control deforestation, support technology transfer and provide financial aid to limit the effects of climate change. This deal commits the developed economies to providing US$30bn before 2013 to developing economies to help combat climate change and then US$100bn from 2020. In return for this money, developing countries will have to agree to strict controls on their carbon emissions. The developing countries are not happy with this conditionality.

The other working paper would extend the Kyoto protocol, but Japan's apparent refusal to do this means that an agreement here is unlikely. Japan does not like the exceptions on binding limits for carbon emissions granted to the US and China, who have signed up only for voluntary controls. Japan argues that this exception will handicap industries based outside China and the US.

Development: On 24 January Peru became the latest South American country to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state.

Significance: Only Colombia and Suriname have not recognised Palestine. Most South American countries have followed Brazil and recognised Palestine as a state bordering Israel, as per the 1967 borders.

Key points:

Brazil launched the Palestine-recognition initiative at the beginning of December. Brazil has the biggest Middle-Eastern (predominantly Syrian-Lebanese) immigrant group in the region. About 10m of Brazil's 190m people claim a Middle-Eastern background.

The Third South American-Arab Countries (Aspa) summit will be held in Lima on 16 February. The last one, held in Qatar in March 2009, brought together the 12 Union of South American Nations (Unasur), which includes Colombia, and the 22 members of the Arab League. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (an Arab League member), has accepted an invitation to the Lima summit.

There has been a Palestinian mission in Peru since 1978. This now becomes an embassy, following Peru's recognition of Palestine's statehood. President Abbas turned the cornerstone a new Palestine embassy in Brasí­lia in December 2010.

Brazil's move on 1 December 2010 to recognise the Palestine state based on its pre-1967 borders with Israel, including the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, was designed to encourage a domino effect, with other Latin American countries following suit. Although President Abbas has previously said that he might appeal directly to the UN for recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state, the presumption is that the US would veto any UN Security Council resolution to that effect. The argument is that a state-by-state individual recognition of Palestine would avoid a US veto.

Bolivia's diplomats claim that Palestinian recognition is part of its government's drive for “plurinational diplomacy."

Development: On 16 March, Brazil's ambassador to Paraguay, Eduardo Dos Santos, confirmed that an official visit by president Dilma Rousseff scheduled for March has been postponed.

Significance: Dos Santos's announcement contradicts the one previously made by Brazil's foreign minister, Antonio Patriota after his first official visit to Asunción on 17 January. Then, Patriota said that president Rousseff was set to visit Paraguay on 26 March, the anniversary of the 1991 treaty of Asunción which created the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). The new announcement has sparked speculation as to whether it is connected to the Brazilian congress's inability to ratify the reversal note on the Itaipú treaty signed by President Fernando Lugo and President Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in July 2009. Since taking office on 1 January, President Rousseff announced that promoting integration within Mercosur was one of her top priorities; she has already visited its major Mercosur partner, Argentina on 31 January and is scheduled to visit, the remaining Mercosur member, Uruguay in May.

Key Points:

The reversal note on the 1975 Itaipú treaty, by which both governments agreed to review the price paid by Brazil for Paraguay's unused electricity produced at the bi-national Itaipú hydroelectric plant, was one of president Lugo's most important and popular government projects launched when he took office in 2008. The fact that to date the Paraguayan government has been unable to deliver on this and on many of its other promises has caused resentment in the country, that increasingly views president Lugo as an ineffectual leader.

Back in January, Paraguay's foreign minister, Héctor Lacognata, had announced that the foreign ministry's hope was that President Rousseff would visit Paraguay with the reversal note approved at least in Brazil's chamber of deputies with approval pending in its Senate. However, the initiative is still stuck at the chamber of deputies' foreign affairs committee. According to the local press, this scenario leads to speculation as to whether it was the Paraguayan authorities that requested President Rousseff to delay her visit. It is widely believed that the prospect of another unfulfilled promise could trigger a strong reaction against the Lugo administration.

Dos Santos told journalists that president Rousseff's visit was never officially confirmed. “It was a possibility that was initially considered; but that date [26 March] was not confirmed in the agenda of either president", he said. A vexed Dos Santos also emphasised that “there has been no suspension. The date of the president's visit is being discussed by the embassy and the foreign ministry". Asked whether the Paraguayan government had set any conditions for the visit, Dos Santos answered “please, there are not conditions_ we are in close contact and when a date is set it would be released simultaneously by both governments".

Development: On 5 May, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla delivered her first annual state of the union address to an opposition-dominated national assembly (AN).

