So here's an interesting one I stumbled across recently - by means of Greg Week's Latin American blog, 'Two Weeks Notice'. It lists the current popularity ratings amongst Latin American Presidents.
- 84% Álvaro Uribe, Colombia (3/08)
- 61% Felipe Calderón, Mexico (5/08)
- 55% Antonio Saca, El Salvador (5/08)
- 55% Evo Morales, Bolivia (5/08)
- 55% Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil (3/08)
- 54% Hugo Chávez, Venezuela (4/08)
- 53% Rafael Correa, Ecuador (6/08)
- 51% Martín Torrijos, Panama (4/08)
- 49% Álvaro Colom, Guatemala (3/08)
- 45% Tabaré Vázquez, Uruguay (3/08)
- 44% Oscar Arias, Costa Rica (4/08)
- 44% Michelle Bachelet, Chile (6/08)
- 38% Manuel Zelaya, Honduras (2/08)
- 34% Stephen Harper, Canada (3/08)
- 32% Alan García, Peru (6/08)
- 30% George W. Bush, United States (6/08)
- 26% Cristina Fernández, Argentina (5/08)
- 21% Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua (2/08)
- 5% Nicanor Duarte, Paraguay (3/08)
I'm not too sure as to how much we can read into this. I guess it's no surprise that Colombia's Uribe tops the list. I was chatting with a Colombian guy the other week, and having asked him whether he thought Uribe was good or bad for the country he responded, "he's neither good nor bad...he's AMAZING!" His effectiveness in tackling the FARC guerillas, keeping the economy relatively stable and taking head-on the likes of Chavez and Correa, no doubt playing a part in his popularity. Still I'm not to sure international human rights groups will be to keen in praising his presidency.
Other than that, the Presidents of the "New Left" (Chavez, Correa, Lula, Morales) all seem to be doing alright, though I'm sure they must be down from where they would have been this time last year. And then there's poor old Cristina Fernandez who really is making a dog's dinner out of the popularity she had inherited over from her husband, Nestor Kirchner.
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