Blog entries

Guatemalans head to the polls again tomorrow for the second round of their 2011 presidential elections that pits LIDER’s Manuel Baldizón against Patriot Party’s Otto Pérez Molina, a former army general during the height of the country’s civil war in the 1980s. During the first round held on September 11, Pérez Molina secured a 13 … Read more

Electoral campaigns for Sunday’s presidential and legislative elections closed on Wednesday night, with polls predicting that incumbent president Daniel Ortega will win another term. According to the latest Cid Gallup poll, Ortega, of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) party, leads with 48 percent of the voting intention. His nearest rival, 79-year-old Fabio Gadea … Read more

On November 5, if the threats posted are real, Mexico could be witness to a new kind of civil resistance to the status quo and political system. Mexican and international members of the hacker group known as Anonymous, have published through different media (interviews to news papers, YouTube videos and twitter accounts) that although #OpCartel … Read more

In 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke a lot about hope, and his book The Audacity of Hope became a best-seller. His campaign later was all about hopes and dreams. But times have changed. Today we have the Tea Party from the Right, active and influencing the mainstream GOP.  The Occupy Wall Street movement from … Read more

The Peruvian Minister of Mines and Energy Carlos Herrera told Congress on Wednesday that the $4.8 billion Minas Conga mine project would not continue without the approval of the local community. “Projects should be approved by the people who will be affected by them,” said Minister Herrera. Accompanied by the ministers of agriculture and the … Read more

From Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online’s news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup. Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email. Petro Wins Mayoralty of Bogota on Anti-Corruption Platform Gustavo Petro, a former presidential … Read more

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a man in a hurry. But the pace at which he’s pushing through controversial legislation and dismissing the views of the opposition parties has even surprised Tory supporters. And he’s not making any friends in the process. Barely two months after the start of the September parliamentary session, Harper … Read more

In efforts to combat an ongoing wave of narcotics-related violence, police forces  in Honduras yesterday moved in on cities and neighborhoods dominated by criminal gangs. The mission, endorsed by President Porfirio Lobo and referred to as Operation Lightning, began in the large population centers of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Lobo pledged to “do everything … Read more

On October 20, the day of Guatemala’s revolution, the country’s government formally apologized to the family of former President Juan Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, who was deposed in a coup in 57 years ago. “I want to apologize to the family for the great crime committed on June 27, 1954,” said President Alvaro Colom at the … Read more

Ecuador confirmed on Monday that it had received $1.3 billion from the China Development Bank (CDB), the first installment of a $2 billion loan signed in Beijing in June. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Finance is free to use the loan for whatever purposes it deems  appropriate.  The remaining $700 million that is included in the … Read more

One year ago, Gustavo Petro, a former senator and presidential candidate, called a press conference along with his friend Carlos Vicente de Roux (a member of Bogotá’s city Council) and Senator Luis Carlos Avellaneda. At this conference, Petro and his friends presented the results of an inquiry, conducted by themselves, on what by that time … Read more

Gustavo Petro will be the next mayor of Bogotá after winning 32 percent of the vote in yesterday’s election. Elected to the Senate in 2006, Petro of the Movimiento Progresista (Progressive Movement) party ran on a platform of zero corruption. Enrique Peñalosa conceded after losing to Petro by 7 percentage points; he won 25 percent … Read more

Hablar de política siempre ha sido una costumbre pasional del colombiano.  Podría uno decir que de cualquier ciudadano del mundo. El tema es que en Colombia con la complejidad de la política, esa pasión a veces es violencia, a veces es calumnia, pero también muchas veces es una verdad incómoda. Este domingo es el día … Read more

Just over a week before the second round of presidential elections in Guatemala, more than half the members of the executive committee of the governing Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) party have resigned. Earlier this week, 13 of the committee’s 24 members publicly submitted their resignations, in what the committee’s leadership signaled as a … Read more

Voters in Bogotá, Colombia, will elect a new mayor this weekend to take over for Clara López Obregón, the city’s interim leader, who assumed office after Samuel Moreno was suspended by the inspector general of Colombia over irregularities in public works contracts earlier this year. According to recent polling, the top candidate in the race … Read more