*This post originally appeared on the Revista Perspectiva blog and is being republished with permission of the author.

Caracas, Venezuela - Con una participación histórica, equivalente al 80,94% del censo electoral, Presidente Hugo Chávez ha ganado su cuarta elección presidencial consecutiva con más de un millón de votos de diferencia frente a su contendor, el candidato por la Mesa de la Unidad Nacional (MUD), Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chávez se dio su ya tradicional baño de multitudes al pie del balcón del Palacio de Miraflores, y los fuegos pirotécnicos que preparó el oficialismo no pararon de iluminar el cielo caraqueño por cerca de dos horas. Me pregunto ¿qué hubiese pasado con tantos preparativos de no haber conseguido la victoria?

Pese al llanto y las caras largas de casi la mitad de los votantes, la jornada ha sido un hito sin precedentes que demostró la enorme vocación cívica y democrática de la sociedad venezolana. Muchos se agolparon a los centros de votación desde las 4 de la madrugada y las filas en muchos colegios electorales se hicieron “eternas” en horas de la mañana. La alegría, el positivismo y los mensajes de servidores públicos, políticos experimentados y líderes juveniles, que a través de la televisión y la radio repetían invitaciones a votar en paz, fueron la constante.

Destaca también la efectividad y la sencillez del sofisticado sistema de votación, aunque no por ello del proceso en general, que lució lento por cuenta de las varias instancias que había que superar para llegar finalmente a las mesas. De acuerdo con Federico Pinedo, diputado argentino del Partido Propuesta Republicana (PRO), que ejerció como observador internacional, el trámite de anotar el documento de identidad a la entrada de los centros de votación tuvo que ser levantado en la tarde—en muchos sitios—para agilizar la dinámica.

El proceso de observación tampoco estuvo exento de dificultades. Convertido más en un acompañamiento que en una observación formal con entidad para cuestionar posibles irregularidades, en algunos puntos no permitieron la entrada de los “acompañantes;” en otros fueron supervisados por efectivos de la Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana (FANB), y en otros más intimidados por la presencia de manadas de motociclistas simpatizantes del chavismo que llegaron a muchos centros gritando consignas con megáfonos.

*This post originally appeared on the Revista Perspectiva blog and is being republished with permission of the author.

Caracas, Venezuela - Con una participación histórica, equivalente al 80,94% del censo electoral, Presidente Hugo Chávez ha ganado su cuarta elección presidencial consecutiva con más de un millón de votos de diferencia frente a su contendor, el candidato por la Mesa de la Unidad Nacional (MUD), Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chávez se dio su ya tradicional baño de multitudes al pie del balcón del Palacio de Miraflores, y los fuegos pirotécnicos que preparó el oficialismo no pararon de iluminar el cielo caraqueño por cerca de dos horas. Me pregunto ¿qué hubiese pasado con tantos preparativos de no haber conseguido la victoria?

Pese al llanto y las caras largas de casi la mitad de los votantes, la jornada ha sido un hito sin precedentes que demostró la enorme vocación cívica y democrática de la sociedad venezolana. Muchos se agolparon a los centros de votación desde las 4 de la madrugada y las filas en muchos colegios electorales se hicieron “eternas” en horas de la mañana. La alegría, el positivismo y los mensajes de servidores públicos, políticos experimentados y líderes juveniles, que a través de la televisión y la radio repetían invitaciones a votar en paz, fueron la constante.

Destaca también la efectividad y la sencillez del sofisticado sistema de votación, aunque no por ello del proceso en general, que lució lento por cuenta de las varias instancias que había que superar para llegar finalmente a las mesas. De acuerdo con Federico Pinedo, diputado argentino del Partido Propuesta Republicana (PRO), que ejerció como observador internacional, el trámite de anotar el documento de identidad a la entrada de los centros de votación tuvo que ser levantado en la tarde—en muchos sitios—para agilizar la dinámica.

El proceso de observación tampoco estuvo exento de dificultades. Convertido más en un acompañamiento que en una observación formal con entidad para cuestionar posibles irregularidades, en algunos puntos no permitieron la entrada de los “acompañantes;” en otros fueron supervisados por efectivos de la Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana (FANB), y en otros más intimidados por la presencia de manadas de motociclistas simpatizantes del chavismo que llegaron a muchos centros gritando consignas con megáfonos.

Madrid, Spain - Today is an incredibly important day for Venezuelans: we have to choose between two contrasting proposals for our country’s future. On one side we have Twenty-First Century Socialism. On the other hand, there is a democratic candidate who has managed to unite the different groups among the opposition for the first time in 14 years. It is a day that represents hope of change, progress and a better Venezuela for supporters of both parties. I am proud to say I participated, from thousands of miles away and in a different time zone.

Madrid is the world’s second-largest voting center outside of Venezuela, with 7,600 people registered to vote and an expectation that 5,500 Venezuelans will actually vote here today. Despite all the confusion that has surrounded the elections, organization in Madrid has proven to be smooth, with fast and efficient voting tables. The Comando Exterior Venezuela (CEV) even organized a group of volunteers to stand guard at the Venezuelan consulate in Madrid to guide uninformed people to the site where the voting is being held. What impressed me the most is voters' active, happy and energetic participation—all making their best efforts to feel as if they were in Venezuelan soil.

Caracas, Venezuela - Some Venezuelans have trouble explaining to their American counterparts what the country is currently going through. The reason, they say, is that some Americans take for granted a political system that guarantees rights such as freedom of speech. Americans seem to have no trouble identifying the antithesis of their democracy: outright dictatorships like the regime in North Korea. But they have a harder time understanding the nature of governments who fall in the gray area of neither democracy nor dictatorship.

Fear over the continued direction of Venezuela and the opportunity to observe the domestic voting process at home is why I traveled from New York City to Caracas yesterday, arriving after a long journey that involved multiple flight delays. For me, like other Venezuelans who are living abroad, this election is an historic opportunity to begin to change the unfortunate direction of our country.

