No, you don't need to be rich or win the lottery to make a 6 months trip in you own vehicle around Latin America. Also, you don't need to be Indiana Jones to discover yourself Central America or the incredible South America. Regular people, with run-of-the-mill jobs and real life expenses can save enough cash to buy themselves some freedom for a while.

If you are living in the USA, or perhaps other developed country, maybe you heard many times this; "Don't cross the border, It's not safe over there. My sister-in-law's uncle was just minding his own business and they stripped him naked and tied him to a donkey." We got tired of hearing stories like this before each one of our trips.

Although there are some dangers in pretty much everyplace and crime does happen virtually everywhere, including our own "safe" neighborhood, most people are afraid of the unfamiliar. Those who live close to a border look toward the other side as the great unknown, full of goblins and corrupt officials.

Having lived in one of those highly industrialized countries, we have heard every imaginable story about bandits, corruption and horrible situations in Latin America. We end in the conclusion that for most of these stories, the person telling it heard the story from someone else but not directly from the victim and/or the victim was doing something that you shouldn't do in a strange place where you do not know how things are or this person did not follow basic security rules.

Clear heads and common sense helped us to avoid trouble most of the time. It's not as scary over there as it may seem and you can obtain a rich and possibly life changing experience. We followed some simple rules and our common sense and we were mainly safe in most of our trips. The most important thing is to pay attention! There is no need to be paranoid, but you need to make sure you are not driving yourself into a situation it would be hard to get out of.

Particularly on the road, we avoided driving at night in most countries, not only because of the road conditions or bad drivers but because if something bad was to happen, it could be more difficult to solve it at nighttime than during the daylight. Also, after down you don't get to enjoy the landscape and there are many awesome things to see around.

Carrying traveler's guides is a good idea and reading travel books or checking websites of other travelers helps a lot. However, asking and asking and asking to local people gave us the richest and most up-to-date information about the present situation and how to take care of ourselves and our vehicle.

Unexpected things can happen even if you think you took all the necessary precautions, so you need to be prepared to the unplanned. Traveling with a vehicle can bring some extra risk of unexpected problems. It can be sometimes hard to get parts and stuff for your vehicle, so before starting your trip you might want to stock up with some "extra parts" that are most likely to break down during a long trip.

The vehicle can brake down and leave you on the road. Probably, there won't be a AAA office to call or not even a phone to call someone!! Our vehicle broke down a couple of times and the parts shops did not always have what we needed or the mechanics were not particularly skilled with the problem or they didn't have the right tools. However, with patience, we received help and advices from local people and we could solve all the problems. It could be easier if we were driving one of the several Japanese vehicles that are common in Latin-American but anyways we never had major difficulties to solve the mechanical issues we had, other than having to wait for a couple of days to get parts.....

One good piece of advice would be to carry with you the repair manual of you vehicle, one of those "do it yourself" manuals. There you can find all the specs of the parts for your vehicle and in case you do not find the original part you need, you will be sure able to get something similar that will work for your ride.

In our own personal opinion, we found that traveling in Latin-America is an enriching and fulfilling experience. We are glad we did not pay attention to those saying it was a crazy and dangerous thing to do, since we honestly did not feel at any point we were doing something to put ourselves at risk.

Daniela L. Eaton

Copyright Daniela Eaton. Daniela is a MD and her husband is a PhD who love to travel around the world. For travel stories, tips, tons of excellent photos and free information, visit:
[http://www.rentinghere.com/viaje.htm]

Latin American politics have moved left. Twelve of the regions countries have held presidential elections since November 2005. Six of the countries in Latin America have elected heads of state that are further to the left than the outgoing leaders. The latest elections in the region have confirmed such trend; the reelection of Lula Silva in Brazil, the ascent to power of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and the election of Rafael Correa in Ecuador (another headache for Washington as Ecuador is the second largest exporter of crude oil in the region and it hosts the only U.S military base in South America).

Two basic camps of leftists have emerged within the region. Those who run on authoritarian populist platforms such as Hugo Chavez and those who support representative democracy such as Lula da Silva of Brazil.

