This Week in the Americas

Mexico’s Two Presidents
By Laura Carlsen

On September 16, over one million people voted to recognize center-left leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the “legitimate president” of Mexico. These delegates to the National Democratic Convention (NDC) agreed to inaugurate their president on November 20--ten days before the inauguration of the officially recognized candidate, Felipe Calderon. After months of protesting fraud, the convention represented a change in direction. The distinction between the demand for a fair vote count and the need to redress deeply felt social wrongs has been subsumed into a general movement for fundamental reforms.

Lopez Obrador has offered an alternative through anti-poverty measures and a rejection of hardline neoliberal policies. His plan is far from radical, but it has drawn the fire of powerful business interests at home and abroad. Even if Calderon were miraculously able to consolidate power over the coming months, a broad movement calling for major institutional reforms will be on the political scene for a long time to come.

Laura Carlsen is director of the IRC Americas Program in Mexico City, where she has worked as a writer and political analyst for the past two decades. The Americas Program is online at www.americaspolicy.org.

Uruguay Stuck Between Mercosur and Free Trade Agreement
By Ariela Ruiz Caro

Despite the difficulties of the U.S. Congress to pass Free Trade Agreements due to the November congressional elections, the Bush administration remains firm in its strategy to push them in Latin America. After signing agreements with Mexico, Chile, Central America, and the Andean Community, the United States now seeks to divide Mercosur. The government of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front Coalition) in Uruguay has continued to promote the foreign policy of its predecessor, consisting of expanding trade relations outside Mercosur, mainly with the United States. For Uruguay to sign an FTA with the United States, Mercosur would have to modify its rules.

Ariela Ruiz Caro (ariela@independiente.com) is a Peruvian economist and international consultant and a regional trade analyst with the IRC Americas Program, online at www.americaspolicy.org.

Landless Workers Movement: The Difficult Construction of a New World
By Raúl Zibechi

The campesinos of Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, for the Portuguese initials) dreamed for years of reclaiming their land, believing that it would solve all their problems: food for their children, a dignified life of hard work on the farm, education, health, and housing. However, the reality would prove much more difficult, for surprises they had never imagined lay ahead.

The Filhos de Sepé settlement, a 6,000-hectare (23-square mile) municipality in Viamao, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Porto Alegre, faces its share of problems, mostly derived from the global crisis of the small farmer competing with the powerful expansion of agribusiness pushed by large multinational corporations.

Raúl Zibechi, a member of the editorial board of the Montevideo weekly Brecha, is a teacher and a researcher on social movements at the Multiversidad Franciscana de América Latina, as well as an adviser to several social groups. He is also a monthly contributor to the IRC Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org).

Letters from our Readers

Dear Laura,

It always amazes me, the wonderful people one gets to meet via the internet. Saw your article on the elections on Commondreams. How I wish our own electorate was so motivated as the Mexicans are; perhaps we would not be involved in such a horrible war. Obrador sets an example for all those who live in democracies and you spelled it out so well.

You might be interested in comparing your article to an editorial in the Seattle Times. With your permission, I'd like to send your article to the Times as a refutation. No doubt the whole of our mainstream press has been bought off. My husband was not interested in what was going on until the PRD stopped Fox's speech. It seems that made mainstream news, but so sad that so little in depth has been published. (Obviously your article was written just before the speech was to be given.)

Through following your links, I came to “The International Relations Center,” and signed up for their mailing list. Thank you for your good work; keep it up.

Carol Harkins
Tulalip, WA 98271

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