Abinader heading to reelection on Sunday
May 17, 2024
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader is likely to win reelection on Sunday. Polls put him well ahead of his closest rival, three-time former President Leonel Fernández. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a second round will be held on June 30.
Abinader has a 73-percent approval rating and ranks among the world’s most popular presidents, reports AS/COA. His Modern Revolution Party won 120 of the country’s 158 mayorships in February’s municipal elections.
Dominicans also will be choosing members of Congress: 190 deputies and 32 senators.
Political chaos in Haiti has impacted the DR’s election, which has been marked by calls for a border wall between the two countries and a crackdown on migration. Abinader has started work on a wall along the border with Haiti and carried out mass deportations of 175,000 Haitians just last year, reports the Associated Press.
Crime and corruption are the other major topics that will push voters to the ballot box on Sunday, reports Reuters.
Regional Relations
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his Guatemalan counterpart, Bernardo Arévalo are scheduled to meet today in the Mexican border city of Tapachula, to discuss migration, security and infrastructure, reports the Associated Press. (See also La Política Online.)
A perennial water dispute between the U.S. and Mexico has grown more urgent in the midst of a prolonged drought. Some Texan leaders are pushing for the U.S. to cut aid if Mexico doesn’t meet water obligations, reports the Washington Post.
Mexico
Mexico’s criminal groups see next months general elections — the country’s largest ever — as a power grab opportunity. “They have picked off more than 100 people in politically-motivated killings, including about 20 candidates this year, and warred for turf, terrorizing local communities,” reports the Associated Press.
“Mexico’s democracy, like many others, is being destroyed by a freely elected and popular president who has manipulated democratic institutions and seeks to change not just the rules of the electoral game but also the entire political system so that his party remains in power,” argues Denise Dresser in Foreign Affairs.
Colombia
The new director of one of Colombia’s biggest prisons was killed yesterday, after receiving threats against him and his family last week. The government ordered a massive operation to hunt down the assailants, reports Al Jazeera. The killing comes after the government declared a “prison emergency” in February amid a surge in cases of prison riots, homicides, attacks and threats against prison personnel in several jails across the country. (See also El País)
Colombian President Gustavo Petro met with the central bank board a day after accusing them of throttling the nation’s economic growth, reports Bloomberg.
After Petro’s “Total Peace” agenda suffered a series of setbacks, the Colombian leader’s discourse and military tactics have become increasingly aggressive. The president “seems to have lost his patience with some of the armed groups who have been party to negotiations with the government,” wrote Joshua Collins last week at Pirate Wire Services.
WOLA called on U.S. and Colombian officials to “seek solutions to the security and protection challenges found throughout the country that disproportionately affected social leaders, Afrodescendants, Indigenous, and rural communities.”
Honduras
An Honduran woman reported her country to the United Nations for denying her an abortion after getting pregnant by rape, effectively forcing her to give birth to a child she did not want, reports AFP.
Peru
Peruvian lawmakers on Thursday began yet another effort to remove President Dina Boluarte from office, using the “moral incapacity” constitutional clause, reports the Associated Press.
Paraguay
The Paraguayan government’s proposed changes to education subsidy funding changes sparked mass protests last month — a weeks-long occupation of the country’s largest university forced the right-wing government to the table, reports Nacla.
Migration
Tens of thousands of Haitians and Venezuelans who found refuge in southern Brazil after escaping hunger, violence and natural disasters are being forced once more to rebuild lives now wrecked by record flooding in Rio Grande do Sul state, reports Reuters.
Brazil
China’s electric-car makers are zeroing in on the countries where they’re welcome. One of the big ones is Brazil, according to Bloomberg.
Argentina
Argentina posted primary fiscal and financial surpluses in April, the economy ministry said yesterday. (Reuters)
A measure of optimism in certain sectors regarding Argentina’s economic fortunes may be premature, argues Benjamin Gedan in World Politics Review.
Ecuador
The Guardian profiles how a group of Ecuadorean girls has fought against air contamination from flaring.
Regional
Floods in southern Brazil are evidence of Latin America’s severe vulnerability to extreme weather events. “Governments in the region facing fiscal constraints should prepare better, cooperate more and be creative,” argues Juan Pablo Spinetto in Bloomberg.