While the authoritarian populist platforms receive the most scrutiny for their social and economic policies, further analysis indicates countries closest to the left-centre of representative democracy suffer from the largest level of inequality. This inequality is most apparent in Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Brazil. While Colombia and Mexico enjoy right wing governments, Chile and Brazil have the regionsmost marked centre-left governments.

While there are many indicators of inequality, comparing the wage paid to elected representatives against the minimum wage earned by the average citizen; serves as an effective indicator. The wage gap between those "who legislate" and those "who elect" is a powerful one, as it demonstrates how a nation and its legislative institutions not only perceive, but act on their duty to fight against economic inequality.

The elected representatives in Felipe Calderons Mexico enjoy the largest wage gap - paying themselves 52 times (USD $6.773 a month) that of the minimum monthly wage! To put things in perspective the average United State senator receives a wage of USD $13,766 a month, based on figures provided by the United States Senate. This monthly wage is thirteen times that of the average minimum monthly wage of USD $990 in the United States.

The elected representatives of Chile receive a staggering monthly wage of USD $11.282, 44 times the average national minimum wage of USD $256 a month. Furthermore, the monthly wage of USD $11.282 paid to Chilean senators does not include extraordinary costs such as flights, accommodation or consulting. In the case of the average Chilean senator, their average net wage is doubled when accounting for all costs. While Chile leads the region in overall compensation for its elected representatives, Brazil is one of the world leaders. Senators in Brazil receive 15 salaries throughout the year, withe the average cost per senator amounting to almost USD $240.000 a year in tax payer money.

The wage rankings for elected representatives in Latin America reveals the wage gap of the five nations to be enormous. Chile leads the region with an average monthly wage of USD $11.282 for its elected representatives - 44 times minimum wage. In second place Colombia with USD $7.400 a month - 41 times the minimum wage. In third place is Mexico where elected representatives are paid a monthly wage of USD $6.773 - 52 times the minimum wage. Fourth is Brazil, paying its senators USD $5.961 a month - 34 times the minimum wage. Fifth in the rankings is Peru, paying its elected representatives USD $4.756 a month - 30 times the minimum wage.

During his presidential campaign, Rafael Correa, elected president of Ecuador, used a belt as a symbol of his campaign (a wordplay on his last name, which means belt). The belt was a symbol for the radical changes he would bring to the country including the "whipping of the old political guard". We suggest Rafael Correa sends his belt to all his fellow Latin American leaders, so they can bring an end to the unjustifiable high levels of compensation paid to elected representatives in the region.

Alain Portmann, Dark Matter Politics [http://www.darkmatterpolitics.com]

Mexico is the twelfth largest economy on the globe, with a GDP exceeding one trillion dollars. It has the highest per-capita income and the highest purchasing power parity out of all the countries in Latin America. Mexico is also the only South American member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Mexico has been experiencing constant economic growth over the past years. It is estimated, in one of Goldman Sachs' studies, that the country will be one of the world's economic leaders by 2050, along with Brazil, Japan, China and the US. Mexico's economy is quite mature and stable, although the gap between the rich and the poor is continuously growing.

1994 was a rough year for Mexico's economy. The administration has been trying since then to ameliorate the country's macroeconomic situation. In 2002 South Africa suffered an economic crisis, but this didn't have a considerable effect on Mexico's economic state. In the present day, Mexico is affected, like many other countries, by the run up in food and oil. The levels of inflation and the interest rates are very low, especially since the Mexican government has been making sure of it.

Recent studies have shown that, in spite of its economic growth, Mexican economy has plenty of fundamental problems. There is an economic discrepancy between one region of the country and another, especially between the south and the north. Rural areas are being left way behind the urban areas, from not only the economic point of view, and the gap between the rich and the poor has increased over the past few years.

A certain level of inequality exists also as far as incomes are concerned. This inequality needs to be decreased in order to improve Mexico's economy and to minimize the chances of social and political instability. Mexico's infrastructure also needs to be improved. The tax system has to be modernized and labor laws have to be amended.

