Hemisphere Highlights, Volume IX Issue 1 - January 2010

Protests took place in cities across Canada in response to Prime Minister Harper’s decision to suspend Parliament until March. In Mexico, Pemex grapples with another year of lower-than-expected oil production. Also in Mexico, the army has announced that it will begin pulling some troops out of Ciudad Juárez. At the same time, same-sex marriage was legalized in Mexico City. Divisions remain in Honduras over the removal of Manuel Zelaya as Porfirio Lobo takes office. A decree by President Ortega in Nicaragua has extended the terms of 20 electoral and judicial officials. A visit by the U.S. deputy secretary of state to Colombia shows the changing bilateral relations between those countries. A dispute between the president of the Argentine Central Bank and President Kirchner has triggered an institutional standoff in Argentina. A proposal to set up a truth commission in Brazil triggered a dispute within President Lula’s cabinet.