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The US has promised to come up with an extra US$100m this year to support the interim government of Gerard Latortue and negotiate a smooth transition to democratic elections next year. The US had already promised US$60m. The additional aid installment will be channelled into training the police and plugging the government's budget deficit.

The latest announcement comes after Latortue conducted a high-profile visit to the US in which he appealed to Secretary of State Colin Powell and multilateral organisations to help Haiti financially to tackle the scourge of poverty. He said that sending a peacekeeping force to Haiti would stop the violence but only sending money would end the crisis. Powell told him then that the US would find more money for Haiti although it would involve scrabbling around for funds in the State Department.

Meanwhile, Canada has promised to host an international donors conference for Haiti by 15 July. Canada promised earlier this month to pressure the World Bank to designate Haiti as a post-conflict country so that it will be eligible for special, fast-tracked development aid from the World Bank and the IMF.

Development: The government and the central bank in Brazil were relieved that the US Federal Reserve Board decided to raise interest rates by just 0.25% to 1.25%. The president of the central bank, Henrique Meirelles, said that the US decision was in line with Brazilian expectations and should now lead to calmer international financial markets.

Significance: The US Fed's decision to start raising rates could mean that the cost of servicing Brazil's foreign debt will start to rise. If this happens, the government will be squeezed between its obligations to investors and the pressure from its supporters for higher spending.  

The government has been bragging about its success last year in controlling both spending and taxes. The big issue for Brazil is whether higher US interest rates will deter foreign investment in the economy. The foreign direct investment figures for 2004 have been dismal: in May FDI was the lowest since 1994 at just US$207m, the central bank reported.

The financial markets took the Fed's decision in their stride. The stockmarket rose 1.67%. In the first half of 2004 it has fallen by 4.8%. the index has been volatile, bouncing between an all time peak 23,349 at the start of the year before falling to 17,604, the year's low, on 10 May.

Development: The state congress in the corruption-ridden federal capital, Brasilia, stripped Carlos Xavier, from the Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, of his membership of the congress and therefore his immunity from prosecution. Xavier is accused of ordering the murder of his former wife's 16 year-old lover, Ewerton Ferreira, on 8 March.

Significance: The state congress in Brasilia is a byword for scandal and corruption. Sessions often end with punch-ups and free-for alls. The state congress has 25 members and commands a budget of R$260m (US$80m) a year. State congress members are lavishly paid and have very few constituents. 

Xavier is not the only member of this august body to be accused of murder this year. Junior Brunelli, from the Partido Progressista, who claims to be an evangelical Christian, was also accused earlier this year of killing a couple of people who were about to spill the beans on some of his corrupt dealings. Brunelli's father founded the evangelical Catedral da Bêncão. 

Altogether there are about 50 elected politicians across the country who face serious criminal charges, mostly for violence or corruption. One of the most prominent of these is a former federal senator, Ernades Santos Amorim, also from the Partido Progresista. He is accused of defrauding the national treasury and of being involved in drug trafficking with Bolivians.

BRAZIL: Industrial output increased 9.6% in July in comparison to last year and 0.5% in comparison to June 2004. Industry expanded 7.8% in the first 7 months of 2004. The data was published by the official statistical agency, Ibge.

CHILE: Agricultural and forestry exports rose 17.8% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2004 to US$4.44bn.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Inflation hit 32.61% for the first eight months of the year, according to the central bank. The consumer price index increased by 0.54% in August compared to July.

GUATEMALA: Revenue from exports increased by 2.5% in the first eight months of the year to US$2.01bn compared with the same period in 2003. Traditional products (coffee, sugar, bananas, cardamom) increased 3.1% to US$860m.

MEXICO: The consumer price index rose a higher-than-expected 0.62% in August from the previous month. This was the highest rate in August since 1998.

PERU: The central bank held interest rates at 3.5% after consumer prices fell for the first time since April. The 12-month inflation rate stood at 4.61% in July.

URUGUAY: The economy grew 13.6% in the first half of 2004 compared with a year ago.

Development: On 13 October Gert Rosenthal announced that he would accept nomination for the position of secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) if the Central American nations unite behind his candidacy. Rosenthal, who is currently the permanent representative of Guatemala to the UN, has served as the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac).