An important role in the Mexico Economy is played by agriculture. The private sector has begun to get more and more involved both in the industrial and in the agricultural sector. Competition exists in certain sectors such as generation and distribution of power, airports, railroads, seaports, and telecommunications. This is due to the measures taken by the government, hoping to improve the Mexican economy by building infrastructure while clamping down on its black economy.
Juan Abdel Nasser is a writer with the economic reports site Economy Watch , an extensive resource on economics, finance, investing and business worldwide.

Latin America has still a long way to run to defeat extreme poverty. According to a report published by the World Bank, 47 million Latin Americans are still living in extreme poverty.

The 2007 Global Monitoring Report, a yearly survey conducted by the WB, said the proportion of Latin Americans living on less than USD 1 a day is decreasing "slightly from some 9 percent in 2002 to 8.6 percent in 2004, thus allowing some 700,000 people to overcome extreme poverty.

The report was disclosed by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, during a meeting with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo Rato in Washington, stressed that Latin America and the Caribbean are "likely" to approach to the first development goal of the millennium, namely reducing poverty by half by 2015.

In Venezuela, WB said that in 2003 18.5 percent of the population lived on less than USD 1 a day.

As to the goal to make children complete at least primary school, Venezuela, just like the rest of the countries in the region, is near the goal, with 92 percent in 2005 compared to 43 percent in 1991.

While in 1991, 5 percent of Venezuelan children suffered malnutrition, in 2000-2005 it dropped to 4 percent.

Infant mortality rate in Venezuela fell from 33 per 1,000 in 1990 to 21 per 1,000 in 2005.

One blogger, though, Lenin Guerra, posts a lament, lest we be too quick to blame the general state of violence in Rio (emphasis added).

Deu no New York Times: a morte do casal de executivos da Shell, Michelle e Zera Todd Staheli, está totalmente vinculada a violencia no Rio de Janeiro. O jornal americano classificou o Rio como uma das cidades mais violentas do mundo. Casos como esse contribuem cada vez mais para a estagnacao do nosso turismo internacional. Um pais com mais de 8 milhoes de quilometros quadrados, que tem em territorio Amazonia, Pantanal e praias das mais belas do mundo, recebe apenas 5 milhões de pessoas por ano. Naum aproveitamos nem o eco-turismo. O Brasil responde a apenas 10% desse tipo de turismo. Ou seja, dos que querem ver natureza no mundo, só 10% escolhem o Brasil. Nossos 5 milhoes sao pouco se comparado a França (75 milhões), Espanha (52 milhões) e os Estados Unidos (48 milhões). Acontecimentos como o assassinato desse casal tendem a nos deixar estagnados, senao caindo, no ranking mundial do turismo ¿ atualmente estamos em 29º. O turismo é uma forma interessante de ingresso de capital a um país. É uma pena que continuaremos perdendo esse filao. Agora responda com sinceridade: depois de ler quase semanalmente notícias como essa, se voce fosse estrangeiro, voce viria passar férias no Brasil ou no México?

Lenin decries the automatic connection between the case and Rio's violent side, and the connection between high-profile cases like this one and Rio's stagnant tourism industry. "After reading almost weekly news like this, if you were a foreigner, would you spend your holidays in Brazil or in Mexico?"

This crime has few clues, and detectives are pointing inside the household (although, to be fair, the family's lawyer today told police they need to "put a foot outside the house", indicating that he suspected a professional hit rather than someone close to the family).

Lenin directs his concern to the bigger picture - this can only hurt Brazil's tourism, and at a time when it should be at peak (yes, 90 degrees here today). He worries that Brazil - the 5th largest country in the world, and a country including the Amazon, the Pantanal and the most beautiful beaches in the world - is only 29th in world tourism. 5 million tourists in Brazil don't compare very well with 75 million in France, or 48 million in the US.

Of the Staheli case, I tend to think that after the initial shock and outrage it remains for the police to put together the evidence and make the best conclusion they can, and to take the pressure off of random Rio violence as the automatic culprit. Rio has its violent hot-spots, but they tend to be places where no foreigner would find himself. Still, no doubt the case is high profile (as our referrer logs continue to attest). So without wishing to sound overmuch like a cheerleader, I can merely remind you, Brazil is a beautiful country, Rio is a wonderful city, and Cariocas are the friendliest people in the world.. Brazil is still "my beach".

