Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may seek political asylum in Latin America should he and his family be forced to flee Damascus, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The head of state has come under intense international pressure to step down from power in the wake of the unrest that devolved into civil war and has so far claimed the lives of between 40,000 and 53,000 people according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In a regional tour conducted last week, Syrian Vice-Minister of the Exterior Faisal al-Miqdad delivered requests on behalf of al-Assad to Venezuelan, Cuban, and Ecuadorian authorities. The letters allegedly enquire into the possibility of asylum for al-Assad, his family, and a tightknit circle of advisors and collaborators.

Venezuelan authorities confirmed that President Hugo Chávez had received a letter from al-Assad before travelling to Cuba for continued cancer treatment. It is unknown, however, what the Venezuelan head of state’s response was.

Presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Raúl Castro of Cuba have also failed to make public any response to the request.

General Secretary of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon, speaking today from Qatar, expressed his disapproval of the possibility of asylum for al-Assad, stating that it would not be a sufficient way of ending the conflict in Syria.

“Anyone who commits a grave violation of human rights should answer for it and be brought to justice. That is a fundamental principle”, he affirmed.

Violence in Syria has escalated in the last few days, causing the UN to withdraw its “non-essential” personnel and severely limit the movements of remaining personnel. Intermediary groups have so far been unable to put a stop to the conflict which began in March 2011 as an extension of the Arab Spring movement and has since exploded into outright civil war.

Al-Assad, of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, has been president of Syria since his father passed away in office, winning the 2000 and 2007 elections unopposed. He has so far defied international calls to relinquish power, though these latest requests for asylum could signify a growing acceptance of the need to step down.

Today the National Assembly of Venezuela (AN) approved President Hugo Chávez’s’ request to travel to Cuba for a special medical treatment.

The trip starts today, however, the return date is unknown. Chávez assured the public that he will attend his inauguration on 10th January and present his plans for 2013-19 to the AN.

In the letter to the assembly Chávez explains: “Alongside the intense presidential campaign and fulfillment of my duties as a head of state, I have been taking care of my own health and complied with the treatment plan given to me by the doctor. Six months after I completed the last radiation therapy treatment, he recommended that I start a special treatment consisting of various sessions of hyperbaric oxygen therapy to consolidate the process of strengthening my health.”

Hugo Chávez was diagnosed with cancer back in June 2011, forcing him to suspend his participation in the founding meeting of CELAC. He went through several chemotherapy and radiation therapy cycles in Cuba and declared himself to be free of cancer in July this year.

Recently Chávez has presented himself as an active and healthy figure in the public eye, who can handle pressure. At the same time, he has to spend a lot of time in Cuba (over 100 days per year), where he gets treatment for cancer, the type of which remains a secret.

Chávez finished his latest letter to the AN with the following statement: “I confirm that I have great confidence that I will build a proud country together with its people.”

The first stage of elections that will determine the members of the provincial assemblies and the members of parliament in Cuba finished yesterday with high participation according to the National Electoral Commission (CEN).

The process began on 21 October and will continue into 2013. The second stage was postponed because Hurricane Sandy’s damage to Cuba.

Citizens appointed 14,537 council members to the municipal assemblies. Nearly 51,000 neighbourhood meetings were conducted and 32,183 candidates were nominated. Voting went to a third round in two districts that had ties: Municipality Manatee in Las Tunas province and Municipality Second Front of Santiago.

According to CEN secretary Ruben Perez, 81.16% of voters turned out to vote.

Preparations for the elections were extensive with over 200,000 election officials working. Before the first stage began in October, a dynamic run-through training session was conducted to ensure elections would run smoothly.

After the end of this stage, municipal assemblies will be formed and then continue with the nomination of provincial assembly delegates and finally the nomination of deputies to the National Assembly of People’s Power.

50% of the candidates for those positions will come from the newly elected council members and the other half will be nominated by Cuban social groups including the Federation of Cuban Women, the University Student Federation and the Confederation of Workers of Cuba, according to CEN.

Colombian officials commenced peace negotiations with The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Havana, Cuba today in the second part of the first real peace conversations between the rebels and the government. The negotiations are an attempt to finally put an end to the over 50-year-long conflict.

The conversation process started in Oslo, Norway last month, where a plan for the continuous talks was made. They are the first direct conversations between FARC and the Colombian government in ten years.

Colombian chief negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, said “it is about time for the radical left rebels to show if they are ready to put their weapons down and able to unite in the political process of forming a proper political party.”

