QFor the second year in a row,people in Latin America are lesslikely to say they live in countrieswhere women are treated with

respect and dignity than people in anyother region, according to a recent Gallupsurvey. A median of 35 percent of adultsacross 22 Latin American countries saidwomen are treated with respect in theirnations, about half as high as percentagesin any other region, Gallup said, thoughthe figure disguises wide differencesbetween countries. How are women far-ing in Latin America, and what are themost important issues facing women inthe region? Where has progress beenmade and how has that been achieved?What more needs to be done to promotegender equality?

AJoan Caivano, deputy to thepresident and director of specialprojects at the Inter-AmericanDialogue: "In 2000, a Dialogue

report concluded, 'the highest circles ofpower [in Latin America and theCaribbean] still remain largely male domi-nated.' Today, that is certainly not the case.Four countries have female heads of state.The number of women legislators hasjumped 50 percent, and women's partici-pation in national cabinets grew more than150 percent. Key drivers of this progress areelectoral quota laws. Having more womenin political power has brought new legisla-tion on issues affecting women—on elec-toral quotas, domestic violence, childcare

and workplace discrimination.International conventions and efforts bywomen's movements have helped advancethis progressive legal landscape. But gainsare not consistent across countries. Areasof inequity remain on workplace discrimi-nation, poverty and the persistent gapbetween law and practice. High on theunfinished agenda are domestic violenceand reproductive rights. Latin America hasone of the world's highest rates of violenceagainst women. Factors driving violenceinclude displacement by armed conflict,

Inside This Issue

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Copyright © 2014, Inter-American Dialogue Page 1 of 4

www.thedialogue.org Friday, October 24, 2014

FEATURED Q&A: What Are the Most Critical Issues Facing the Region's Women?....1

Governor of Mexico's Guerrero State Resigns Over Missing Students ................2

Man Killed in Chile Bomb Attack Was Innocent: Official ..............................2

Rousseff Pulling Ahead of Neves Before Sunday's Vote: Poll ......................2

Ecuador Planning Launch of Payment System Without Banks .........................2

Judge Schedules Hearing for Citi on Argentina Interest Payment.....................3

FEATURED Q&A

What Are the Most Critical Issues Facing the Region's Women?

Continued on page 3

Ángel Aguirre, the embattled governor ofMexico's Guerrero state, resignedThursday. Aguirre has been criticized forfailing to effectively fight corruption inthe state, where local police officers areaccused of abducting 43 students lastmonth. See story on page 2.

File Photo: Mexican Government.

Embattled Governor of Mexico'sGuerrero State Steps Down

Diego ArriaDirector, Columbus Group

Genaro ArriagadaNonresident SeniorFellow,Inter-AmericanDialogue

Joyce ChangGlobal Head ofEmerging MarketsResearch, JPMorganChase & Co.

W. Bowman CutterFormer Partner, E.M. Warburg Pincus

Dirk DonathSenior Partner, Aimara Capital LLC

Jane EddyManaging Director,Corporate & Govt.Ratings Group,Standard & Poor's

Marlene FernándezCorporate VicePresident for Government Relations,Arcos Dorados

Peter HakimPresident Emeritus, Inter-AmericanDialogue

Donna HrinakPresident,Boeing Brazil

Jon HuenemannVice President,U.S. & Int'l Affairs,Philip Morris Int'l

James R. JonesCo-chair,Manatt JonesGlobal Strategies LLC

Craig A. KellyDirector, AmericasInternational Gov'tRelations,Exxon Mobil

John MaistoDirector,U.S. Education FinanceGroup

Nicolás MariscalChairman,Grupo Marhnos

Thomas F. McLarty IIIPresident, McLarty Associates

Carlos Paz-SoldanPartner,DTB Associates, LLP

Beatrice Rangel Director,AMLA Consulting LLC

José Antonio RíosChief Executive Officer,Vadium Technology Inc.

