I apologize for the light blogging this week but it is the last week of the intersession course that I am teaching on September 11, 2001 and Beyond. I received paper drafts on Monday and returned them on Tuesday. Then students took an exam yesterday which I am still grading. Finals papers are due tomorrow. So what is going on:
The left is strengthening in El Salvador and Costa Rica days before the people of each country go to the polls. Both countries appear headed to runoffs but it is possible, especially in El Salvador, that the FMLN could eke out a first round victory.
In Guatemala, former Interior vice minister and current secretary of Communication of the Presidency Francisco Cuevas is asking for an investigation into former president Alvaro Colom. Cuevas alleges that Colom obstructed an investigation into a high-level functionary accused of leading a group of assassins while in office. Meanwhile, President Perez Molina dropped his suit against Jose Ruben Zamora but Vice President Roxanna Baldetti hasn't moved quite so quickly.
In Nicaragua, nobody wanted Rosario Murillo to be president so they have agreed to change the constitution in order to eliminate term limits and to eliminate the requirement that the winning candidate capture greater than 35 percent of the national vote. See The Pan-American Post for more details.
Boz takes a look at Latin America in last night's State of the Union address.
Finally, former ARENA President Francisco Flores tried to flee El Salvador yesterday morning. It looks like he wanted to avoid going before the Legislative Assembly once again. He has not been very effective at explaining where the $10 - 15 million dollars from Taiwan went. His ARENA colleagues appear to have abandoned him which isn't that surprising given that his response to the money given to him from Taiwan was nothing new and that previous ARENA president had received similar donations.
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