Mexican President Vicente Fox completed the first half of his six-year term on Monday amid increasing criticism that he has failed to live up to promises made during his election campaign: especially those related to economic growth and reform. In the last two years Mexico's economy has been struggling to pick up steam following a recession in 2001. In 2002 GDP expanded a modest 0.9 percent. Right now Mexican growth is lagging far behind the breathtaking spped of the U.S. recovery. The Mexican central bank forecasts gross domestic product growth of 1.5 percent for 2003, way behind the 8.2% rate recorded by the United States in the third-quarter GDP. This has to be worrying for Mexico since about 90 percent of its exports go to the United States. Obviously high on the candidates list for culprits comes China, what else. One thing which is interesting to note is that some countries in LA - Brazil, Argentina - seem to be seeing the China factor as a plus, whilst others - Mexico - are definitely having a hard time of it.

Despite Mexico's proximity to the United States, local exporters say they will not reap the benefits of a U.S.-China spat over import quotas for Chinese bras, knit fabrics and robes. The United States last month slapped import quotas on the Chinese products but Mexico, home to 13,000 apparel manufacturers, has lost past trade advantages and will struggle to fill the gap left by fewer Chinese textiles.

"The Americans are going to come looking because we are the nearest neighbors but in the end it will come down to price and our prices, these days, are high," said Saleh Penhos Erfeli, director of lingerie makers Mas Lenceria. Penhos, who used to export 24,000 robes a week to the United States but since 2000 has shipped nothing abroad, said an overvalued peso currency and higher labor costs have eaten into Mexico's apparel export advantages. "The problem with Mexico is that it is no longer a third-world nation but it is not yet a first world nation and we are not competing on price any more," said Penhos. Mexico's clothing industry lapped up business with the United States and Canada immediately after the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994. A huge peso devaluation in 1994-95 also gave apparel exporters a big price advantage.

But by 2000, Mexico's advantages had disappeared. Other nations -- from Africa to the Andes -- ushered in mirror trade pacts with the world's No. 1 economy, leveling the playing field. The final nail in the coffin came when China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Mexican exporters said other textile countries with cheaper labor costs than Mexico and similar trade pacts with the United States would also seek bra and robe export orders left open by the Chinese quota cap that is not yet in place. "The market that is going to open up in the United States, the slice of the pie that will emerge, is going to be sought by Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Koreans, Taiwanese and by Vietnamese," said Raul Garcia, director of the National Apparel Chamber. "It's not going to be an automatic opportunity for Mexico's clothing industry." Noel Slater, export manager for underwear maker Van Dior which employs 1,000 people, said he no longer makes bras for export because of price restraints. Slater focuses foreign sales on less labor-intensive lingerie such as panties and boxers.

"Because of lower costs the Chinese can be more labor-intensive and they end up with marvelous bras," Slater said. Mexican textile workers are paid about $50 to $75 per week, a third more than their Chinese counterparts and also more than workers in other emerging textile nations such as Honduras and Vietnam. Mexico's labor costs rose 50 percent between 1999 and 2002 as the peso held rock solid against the dollar and inflation outpaced U.S. price hikes. Garcia of the National Apparel Chamber likened China's government-aided and undervalued-yuan economy to handing out subsidies for industry. "We are never going to be able to compete with this type of economy," Garcia said.
Source: Forbes
LINK

It seems Mesa's finally realized he'll never befriend the populist left, no matter how hard he tries. So he's back to being a constitutional democrat, giving the middle class a huge collective sigh of relief.

In the past few weeks, Mesa & his ministers did everything in their power to appease the demands of syndicalist dirigentes like Felipe Quispe, Evo Morales, Angel Duran, Jaime Solares, Roberto de la Cruz, and others. When he offered to negotiate their myriad demands, they scoffed, insulted cabinet members, walked out of meetings, or called on the use of mobilized violence to achive their goals. Last week, Mesa found his spine.