Gustavo RoosenChairman of the Board,Envases Venezolanos

Andrés Rozental President, Rozental & Asociadosand Senior Fellow,Brookings Institution

Everett Santos President, DALEC LLC

Shelly ShettyHead, Latin AmericaSovereign Ratings,Fitch Inc.-

Start Content-

Political News

Governor of Mexico's Guerrero StateResigns Over Missing Students

The governor of Mexico's Guerrero state,where 43 students were believed to havebeen abducted by local police and handedover to a local gang, resigned Thursdaydue to pressure from his political party,The New York Times reported. ÁngelAguirre, of the leftist Party of theDemocratic Revolution, agreed to quitafter party leaders said they wouldattempt to push him out of office in order

to quell escalating civil unrest in thesouthwestern state. Aguirre said Thursdaythat he was stepping down in order tofacilitate the search for the students, TheWall Street Journal reported. "I am con-vinced this is the most responsible deci-sion," he said. Last week, demonstratorsset fire to the state capitol building inChilpancingo, heavily damaging it,demanding that Aguirre step aside, TheNew York Times reported. On Wednesday,protesters torched the city hall in Iguala,where the students disappeared Sept. 26after clashing with police officers. Aguirrehas not been implicated in the students'disappearance, but he has faced anincreasing level of criticism for failing toeffectively fight corruption among localpoliticians and police. Mexican AttorneyGeneral Jesús Murillo Karam saidWednesday that the mayor of Iguala andhis wife were the "probable masterminds"behind the students' disappearance.Lawmakers in Guerrero must now name asuccessor to Aguirre, who technicallyasked for an indefinite leave of absenceand could ask to return. Few political ana-lysts believe that will happen, however,

The New York Times reported. Aguirre'sresignation follows that of Michoacán'sgovernor in June. Governor Fausto Vallejostepped down, saying he was resigningbecause of a health condition that he didnot disclose. Vallejo's resignation fol-lowed 16 months of insurrection by vigi-lantes fighting the Knights Templar drugcartel, The Wall Street Journal reported.[See related Q&A in Tuesday's issue of theAdvisor.]

Man Killed in Chile Bomb AttackWas Innocent: Official

A man who was killed last month when abomb exploded in Santiago was not theperson who placed the device, Chile'sattorney general's office announcedThursday, following an investigation, EFEreported. The victim, Sergio Landskron,29, was walking through the area when hepicked up a backpack that he had found,and it exploded, the investigation found,said Raúl Guzmán, the head of theSouthern Metropolitan AttorneyGeneral's Office in Santiago. "We can con-firm that the person who died did notparticipate in the placement of the explo-sive device that took his life, according tothe information gathered up to today,"Guzmán told reporters. Landskron, anindigent drug addict, did not know thebackpack contained a bomb when hepicked it up, said Guzmán, adding thatLandskron was the first innocent victimkilled in a bombing in Chile since therestoration of the country's democracy in1990. "We are relieved because the nameof my son, who was innocent, has beencleared," Landskron's father, also namedSergio Landskron, told ADN Radio. Therehave been about 300 small bombings inSantiago since 2005, but most haveoccurred at night without causing majordamage or casualties, The Wall StreetJournal reported. Another person waskilled by a bomb in 2009, but that personwas the suspected bomber, said authori-ties. The Sept. 25 bombing that killedLandskron happened just two weeks afteranother explosive blew up in a shoppingarea at a subway station in Santiago. Thatattack injured 14 people. Two men and awoman have been arrested in connectionwith that incident.

Page 2 of 4

NEWS BRIEFS

Copyright © 2014, Inter-American Dialogue

Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin America Advisor Friday, October 24, 2014

Rousseff Pulling Ahead of NevesBefore Sunday's Vote: Poll

President Dilma Rousseff is pullingahead of her rival, Senator AécioNeves, just before Sunday's presi-dential election in Brazil, accordingto a poll released Thursday,Bloomberg News reported. In theIbope survey, Rousseff had 49 per-cent support as compared to 41 per-cent for Neves ahead of the runoff.The poll was conducted Oct. 20-22and has a margin of error of plus orminus two percentage points.