Significance: The OAS is keen to fill the power vacuum left by the resignation of Miguel Angel Rodrí­guez on corruption charges. Rosenthal has the requisite experience. However, there are other prospective candidates in Central America. The former president of El Salvador, Francisco Flores, is almost certain to fancy another stab after he was forced to back down in favour of Rodrí­guez.

The president of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, said 'We've decided to get behind the candidacy of a Guatemalan (Rosenthal) for the post of OAS secretary general […] we're going to look for the support of the rest of the Central American countries until we reach a consensus.' In case this might be construed as being somewhat dogmatic he added, 'We do not want Central America to become divided over a candidate […] if there is consensus to support (Flores) we will do so'. Other likely candidates include the former Chilean foreign minister, (now interior minister) José Miguel Insulza and Valentí­n Paniagua, the former interim president of Peru.

Development: The nationwide strike against the government went ahead on 16 November but failed to attract the level of support organisers were hoping for.

Significance: The government appears to have survived this latest test of its authority relatively unscathed. Thanks in part to the heavy rain throughout the country, the protest was not even well supported in San Pedro, Paraguay's poorest department and the area in which anti-government sentiment is most intense.

The demonstrations in rural areas are expected to carry on into today and beyond as organisations such as the Mesa Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas (MCNOC) continue to press for land reform. However, the protest has been further weakened by the fact that another major peasant movement, the Federación Nacional Campesina (FNC), has refused to take part.

The FNC's absence is not borne from a desire to cooperate with the government, however. It launched a series of land invasions over the weekend of 13/14 November, taking over estates larger than 3,000 hectares.

BRAZIL: The government expects the economy to grow by 5.5% in 2004.

GUATEMALA: Foreign-exchange earnings increased 12.7% to US$2.86bn in the first eleven months of the year compared to the same period in 2003. Exports of coffee, sugar, bananas and cardamom generated US$1.14bn.

VENEZUELA: The rate of unemployment was 12.8% at the end of November 2004. It was 15.4% in November 2003.

Development: The US dollar fell by 0.71 percentage points on the Brazilian exchange market on 28 January, closing at R$2.647, the lowest rate since June 2002.  

Significance: Market analysts had previously warned of the danger of the Real gaining strength against the dollar when the US currency fell under the R$2.7 margin late last year. According to Adauto Lima, senior-economist of the WestLB bank, the Real is “over-valuating" due to the central bank's high interest-rate policy which is attracting a flow of speculative capital to Brazil.  

On 19 January the central bank increased the basic interest-rate for the fifth consecutive month, to 18.25% annually. A week later, the bank's monetary committee warned that monetary tightening would speed up next month. Most market analysts forecast the central bank will increase rates by 0.75% at its next meeting in mid February.

The central bank tried to keep the domestic exchange market under control by buying US dollars. Yet, once the bank withdrew from the currency auctions, the US dollar started to fall again. John Williamson, from the International Institute of Economics, warned of the risks of an overly strong Real in his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, urging the Brazilian central bank to intervene in the exchange market. Williamson, however, defended the bank's monetary policy as the “only way to combat inflation".  

Henrique Meirelles, the central bank's president, rebuffed the criticism that the bank's policies were affecting the exchange market, saying that Brazil “has a floating exchange system" and that the Real is “a respected currency". To his critics, however, the Real is not gaining strength because it is “respected" but because Brazil is offering speculative capital higher yields. According to Meirelles, the Brazilian economy will continue to grow.  

Forecasts put GDP growth at 5.2% last year and 4% in 2005. Inflation, however, picked up in January according to the Fundação Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica (Fipe). The Fipe's figures put the accumulated inflation in the first three weeks of the month at to 0.72%, higher than the 0.67% registered in December and 0.56% in November.

Development: The legislative assembly ratified the US-Central American free trade agreement (Cafta) on 3 March. The treaty was approved with cross-party support.

Significance: Honduras became the second of the five Central American signatories to ratify Cafta. The first, El Salvador, encountered stiff opposition both within and without parliament. Guatemala's legislature was compelled to suspend ratification of Cafta on 2 March after demonstrations outside the congressional building. It passed off more peaceably in Honduras, although legislators scuttled away after ratifying the treaty to avoid some 1,000 government employees who were protesting outside. The demonstrators later broke into the building, smashing up windows and chairs.