London, England – The energy around the Consular Section of the Venezuelan Embassy in London is beyond expectations, with Venezuelan flags everywhere after an exciting day of voters coming out to express their hope for a new direction for the country. It is now midnight in London (7:00 pm EDT/ 6:30 pm in Caracas) and hundreds of Venezuelans are still here waiting to make sure that every vote cast is being fairly and accurately counted.

For me and many others, the day started at 7:00 am as I was responsible for conducting exit poll interviews. After eight hours of speaking with Venezuelan voters, the choice was clear: of 150 voters interviewed, all except for five people said they had voted for Henrique Capriles.

Caracas, Venezuela - At of 9:45pm (local) on Sunday an undisclosed number of voting centers across Venezuela had remained open for continued voting. These are centers that due to high voter turnout or to delays at the beginning of the day still have voters lined up outside their doors waiting to cast their ballot.

But now the results are in: the Consejo Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Council—CNE) announced that Chávez won with 54.42 percent of the votes—a nearly 10 percentage point lead over Henrique Capriles who received 44.97 percent of the votes according to the first CNE report.

A wide array of minor irregularities have been reported in polling centers throughout the day in all corners of the country from technical malfunctions of the machines to isolated incidents of voter violence. Despite these reports, this historic day of elections has by all accounts been a smooth, civil and massively participatory democratic event.

The Venezuelan electorate has chosen to give President Hugo Chávez another six-year mandate. Last night, the Consejo Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Council—CNE) announced that with 90 percent of ballots counted, Chávez earned 54 percent of votes while challenger Henrique Capriles Radonski took in about 45 percent.

The CNE also announced that the participation rate of eligible voters was nearly 81 percent, one of the highest in recent history. However, not all votes were factored into the quick count. As AQ guest blogger Mariana Marval reported from London, “[CNE] changed the rules so that the votes from abroad will now not be counted at the same time as the votes in Venezuela.”

The uncounted votes nevertheless will not surpass Chávez’ large margin of victory. At a closing campaign rally in Caracas last week, Chávez vowed to redouble his socialist policies, stating, “We’ve laid the foundations of 21st-Century Socialism and […] we’ll launch the second socialist cycle, from 2013 to 2019, with much more strength.”

Caracas, Venezuela - We are just hours away from Venezuela’s Election Day and it is time to relax, sit tight and wait to see if the polls are finally right. The last two weeks of the campaign were crucial for both candidates. However it was Henrique Capriles who took the greatest advantage of the end of the campaign by making his youth and his energy pillars of the visits he made to each state.

Two weeks ago President Hugo Chávez still had yet to visit half of the states in the country as a candidate. That is lot to say given that the campaign has been in progress since July. Although he tried to keep up with Capriles’ pace, speeches in the states where Chávez did visit were no longer than 30 minutes—clear signs of his weak health. Furthermore, his strategy as a speaker oddly shifted as well, deciding to emphasize an acknowledgement of his mistakes and the fact that the revolution is far more important than problems such as insecurity and high inflation.

Caracas, Venezuela - The presidential campaign is officially over as of Thursday night at 11:59p.m., as dictated by the law here in Venezuela. After the chaos and euphoria that spread through Caracas in the days leading up to the close of the campaigns, a tense and eerie calm reigns over the city.

Across the country, 13,683 polling centers are now ready to receive the millions of eager voters that will stand in line from 6:00a.m. onward tomorrow to cast their ballots. Local authorities have asked voters to refrain from wearing political paraphernalia during the voting process, both to ensure their compliance with electoral law and to mitigate tensions that may arise at the centers.

Despite a few minor setbacks, the preparation for tomorrow’s election unwound with calm and order. The only major incident occurred in the central state of Carabobo, where the authorities had to replace 47 voting machines that malfunctioned due to power shortages in the region.

Cindy is Venezuelan and lives in Vietnam. Her husband’s career as a pilot took them to Ho Chi Minh, two and a half hours away from the nearest Venezuelan embassy. For Cindy and her husband, distance is not a restriction to vote in Sunday’s election. Their problem is their official status overseas: with only a tourist visa, they lack legal status abroad—signaling their fate according to Venezuelan law.

Article 124 of the Ley Orgánica de Procesos Electorales (Organic Electoral Processes Law) establishes that those who wish to register to vote abroad must have a proof of residence or “any other element that denotes the legality of their permanence outside of Venezuela”. However, requirements to register have varied from consulate to consulate. Some ask for birth certificates to process registration, others require passports and identification cards issued by the country of residence. As a result, thousands of Venezuelans like Cindy will not be able to exercise their democratic right abroad.

On October 7, voters will cast their ballot at the nearest Venezuelan foreign mission to re-elect President Hugo Chávez or vote in former Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski. To date, 124 of the 127 possible voting centers have begun to get ready for Sunday’s vote. Damascus, Syria, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Asunción, Paraguay, are the exceptions due to political instability or a hiatus in diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

But the biggest obstacle for Venezuelans living outside the country was the closure of the largest voting center abroad. On January 8, 2012, the United States expelled Livia Acosta Noguera, Venezuela’s consul general in Miami. Five days later, Chávez ordered an “administrative close” of the consulate.

With 19,542 registered voters, the voting center in Miami was bigger than any other—including any voting center inside Venezuela itself. In June, however, Venezuela’s electoral authority, the Consejo Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Council—CNE), announced that registrants in Miami could still vote. Except there was one not-so-small caveat: the closest place to do so was at the voting center in New Orleans, Louisiana—two hours away by air and 20 hours away by bus.

The soon-to-close electoral race for the presidency of Venezuela between Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Henrique Capriles Radonski will certainly be remembered as one of the most fascinating campaign periods in this country’s recent political history.

On one hand, the race has been silently colored by the uncertainty that surrounds Chávez’ health. On the other, it has been marked by a series of unpredictable events that have intensified a complex and divisive political climate.

