LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR A DAILY PUBLICATION OF THE DIALOGUE www.thedialogue.org Friday, August 5, 2016 BOARD OF ADVISORS FEATURED Q&A TODAY’S NEWS Diego Arria Director, Columbus Group POLITICAL Devry Boughner Vorwerk Should Mexico Senior Policy Advisor U.S. Sends 1,000 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP Spies to Rio to Joyce Chang Global Head of Research, Do More to Keep Help Protect JPMorgan Chase & Co. Olympics W. Bowman Cutter Former Partner, its Mayors Safe? The U.S. intelligence community E.M. Warburg Pincus has sent analysts, law enforce- Dirk Donath ment offi cers and other personnel Senior Partner, to Rio de Janeiro to help protect Catterton Aimara the Games, which open today. Marlene Fernández Corporate Vice President for Page 2 Government Relations, Arcos Dorados BUSINESS Peter Hakim President Emeritus, Inter-American Dialogue Citi Creates Donna Hrinak $3.5 Bn Credit President, Boeing Latin America Line for Argentine Jon Huenemann Vice President, U.S. & Int’l Affairs, Clients Philip Morris International Among the local Mexican offi cials murdered in recent weeks was Ambrosio Soto, the mayor of the town of Pungarabato, in Guerrero State. // File Photo: Town of Pungarabato. The fi nancing will be available to James R. Jones corporate and institutional clients, Chairman, ManattJones Global Strategies said the New York-based bank. Following separate attacks July 23 that resulted in the Craig A. Kelly Page 3 Director, Americas International deaths of two mayors, Mexico’s National Association of Gov’t Relations, Exxon Mobil Mayors demanded that the federal government take action to POLITICAL John Maisto Q Director, U.S. Education help protect public offi cials, especially in areas identifi ed as Finance Group Brazilian Senate high-risk zones. The group noted that 40 acting mayors have been killed Committee Votes Nicolás Mariscal in the last decade and that many offi cials have received death threats. Chairman, to Proceed With Grupo Marhnos As the Mexican government reforms political institutions, is security of Thomas F. McLarty III local public servants being seriously considered? What should Mexico’s Impeachment Chairman, McLarty Associates federal government be doing to protect mayors and local offi cials from A committee of the Brazilian Senate voted 14-5 to proceed Carlos Paz-Soldan organized crime? To what degree have criminal elements been able to Partner, with a trial that could result DTB Associates, LLP erode Mexico’s rule of law and democratic institutions through their in suspended President Dilma Beatrice Rangel tactics? How bad is Mexico’s situation compared to peer countries within Rousseff’s permanent removal Director, from offi ce. AMLA Consulting LLC the region and around the world? Page 2 José Antonio Ríos Chief Executive Offi cer, Vadium Technology Inc. Cristina Díaz Salazar, PRI member of the Mexican Senate Gustavo Roosen and president of the Senate’s Commission on Government: Chairman of the Board, Envases Venezolanos “In the initiative that he presented relating to security and jus- Andrés Rozental tice, President Enrique Peña Nieto reaffi rmed the urgency of President, Rozental & A Asociados and Senior revising the distribution of powers in the fi eld of public security, in particu- Policy Advisor, Chatham House lar the need to rethink the formation of the country’s policing institutions. Shelly Shetty Head, Latin America Undoubtedly, the exponential growth of organized crime has increased Sovereign Ratings, Fitch Inc. corruption and violence. With this, a heightened security risk for the pop- Roberto Sifon-Arevalo ulation becomes more likely. Despite the success of diverse strategies to Managing Director, Americas Sovereign & Public Finance Ratings, combat these criminal groups, they have modifi ed, proportioned and di- Standard & Poor’s versifi ed their illegal activities. Faced with these circumstances, our vari- ous levels of government have not had adequate measures to combat this Rousseff // File Photo: Brazilian Government. Continued on page 3 COPYRIGHT © 2016, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 1 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Friday, August 5, 2016 POLITICAL NEWS and last approximately a week. Brazilian media NEWS BRIEFS surveys indicate that more than two-thirds of Brazilian Senate senators want to permanently remove Rousseff Earl Moves West Across from offi ce. If Rousseff is convicted, Temer Mexico After Raking Committee Votes to would serve out the rest of her term, through 2018. The Senate suspended Rousseff on May Belize, Guatemala Put Rousseff on Trial 12, at which time Rousseff’s vice president, Tropical Storm Earl traveled across Mexico’s Michel Temer, became interim president. southern Gulf coast early Friday, after pounding A Brazilian Senate committee on Thursday Since then, Brazil’s stock market and currency Belize and northern Guatemala with torrential voted to put suspended President Dilma have strengthened amid Temer’s pro-business rains, the Associated Press reported. Some Rousseff on trial in the full chamber on charges