The president of Honduras, Ricardo Maduro, said that the deal with the US was a major fillip for the Honduran economy, which, he claimed would grow by 2% over the next two years as a result of Cafta. After hearing of the Honduran decision, Guatemala's deputy-economy minister, Enrique Lacs, urged legislators to approve Cafta as soon as possible. He expressed concern that the US Congress might approve the treaty before Guatemala and that it could miss out on vital investment. Trade unions and peasants in Guatemala, however, are stepping up their opposition to Cafta. They want congress to agree a national referendum on whether to introduce the treaty. They fear that peasants will lose their livelihood as imports from subsidised farmers in the US undercut their output.

Development: The official statistics agency, the Ibge, announced on 8 April its consumer prices index (Ipca) for the month of March. The central bank uses the Ipca as the basis for calculating inflation. 

Significance: According to the Ibge's figures, inflation increased in March to 0.61%. In the previous month, the Ibge registered an increase of 0.59%. The result was close to the market's average forecast of 0.6%. 

Although the Ipca has stabilized in the last three months, the accumulated index since January has already reached 1.79%, just over a third of the central bank's 5.1% inflation target for 2005. In the last 12 months, the Ipca has amassed 7.54%, above the central bank's 7% maximum-tolerance mark for this year. 

Once again, prices in the public sector were to blame for the Ipca's increase. In March, public sector charges increased by 1.29%, almost four times more than the 0.33% registered in February. The readjustment of bus tariffs in São Paulo and Porto Alegre, and the increasing costs of water and sewage fees in several capitals, were responsible for a quarter of the Ipca's rise. In April more readjustments are scheduled, notably in the price of energy and telephone services. 

The Ipca's increase followed other inflation indicators. The general prices index, measured by the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, more than doubled in March, reaching 0.99%, the highest level since August last year. The announcement has put more pressure on the central bank's monetary committee to increase the basic interest-rate (Selic) once again at its meeting on 13 April. Currently, the Selic stands at 19.25% annually. Critics of the committee's high interest-rate policy, however, say the inflation's stubbornness demonstrate how the current policy is misguided, and demand a revision in the bank's target because it risks undermining growth.

Development: On 14 May the weekly magazine Veja revealed yet another corruption case involving government allies. 

Significance: According to the article, based on a videotape recorded by two businessmen who wanted to supply the Post Office with electronic processors, the Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB), one of the government's most important allies, runs a number of scams in the state-owned companies under the party's control. In the videotape, the Post Office administrative chief, Maurí­cio Marinho, accepts R$3,000 (US$1,200) “as an initial payment to start negotiations" with the two men. After accepting the money, Marinho starts to narrate all the operational details of an embezzlement scheme run by the PTB's national leader, Roberto Jefferson. 

Control of the Brazilian Post Office is another of the “trust posts" granted to the government's political allies. There are currently over 25,000 such positions up for grabs only in the executive branch of the government. Apart from the Post Office, the PTB also controls several other important state-owned companies, which together have annual budgets amounting over R$14.5bn (US$5.8bn). With over 2,000 offices under its command, it is not surprising that the PTB is frequently in the news because of alleged corruption charges. At the end of last year, Jefferson was accused of ordering PTB's appointees to amass R$400,000 (US$160,000) every month “for the party". In September 2005 Veja ran another article accusing Jefferson of charging the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores R$150,000 (US$60,000) for the “extra expenses" of the party's congressmen in exchange for their support of the government in congress. At the time the allegations were vehemently denied by both parties. 

The recent allegations involving the PTB are just a new case in the wave of corruption charges rocking the government. The president of the central bank, Henrique Meirelles, is currently under investigation by the public prosecutors' office, and the supreme court looks set to accept a request from the prosecutor-general's office allowing the social security minister, Romero Jucá, to be investigated over allegations of obtaining an illegal loan. Jefferson is said to have called the presidency chief-of staff, José Dirceu, to deny any wrongdoing. Dirceu himself was involved in another corruption case involving illegal gambling in February 2004. Investigations on the case continue.