But in the midst of this bitterly-fought campaign, Chávez scored what should have been a major political victory for his administration: on July 31, he managed to secure Venezuela’s formal admission to Mercosur, the largest trading bloc in South America. Venezuela has already sent its first "Mercosur shipment" to Uruguay, but the bulk of future commerce will follow a set of rules that are currently being negotiated.

Despite its potential importance for Venezuela’s economic future, the electoral impact of Venezuela’s admission to Mercosur was surprisingly insignificant. The news was splashed across headlines and became the topic of opinion pieces and conversations. But Venezuela’s formal admission to Mercosur did not tangibly represent a major boost for Chávez’ candidacy. Why might this have been the case?

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala indicated Wednesday that his government had received no formal request from former President Alberto Fujimori’s family for an official humanitarian pardon from the state. However, according to Fujimori’s lawyer, César Nakazaki, Fujimori is planning to ask for a pardon sometime this week, with legal documents expected to be submitted this Friday.

Fujimori is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights violations that occurred during his 1990-2000 presidency. The sentence was handed down in 2009 after Fujimori was linked to the massacre of 25 people by the Grupo Colina paramilitary death squad in the early 1990s and the kidnapping of a businessman and a journalist in 1992. About 70,000 people died in Peru’s internal conflict, which occurred as the government launched an offensive against the Maoist-inspired Shining Path rebels.

Fujimori, 74, is currently suffering from oral cancer and has undergone five operations since 1997, according to his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, who ran for president in 2011. In September, Fujimori’s family said that the former president would seek a humanitarian pardon. “I will continue to fight for my health, my liberty and my innocence,” the elder Fujimori said in a letter.

Humala has said he will not grant the former president a pardon unless he or his family expressly requests one. “There’s nothing written on this topic, and therefore, it’s not on the government’s agenda right now,” said Humala during a press conference at a hotel in Miraflores.

Fujimori’s son, Kenji Fujimori, said his father would not ask for forgiveness for crimes that he didn’t commit, but that he may be willing to admit he was at fault for certain “errors” during his administration.

The Fujimori family says that the former president is focusing on his health, but some Peruvian politicians have speculated that the elder Fujimori could re-enter politics in 2016. “For grave crimes against humanity, Fujimori was only sentenced to 25 years; there was no permanent disqualification [from politics]because the Public Ministry never asked for one,” said Congressman Heriberto Benítez.

Tensions have continued to heighten in Venezuela just days before Sunday’s presidential election between President Hugo Chávez and Henrique Capriles Radonski.

Electoral law prohibits opinion polls from being published four days ahead of the Venezuelan elections, but the most recent polling results reveal markedly different figures. Datanalisis has Chávez polling at 49 percent compared to Capriles’ 39 percent, while Consultores 21 poll shows Capriles in the lead with 47.7 percent versus Chávez’ 45.9 percent.

Despite assurances to the contrary from the Chávez-dominated National Electoral Council, some suspect their ballots won't be kept confidential. This is due in part to la Lista de Tascón, a private list of some 2 million people who had supported a 2004 plebiscite against President Chávez that was later publicly released by Venezuelan deputy Luis Tascón. Many state employees whose names appeared on the list were subsequently dismissed. Maribel Rodríguez, a 42-year-old homemaker who lives in the poor neighborhood of Catia west of the capital said, "My husband tells me he is obliged to vote for Chávez because he works with the government. What sort of democracy do we have?" The Venezuelan government currently employs at least 2.4 million people.

Motivated by Chavez’ daily assertions that his opponent will remove social benefits such as medical treatment, subsidized food and other components that have provided relief to the underprivileged, some citizens fear violence might occur if the incumbent loses the election. Government officials are fearful of losing their prominent position of power, facing criminal investigations or losing influence overnight if their patron is voted out of office.

Newspapers across Canada are recalling the events and the issues related to the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) of 1987. Yes, it’s been 25 years, and the general impression in the reports seems more positive than negative. Canada’s premier newspaper, The Globe and Mail, titled it the “deal that freed Canada’’.

The FTA was later transformed into the North American Trade Agreement with Mexico (NAFTA) in 1993. While there remain some detractors on both sides of the border, no one is really questioning its existence, and if anything, both the U.S. and Canada have actually expanded their free trade impetus to other parts of the world.

It is worthwhile to recount that the FTA was not a deal without its obstacles and difficulties in Canada. The unions generally were opposed because of its feared impact on jobs and existing social programs such as Medicare. Some provincial premiers, including David Peterson of Ontario, and the federal leaders of both opposition parties in the national parliament (John Turner of the Liberal Party and Ed Broadbent of the National Democratic Party—NDP) resisted Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney‘s initiative with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and are still to this day somewhat unenthusiastic about the deal and its promise.

The truth is that while the results may be mixed, the absence of the FTA would have deprived the Canadian economy of greater access to the world’s largest market at a time when both countries were coming out of a recession. In the early years, until 2000, the trade level rose dramatically—exports to the U.S. tripled, and imports from the U.S. increased significantly. With Canada getting its government deficit and debt problems under control in the 1990’s, Canadians entered the new millennium poised for better days. The FTA was in effect delivering on its promises, at least in its early days.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, 61, will undergo surgery in Bogotá today to remove a non-aggressive tumor located in the prostate gland. Details of the condition and the procedure were revealed by the president on Monday, hours after the tumor was discovered and only a week before the awaited peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—FARC) begin in Norway.

“There's a 97 percent chance of being totally cured,” assured the president, who joined the list of Latin American past and present leaders such as Presidents Hugo Chávez and Cristina Fernández, and former Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva and Fernando Lugo who have suffered from this condition in the past two years.

Andrés Paris, FARC’s spokesperson in Cuba, assured that the president’s health will not get in the way of the peace talks. According to Colombian affairs specialist Harvey Kline, if Santos is able to broker a peace deal with the FARC in the coming months, it will ensure his re-election in 2014. Experts estimate the FARC has today only one third of the combatants it had 10 years ago. Given the government’s military advantage over the armed group, this time a peace agreement seems increasingly plausible.