De la Calle also reassured that “the government will not make concessions during talks in Havana,” thereby ruling out a truce proposed by the rebels.

FARC representatives arrived in Havana during last week. FARC’s lead negotiator, Ivan Marquez, announced upon arrival “they will pause all offensive military operations and sabotaging against the infrastructure starting this evening and running through the end of the planned negotiations, until 20^th January.”

The 22^nd Ibero-American summit will kick off later today, in Cádiz, Spain. Dignitaries from Latin America and Europe will gather to discuss the European economic crisis.

Although a record delegation attendance is expected, with 22 Latin American Nations, Spain, Portugal and Andorra attending, several heads of states will be missing.

Last Year’s Summit Inauguration Ceremony (Wikimedia)

José Mujica from Uruguay and Cristina Fernández from Argentina both claimed that they could not travel due to health issues while Hugo Chávez from Venezuela and Raúl Castro from Cuba said they had other obligations.

Otto Pérez Molina could not assist due to the emergency situation in Guatemala following the recent earthquake that hit the Central American country. Finally Federico Franco from Paraguay decided not to attend after Paraguay was suspended from other regional summits by fellow Latin American countries who consider his rise to power illegitimate.

The summit will formally start today at 7pm local time (3pm Argentina time) in a ceremony led by Spanish hosts King Juan Carlos de Borbón and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Other dignitaries present include the Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton and the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.

The Ibero-American summit was created by Spain and Mexico in 1991 and many since have questioned its importance and effectiveness, although this year organisers will try to use the high attendance to give it a new boost.

The power balance at the summit has also significantly changed since its creation as now the Latin American participants generally find themselves in stronger economic positions than their European counterparts.

Courtesy of TeleSur.

Yesterday in a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, 188 countries renewed their call for an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba in a resolution urging “states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible”.

After nearly three hours of debate, the resolution received 188 votes in favour, three against, and two abstentions. The United States, Israel and Palau voted against the measure, while the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia abstained.

This marks the 21st consecutive year that a significant portion of the 193 UN member states have voted against the economic, commercial, and financial blockade against the socialist island nation. The first resolution, adopted in 1992, received 59 votes in favour, 3 against, and 71 abstentions.

Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla stated before the gathered delegates that “there is no legitimate or moral reason to maintain this blockade”, adding that “partial measures” taken by the Obama administration in the last four years have failed to alleviate the economic symptoms of the 50-year-old embargo.

The embargo has officially been in place since February 1962, although the United States imposed trade restrictions against Cuba immediately following the revolution of 1959. Under its stipulations, Cuba cannot import or export U.S. products, receive tourism from the U.S. (with exceptions for Cuban-Americans and those traveling as part of educational groups), or utilise the dollar in any foreign transaction.

Furthermore, Cuba is not eligible for credit from, and cannot perform financial operations with any regional or multilateral financial institutions pertaining to the United States. Cuban planes and ships are restricted from entering United States territory.

“The blockade is one of the main causes of the economic problems of our country and the major obstacle to its economic and social development”, Parrilla said. The Cuban government estimates that the embargo has cost the nation an estimated US$1.06tn in the last five decades.

US delegate Ronald Godard dismissed the resolution as an effort to “identify an external scapegoat” for Cuba’s economic problems, stating that it is the Cuban government’s own policies that should be reviewed. He added that, irrespective of US policy, Cuba would not thrive unless it opened its monopolies, respected international property rights, and allowed its population greater internet access.

Courtesy of Agencia Pulsar.

The Cuban government will reduce the price of building materials by 50% starting next Monday in order to help reconstruct partially or completely destroyed houses due to Hurricane Sandy. The hurricane hit Cuba on 25 October killing 11 people.

The government will deliver subsidies and credits to families with destroyed homes. If people still cannot afford supplies, they will have the right to ask for partial or total payment by the state.

According to the government, they will help “reconstruct the damage in the affected municipalities of Holguin, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo which have suffered the most”.

This government help comes after international aid attempts in the region. Planes from Panama have brought humanitarian aid to Santiago de Cuba from the International Red Cross. The relief will be conducted in four trips bringing cooking, hygiene and building supplies for disaster recovery. The Japanese Cooperation Agency has sent more than 15 tons of mattresses and blankets.

As Barack Obama prepares for his second term as president of the United States, he is faced with a series of issues pertaining to Latin America, a major regional trading partner and hemispheric neighbour.