Significance: Chinchilla delivered a conciliatory speech following the legislative debacle that left the country without congressional leadership for the first time since 1949 and which prevented her from delivering her address on the customary date of 1 May. Her actions, however, sat in stark contrast to the contents of her speech: while Chinchilla spoke of dialogue and conciliation, when she arrived at the AN she only greeted a handful of (loyal) Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) legislators and after delivering her address, she left without meeting any member of the opposition and skipped the reception for her.

Key points:

Saying “my presence this afternoon at this legislative plenary session does nothing more than confirm my government's disposition to shake hands and intertwine our wills [with the opposition]", Chinchilla clearly addressed the 1 May embarrassment. “No one holds a monopoly on truth...Although the events of that day seemed to momentarily cloud some of the traditions of our centennial democracy, fortunately for our institutions, good sense prevailed...I greet the new directorate; its appointment was the product of a democratic exercise and it deserves our most profound respect".

The president's subsequent quick exit from the AN was attributed by Communications Minister Roberto Gallardo to her busy agenda; however, he failed to explain what these commitments were. Emma Lizano, Chinchilla's spokeswoman, said the president had a pre-scheduled meeting with the leader of the PLN congressional bloc, Viviana Martí­n.

Danilo Cubero, leader of the Movimiento Libertario (ML) bloc, said the president's words and behaviour were “inconsistent", but Lizano said her message of “shaking hands" was a “metaphor" and should have never been taken literally.

April 1 marked the first anniversary of the free trade agreement between South Korea and Chile and both sides appear happy with the deal. The two countries rely heavily on external trade, but whereas Chile has now completed a handful of FTAs, and is engaging in further talks with China, Japan, and Singapore, South Korea has yet to complete any more deals, fearing the effect of trade liberalization on its agricultural sector.

South Korea started negotiations on the free-trade agreement with Chile in 1999 and concluded them in October 2002. It took until January 2004 for the agreement to be ratified by the National Assembly and it finally came into effect three months after that. According to the Korea Herald, the concerns about Chilean agricultural products dealing a serious blow to Korean farmers were grossly exaggerated. 

Data compiled by the Korean International Trade Association showed that farm-product imports from the South American nation, excluding wine, increased by only 2.6% during the 11 months from April 2004 to this February. Imports of Chilean wine, however, surged by 150% and were worth US$8.81m. Nevertheless some Korean farmers were hurt by the deal: 12,000 farmers gave up growing fruit fearing Chilean competition, but the damage suffered was estimated at 5.78bn won a year, less than 10% of the projected losses.

The aggregate imports from Chile reached US$1.75bn during the 11-month period, a 54.3% jump from the same period a year ago. The increase in the import bill was caused mainly by a surge in the international price of copper, which accounted for 75% of Korea's imports from Chile. Korea's exports to Chile increased by 58.7% during the same period to reach US$735m, with cars, mobile phones, colour TVs, and petrochemical products driving the expansion in trade.

At present South Korea is engaged in FTA negotiations with some 20 countries around the world. Its second FTA, with Singapore, is due to take effect in the first half of 2005. The Asian country is keen to diversify its export markets: last year China, the US, and Japan accounted for 45% of Korea's exports, the highest concentration ratio ever. The excessive concentration of exports in these countries makes South Korea particular vulnerable to external shocks. 

Chile

Meanwhile, Chile's FTA negotiations with China and Japan have kicked up a gear. Meeting in Santiago the Japanese and Chilean negotiators presented the results of their feasibility studies evaluating the impact of the FTA on their economies on 20 April; five days later a Chinese delegation arrived to recommence talks. This was the second round of discussions that began in January this year. The main products which Chile exports to Japan are copper and salmon; industry insiders expect the FTA to favour the diversification of Chilean exports to Japan. The Asian country's main shipments to Chile include cars, motorcycles, auto parts, and machinery.

In 2004 Japan was the second-largest destination for Chilean exports; they topped US$3.731bn, up 55.5% year-on-year. In March 2005, however, China outstripped Japan; Chile's exports there stood at US$474.5m, accounting for 13.3% of the total. The Chinese delegation headed to Santiago on 25 April. 

Chile has signed FTAs with South Korea, the US, the EU, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, as well as preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador and an association agreement with Mercosur.