All actors, including former President Uribe—who has become the biggest opposition of Santos’ peace process—expressed their support to the president and wished for his short recovery. Santos will be conscious during the surgery and is expected to return to his residency in two or three days.

Dean Martin said it often: “You’re nobody till somebody loves you.” And right about now, Mexico’s political Left is feeling the pinch after its alpha leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), exited the strongest of the left-of-center parties, the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (Party of the Democratic Revolution—PRD), after Mexico’s electoral tribunal declared Enrique Peña Nieto of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party—PRI) president-elect.

Many, including Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard (PRD) saw the writing on the wall, but not the millions who watched AMLO become PRD party president, Mexico City mayor under the PRD and twice PRD’s candidate for president. At a public event at the nation’s zócalo (central plaza) on September 9, AMLO made two major announcements. First, that he would not recognize Peña Nieto as Mexico’s legitimate president; and second, that he was leaving the PRD with hopes of transforming his social movement, the Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (National Regeneration Movement—MORENA) to a new, left-of-center party.

In 2005, MORENA became AMLO’s grassroots arm with local committees all over Mexico. It developed coalitions with civil society organizations and other local groups in an effort to promote AMLO in the run-up to the 2006 presidential race. On paper, MORENA served as a civil society organization. In reality, and interestingly, MORENA had no formal statutes or rules for its members, except to follow the dictates of its grand leader AMLO. Fast forward to 2012 where AMLO plans to use this base of social soldiers to develop what he hopes will become the party “that will save Mexico.”

Many question whether MORENA will find its way. First, analysts note that AMLO is no strategist—and that he loathes counsel. Second, tearing the Left at a time when the Left needs unity in the upper and lower chambers of congress will only paint AMLO as inconsiderate and selfish, and portray its newly elected deputies and senators as incompetent and disorganized.

Latin America and the Caribbean’s regional economy will grow by 3.2 percent over the rest of 2012 and will improve to 4.0 percent growth in 2013, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The 2012 Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, which forecasts macroeconomic conditions in the region, was released this morning at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

This edition of the survey focuses on the external difficulties that caused the recent economic slowdown in the region, such as the continued crisis in Europe and the decrease in prices for the region's main export commodities. The report also highlights the varying responses to the global financial crisis and provides growth rate estimates by country.

Chile and Peru are among Latin America's fastest-growing economies through 2012, with 5.5 and 4.3 percent growth, respectively. Conversely, Brazil's economy, the largest in the region, decelerated 0.8 percent, with the country growing at just 3.0 percent.

ECLAC's June Macroeconomic Report on Latin America and the Caribbean had forecasted a 0.6 percent drop in regional growth, from 4.3 percent in 2011 to in 3.7 percent 2012.

Top stories this week are likely to include: the Venezuelan presidential campaigns head into their final stretch; Colombia-FARC talks to begin; South America holds a summit with Arab nations; protests against Michel Martelly in Haiti; and Brazil votes on Sunday in municipal elections.

Venezuela Votes for President: A tight presidential contest comes to a close on Sunday, October 7, as Venezuelans head to the polls to either re-elect President Hugo Chávez or replace him with former Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski. Over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of supporters took to the streets in competing rallies through downtown Caracas. However, some electoral activities turned violent: three activists supporting Carpiles Radonski were killed by gunmen in Barinas state over the weekend, drawing a sharp rebuke from the opposition candidate. Several polls indicate that Sunday’s vote will be the closest margin since the Chávez era began.

FARC Peace Talks in Norway: Representatives from the Colombian government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—FARC) will hold an inaugural ceremony this Friday in the Norwegian capital of Oslo to kick off peace negotiations between the two sides. Peace talks were announced in late August by Santos, with an agreement signed in early September that Oslo would be the inaugural site. Norway and Cuba will mediate the negotiations, while Chile and Venezuela will act as observers. “Both President Santos and the much weakened FARC have a lot riding on the success of these negotiations, but Santos in particular has ramped up global expectations after pledging substantial progress at the UN last week. There is reason to be hopeful: the internal dynamics are very different from the failed peace talks a decade ago—and the government has learned from its mistakes at that time,” notes AQ Senior Editor Jason Marczak.

Summit of South American - Arab countries: This conference, the Cumbre América del Sur – Países Árabes (ASPA), will take place in Lima, Peru, today and tomorrow. This is the third iteration of the summit, which was started by former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; the first meeting took place in Brasília, Brazil, in 2005 and the second occurred in Doha, Qatar, in 2009. This week’s meeting was supposed to happen in February 2011, but was postponed after a wave of protests in Egypt during the Arab Spring.

On Thursday, The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a $122 million loan to help expand and upgrade a 69.7 kilometer (43.3 mile) segment of Bolivia’s Santa Cruz-Cochabamba Highway. Developing the highway has been declared a national priority due to its high traffic volume of 9,000 vehicles per day. More than 20 percent of trucks using the highway transport agricultural goods such as soy, cassava, corn, sugarcane, and rice.

The current highway, which runs from from Montero to Yapacaní, will be expanded to four lanes to alleviate traffic and facilitate the transportation of goods. An estimated 200,000 people will benefit directly from the highway construction, including farmers living between Santa Cruz and Cochabamba who transport their goods by road and pass through the municipalities of Portachuelo, Buena Vista and San Carlos.

“Due to geographical and other factors, Bolivia depends on road transportation for most of its foreign trade,” said René Cortés, the IDB project’s team leader. “The East-West Corridor is Bolivia's most heavily traveled road and carries the bulk of the country’s freight. It links the country's most important cities with Chile and Peru to the west and with Brazil to the east.”

The project is expected to advance service ability, reduce travel times by nearly a third and accidents by 15 percent by 2017. The main components of the project include civil works, road safety, technical and environmental management, social viability, and project management. Only 4,800 kilometers (2,982 miles) of Bolivia’s 74,831 kilometers (46,497 miles) of roads are paved—a little more than 6 percent.

