Safe Democracy Foundation - Safe Democracy

Predictions paint a dismal scene: in 20 years, Mexico may need to import all of its oil when only recently it appeared to be in the big leagues of hydrocarbon production. The oil company PEMEX not only needs a multimillion dollar injection to revive itself, but also the technology to explore and drill at depths in which only select multinational corporations are able to work at full capacity.

• Energy Reform in Mexico: the Great National Soap Opera
  por Diego Fonseca

The core of the crisis between the Cristina Fernández’s government and agricultural producers is not fiscal but rather related to economic sustainability as well as medium- and long-term cultural confrontations that have a long history, the author claims.

• Could an agrarian party emerge in Argentina?
  por Fabián Bosoer
• Argentina: The field revolt squeezes economic growth
  por Fabián Bosoer

After more than three months of agitated mobilization of the Argentine agricultural sector, which has risen against the agrarian and economic policies of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s government, the possibility should not be discarded that the people of the countryside could shape the territorial base of upcoming projects and political realignments, the author says. The agricultural sector has a voice and a vote.

• Argentina: The field revolt squeezes economic growth
  por Fabián Bosoer

Many thought that with the majority election of progressive governments in Latin America (which claimed to be anti-war) the region would see a period of relaxation in tensions. But the reality of the situation indicates that Latin America is submerged in uncountable conflicts that directly parallel Defense spending.

The Mexican congress should debate how to extract the best profit from the diminishing supplies of petroleum and its elevated price before the business ends because it is surrounded by the laws of protection and environmental sustainability. However, while Mexico makes a gamble so that PEMEX and its economy earn competitiveness and sustainability in the short term, the politicians shut themselves in their dogmatisms and watch a different soap opera, states the author.

• Bolivia and the Energy Challenges in Latin America
  por Hugo San Martín Arzabe
• Chile hopes to overcome its ultra-dependence upon energy
  por Juan Antonio Sacaluga

The policy (singular) of national security is a failure, says the author. Colombia should resolve the dilemmas it encounters, but without darkening its future with the fallacies woven around a sensitive (and marketable) theme for Colombians, as is its conflict with FARC.

• Security and Cooperation in Latin America
  por Rut Diamint
• Latin America must create a permanent forum for security
  por Rafael Moreno Izquierdo

All indications are that, beginning in November, the scale of diplomatic relations between the United States and Latin America will increase. Although each has a different point of view, the three presidential candidates agree that Washington should pay more attention to Latin-American countries if it wants to influence the region.

Many Mexican citizens have resigned themselves to accept insecurity as something inevitable due to the inability (or the corruption) of the police and judges with regards to the control of drug trafficking and organized delinquency. The Calderón government only manages to tackle occasional skirmishes against the local mafia, affirms the author.

The Argentinean government is in a squeeze: with the intention of brutally increasing soy retentions, their principal export product, they disturb the scaffolding of the spectacular economic growth registered in the last five years. The conflict between the Government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and the field has exploded. Understand why.