2010

Five months from now there will be presidential elections in Brazil. The battle will stand between Dilma Rouseff from the Workers' Party (PT) and José Serra from the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB). But the most exiting is what happens around a candidate that has no chance to win the elections, Marina Silva from The Green Party (PV). Are we witnessing the emergence of a new political force in Brazil?

Read the article by Torkjell Leira in English here or in Norwegian here.

On Friday 26 February the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled that Alvaro Uribe will not be allowed to run for a third period as president. This way the court ruled out the possibility of organizing a referendum about allowing a third consecutive presidential period. An era has come to an end in Colombia, and a new president will be elected this spring. What does this ruling mean for the Colombian democracy, and how will Uribe be remembered? Read the article by Knut Andreas O. Lid and Jemima García-Godos here in English or here in Norwegian.

Dilma Roussef was elected the new president of Brazil on Sunday 31 October, but many challenges lie ahead. Considering what was debated during the campaign, Ms. Roussef did not present a clear proposal about how to improve the economic growth in Brazil besides the desire for continuity of Lula's policies.

Read the article by Yuri Kasahara here.

On June 29 last year the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was deposed in a coup d'état and sent to Costa Rica, and an interim government led by Roberto Micheletti was installed. This resulted in strong international reactions and the suspension of Honduras from the Organisation of American States (OAS). In November elections were held, and Porfirio Lobo Sosa was elected president. He took office on 27 January this year. Subsequently many countries have reestablished diplomatic relations with Honduras, and the country has disappeared from international news. The following two articles agrue that there is still a long way to go before Honduras can be called a democracy, and that the surrounding world should find new ways of relating to Honduras. Read the article by Jorge Bonilla here in Spanish or here in Norwegian, and the article by Nelson Salinas here in Spanish or here in Norwegian.

In response to an article previously published by NorLARNet, Kirsten S. Natvig of Caritas Norway maintains that a boycott is not the way to go to promote a democratic development in Honduras, as it only affects the poorest part of the population. “Even the most ardent opponents of the coup and supporters of Zelaya among those with whom Caritas cooperates, have asked the international society to not boycott the country”, Natvig states. Read the article in Norwegian or in Spanish.

Does it make sense to compare the president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, withLula? Could Funes be a mediator between different political fractions in such a divided country as El Salvador? And could he be a stabilizing factor in turbulent Central America, similar to what Lula has been in South America? Read the article by Nelson Salinas and Benedicte Bull here in Spanish or here in Norwegian.

Over the last months the already rampant violence related to organized crime in Mexico have increased further. In this article, visiting professor Carlos Flores at the University of Oslo, explains how the surge of organized crime is rooted in the structure and functioning of the Mexican state, and thus share the origin with the declining economic development, rising levels of poverty and increasing disillusion with democracy in Mexico. Read the article here in Norwegian or here in Spanish.

General elections in Brazil are approaching and politicians get busy establishing deals. Even if the Brazilian party system seems to consolidate at the national level around two leading players, there is still room for important supporting actors.

Read the article by Yuri Kasahara in English here or Norwegian here.

The Colombians are remarkably stable voters, but when they went to the polling stations on 30 May all analysts agreed that a political revolution was on the line. Then something strange happened…