On the eve of Venezuela's highly-contested presidential elections, Christopher Sabatini, Editor-in-Chief of Americas Quarterly and Senior Director of Policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas, and Ryan Berger, Associate Editor of Americas Quarterly and Policy Associate at Americas Society/Council of the Americas, discuss in an article published on October 6 in O Estado de São Paulo how the results of Sunday's elections will impact Venezuela's relations with other countries.

Uma derrota de bolivariano deve mudar a região

Christopher Sabatini and Ryan Berger

Prominent dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez was freed at 10:45 am (local) on Saturday morning after being arrested by authorities in the eastern city of Bayamo at 6:00 pm (local) on Thursday. Sánchez was in Bayamo from Havana to attend the trial of Angel Carromero, the Spanish activist accused of vehicular manslaughter against longtime Cuban dissenter and Varela Project founder Oswaldo Payá in July. Many critics of the Cuban regime question the government’s official account of Payá’s death, including Payá’s daughter.

Sánchez, author of the Generación Y blog, filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights last week against Cuba for denying her and her husband’s repeated requests to leave the country—and presented evidence that they had been harangued by Cuban authorities, according to Sánchez’ lawyer. While detained, she refused to eat or drink.

Yohandry, a pro-government blog, was one of the first to report Sánchez’ arrest, adding that “she had traveled [to Bayamo] with the intention of creating a provocation and a media show.”

The arbitrary detention follows a similar incident from July when Guillermo Fariñas, a Cuban dissident and 2010 Sakharov Prize recipient, was detained with six other dissenters at Payá’s funeral at the San Salvador Catholic Church in Havana.

In an article published on October 4 in Venezuela's El Nacional, Christopher Sabatini, Editor-in-Chief of Americas Quarterly and Senior Director of Policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas, and Ryan Berger, Associate Editor of Americas Quarterly and Policy Associate at Americas Society/Council of the Americas, discuss the unwillingness of the international community—particularly through South American alliances—to seriously monitor the Venezuelan election in the face of a lopsided campaign that saw the incumbent abuse state resources and public services to curry electoral favor.

The fifth annual Social Enterprise World Forum will kick off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 16. This is the first year that a Latin American country will host the two-day conference, which, according to its website, “is the premiere global event focused exclusively on social enterprise and on building global awareness of the effectiveness of social enterprise in solving critical social problems.” Delegates from over 30 countries are expected to participate.

Forum participants will have the option to participate in site visits to social enterprise projects around Rio de Janeiro, including Projeto Rio Ecosol, a project by Rio’s municipal government to promote entrepreneurship and support small businesses in four of the city’s favelas, and the Vale Encantado Cooperative, a grassroots eco-tourism project meant to revitalize and protect Rio’s fragile Tijuca Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Participants are also invited to attend free training workshops and to network with corporate and governmental leaders during an “Investor Day” on October 16. On October 17, Michelle Bachelet—executive director of UN Women and former president of Chile—will present the Women in Social Enterprise (WISE) Award at a special gala celebration. Ms. Bachelet also wrote about the economic empowerment of women in the Summer AQ.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón today inaugurates the first International Conference against Transnational Organized Crime. The Mexican president, who will leave office on December 1, when President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto is inaugurated, has defended his use of Mexican security forces to combat criminal organizations since December 2006.

After 13 years in office, President Hugo Chávez is seeking re-election. He faces perhaps his strongest contender yet, Henrique Capriles Radonski, the 39-year-old candidate of the opposition’s Democratic Unity coalition and former governor of Miranda state. At the same time, questions remain about the president’s health and the evenness of the electoral playing field.

After 13 years in office, President Hugo Chávez is seeking re-election. He faces perhaps his strongest contender yet, Henrique Capriles Radonski, the 39-year-old candidate of the opposition’s Democratic Unity coalition and former governor of Miranda state. At the same time, questions remain about the president’s health and the evenness of the electoral playing field.

Some 21.1 million school-age children in Latin America are either not in school or are at risk of dropping out, according to a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) report released at the end of August.

Watch the fifth joint report by AQ and Efecto Naím, which examines educational spending in Latin America and its effects on social inequality.

Public schools are thought of as a great social equalizer, a way to make sure that students from all economic backgrounds have access to quality education. But in Latin America, public education funding, drawn from the taxes on all citizens, is disproportionately going to students from wealthier backgrounds.

The World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Team in Latin America and the Caribbean released a new report Wednesday, revealing that women’s growing participation in the labor force—and among low-income women in particular—was instrumental in reducing extreme poverty in the region. This comes just weeks after the release of the Summer Americas Quarterly on gender equality.