BOLIVIA: EVO MORALES RE-ELECTED
President Evo Morales was re-elected as head of state by a landslide in Sunday’s general elections. Morales got more that 60% of the votes cast. His party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), also achieved an overall majority in Parliament, with more than two third of the seats.
His victory and his comfortable majority in Parliament will enable him to implement a pro-indigenous peoples’ constitution. Morales celebrated his victory addressing thousands of followers. He said: “we have shown that it is possible to change the country through the votes of the people”.
Morales has faced constant hostility from the richest provinces of Bolivia, which have been promoting a process of autonomy in order to maintain control over their vast mineral and gas resources.
El Pais (Spanish)
La Razon (Bolivia, Spanish)
http://www.la-razon.com/versiones/20091206_006933/
CLIMATE CHANGE
BRAZIL DOES NOT BELIEVE THERE WILL BE AN AGREEMENT IN COPENHAGEN
Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said during the weekend that he does not believe that agreement will be reached at the end of the UN Climate Change summit that starts today.
After a visit to Germany, President Lula agreed with Chancellor Angela Merkel that at least “important progress” will be achieved towards a post-Kyoto agreement.
COP15
http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2828
LATIN AMERICANS WORRY ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE
A world survey commissioned by the BBC World Service has concluded that, of all the people consulted in the research, Latin Americans seem to be the ones that worry the most about the effects of climate change.
In Brazil and Chile, 86% of those interviewed saw climate change as a “serious problems”, whereas in Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama more that 75% shared this view.
Most Brazilians (53%) want their government to become more active in achieving an agreement to stop greenhouse gas emissions, while only a minority in Mexico and some Central American countries have this view.
BBC World Service
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8396512.stm
MEXICO: BIOFUELS BASED ON ALGAE
A Mexican company has developed a process to produce natural ethanol – which can be used as a biofuel — from hybrid blue-green algae.
The company plans to build a plant in Puerto Libertad, in the north-western state of Sonora, and commercial production of the new fuel should start in 2014.
“The era of cheap petroleum is over, and even though there will still be oil, it will be more expensive and scarce,” says Rodolfo Quintero, a researcher at the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico.
Inter Press Service
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49539