IMMIGRATION: Mexico's governors protest tough Californian rules on immigrants

COLOMBIA: US approves military aid

MERCOSUR: US, Argentina, Brazil & Chile in air force exercise

OPINION POLL: Latinobarómetro reveals disillusionment with US

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Fiscal reform bill could damage free-trade deal

OAS: US think-tank praises aims, laments performance

IMMIGRATION
The governors of Mexico's 32 states asked the federal government to protest against moves in California to restrict the rights of Mexican residents to benefits and driving licences. The populist policy is being led by the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The driving force behind the Mexican protest was Amalia Garcí­a, the newly elected governor of Zacatecas; the state is a huge source of labour for the US. Garcí­a, a former national president of the left-wing Partido de la Revolución Democrática, is responsible for immigration issues at the governors' forum; the Conferencia Nacional de Gobernadores (Conago).The governors say that that the Californian decision is discriminatory and seriously harms Mexicans. The governors claims that the anti-immigrant moves reflect the influence of a former governor of California, Pete Wilson, whose proposition 187 would have stripped immigrants of all rights to state benefits. Wilson was Schwarzenegger's campaign manager when he won election as governor.

COLOMBIA
The US State department said on 24 September that the government and armed forces of Colmbia had cut their links with paramilitaries forces and were following the guidelines established to protect human rights. The declaration, made by Secretary of State Colin Powell, was based on the fulfilment on a number of requests by the State department, including the suspension of officials accused of human rights violations or collaboration with paramilitary groups A spokesman for the US State department, Adam Ereli, said that although the situation had improved in Colombia, 'more must be done to improve human rights' in the country. The decision means that the US will now release US$32.5m in military aid, out of a total US$250m, to help the Colombian armed forces.

MERCOSUR
The air forces of Argentina, Brazil and Chile were joined by US combat planes on 28 September for a training exercise under the command of the UN Security Council. Significance: The 12-day-long Salitre Operation will last until 9 October and take place in northern Chile, near the town of Iquique. According to the operation's commanders its objective is for the four countries' air forces to 'perform joint exercises under a simulated order from the UN'. The operation was the suggestion of the Chilean air force. According to the Brazilian commander, Brigadier José Carlos Pereira, the joint exercise is 'fundamental to increasing mutual reliance within the continent'. The simulated operation is a chance for commanders, pilots and technicians to meet and work in an international environment. The exercise will consist of a 'blue' coalition force fighting against a 'red' attacking force.

OPINION POLL
The Miami Herald leaked the results of the Latinobarómetro on 26 September. This poll is the most reliable guide to public opinion across Latin America; an annual public opinion survey of approximately 19,000 people in 18 countries in Latin America. The work is done by the Latinobarómetro Corporation, a not-for-profit NGO based in Santiago, Chile. The headline finding is that the reputation of the US has plummeted in several of the region's major countries, notably Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. To be fair, the Latinobarómetro poll show that there are countries where the image of the US has improved significantly in the past year, notably Colombia, the five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic. The enthusiasm for the US in Central America is at odds with the protests that have accompanied the agreement of the Cafta (Central America Free Trade Agreement) with the US. What is interesting about the Latinobarómetro survey is that it seems to show that the US is losing the automatic support of the middle classes, especially in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. The poll's overall trends were first revealed on 13 August by The Economist magazine. A more detailed analysis of the findings will be published on Friday 1 October at The Miami Herald's Americas Conference. The most striking aspect of the poll is the collapse in pro-Americanism in Mexico. Mexicans' positive opinion of the US has gone from 72% of all responses in 2000 to 41% this year. Iraq is one big no-no: only 4% of Mexicans support the US action in Iraq.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
US Ambassador Hans Hertell warned the Dominican Republic that the recent fiscal reform bill passed by the Senate could jeopardise the country's free-trade agreement with the US. Hertell met President Leonel Fernández on 27 September to discuss the controversial 25% tariff that the Senate voted to slap on US corn-syrup imports earlier this week in order to protect local sugar producers. Hertell confirmed rumours that if the local authorities upheld the 25% surcharge, the Dominican Republic would be excluded from the free-trade agreement signed with the US on 5 August. Fernández says he will sign the bill as it stands but send a separate amendment to Congress over the 25% surcharge.

OAS
The inauguration of former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodrí­guez as secretary general at the Organization of American States (OAS) on 15 September excited some comment from Steve Johnson, Latin America policy analyst at the US think-tank, the Heritage Foundation. 'Since its establishment some 56 years ago, the OAS has become an organizational crazy quilt,' Johnson said. 'Today, 19 offices report directly to the secretary general, who is often too busy mediating conflicts to properly oversee them. Budgeting is not tied to tangible results. There is no career track for permanent employees. The OAS must be reorganized and better focused if member states want to accomplish missions they now consider important,' he added. While his comments sounded only slightly more diplomatic than the dismissive quip from former US President Lyndon Johnson when advised to consult the OAS before sending troops into the Dominican Republic in 1965 - 'The OAS couldn't pour piss out of a shoe if the instructions were on the heel!' - Steve Johnson went on to praise Rodrí­guez's efforts to restructure and bring greater efficiency to the OAS. 'The organization's ''crown-jewel'' priorities - protecting human rights and consolidating the hemisphere's transition to democracy - are well worth the effort,' he said.