Development: The quarterly Ibope/CNI opinion poll on the government's popularity was published on 17 June and showed a dip in support for both President Lula and his government.

Significance: The survey results confirm President Lula da Silva's biggest fear: that the recent corruption scandals involving his Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) are denting his own popularity with voters. According to the figures from the Ibope/CNI poll, Lula's personal approval rating fell from the 58% registered three months ago to 55%, while the number of Brazilians who disapproved of his performance increased from 33% to 38% in the same period.

The government's image has also suffered. The number of voters with a positive outlook at the government's performance fell to 35%, compared with 39% in March. The number of voters who view the government negatively, on the other hand, increased 5 percentage points, reaching its highest level since Lula's administration began in January 2003, to 22% of the electorate.

The survey also shows an increase in the number of Brazilians who intend to spoil their votes in the next general election in 2006 (in Brazil voting in compulsory for over 18s), to 6% following a general feeling of disenchantment with politics. On the other hand, the number of voters who will support Lula's contenders have also increased, bringing the contest to a second round in all different sceneries proposed by the poll.

The mayor of São Paulo, José Serra, from the opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), continues to be the biggest threat to Lula's re-election, with 29% support against Lula's 38%. Remarkably, the survey shows that Lula would loose to Serra in the wealthy Southern region of the country, with 29% of support against Serra's 38%, and that Serra is closing the gap in the North and Centre-West regions, where Serra is still loosing to Lula, but by a small 4% margin.

Another survey, published on 18 June by DataFolha, shows that 65% of the PT's voters believe there is corruption in the government, with 11% responding that corruption had in fact increased since President Lula da Silva came to power. Importantly, 77% of the petistas believe that Lula bears partial responsibility for the corruption that has been draining the government's popularity.

Development: The list of high-ranking officials who received money which came from Marcos Valério de Souza's accounts in Banco Rural has lengthened, reported the weekly magazine Veja's website on 22 July. 

Significance: Valério is accused of providing the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) with the funds to pay bribes to allied congressmen. According to local media reports, money generated from embezzlement schemes in public companies and illegal loans were channelled through the accounts of SMP&B and DNA, two advertising companies belonging to Valério. His companies have advertisement accounts with the government, as well as with the lower chamber of congress, worth R$144m (US$58m). 

According to records found by the federal police in Banco Rural, currently being analysed by the two congressional panels established to investigate the corruption allegations, several senior figures of the PT have received money from Valério's companies. Besides the former PT treasurer, Delúbio Soares, and the party's former secretary-general, Sí­lvio Pereira, who both resigned from his posts in the beginning of July, some of the party's congressmen have also benefited from Valério's money. Josias Gomes, Wilmar Macedo, José Mentor, who presided over the parliamentary commission that investigated the Banestado financial scandal and is accused of concealing information in the case, Paulo Rocha, who is the PT's leader in the lower chamber, and João Paulo Cunha, the former president of congress, have all directly or indirectly, through their aides, been implicated. 

Two members of the government's allied base in congress have also been implicated: the leader of the Partido Progressista in the lower chamber, José Jadene, and the Partido Liberal's former treasurer, Jacinto Lamas. The Banco Rural records also reveal that two members of the opposition have received money from Valério: Roberto Brandt, a congressman from the Partido da Frente Liberal, and Paulo Menicucci, from the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira.

Development: On 24 August the parliamentary committee that is investigating the corruption scandals that are rocking Brazilian politics in recent months approved a request to scrutinize the pension funds of state-owned companies.  

Significance: After a tense meeting with the presidents of the three most important pension funds in Brazil, Previ (Banco do Brasil), Funcef (Caixa Econômica Federal) and Petros (Petrobrás), the committee voted to break their bank secrecy and investigate their dealings with Banco Rural and Banco de Minas Gerais (BMG) during the last 5 years. Opposition congressmen believe that embezzlement schemes in the three funds channelled money into the accounts of Marcos Valério de Souza in Banco Rural and BMG. Valério, an advertising tycoon whose companies have multi-million dollar contracts with state-owned companies, is accused of supplying the money to the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) for the payment of bribes to its allies in congress.  