Fears of a trade war between the United States and Mexico escalated on Thursday following a preliminary decision in the politics of tomatoes. In a surprising and premature ruling, the Commerce Department sided with Florida tomato producers in terminating an agreement that has set a minimum price on Mexican tomatoes imported into the United States over the past 16 years.

The Mexican Government has already threatened to retaliate, with ramifications for other commodity producers caught in the cross-fire. Earlier this week, Secretary of Economy Bruno Ferrari had promised that if the United States makes a hasty decision, instead of conducting a standard 270-day review, “Mexico will use all our legal means to defend our producers.” A final ruling could also endanger talks over other bilateral trade disputes.

For Mexican tomato growers, termination of the agreement would allow U.S. growers to file formal complaints accusing the Mexicans of unfair trade practices, which they did repeatedly before the agreement’s adoption in 1996. The Mexicans argue that they are being punished for their success—for growing a superior product and for honoring the pact over 16 years.

Thursday’s announcement seemed particularly harsh given the timing: Mexican tomato producers were scheduled to meet with officials at the Commerce Department on Friday to discuss ways to resolve the dispute. The growers have said they are willing to accept a higher floor price for their tomatoes.

Fears of a trade war between the United States and Mexico escalated on Thursday following a preliminary decision in the politics of tomatoes. In a surprising and premature ruling, the Commerce Department sided with Florida tomato producers in terminating an agreement that has set a minimum price on Mexican tomatoes imported into the United States over the past 16 years.

The Mexican Government has already threatened to retaliate, with ramifications for other commodity producers caught in the cross-fire. Earlier this week, Secretary of Economy Bruno Ferrari had promised that if the United States makes a hasty decision, instead of conducting a standard 270-day review, “Mexico will use all our legal means to defend our producers.” A final ruling could also endanger talks over other bilateral trade disputes.

For Mexican tomato growers, termination of the agreement would allow U.S. growers to file formal complaints accusing the Mexicans of unfair trade practices, which they did repeatedly before the agreement’s adoption in 1996. The Mexicans argue that they are being punished for their success—for growing a superior product and for honoring the pact over 16 years.

Thursday’s announcement seemed particularly harsh given the timing: Mexican tomato producers were scheduled to meet with officials at the Commerce Department on Friday to discuss ways to resolve the dispute. The growers have said they are willing to accept a higher floor price for their tomatoes.

We are still wondering just what happened in Benghazi, Libya, with the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the State Department’s Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.

That this tragedy happened on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attack that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans makes it all the more difficult. Eleven years later, we have another September 11 to grieve. What have we learned? What lesson should we glean from such calamity?

At best, the tragedy reminds us to honor the dedication, sacrifices and service of our personnel—and not just those serving in the military. All those who knew him say that Stevens represented the very best of our foreign service.

At this point, it is not clear how and why critical warning signs were overlooked. Hopefully we will get good information about what happened—before the U.S. elections in November. As a first step, the U.S. is reevaluating the safety of our diplomatic personnel around the world including in our own hemisphere. One thing is clear, however: No matter our best intentions, people will want to do us harm. That is a safe assumption.

In remarks to the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos called on the UN to begin a serious debate on alternative ways to combat drug trafficking.

“Today, I am proposing formally that [the UN]…carry out a far-reaching assessment of the progress and limits of the current prohibitionist approach to drugs,” said the Mexican president. Calderón and his counterparts in Guatemala and Colombia made their remarks before the 193 nations of the General Assembly, challenging on an international stage the oppositional stance that nations such as the U.S. have taken toward drug legalization.

"It is our duty to determine—on an objective scientific basis—if we are doing the best we can or if there are better options to combat this scourge," said Santos.

The OAS is already studying the idea of drug legalization in the Americas as a way to cut down on crime and cartel-related violence, and is expected to release a report with recommendations within a year. In Mexico, the government last reported in January that 47,000 Mexicans had been killed between December 2006 and September 2011, but it is now estimated that 60,000 people have died in Mexico’s drug violence since Calderón took office.

Calderón, who will step down as Mexico’s president in December when Enrique Peña Nieto is inaugurated, asked drug-consuming nations “to evaluate with all sincerity, and honesty, if they have the will to reduce the consumption of drugs in a substantive manner.”

In his address to the UN, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina was expected to bring up drug legalization, as he has in the past, but he did not do so. Instead, he said that Guatemala was interested in convening nations that are “well disposed to reforming global policies on drugs” to consider “new creative and innovative alternatives.”

In an interview with the AP on Tuesday, Pérez Molina, a retired general who vowed to fight crime in Guatemala with an “iron fist,” said that he needed more military equipment to effectively fight drug trafficking. The U.S. cut off military aid to Guatemala after the country’s brutal civil war, but the U.S. has still spent $85 million fighting drug trafficking in the country since 1996. Under the Central American Regional Security Initiative, the U.S. has spent $496 million since 2008 supporting security forces in Central America.

The lower house of Uruguay’s Congress approved a law on Tuesday that authorizes abortion within 12 weeks of conception. The bill was approved by a narrow margin of 50 to 49 votes after 14 hours of debate.

The law project allows abortions only after a woman has met with a team of at least three professionals—a psychologist, a social worker and a “conscientious objector” (also known as an anti-abortion activist)—who can provide information on the risks, alternatives and adoption programs that are available. Five days after such meeting, if the woman confirms her willingness to end the pregnancy, the physicians arrange the procedure. This approval process does not apply in cases of pregnancy caused by rape or when pregnancy represents a high risk for the woman’s health, in which abortion is unrestricted if it happens within the first 14 weeks after conception.

President José Mujica has said he will approve the law if passed by Congress. This is the third attempt to decriminalize abortion promoted by the Frente Amplio (Broad Front—FA) since it assumed power in 2005. In 2008 a law was vetoed by former President Tabaré Vázquez from the FA due to his belief that if abortion is legalized the number of cases will proliferate. Then, in December 2011, the party was only one vote away from passing the bill, but debate was postponed for one more year. According to Iván Posada, a deputy for the Partido Independiente and key advocate of the project, the law “proposes an intermediate solution, the road that is less bad in terms of conflicting values.” It must now be approved by the Senate, where it is expected to pass by the end of the year.