In the end, it seems the government's decided to negotiate w/ other dirigentes who, not only are more willing to negotiate, but it seems are actually more legitimate. Bolivian papers never reported this (investigative journalism isn't a strong suit here). But. It seems Quispe's not actually head of the Confederaci├│n Syndical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB), de la Cruz doesn't lead the Central Obrera Regional de El Alto (COR), and Duran isn't chief of the Movimiento Sin Tierra (MST). While they are of course major players in these organizations (and have their own clientelistic networks w/in them), they seem to forget that these organizations have organizational structures & elections.

Is this merely a divide and conquer strategy on the part of the government? Probably. But I don't see why Mesa & his ministers, who've shown tremendous good faith in trying to negotiate can't also decide which leaders they'll negotiate w/. And if Someone from MST wants to negotiate, rather than call on campesinos to forcefully seize lands (as Duran does), I see no reason why Mesa can't negotiate w/ the actual executive secreaty of the MST. The same goes for all the other groups.

Meanwhile, the formal investigation of Goni & his ministers is going forward. But it might not make Evo & co. happy. While the courts found enough reason to try Goni & his ministers for excessive use of force in October, it also found enough reason to investigate Evo, Quispe, Solares, and five other dirigentes for crimes against the state (such as for callign on armed insurrection). Meanwhile, two sets of lawyers have also filed individual criminal suits against the populist dirigentes for their actions in October. It's gonna be an interesting legal process.

This week's news from latitude zero:

Tension between Ecuador and Colombia continues to mount; Ecuador says FARC rebels are setting up camps inside Ecuadorian terroritory. And Colombia claims Ecuadorian military personnel are selling weapons, via the black market, to Colombian rebels.

Reuters reports that "Ecuador's army destroyed a Colombian rebel base in the dense jungle between the two nations that the guerrilla force had used to rest and hide hostages, the army said on Thursday."

Deforestation is a serious problem in Ecuador. The small Andean nation is renowned for it's biodiversity, but the country "lost its forest cover three times faster than the Latin American region as a whole in the 1990s." So says this article, which outlines a new government initiative to implement a "20-year plan to work with the private sector to plant new trees and protect old forest."

New trouble for Ecuadorian president Lucio Gutierrez: Congress has opened an investigation into his campaign finances in response to reports that his party received money from a questionable source.

Says this article: "The scandal broke after El Comercio newspaper reported, citing an unnamed source, that Gutierrez's political party received a $30,000 campaign contribution from Cesar Fernandez, a formerly prominent politician charged with drug trafficking."

Five Ecuadorians were wounded in Israel when "a gunman trying to infiltrate a border crossing from Jordan fired on a crowd of tourists." More from the AP here.

And, finally, turning to the world of futbol, Ecuador wrapped up a disappointing week of World Cup 2006 qualifying matches. The national team lost to Paraguay 2-1 early in the week. And then another bad result: the squad drew 0-0 with regional rivals Peru.

That's it for this week; adios from your correspondent in Cuenca.

It's been less than a month since Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada (aka Goni) resigned as Bolivia's president. Things went back to normal; Mesa was given a honeymoon period to try to govern and appease the myriad of social demands (such as the issue of gas exports) that drove Goni from office. That honeymoon clearly ended last week.

Despite Mesa's efforts to negotiate w/ (and even his praise for) some of the social forces that led the October protests, the usual syndicate leaders have only radicalized their positions. On Friday, Felipe Quispa (aka Mallku) disrupted a dialogue meeting between syndicate dirigentes and ministers — who were agreeing to almost all his demands — and stormed out shortly after publicly calling them "bitches" who were only in office because he put them there.

The main opposition groups are the same: Confederaci├│n Syndical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB), the Movimiento Sin Tierra (MST), the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), and the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB). The MST is a rather new group; the main leaders are still Mallku (CSUTCB), Evo Morales (MAS), and Jaime Solares (COB). Last week they announced publicly and clearly that their goal is to topple Mesa and seize power.

Among their demands — most of which Mesa has tried to meet — they've now added that they want a new constitution that specifically excludes political parties. Ironic, of course, since Evo and Mallku both lead political parties that have significant representation in parliament (MAS and MIP). Also, no one seems to understand how national politics would function if political parties were deliberately forbidden. Or would it all depend on the syndicates?

