Weekly Round Up - Stories from the Americas

• Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has called for a referendum—described as a vote of confidence on his rule—for May 7th of this year, at a cost of $30 million. The Economist interestingly poses the question of whether the plebiscite breaks with the government’s balance of power:

The method the president has chosen to strengthen himself, however, may wind up harming Ecuador’s democracy even more than the police officers’ rebellion did. Although some of its ten questions involve relatively trifling matters, like banning gambling and bullfights, others involve constitutional reforms that political scientists and legal scholars say could give the president a blank cheque to concentrate power in his own office.

• After 73 years, the BBC has sadly ended its radio broadcasts in Spanish for Latin America as a result of cuts to the World Service Budget. More here.

• On an interview last week with El Universal, one of Mexico's leading newspapers, President Calderón expressed his anger towards the United States. After Wikileaks published various cables, Calderón accused diplomats from the US of distorting and exaggerating their analyses. Calderón even said that the lack of coordination and rivalry was not on the Mexican but on our side, between ICE,  DEA, and CIA .  He said that at the personal level, he's had a 'cooperative' relationship with both Bush and Obama on the security agenda but "evidently, the institutional cooperation on this topic ends up being notoriously insufficient". For the full interview in Spanish, click here.

•  Cuban state-run television revealed last week that announced plans to lay off half a million state workers by March are behind schedule and that the process will be delayed to help alleviate the impact.  Even though layoffs are meant to be a centerpiece of the reforms to modernize Cuba’s Soviet-style economy, Castro told the government’s Council of Minsters that:

A project of this magnitude, which affects in one way or another so many citizens, cannot be framed in inflexible periods.

• Yahoo! News published an amazing story about indigenous grandmother who helped bring a landmark judgment against US oil giant Chevron for polluting the rain forest she calls home without any formal legal training or formidable command of the Spanish language.

"Mary Aguinda et al" are the opening words of the suit launched in 1993 on behalf of 30,000 residents of Orellana and Sucumbios provinces, in which they charge Texaco dumped billions of gallons of toxic crude during its operations, fouling rivers, lakes and soil and causing cancer deaths in indigenous communities.  Aguinda said she believes her husband and two of his 10 children died from effects of the pollution, which rights group Amazon Watch says has affected an area the size of the US state of Rhode Island.

Please feel free to share any news or opinion pieces that  you find are not only interesting but demonstrate the diversity of Latin American politics and societal views. Remember to check back every Tuesday for the LAPI round-up!