In a region where the majority of people are Catholic, reproductive rights are a highly contested topic in Uruguay, as in the rest of Latin America. Although abortion is legal in several countries—including Cuba, Guayana and Mexico City—this is the first time a South American nation has taken steps toward decriminalizing abortion without restrictions to the reason for this practice. According to Joan Caivano and Jane Marcus-Delgado, 12 percent of all maternal deaths in Latin America are estimated to result from unsafe abortions.

In a speech during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner replied to the IMF’s warning of sanctions by rejecting its claims that the country is going through a rough economic situation.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned Argentina during a conference at the Peterson Institute in Washington DC on Monday that it could face sanctions unless it shares reliable information on the country’s growth and inflation rate. According to private economists, the annual inflation in the South American country is at 24 percent, much higher than the official figure placed at 10 percent.

After an Executive Board Meeting on September 17, the IMF expressed its concern due to “the lack of sufficient progress” in improving the quality of the data for the Consumer Price Index for Greater Buenos Aires (CPI-GBA) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and called on Argentina to comply with its obligations as a member of the multilateral organization.

Lagarde gave an ultimatum to the Argentine government by saying that if the problem hasn’t been addressed by December 17, it could face a “red card”, meaning it would be dismissed from the multilateral organization. "Argentina is good in football and it certainly understands what we are talking about," she added. The Argentine president responded at the UN General Assembly: “"My country is not a soccer team. It is a sovereign nation that takes sovereign decisions; therefore we will not be subject to any pressure, let alone to any threat."

The two-day National Forum on Afro-Descendant Populations 2012 opened in Mexico City today with the aim of opening a national dialogue on the rights, recognition and social inclusion of Black Mexicans. Participants include Afro-Mexican community groups, government officials and academics.

According to Mexico’s National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED), there are about 500,000 people of African descent living in Mexico, concentrated primarily in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracruz, and Chiapas states. Many Africans arrived in Mexico during the colonial era, and some Afro-Mexicans are descended from runaway slaves who fled slavery in the United States.

CONAPRED President Ricardo Bucio said that Mexico’s Afro-Descendant communities have long struggled with invisibility and a lack of legal, political and historical recognition in Mexico. “We have historical backwardness on this issue and we have both the possibility and the obligation to implement public policies of recognition, restitution and re-inclusion,” he said.

Mexico’s national statistics agency, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía - INEGI) does not provide data that would allow Afro-Descendant Mexicans to be counted and recognized by the government. Researchers like Nemesio Rodríguez Mitchell, coordinator of the Mexico Multicultural Nation Program (Programa México Nación Multicultural –PUMC) have launched their own surveys of Afro-Descendant communities in Mexico. Rodríguez’s research has counted 22 such communities on the Costa Chica of Oaxaca state that are classified by INEGI as “Indigenous.”

“It’s very simple – if your people don’t appear in INEGI, you don’t exist,” said Rodríguez.

The goal of the national forum, which runs today and Thursday, is to advance the recommendations made to Mexico by the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In a March report, the committee reiterated its request “that Mexico provide information on persons of African descent living in the country, who were few and vulnerable.”

“Although Mexico had undertaken significant legislative reforms, the Committee noted with concern that the definition of discrimination contained in the Federal Law on the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination did not mention racial discrimination,” the report said.

A panel at today’s national forum looks at racism against Afro-Descendant communities in Mexico, and a panel tomorrow will discuss political actions that can be taken to make the Afro-Descendant population more visible.

“Afroméxico,” an exhibition by Mexican photographer Paulina García, opened on Monday at the Office of Foreign Relations (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores) in conjunction with the forum, and will be on display until October 10.

García, who is not an Afro-Descendant herself, said she spent five years living with several Afro-Mexican families throughout the country and photographing their daily lives. The photos are not only for Mexicans outside the community to gain awareness of what it is like to be an Afro-Descendant in Mexico, but also for Afro-Mexicans to “see themselves, value themselves, and respect themselves from within,” says García.

General debate of the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly began today with presidents from across the region scheduled to address world leaders. A number of high-level meetings will also take place throughout the week, covering topics like the rule of law, sustainable energy, nutrition, countering nuclear terrorism, and the chemical weapons convention.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff delivered the first address this morning for the second year in a row. In her speech, she addressed poverty and gender equality as well as security in Syria and the rest of the Middle East. She also defended policies to protect domestic industries, emphasizing that it unfair for “legitimate trade defense initiatives by developing countries to be unfairly classified as protectionism.”

On Thursday, Paraguayan President Federico Franco will speak out against Paraguay’s suspension from Mercosur and condemn Venezuela’s incorporation into the trade bloc—decisions which he called “illegitimate and illegal.” Franco also plans to defend the nearly unanimous congressional impeachment process that ousted former President Fernando Lugo in January.

In addition to President Rousseff, other Latin American heads of state that are addressing the General Assembly today include President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic, President Porfirio Lobo of Honduras, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, and President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador. On Wednesday President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, President Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala, President Michel Martelly of Haiti, and President Evo Morales of Bolivia will address the body. Mexican President Felipe Calderón will give his final address. President Ollanta Humala will join President Franco in speaking on Thursday, while Chilean President Sebastian Piñera and Uruguyan President José Mujica will speak Friday and Saturday respectively. On the final day of general debate Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa will end the session.

We may be observing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s last trimester in this pivotal and strategic post. Hillary became a household name during her husband’s presidential years. Her subsequent six year tenure as New York Senator, along with her “break the glass ceiling” campaign for the U.S. Presidency, has made her one of the most influential leaders in the world. This will be apparent at UN week in New York.

Until Barack Obama burst onto the scene, the probability of Hillary as President was highly likely. To this day, there remains speculation that she will be a candidate in the 2016 Presidential election. Presidential politics seem to go well with the current Secretary of State. The fact that President Obama was able to convince her to accept being his Secretary of State says much about the President, but it says much more about the kind of public servant Hillary Clinton is.