The dirigentes are bitter that Mesa's not giving in to all of "society's" demands tout court. Never mind that the three represent only a section of the entire Bolivian population, most of which finds the majority of the COB-CSUTCB-MAS demands extremely radical. Goni's popularity upon his downfall was below 20%, which is still slightly higher than all the polls for Evo and Mallku.

Mesa's also beginning to feel pressure in the legislature. Of course, Mesa's a president w/ no political party. The "logic of presidentialism" sets in. The senators and deputies elected into parliament have their own agendas, and are able to craft coalitions that pass legislation that might not be exactly what Mesa wants. Bolivians may've been to quick to bury "pacted democracy" (essentially a parliamentary system), which guaranteed the president a parliamentary majority.

There's also much opposition in the legislature for the lack of an economic plan to pull Bolivia out of the crisis — and it was, essentially, and economic crisis fueled the malcontent that fed the anti-Goni protests in October. If Mesa wants to avoid Goni's fate, he'll have to figure out something to solve Bolivia's economic problems, which were only made worse after the October uprisings. He was successful in getting foreign aid to ensure the government can meet its bureaucratic payroll through December.

Mesa's also being criticized for not yet visiting Tarija. This small, southern Bolivian department (state) is where 85% of the nation's gas reserves are found (most of the rest are in Santa Cruz). Despite the "┬бel gas no se vende!" rhetoric of the October protests in La Paz, Tarija has insisted that A) the gas must be exported or B) they secede (possibly along w/ Santa Cruz and Beni). Mesa's spent much political capital courting Mallku, Evo, and Solares — and to no gain. He'd better start courting the Eastern regions of Bolivia, and soon.

Meanwhile, cocaleros loyal to Evo killed one soldier and wounded two other in Yungas w/ a landmine. It's become common for armed cocaleros to ambush soldiers and police who are controlling illegal coca fields in Yungas and Chapare. Of coures, no one expects any of the vocal human rights groups in the city to voice concern for the safety and right to life of the poor conscripts who're just doing their job.

There's also a referendum in the works for revisions to the Ley de Hidrocarburos (the law that regulates the gas/oil industry). Interestingly, it's not being done as a public referendum, but rather 229 civic organizations (including the COB, CSUTCB, MAS, etc.) were invited to write position papers on the issue. They have 15 days to send them to the Ministry of Government. I'm curious to see if Evo, Mallku, or Solares even turn in position papers or how they react if most of the other groups decide against their position. We'll have to waint and see.

-Venezuela's Electoral Board (CNE) decided by a vote of three to two, that Venezuelans abroad will not be able to participe in the petition drive to ask for a recall referendum for Hugo Chavez' mandate. The Board said that there was not enough time to set the petition drive abroad with sufficient supervision, leaving many wondering what good are the country's Embassies and Consulates abroad.

-Separately, the CNE approved regulation severely limiting advertising for the petition drives as well as any broadcast of any unofficial results past the third day of the petition drives. there will be two petition drives. Staring tomorrow and for the next four days, pro-Chavez supporters will attempt to gather sigantures to recall the oppositions Deputies in the National Assembly. On Nov. 28th. the opposition will attempt to obtain the 2.4 million signatures required to have a recall referendum on Chavez' mandate.

-The Venezuelan Ministry of Finnace succesfully placed US$ 1 billion of a bond with 2018 maturity and 7% coupon. The issue was sold at par in local currency but it is dollar denominated, thus the effective yield will be around 11.6% once it starts trading. (It was trading already today in the informal "when and if" market at 67% for an implicit exchange rate of Bs. 2388 per US$)

-MSCI announced that it will no longer be using the official exchange rate in its Venezuela index. Starting next week, it will use the rate obtained from te arbitrage between the stock of the country's largest telephone company CANTV traded locally and that traded in the US. The arbitrage gives a rate of roughly Bs. 2600 per US$ versus the official rate of Bs. 1600 per US$.

-Venezuela, a baseball-centric country, was excited this week with the victories in the qualifying round for the World Cup of its team against Colombia (in Colombia) and Bolivia (in Venezuela). Venezuela has never even come close to qualifying for the Cup.