The presidents of Previ, Funcef and Petros rebuffed the allegations the funds had been used to finance the cash-for-votes scheme supposedly operated by the PT to win support for the government in congress. The three men said they were "very concerned" that strategic information would leak from the investigations and thus undermine the funds' investment plans. For Sérgio Rosa, Previ's president, "there are no indications that justify the [congress'] ruling".  

Meanwhile, the federal accounting court ruled that an inspection in the presidency's expenses on credit cards should be carried out. The decision is another defeat for the government, which had argued that the scrutiny could reveal secrets of state. The investigations will start with the expenses made by the presidency's chief-of-staff office, whose former boss, José Dirceu, is accused of orchestrating the PT's crooked schemes. The Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) will also have its expenses scrutinized, as well as the ones incurred by several of the presidency's aides and by President Lula da Silva's wife, Marisa Letí­cia. The credit card scheme was introduced in 2002 during the previous Cardoso administration and is the target of several fraud accusations.

Development: The deputy foreign minister, Mari Pili Hernández, criticised the decision by a Texas judge on 27 September to prevent the extradition of an admitted terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, to Venezuela.

Significance: The decision by immigration judge William Lee Abbott to stop Posada being extradited to either Cuba or Venezuela because he could face torture will complicate relations between the US and Venezuela. Posada's lawyer marshalled some graphic (and disputed) evidence alleging that Posada, now 77, could be tortured as other opponents of President Hugo Chávez allegedly had been if the US returned him to Venezuela.

Mari Pili Hernández claimed that the decision by Judge Abbot was ridiculous because it ranked an illegal immigration case over a government's application for extradition. She implied that it was wrong for the US to consider Posada's immigration status, which was decided by Judge Abbott, while Venezuela's application for his extradition was ignored. What is not in contention is that Posada entered the US illegally.

Judge Abbot's sudden decision was surprising, because on 26 September, he had given the US Department of Homeland Security two weeks to answer the allegations from Posada's lawyers that he would face torture if returned to Caracas. Hernández claimed that the Venezuelan application would go through a federal court and may yet prove successful. Venezuela wants Posada to face terrorism charges for his part in killing 73 people in 1976 by blowing up a Cuban airliner.

Development: The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) announced on 31 October that it had killed 25 paramilitaries during recent fighting in Chocó department.

Significance: The recent fighting in the Pacific department of Chocó is significant for three reasons. First, it shows that the Farc is still strong enough in the area to carry out a pitched battle which the group claims lasted more than eight hours; secondly it shows that the paramilitaries involved were not abiding by the ceasefire; and thirdly it demonstrates that the government is not in control of the area in question in spite of its claims to command a presence throughout Colombia.

The government has partially corroborated the Farc's version of events. The army said that it found 16 bodies in the area where the battle took place, while the police revealed that the Farc had engaged in fighting an armed group paid for by drug barons which is trying to be included within the paramilitary peace process.

Meanwhile, Venezuela announced on 31 October that one of its border troops had been killed in a clash with Colombian militants over the weekend. The incident took place where Venezuela borders the Colombian department of Arauca, which until a few days beforehand had been crippled by a Farc siege.

Development: The Partido Revolucionario Institucional and the Partido Verde Ecologista de México agreed an alliance on 5 December.

Significance: The deal is vital for the PRI whose candidate, Roberto Madrazo, is lagging badly in the opinion polls. The big (and so far unanswered) question is the price Madrazo has paid for PVEM support: the PVEM had been saying that it wanted at least five senate seats and 17 congressional seats. The alliance will be called Alianza por México, the same name as the broad left alliance, led by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, that fought the 2000 elections and finished third.

In 2000, the PVEM was in alliance with the Partido Acción Nacional. The PAN discussed an alliance with the PVEM this time around, but quickly rejected the idea, saying that the PVEM had too inflated an idea of its own worth. The PVEM is riding high in the opinion polls, thanks to heavy media spending, and the attractiveness of its presidential candidate, Bernardo de la Garza.

One price the PRI will certainly have to pay is support for a wider use of generic pharmaceuticals. The PVEM is controlled by the González Torres family which also owns Farmacias Similares, Mexico's biggest generic pharmaceutical company.