Canadians have generally shown greater affection for Democrats in the White House over Republicans since the JFK assassination. Most Canadians would have preferred a second Clinton Administration under Hillary’s stewardship than any other choice in 2008. While President Obama remains highly popular north of the border, Secretary Clinton is seen as very effective on her own, and very much a co-architect of the Obama foreign policy. Canadians appreciate her moderation, her civility, her approach to diplomacy and her overall civic engagement.

Relations between Canada and the U.S. under the Obama Administration are built on mutual respect and mutual interests. Clinton has worked closely with two successive Foreign Affairs Ministers, Lawrence Cannon and John Baird. The Canada-US partnership remains the closest on the planet both commercially and strategically.

Top stories this week are likely to include: UNGA high-level meetings get underway; Enrique Peña Nieto concludes Latin America tour; mining strike continues in Bolivia; Federico Franco and Mariano Rajoy discuss Ibero-American Summit; and Evo Morales visits Cuba.

UNGA High-Level Meetings Kick Off: The sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) began last week, and this week the focus shifts to a series of high-level meetings along with general debate among the many heads of state representing the United Nations’ 193 member-countries. The high-level meeting on the rule of law takes place today at the New York secretariat. General debate begins tomorrow morning with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff delivering the first address for the second consecutive year.

Peña Nieto Concludes LatAm Tour: Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto will arrive home today after completing a six-country tour through Latin America in advance of his December 1 inauguration. Peña Nieto visited Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru. In his most recent stop, Peña Nieto and Peruvian President Ollanta Humala agreed yesterday to strengthen ties on public security issues, particularly in the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking. The Mexican president-elect called for strengthening the Pacific Alliance and will round out his tour by meeting with 180 Peruvian businessmen today to discuss ways to boost trade ties. “This was a successful trip for Peña Nieto to show the leadership that his government wants to take in the hemisphere and how he will aim to collaborate on key issues for Mexico,” notes AQ Senior Editor Jason Marczak.

Mining Strike in Bolivia: In the escalating standoff this month between the Bolivian government and cooperative-member miners over the Colquiri tin and zinc mine, perhaps this week could see a development. Although the Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia (Union Federation of Miners in Bolivia) broke off talks on Saturday with a delegation sent by Bolivian President Evo Morales, Minister of Government Carlos Romero called for further dialogue over the rights to Colquiri. The Bolivian government expropriated the mine from a Swiss company in June 2012.

Franco, Rajoy to Discuss Ibero-American Summit: Paraguayan President Federico Franco and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will meet on the sidelines of UNGA in New York this week to discuss the status of Paraguay’s presence at the Ibero-American Summit to be held in Cádiz, Spain in November. Given Paraguay’s suspension from Mercosur and Unasur in response to the impeachment of former President Fernando Lugo, it was revealed that a Spanish diplomat traveled to Asunción recently to dissuade Paraguay from participating in the summit in the hope that Argentina would attend. Look for developments from the Rajoy-Franco discussion this week.

Evo Morales Visits Cuba: Bolivian President Evo Morales made an unannounced stop in Havana enroute to New York for the UNGA, where he was greeted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez according to Cuban state television. Today, Morales receives a doctorate degree, honoris causa, in political science from the University of Havana.

The annual celebration of International Day of Peace today holds special significance in Colombia given recent developments to try to end decades of conflict. Established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, this day is meant to coincide with the opening session of the UNGA as well as raise public awareness on issues related to peace and ending violence.

Colombian institutions have made special arrangements for today. The popular musician Juanes is managing El Tiempo newspaper for the day, with Shakira and Miguel Bose stepping in as contributing columnists to write about different themes of peace.

This year’s International Day of Peace has special significance in Colombia. On Tuesday, President Juan Manuel Santos announced the capture in Venezuela of Daniel Barrera, known as El Loco—one of Colombia’s most powerful drug traffickers. Earlier this month, on September 4, President Santos announced the agreement to hold peace negotiations between his administration and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—FARC). The talks will begin in Oslo, Norway, in early October.

With a recent surge in FARC attacks and the Colombian government’s continued pursuit and capture of FARC allies, the peace talks come at a vital time. While the negotiations will take place without a formal declared ceasefire, attempts are being made to ensure that these talks do not follow the trajectory of failed peace talks in the past. With the aim to make both sides feel at ease, Norway was chosen as a location due to its history in international mediation; Chile, a strong ally of Colombia, will be an observer. Cuba was chosen as a second location and Venezuela was also given observer status to make FARC feel more comfortable.

The Russian government’s announcement last week that it would refuse over $50 million of U.S. development assistance for democracy and public health programs echoed a similar trend in the Western Hemisphere. In June, the Venezuela-led Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA) asked its members to “immediately expel” the U.S. bilateral development agency USAID (the same that is the target of the Russian government’s ire) from its countries, accusing it of trying to de-stabilize governments. And Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has announced that he’s drawn up plans to restrict the U.S. development programs in his country.

Predictable anti-yanqui vitriol? Definitely. Warranted? It is their decision to make, and it’s a decision made easier by the skimpy amount the U.S. government allocates to the region today. The existing U.S. budget calls for a meager $1.8 billion for the entire Latin America and the Caribbean region for the next two years. This at a time when China has opened its pocket book to the region—often through loans and grants negotiated behind closed doors.

But mostly, the nationalistic indignation over USAID is just hypocritical. The Latin American leaders that are now railing against and threatening to expel USAID for political interference—directly and indirectly—owe their political ascendance to USAID’s support for democracy and democratic institutions.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared on the Spanish-language Univision network Wednesday night in a bid to convince Latino voters to unseat President Barack Obama in November.

During his 35-minute appearance before a largely supportive audience at the University of Miami, Romney emphasized his accomplishments as Governor of Massachusetts and said he would do a better job than Obama of finding a "permanent solution" to undocumented immigration.

