He was elected with just 38 of the vote, without a majority in either house of Congress, and with the opposition in control of Mexico City, the capital. The presidential runner up, opposition leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador, questioned the results of the election.

Similarly, Chávez is clearly supporting Daniel Ortega, the perennial Sandinista presidential candidate in Nicaragua, and Shafick Handal, the equally perennial FMLN candidate in El Salvador. His former ambassador to Mexico participated openly and vociferously in campaign events for Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador s presidential campaign.

Chávez will be able to modify the Constitution largely as he pleases, and pack both the justice system and the electoral authority with his placemen. He will continue to dole out oil based subsidies in the well worn Venezuelan tradition of Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Andrés Pérez.

Felipe Calderón has taken the oath of office, braving the wrath of his left wing opposition, out smarting the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) and its leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but nonetheless paying a high price. Every TV news show and front page headline in the world ran the same headline New Mexican President inaugurated in chaos and fisticuffs.

In recent weeks, the hyper nationalist Ollanta Humala, a clone of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, was defeated in Peru, the conservative Alvaro Uribe won a landslide victory in Colombia, with 62 of the vote, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador has fallen behind in Mexico s July 2 presidential election. All of these isolated developments seemingly contradict the leftward trend in Latin America.

This claim originated with the contract concluded between the Government of New Granada and Mr. John E. Gowen on 20 February 1856 concerning the exploration, colonization and exploitation of certain islands owned by the Republic of New Granada' article 6 of this contract included the San Andrés, Providencia and Los Monjes groups among the islands, cays and islets referred to therein.

While the IFE undoubtedly committed several serious public relations mistakes during last year s election, it remains one of Mexico s most respected institutions, with credibility ratings that are regularly double or triple those of Congress and the three political parties. The IFE shepherded Mexico through several crisis in 2006, when the PRD s presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, refused to accept his razor thin margin of defeat and took his battle to the streets.