policies. earlier forecasts had said Earl would weaken of breaking the country’s budgetary laws, into a tropical depression overnight, but new Reuters reported. The 21-member impeach- Pessimism Rises predictions late Thursday night said it would maintain its strength as a tropical storm Among Chileans: through Friday. Earl hit the coast of Belize It is a coup by the Thursday morning as a Category 1 hurricane Brazilian elite against Surveys with 80 mile-an-hour winds, according to the the working class.” U.S. National Hurricane Center. The number of Chileans who are optimistic —Senator Lindbergh Farias about the country’s future has fallen drastically, with many expressing a pessimistic view of U.S. Sends More Than the government and any potential successors, ment committee voted 14-5 to proceed with two polls showed Thursday, Reuters reported. 1,000 Spies to Rio to the impeachment process. “The committee The number of Chileans polled who answered Help Protect Olympics vote confi rms not only that Rousseff knowingly that their country was going “in the correct The U.S. intelligence community has sent more broke fi scal laws, but also that she was a dis- direction” fell to 18 percent from 41 percent a than 1,000 spies to Rio de Janeiro as part of honest administrator,“ Senator Ricardo Ferraço, year and a half ago, according to a CERC-Mori Olympic security to protect spectators, U.S. one of the members of the committee, told poll. The government’s approval rating was athletes and staff at the Games, which open reporters, according to Reuters. Rousseff is at 25 percent, according to the poll, which today, NBC News reported today. Hundreds of accused of manipulating government accounts is the lowest rating since March 2014, when analysts, law enforcement and special opera- in an effort to boost public spending ahead of tions personnel are already in Rio de Janeiro, her re-election in 2014. She denies the charges. according to a highly classifi ed report on U.S. On Thursday, Rousseff’s backers expressed intelligence efforts, viewed by NBC News. More their disapproval of the process. “It is a coup than a dozen Navy and Marine Corps comman- by the Brazilian elite against the working class,” dos from the U.S. Special Operations Com- said Senator Lindbergh Farias, a member of mand are also in Brazil, working with Brazil’s Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, The Wall Street federal police and navy, according to senior Journal reported. The full Senate is expected to military offi cials. vote on Tuesday whether to accept the charges against Rousseff, which would then lead to a Bachelet // File Photo: Chilean Government. trial that could produce a verdict by the end of August or early September. The Senate President Michelle Bachelet began her second Colombians May Vote on committee’s vote came as world attention is non-consecutive term. Bachelet had been Peace Deal Before Formal focused on Brazil; the Summer Olympics open elected on the promise of raising taxes and Signing: Santos today in Rio de Janeiro. Last week, Olympic or- overhauling education, pensions, the electoral ganizers had expected some 50 heads of state system and labor relations. A drop in copper Colombia’s government may ask voters to ap- to attend the Games, but as of Wednesday, only prices, however, hindered investment in Chile, prove a peace deal with the FARC rebels before 28 had confi rmed their attendance, Reuters while corruption scandals in the government accords are signed, President Juan Manuel reported. Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski left Chileans disillusioned with the political and Santos said Thursday, Reuters reported. After would preside over an impeachment trial. His business elite. Bachelet’s plans have been crit- negotiators reach an agreement on all points of offi ce has said the trial could begin Aug. 26 icized on both ends of the political spectrum, peace deal, a vote could be scheduled, Santos said. COPYRIGHT © 2016, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE PAGE 2 LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR Friday, August 5, 2016 as well. The right-leaning opposition, which FEATURED Q&A / Continued from page 1 includes some from her own political party, says that her reforms are hurting the country’s threat to Mexico and inhibit its growth. The are diffi cult to overstate. Mexico has spent economy, while the political left says her re- lack of adequate measures is seen through more than a decade approving reforms pro- forms do not go far enough. Former President transportation conditions, equipment, moting rule of law, though impunity remains Ricardo Lagos called the current state of the weapons and coordination. The conditions its core problem, as there is still systemic government the worst institutional crisis Chile have been most evident in municipalities, in mechanisms lacking to bring criminals to had seen since the 1973-1990 dictatorship. the governments closest to the people and “In no moment since 1990 has there been a which are most often violently affected by conjunction of such negative economic and crime.