"We're not going to round up people around country and deport them, we're not going to round up 12 million people," Romney said when asked whether he would deport undocumented immigrants or repeal Obama's policy of deferred action. He later said he would "staple a green card" to the diploma of immigrants who serve in the U.S. military or graduate with advanced degrees.

Univision partnered with Facebook and the University of Miami for Wednesday and Thursday's two-day "Meet the Candidates" series, providing an alternative, bilingual forum for both presidential candidates to appear before a primarily Latino audience in the run up to the elections. According to an ImpreMedia/Latino Decision poll released Monday, Latino voters favor Obama over Romney by a margin of 68 to 26 percent.

Univision launched "Meet the Candidates" last month, after the Commission on Presidential Debates released an exclusively Anglo-American lineup of debate moderators and denied Univision's request to schedule an additional debate with a Latino moderator focusing on issues of importance to Latinos.

"It's so interesting, because the Commission on Presidential Debates seems to believe that it is OK to have an African-American president, but it is not OK to have a moderator from a minority group," said Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who moderated Wednesday's forum alongside Maria Elena Salinas.

More controversy erupted when Univision and the University of Miami announced that the distribution of tickets to "Meet the Candidates" would be controlled by campus Republicans and Democrats, rather than distributed randomly by student lottery. As a result, Wednesday's audience was audibly supportive of Romney and could be heard jeering a number of the interviewers' questions, particularly when Romney was pressed to provide more details about his stance on immigration.

An Obama-friendly audience is expected to attend Thursday's forum for the president, which will be live-streamed on Univision's website and Facebook page in both English and Spanish. Viewers were encouraged to submit questions to the candidates via Facebook.

Last night, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared on Univisión’s “Meet the Candidate” forum—President Obama was interviewed today—where the questions from Jorge Ramos and María Elena Salinas almost immediately turned to his stance on key immigration issues. Unfortunately, Governor Romney did not provide much additional clarity as to his stance on issues such as continuation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), deportation and a balanced approach to comprehensive immigration reform.

First, the question of Deferred Action. When first asked about whether he would keep the President’s temporary policy, Romney responded: “The immigration system, I think we all agree, is broken and it’s been a political football for years and years on the part of both Republicans and Democrats. It needs to be fixed.” This answer did not address whether he would continue with DACA. Further pressed to specifically provide an answer on the fate of DACA under a Romney administration, the answer was that a “permanent solution” would be his goal—again, refusing to address whether he would keep the policy.
Clearly, a permanent solution is necessary. But in the absence of Congress and the White House being able to agree to one—a reality given Washington’s bitter partisanship—voters were left still guessing whether the 1.7 million potential beneficiaries of Deferred Action would be left out in the cold under a Romney administration.

Given Mr. Romney’s vague response to his stance on the DREAM Act—saying it would “have to be worked out by the Republicans and Democrats together”—the answer is that the President’s Deferred Action policy would likely not be upheld in its current form. This is a good reason for Romney to avoid the question in front of Univisión’s Spanish-speaking audience.

Why? Deferred Action is largely modeled after the DREAM Act that failed to pass Congress in late 2010—a bill where Mr. Romney disagrees with its core provisions. DACA, similar to the most recent DREAM bill, applies to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before age 16, and who are over 15 years old and under age 31, and have lived in the U.S. continuously for at least five years. Potential beneficiaries must also have a high school diploma or a GED, or be currently in school. Military veterans are also eligible. The major difference is that DREAM provides a pathway to citizenship but Deferred Action beneficiaries are only granted a two-year reprieve from deportation along with work authorization.

At a rally on Tuesday in the town of La Grita in Táchira state, Henrique Capriles Radonski, the candidate from the opposition’s Democratic Unity coalition, again invited President Hugo Chávez to join him in a debate that would be broadcast on television and radio and would focus on their respective platforms and views for Venezuela’s future. Once again, Chávez refused to debate him.

Capriles emphasized that a debate is important for discussing proposals, among them how to address the violence and insecurity that have led to more than 160,000 deaths in the 14 years of the current government. “”Only one hour, I don’t need five,” he stated, referring to the President’s national messages that often continue for several hours. Chávez’s response: a refusal to debate against “nothing,” dismissing Capriles.

This is not the first time the opposition candidate has called for a public debate. On September 7, he said in a speech in Monagas state: “I challenge them [government officials]. We are going to debate our government proposals. We are going to debate wherever they wish.” The president did not acknowledge this first call for a debate.

The presidential election is 18 days away, and is the fourth time Chávez will face voters. This includes presidential elections in 1998 and 2006 as well as a referendum in 2004. According to Luis Christiansen, president of polling firm Consultores 21, this is the first time in 14 years that the electoral scene looks balanced. His firm’s latest poll indicates that Capriles has 48.1 percent of voter support, with Chávez at 46.2 percent, a slight increase from the firm’s August poll. However, the Consultores 21 poll is the only one that gives the opposition candidate a lead.

The production of coca leaves in Bolivia is down since last year, according to an annual United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report published yesterday. The area used for cultivation of coca decreased 12 percent, from 31,000 hectares (76,600 acres) in 2010 to 27,000 hectares (66720 acres), the 2011 national coca monitoring survey said.

UNODC surveillance showed decreases in cultivation in Bolivia’s coca-growing hotspots: 11 percent in Yungas near La Paz, responsible for two-thirds of the country’s production; 15 percent in Cochabamba Tropics, Cochabamba; and 7 percent in the provinces north of La Paz. Despite these efforts, Bolivia remains the third-largest cocaine producer, after Peru and Colombia. While the production of cocaine is illegal in Bolivia, the production of small amounts of coca crop, the main ingredient in cocaine, remains lawful.

Monday’s UN report comes two days after the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela rebuffed a statement by President Barack Obama that both nations "have failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements." Bolivian President Evo Morales responded by saying that the American consumption of cocaine and other narcotics gives the U.S. “no morality, authority or ethics” to speak on the War on Drugs.