Things are changing on the globalisation front, and fast. Yesterday Marcelo was pointing out just how the post default export profile of Argentina has been changing. Today MSNBC looks forward to the next FTAA round, and asks some of the right questions. After Cancun, just where is globalisation heading? Are we going to see a series of bilateral arrangements? If the US drives home an agreement with Brazil, will this de facto set the table for the rest of LA? In an election year what can be done about agricultural subsidies? Is the US really as interested in globalisation as it used to be? Is LA seen as a strategic economic buffer, given the strength of the Asian 'arrival'. For the answers to these, and a number of other tightly interrelated, questions, it seems like we may not have to long to wait: things could get interesting in Miami.

In the minds of security personnel, the upcoming trade block negotiations in Miami will be a success if there are peaceful protests and minimal impact on residents and property. But in the business arena - the key focus of the talks - success will be achieved if two key players, Brazil and the United States, start talking again on some controversial issues.

The two largest economies in Americas must come back to the negotiating table before the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) can be completed by the self-imposed deadline of January 2005. The sweeping pact would, as proposed, eliminate quotas and tariffs on exports and imports. It would allow a free flow of goods and services across the Americas, except in Cuba. But there are opposing opinions about agricultural subsidies, one of the many controversial issues that must be resolved for the creation of the trade zone.

Those subsidies are at the root of the contention between the United States and Brazil. Their inability to reach consensus brought a September World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Canc├║n to an abrupt end. The WTO Ministerial Conference there crumbled before any talks began. As wealthy countries balked at a more equitable trade deal, developing countries, represented by Brazil, walked out of the talks. "They never had a chance to sit down and discuss agriculture to see if any compromise could be reached," said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow with the Institute for International Econom-ics, a think tank based in Washington, D.C..

Brazil says the United States is trying to exclude discussions on agricultural subsidies from the FTAA negotiations, said Carl Cira, director of the Summit of the Americas Center at Florida International University in Miami. The United States wants to negotiate the subsidy issue at the WTO level. In return, Brazil is threatening to leave some issues dear to the United States off the bargaining table, Cira said. "Brazil said 'if you can't do anything for us in the agricultural field, then, we can't do anything for you on intellectual property rights, services and government procurement,'" he said His group has been monitoring the FTAA talks since they began about eight years ago. The FTAA process began in December 1994 during the first Summit of the Americas in Miami.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has released its white paper about Corporate Governance in Latin America. As recent and not so recent experience indicates, good corporate governance is a difficult issue, even for developed countries.

ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD)
November 2003

Latin American White Paper on Corporate Governance
Plan for Latin American Corporate Governance Reform Issued)

Corporate governance experts from Latin America, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) unveiled an action plan for corporate governance reform in the region -- the White Paper on Corporate Governance in Latin America.

The White Paper, setting out consensus-based priorities for the region, was developed in cooperation with the World Bank Group through a series of meetings of the Latin American Roundtable on Corporate Governance, an initiative involving senior regulators, policy-makers, investors, business groups and NGOs from countries throughout Latin America, as well as participants from the OECD and a range of other international organizations. The White Paper was developed through discussions over the course of four Roundtable meetings held in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile between 2000 and 2003. The OECD and IFC serve as Secretariat for the Roundtable, which also receives support from the Global Corporate Governance Forum and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Among the key priorities for action identified in the White Paper are taking voting rights seriously; treating shareholders fairly during changes in corporate control and de-listings; insuring the integrity of financial reporting and improving disclosure; developing effective boards of directors; improving the quality, effectiveness and predictability of the legal and regulatory framework; and continuing regional cooperation.

The White Paper was developed using the OECD Principles of Corporate
Governance as the reference for discussions, and has been adapted to
address the conditions and circumstances particular to Latin America. The region's distinguishing characteristics include the important role that industrial and sometimes financial conglomerates play in the development of privately-owned industry, combined with highly concentrated and often family-based ownership. Such characteristics suggest that particular attention is needed to ensure transparency of transactions, independent and effective board management and protection of minority shareholder rights and interests.

The White Paper can be downloaded in PDF format from this web address:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/25/2/18976210.pdf