Separately, the Partido de la Revolución Democrática, whose candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leads the opinion polls, formally signed an alliance with the Partido del Trabajo and Convergencia. This alliance is running under the slogan "Por el Bien de Todos".

Development: On 16 January the former president of the Venezuelan episcopal conference, Baltasar Porras, denied President Hugo Chávez 's claim that there were links between the Roman Catholic Church and Colombian paramilitaries.

Significance: Over the weekend, the government and the Catholic Church began mud-slinging again, following Cardinal Rosalio Castillo's use of the highly popular Divine Shepherd mass to attack the president. Chávez responded robustly on his weekly Aló, Presidente! broadcast, calling for the Catholic Church to condemn Castillo's comments and accusing it of supporting Colombian paramilitaries.

Porras, bishop of the Venezuelan city of Mérida, told the Colombian radio station RCN that Chávez 's comments were designed to divide people "and not only Venezuelans, in this case Colombians." The bishop accused the Venezuelan president of "maintaining a climate of conflict to encourage his more fanatical supporters". Chávez had demanded that the Catholic hierarchy reject Castillo's comments and "avoid retaking the path to destabilise the country".

On 14 January, Castillo, who meets regularly with the more extreme end of the Venezuelan opposition, used his homily to denounce Chávez for being a "dictator", whose government is "autocratic". On 16 January the archbishop of Caracas, Jorge Urosa, described Castillo's comments as "unfortunate" but insisted they were made in a personal capacity.

Development: On 20 February President Alejandro Toledo warned his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez to respect Peru's domestic affairs after allegations emerged in the press that Venezuela was offering illegal Peruvian immigrants Venezuelan nationality in return for voting for Peru's nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala in the presidential elections on 9 April.

Significance: The press is determined to talk up the links between Chávez and Humala and has been ever since Humala mysteriously arrived in Caracas on 1 January along with Bolivia's Evo Morales. On 19 February Peru's national daily La Primera and Venezuela's El Nacional carried a report claiming that Peruvian supporters of Humala, calling themselves the Frente Bolivariano Peruano, were meeting in a square in Caracas to attempt to persuade both legal and illegal Peruvian immigrants to support Humala; the latter were offered Venezuelan nationality for their support. It is worth pointing out that even if this deal is happening, the Peruvian voter list has been closed for several months.

The praise Humala has received from Chávez does not appear to have done him much good, although public perceptions of his prospects are quite puzzling. A poll conducted by IMA-Estudios de Marketing in January suggested that 74.9% of respondents felt that Chávez 's support for Humala was unwarranted interference in Peru's internal affairs. Humala, however, does not seem unduly concerned by this. He told El Nacional in an interview that conservatives in Peru were terrified of the Chávez effect but most Peruvians could see "the positive results of the Venezuelan process".

Development: There were large demonstrations in several major US cities on 25 and 26 March against proposals, that will be debated by the US senate today, 27 March, to tighten up rules on immigration.

Significance: The issue is hugely important on both sides of the border. The big issue is whether congress will pass legislation that will mandate the police, rather than just the immigration authorities, to arrest the 12m or so illegal migrants living in the US. The proposals also call for a reinforced border with Mexico. The priority for Mexico is that the senate does not expel the 12m or so illegal migrants (who are mostly Mexican) living in the US. In Los Angeles on 25 March there was a huge demonstration of perhaps as many as 500,000 people against any toughening up of the immigration laws. 

The schedule is that the judicial committee will come up with a draft proposal today that will be debated by the full senate for a couple of weeks, starting from tomorrow, 28 March. Whatever emerges from the senate is likely to be less vindictive that the Sensenbrenner bill, which would criminalise illegal migrants and reinforce the southern frontier, that was passed by the House of Representatives in mid-December 2005. 

President Vicente Fox and his government said on 26 March that they were confident that the senate would pass legislation that would improve the lives of Mexicans living in the US. The Mexicans also accept that the US will introduce a system of temporary work visas to regularise the flow of migrants across the border. 

The senate debate comes just before President Fox entertains President Bush and the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, in Cancún on 30 and 31 March.