Latin America: Week in Review, Mexico
Mexico: PRI and PAN Fight For Governorship Of Michoacán
November 14, 2011 By Mari Hayman
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Elections ended Sunday in Mexico’s Western state of Michoacán with the country’s top two parties both claiming victory in the governor’s race. President Felipe Calderón’s sister Luisa Calderón heads the National Action Party (PAN, in Spanish) ticket and faces Fausto Vallejo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, in Spanish). Luisa Calderón backs her brother’s offensive on Mexico’s drug cartels, which he began in the family’s homestate of Michoacán in 2006. The ensuing violence has hit the state hard and marred Sunday’s elections. Dozens of candidates abandoned their races in Michoacán’s state elections because of threats from drug traffickers. Analysts view the election as an indicator of the PAN’s ability to hold the presidency in next year’s election.
Read more from the Associated Press and The Los Angeles Times.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- A helicopter crash in Mexico that killed the country’s second-highest official and seven others was caused by foggy weather and not sabotage, the government said Sunday.
- A proposal before the U.S. Congress would give border agents control over environmental laws in protected areas.
- The New York Times reports that Hispanic population growth in the rural plains is offsetting decline among non-Hispanic whites.
- Remittances from the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean are back on the rise in 2011.
Caribbean
- Jamaica’s former Prime Minister Bruce Golding will not seek another term in Parliament.
- Despite the global economic slowdown, the Dominican Republic expects record numbers of tourist visits both this year and next.
- President of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcón said Friday no one should expect imprisoned USAID contractor Alan Gross to be freed unilaterally.
- A new report by the Washington think tank Center for Democracy in the Americas recommends the U.S. government do more to encourage market reforms in Cuba.
- Puerto Rican hip-hop due Calle 13 dominated the Latin Grammy Awards.
Central America
- The number of reported lynchings of suspected criminals in Guatemala has increased 500 percent to 147 in the first 10 months of this year, the country’s ombud’s office said Friday.
- The Washington Post explores the topic of violence in Honduras, the country with the world’s highest per-capita homicide rate.
- The Panamanian government is putting an end to 24-hour partying.
- The Nicaraguan navy says it killed four alleged drug dealers and seized more than a ton of cocaine from a speedboat after a six-hour chase.
Andes
- Peruvian President Ollanta Humala announced Sunday that Vice President Omar Chehade has stepped down due to corruption allegations.
- The body of FARC leader Guillermo Leon Saenz, alias “Alfonso Cano,” will be returned to his family after he was killed in a military operation on November 4.
- Venezuelan baseball player Wilson Ramos was rescued Friday after a two-day kidnapping ordeal. Four alleged captors and two suspected accomplices have been arrested, while four Colombian suspects are still at large.
- Thousands of Venezuelans rallied on Sunday in support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s 2012 re-election campaign.
- A female fugitive in Bolivia evaded the police for four days by hiding in a men’s prison in La Paz.
Southern Cone
- Thousands of Brazilian police invaded Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela, Rocinha, in an operation on Sunday in an effort to secure poorer areas of the city before the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.
- Argentine officials expressed displeasure with Britain’s decision to send Prince William of Wales to the contested Falkland Islands with the Royal Air Force.
- 22 year-old Argentine race car driver Guido Falaschi was killed in a collision on the last lap of Sunday’s Turismo de Carretera race.
Image: RicardoRobles @ Flickr.
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