Central America: On 25 February the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Frank Mora, said that drug traffickers were increasingly moving operations to Central America. Mora's remarks, made in a talk at the US Brookings Institution, reflects growing concern in the US about the growing presence of drug gangs in the region, attributed to the success of anti-drug efforts in Mexico, Colombia and the Caribbean. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Costa Rica and Guatemala tomorrow (5 March) as part of a “strategic evaluation" of Central America. Mora is also planning to visit both countries and El Salvador over the next few weeks. The US plans to assign US$100m in aid for fiscal year 2011 to combat drug trafficking in the region as part of the US$1.4bn Mérida Initiative, a multi-year programme to combat organized crime in Mexico and Central America.

Mexico: On 25 February the US announced that it was closing, temporarily, its consulate in Reynosa, because of the violence in the state of Tamaulipas. Tamaulipas has suffered a series of shootouts between drug-trafficking gangsters and the army this year. On 25 February, a group of gangsters attacked an army patrol on a road just outside Matamoros (another town in the state), where the US consulate still remains open. The army said it killed four of the attackers and took no casualties. In Tamaulipas and the neighbouring state of Nuevo León, at least 25 people were killed in shootouts in late February. Some of these shootouts were between gangs; others were between gangs and the police or the army.

Region: On 1 March the US State Department published its 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR). Within Latin America, Venezuela, and more surprisingly, Peru, come in for implied criticism. The INCSR asserts that drug flows from Venezuela to the US, Europe and West Africa increased sharply in 2009. It notes that the Venezuelan national counternarcotics office (ONA) increased drug seizures from 40 metric tonnes (t) in 2008 to 60.2t in calendar 2009. The report points out that this is still way below the 152t seized in 2005, when the US and Venezuelan governments were still cooperating fully in anti-drugs operations. The INCSR pointed out that there is still some limited cooperation between Venezuela and the US, especially with the US Coast Guard. This cooperation led to three joint operations and the seizure of over 2t of cocaine last year.

The INCSR was unusually critical of Peru, which is the world's second largest producer of coca and cocaine. The report bluntly stated that “the government of Peru does not devote sufficient resources to implementing its counternarcotics plan or for counternarcotics operation [s]. Coca cultivation expanded in Peru, Peruvian authorities seized fewer drugs in 2009 than in 2008 and Peru's potential to manufacture and export cocaine increased in 2009." The INCSR notes that Colombia's domestic drug problem is rising, even though pure cocaine production apparently dropped from 485t in 2007 to 295t in 2008. This production figure seems unlikely, because Colombia's National Directorate for Dangerous Drugs (DNE) reported that local security forces seized 205.85t of cocaine in 2009.

Mexico: The US Department of Transport reported that the value of overland shipments (i.e. road and rail traffic) between the US, Mexico and Canada rose 10.5% year-on-year in December 2009. The total value in December 2009 was US$58.5bn. The value of the traffic between the US and Canada was US$35.4bn, up 7.8% year-on-year, while the value of traffic between Mexico and the US was up by 15% at US$23bn.

Mexico: In January 2010 remittances inflows to Mexico came to US$1.32bn. This was 15.7% down on January 2009. The January figure was also down on December 2009, when remittances came to US$1.56bn. Worryingly, January's fall is the biggest year-on-year drop since October 2009, when the flow dropped by 38%. Remittances have now been falling, year-on-year, for 15 consecutive months. This suggests that the employment prospects for Mexican migrants in the US is not even stabilising, let alone improving. BBVA-Bancomer, one of Mexico's biggest banks, recently calculated that 13% of all Mexican migrants in the US are jobless.

FRIDAY

Brazil: The IMF will present the economic perspectives for Latin America

Paraguay: IV International Tourism Fair Paraguay-Fitpar 2007-11-06

Venezuela: International Book Fair will start, ending on 18 November

SATURDAY

Argentina: Head of the Spanish government, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will visit Argentina to meet with president Néstor Kirchner.

Chile: Iberoamerican Summit ends

SUNDAY

Bolivia: Members of the Bolivian International Politics Commission will visit Chile to consolidate "parliamentary diplomacy" between the two countries.

Mexico: Elections will take place in the states of Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala and Puebla.

Uruguay: Head of the Spanish government, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will visit Uruguay.

Uruguay: Justice Ministers Conference (Ministros de Justicia Iberoamericanos)