With a few exceptions, Latin America was conspicuously absent from much of the campaign dialogue. As Fernanda Kobelinsky wrote for Infobae, in “the current state of affairs, with a Chinese commercial threat, a Europe in crisis, and the Arab World in convulsions, our region doesn’t present any great challenges.”

That said, Latin Americans still can’t help but speculate as to what four more years of an Obama White House will mean for the region. From drug violence in nearby Mexico, to the continued embargo against Cuba, the region faces problems both old and new. What remains to be seen is how – and if – Obama will handle these pressing issues.

Venezuela

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who himself won re-election for another six-year term last month, has expressed his support for the president, stating in September: “If I was from the US, I’d vote for Obama. [He is] a good guy.”

Hillary Clinton and Hugo Chávez meet in 2009 (Wikimedia)

This amicable attitude is only Chávez’s most recent disposition towards the former Illinois senator, in a relationship that has ranged from tentative admiration to outright contempt since Obama’s inauguration in 2009.The two heads of state suffered strained relations in 2009 when the US accused the Venezuelan government of providing support to Colombian FARC rebels.

The relationship has since warmed, however, strengthened no doubt by the two countries’ strong business ties. Despite the rhetoric and occasional vitriol hurled back and forth across the Caribbean, Venezuela remains one of the United States’ top five oil suppliers, while the US is the oil-rich nation’s biggest market, importing close to a million barrels per day as of August 2012.

Chávez implied that last night’s elections signified a shift in the mind-set of the North American public away from the conservative policies of Republican politicians, and expressed hope that the two countries would normalise relations

His sentiments echo those of many Venezuelans who view Obama as, if not cut from the same cloth as Chávez, then at least a far cry from right-wing US politicians.

“For all the deaths he’s caused, he’s not touched Latin America,” Caracas resident Miguel Bigello told CNN. “The other guy [Mitt Romney] is too radical. He will fight here for the oil.”

In a campaign season that was otherwise largely devoid of any mention of Latin America, Venezuela was cited as a “threat to national security” by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who compared Chávez to Cuban ex-president Fidel Castro and suggested that he would cease dialogue with the leftist government.

It remains to be seen if this thaw in relations will continue over the next four years, or if the US and Venezuela will once again take up their roles as ideological antagonists. A major factor in the outcome will be the role of China, which may displace the US as Venezuela’s major purchaser of oil.

Cuba

Both international analysts and Cubans remain undecided as to how or whether Barack Obama’s re-election will affect relations between the quarrelsome neighbouring countries. The socialist island nation remains under a 52-year-old embargo, the world’s longest-running trade sanction.

During his first term, President Obama eased travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans (who, under the previous Bush administration, could only visit Cuba once every three years), lifted travel restrictions for educational purposes, and made it easier for tour groups to visit the island as “people-to-people” ambassadors. The Cuban government, for its part, lifted restrictions on its citizens wishing to travel abroad, in a law that will go into effect in January 2013.

Critics argue, however, that this progress is long-overdue and accuse Obama of not properly addressing pressing issues such as the embargo, Cuba’s controversial status as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, as well as the closing of the North American facilities at Guantanamo Bay.

Analysts have pointed out that the vote of the influential Cuban-American community of Florida, a critical swing-state in US elections, may have caused Obama to tread lightly when addressing controversial issues regarding Cuban relations. Whether he takes the same approach now that he doesn’t have another re-election to consider is a question posed on both sides of the Florida Straits.

Mexico and Brazil

On the economic front Obama will have to continue dealing with the two Latin American powerhouses Mexico and Brazil. They both face very different problems and hold very different positions towards the United States.

Obama Greets Lula and Rousseff in the White House (Wikimedia)

In a poll carried out by BBC Brazil, a large majority of Brazilians said they would prefer Obama to Romney. However despite this preference there was no real enthusiasm in Brazil over the US elections as many feel the North American superpower continues to ignore its Southern neighbours. Brazil has had a rocky relationship with the United States in the last decade. In 2002 left-leaning Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva was elected on a platform of radical social and economical change that worried many in the US and international financial institutions.

Although falling well short of the IMF and United States’ worst predictions, during his two terms in power Lula implemented a number of nationalisation policies and increased Brazilian protectionism. So has his successor and former chief of staff, President Dilma Rousseff. This has led to tension with the US who in turn has imposed protectionist trade restrictions against the South American country.

