Mexico's Peña Nieto Forges Agreement with Opposition; Guatemala Report Called 'Superficial'; Bolivia Opposition Unable to Unite

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen, and NotiSur for Dec. 5-7

President Enrique Peña Nieto Starts New Administration by Signing Political Agreement with Opposition Parties

The election of Enrique Peña Nieto marked the return of the long-governing Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) to the highest office in Mexico, but the jury is still out on whether the old authoritarian party is back in office or whether a transformed party will be governing Mexico for the next six years. Shortly before and after taking office on Dec. 1, 2012, Peña Nieto took steps to try to convince Mexicans that this is a new era for the PRI and that his administration would be politically inclusive and employ a more efficient style of governance. One of the new president's first moves was to bring together representatives from his party and the two major opposition parties to hammer out an agreement to promote reforms to strengthen democracy, address social inequalities, and foment economic growth in Mexico. -Carlos Navarro   Read More

Civil Society Organizations Brand Guatemalan Government’s Report to U.N. Superficial"

On Oct. 24, the UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC) assessed Guatemala to establish whether the 43 recommendations made by its members in 2008 had been heeded, a process known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Guatemala’s official delegation listed the country’s achievements in advancing human rights in the country. However, civil society organizations said that the presentation was "superficial" and "incomplete" as it failed to include a number of key issues such as indigenous rights -Louisa Reynolds     Read More

Bolivian Opposition Has Little Success Uniting Ahead of 2014 Presidential Election

Although Bolivia's next presidential election is still two years away, the opposition is already focused on it, with all that implies in countries like this one in the South American altiplano, where party, personal, business, and even racial interests carry more weight than concern for the nation. In recent weeks, the leadership of parties in opposition to President Evo Morales began negotiations to create an electoral front to be able to go into the December 2014 elections with a chance of defeating the president. -Andrés Gaudín    Read More

Honduran Election Authority Claims Primary Voter Turnout Rose from 2008 to 2012; Human Rights Activist Says Results Grossly Manipulated

Honduras’ Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE)--the country’stop election authority--has released results for last month's primary elections by the Central American nation’s parties for next year’s presidential, congressional, and municipal contenders. TSE figures indicate that voter turnout this year exceeded that of 2008, a trend that, by those estimates, dramatically lowered absenteeism from almost 62.8% to 54.9%. But human rights activist Bertha Oliva contends that the final results were manipulated, and that center-left candidate Xiomara Castro receeived many more votes than reported. George Rodríguez   Read More

Venezuelan Voters Head to Polls Again

Amid warring polls, which Venezuelans learned to not take seriously given their unreliable performance in the Oct. 7 presidential elections, voters will return to the ballot boxes on Dec. 16. This will be the fifteenth election (constituent, general, regional, legislative, referendum, recall) since President Hugo Chávez set the Revolución Bolivariana in motion in 1999. Voters will choose governors in the country's 23 states and elect 237 deputies for state legislative councils. -Andrés Gaudín 
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Despite Challenges, Tourism Sector Grew Under Former President Felipe Calderón

One of the top accomplishments of President Felipe Calderón’s government was to keep the tourism industry afloat despite significant challenges that slowed the influx of foreign visitors and inhibited the ability of Mexicans to travel to popular destinations. Among other problems, the administration had to deal with an outbreak of the H1N1 flu in the spring of 2009 and drug-related violence that escalated out of control during the president’s six-year term. In mid-November, then Tourism Secretary Gloria Guevara Manzo reported that 201.7 million foreign tourists visited Mexico during the six years of the Calderón government, an increase of almost 25% from the total of 162 million tourists recorded during the previous administration of ex-President Vicente Fox (2000-2006).-Carlos Navarro Read More