Colombia announced the candidacy of its current ambassador to the United States, Luis Alberto Moreno, for the presidency of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). The IADB´s assembly of governors will meet July 27 in Washington to elect a replacement for current president Enrique Iglesias, who will step down September 30. Other candidates include Brazilian Joao Sayad and Nicaraguan Mario Alonso.
Category: Regions
Posted inDaily Brief
Paying the Price
Parts of Mexico’s northern border region have become a battleground as gangs massacre hundreds. The town of Nuevo Laredo is under federal intervention. Bolivia’s political system is unraveling as protestors take the street, booting out two presidents in as many years. Colombia’s Congress has approved a controversial law allowing rightwing paramilitary militias to demobilize at the risk of entrenching their drug empires. In Rio de Janeiro, warlords dominate several of the city’s favelas in a brutal reign of terror. Latin America is paying a heavy price in lives, political instability, corruption and economic disruption for Washington’s futile war on drugs. Drugs are Latin America’s most lucrative export. North American and European consumers will pay almost any price for their drugs. Repression and interdiction have failed, so governments should legalize and regulate this trade. Opponents in the US say this would lead to further moral degradation. That seems scarcely possible. But a well-structured drug market would ensure a livelihood for farmers, drugs for addicts and tax revenues to pay for their counseling. Until policymakers realize this, Latin America – not the US – will continue paying a bitter price for its hypocritical war on drugs.
Posted inDaily Brief
New Elections in Bolivia
Bolivia’s Congress called early general elections for December after protests ousted two presidents in 19 months. The 157-member Congress voted Tuesday by a two-thirds majority to cut short its mandate, slated to expire in January 2007, and form a Constituent Congress to rewrite the constitution and hold a referendum on regional autonomy in July 2006. President Eduardo Rodriguez pledged early elections when he took office June 9 after Carlos Mesa resigned amid protests demandind the nationalization of the country´s oil and gas industry.
Posted inDaily Brief
Fujimori May Return
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who is in exile in Japan, received a new identification card and may return to the country to contend for the presidency in next year´s election. Peru has been seeking Fujimori´s extradition on charges of embezzlement and involvement in the murder of 25 civilians in 1991 and 1992 when he was in power. Fujimori has said the efforts to arrest him amount to political persecution.
Posted inDaily Brief
Álvaro Madero Rivero, President of Amafore, the Association of Mexican Pension Fund Managers,
is confirmed as a panelist at LatinFinance’s Inaugural Cumbre Financiera Mexicana, July 13-14, in Mexico City. Debate and discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by Mexico’s dynamic financial markets at this invitation-only event. View the full agenda and apply for an invitation at www.latinfinance.com/mexicana
Posted inDaily Brief
Paying the Price
Parts of Mexico’s northern border region have become a battleground as gangs massacre hundreds. The town of Nuevo Laredo is under federal intervention. Bolivia’s political system is unraveling as protestors take the street, booting out two presidents in as many years. Colombia’s Congress has approved a controversial law allowing rightwing paramilitary militias to demobilize at the risk of entrenching their drug empires. In Rio de Janeiro, warlords dominate several of the city’s favelas in a brutal reign of terror.
Latin America is paying a heavy price in lives, political instability, corruption and economic disruption for Washington’s futile war on drugs.
Drugs are Latin America’s most lucrative export. North American and European consumers will pay almost any price for their drugs. Repression and interdiction have failed, so governments should legalize and regulate this trade. Opponents in the US say this would lead to further moral degradation. That seems scarcely possible. But a well-structured drug market would ensure a livelihood for farmers, drugs for addicts and tax revenues to pay for their counseling. Until policymakers realize this, Latin America – not the US – will continue paying a bitter price for its hypocritical war on drugs.
Posted inDaily Brief
Strike in Peru
Seventy percent of the 869 workers at Shougang Hierro Peru, Peru’s only iron miner, went on strike Monday, their third in 12 months, to push for a pay raise. The strike is the second to hit Peru’s mining industry in a month. Workers walked off the job for eight days in June at Peru’s biggest zinc and lead miner Volcan Compania Minera.
Posted inDaily Brief
ICA Issues Debt
Mexican construction and engineering company Empresas ICA issued $75 million of debt on the local market. The bonds mature in 17 years and pay 13.16 percent. ICA will use the proceeds to pay down existing debt with Mexican bank Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios Publicos.
Posted inDaily Brief
José Antonio González Anaya, Director of Insurance and Securities at the Mexican Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, joins “Mortgage Insurance” workshop at LatinFinance’s Cumbre Financiera Mexicana, July 13-14, Mexico City.
Debate and discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by Mexico’s dynamic financial markets at this invitation-only event. View the full agenda and apply for an invitation at www.latinfinance.com/mexicana
Posted inDaily Brief
John McCarthy, CEO of FONATUR and William Pingleton, Managing Director – Americas, Franklin Templeton International
are confirmed as panelists at LatinFinance’s Inaugural Cumbre Financiera Mexicana, July 13-14, in Mexico City. Debate and discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by Mexico’s dynamic financial markets at this invitation-only event. View the full agenda and apply for an invitation at www.latinfinance.com/mexicana