Republican governments have a tradition of non-intervention in economic matters and a Romney presidency might have led to a lifting of these restrictions, but Obama’s next four years do not promise much difference. Despite this President Rousseff said a few months ago that Brazil “very much welcomes the major improvements that have been found in the US economy in the recent past, and I am quite certain that that will very much be the emphasis in the next few months and years ahead under the capable leadership of President Obama,” counting on his re-election.

Brazil is likely to continue relying more heavily on regional cooperation within Mercosur, the South American Common Market that includes Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Venezuela. Brazil will also look to continue developing its ties with the other BRIC countries, Russia, India, and especially China.

The case of Mexico differs radically from that of Brazil in that it shares a 3,000km long border with its northern neighbour. The result of this geographical proximity is a strong dependence on many issues but particularly in economic and security terms. The economic cooperation between Mexico and the US has continued increasing since they signed a free trade agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. The US is by far Mexico’s largest trading partner with roughly half of Mexico’s imports coming from north of the Rio Grande.

Felipe Calderón and Barack Obama (Wikimedia)

This cooperation is not likely to change with Obama’s re-election or president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto’s inauguration in December, as both have acknowledged the importance of one another in their respective economies. However one of the largest security threats to the US, the increasing power of Mexico’s drug cartels, was not mentioned once during the presidential debate on foreign policy between the two candidates.

The so-called War on Drugs started by President Felipe Calderón in 2006 has resulted a complete failure. Over 65,000 lives have been lost and US$1 trillion spent (US$15.5bn by Obama for 2011 alone) on the War on Drugs and yet cocaine is cheaper and more easily available in the United States than ever. As many as 1,000 arms per day flow south from the US into Mexico and arms sales regulation still remains a taboo issue for United States’ presidential candidates.

“We have to look at our own corruption, the terrible impunity and lack of justice. We have to fix these problems ourselves, not wait for Obama or Romney. But that Mexico didn’t even warrant one line in the last debate, when we have thousands dead, and even two CIA agents nearly killed in an ambush recently – that tells you that the US – Mexico relationship is not going to change,” Mexican journalist Anabel Hernandez, told Susana Seijas reporting for CNN.

It seems that four more years of Obama’s government is unlikely to provide any breakthrough on the issue. The only hope from the US on the drug issue will probably come at state level if others choose to follow similar steps as Washington and Colorado that recently legalised the recreational use of marihuana.

Cuban president Raúl Castro yesterday received Venezuelan petrol and mining minister Rafael Ramírez to help coordinate the humanitarian aid needed after hurricane Sandy hit the island earlier this week.

Ramírez arrived on Thursday with a mission to assist the Cuban authorities in the recovery work.

Hurricane Sandy left 11 people dead and over 1.2 million people homeless in Cuba. The agriculture official William Hernandez has also reported severe losses exceeding 2,600 tons of bananas, cassava, coffee and other crops.

Ramírez said his trip to Cuba “was commissioned by the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez,” who had ordered him to “help assess all damage caused by the bad weather and help coordinate appropriate action”.

Sixty five people have so far been confirmed dead on the wake of hurricane Sandy, which swept through the Caribbean countries of Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas, and Haiti over the weekend.

The Haitian government has confirmed a death toll of 52, mostly in the southern and western regions of the country, though at least 15 people remain lost and it is estimated that it will take a few more days to assess the full extent of the damage.

The storm has also caused an extensive loss of crops in the south of Haiti, both in commercial plantations and subsistance farming. Prime minister Laurent Lamothe indicated that ”most of the crops that were left after hurricane Isaac (in August) have been destroyed by Sandy.” Kechner Toussaint, mayor of the southern municipality of Abricots, said that ”we’ll have famine in the coming days. It’s an agricultural disaster.”

There is widespread concern that the loss of crops could increase food prices. The price of food has already been rising in the past few months, prompting a number of protests throughout the country.

Haitian authorities have also stated that some 18,000 families lost their homes, many of whom had already lost their previous homes in the 2010 earthquake. The Pan-American Health Organisation has warned about a possible new outbreak of cholera in the country, as 86 new cases were detected in the Port-au-Prince camp where the people displaced by the earthquake are living.

Whilst Haiti was the worst affected country in the region, other countries have also endured the consequences of hurricane Sandy. In Cuba, 11 people died and the provinces of Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, and Holguín suffered infrastructure damage, power cuts, and difficulties in accessing clean drinking water and food. The hurricane also affected the coffee crops in the east of the island, and destroyed banana crops in Jamaica, where a man died just outside of the capital, Kingston. One person has been reported dead in Bahamas.

Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit the east coast of the US within the next few hours.