Ecuador Planning Launch ofPayment System Without Banks

Ecuador's central bank has under-taken an effort to launch a nationalmobile payment system calledJoMoPay, which would be able tohandle business-to-business andpeer-to-peer transactions, as well asin-store purchases and cash in andout at a low rate with no bank ortelecom partners, PYMNTS.comreported Thursday. AnalystElizabeth McQuerry at PaymentsViews highlighted that the programwill be owned and run by the cen-tral bank and lacks a traditionalpayment infrastructure. She alsonoted its relatively low cost.

Televisa Posts Q3 Loss StemmingFrom Sale of Stake in Iusacell

Mexican media company GrupoTelevisa reported a third-quarterloss Thursday due to a one-time hitstemming from the sale of its stakein Mexican wireless operator GrupoIusacell, Bloomberg News reported.Televisa reported a net loss of 182.8million pesos ($13.5 million) ascompared to net income of 2.39 bil-lion pesos the previous year. Lastmonth, Televisa agreed to sellIusacell, which has had difficultycompeting against América Móvil,at a loss for $717 million.

Aguirre reportedly agreed to

quit after leaders of his party said

they would attempt to push him

out in order to quell escalating

civil unrest.

Company News

Judge Schedules Hearing for Citi on Argentina Interest Payment

The U.S. judge at the center of the disputebetween Argentina and bondholders whohave refused to accept the country's debtrestructurings late on Wednesday sched-uled a hearing for Dec. 2 to hear argu-ments on whether Citigroup should beallowed to process interest paymentsArgentina is scheduled to make on someof its bonds, Reuters reported. The hear-ing in the Manhattan courtroom of JudgeThomas Griesa would happen less than amonth before an interest payment byArgentina is due on Dec. 31. Citigrouphas said Argentina could impose criminaland regulatory sanctions if it does notprocess the payments on dollar-denomi-nated bonds issued under Argentine law.Earlier this year, Griesa barred Bank ofNew York Mellon from processing a $539million interest payment to the holders of

some restructuredbonds. The judgehad prohibited theSouth Americancountry's govern-ment from payingthe holders of therestructured bondsunless it also paid$1.33 billion tobondholders whorefused to accept thedebt swaps, a move

the government of President CristinaFernández de Kirchner has consistentlyrefused. Griesa's orders and Argentina'srefusal to pay the so-called "holdout"bondholders led Argentina to default inJuly after being blocked from making theinterest payment on the restructuredbonds. For the past two quarters, Griesahas allowed Citi's Argentina branch toprocess one-time payments to bondhold-ers. A Citigroup spokeswoman declinedto comment to Reuters. Representativesfor the holdouts, led by ElliottManagement's NML Capital Ltd. andAurelius Capital Management had noimmediate comment or could not bereached for comment.

Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin America Advisor Friday, October 24, 2014

Page 3 of 4Copyright © 2014, Inter-American Dialogue

rapid urbanization, assaults on sex work-ers and human trafficking. Economicconditions force women to remain inabusive domestic arrangements or seekwork in precarious and dangerous situa-tions. Given Latin America's cultural

conservatism and historical ties to theCatholic Church, the subject of abortionrights remains verboten. Although theregion's maternal mortality related toillegal, unsafe abortions is the highest inthe world, most political leaders stub-bornly oppose decriminalizing the pro-cedure–even in the case of rape, incest orto save the mother's life. The conse-quences of unsafe abortion dispropor-tionately affect poor and rural women.Such injustice is a matter of humanrights and equal opportunity. It is up togovernments to commit resources andpolitical will to law enforcement andpublic services in support of women'sreproductive rights."

AJacqueline Pitanguy, execu-tive director of Citizenship,Study, Research, Informationand Action (CEPIA) and mem-

ber of the National Council for theRights of Women in Brazil: "There hasbeen progress in the situation of womenin the region. Constitutions have beenreformed to guarantee equal rights, dis-criminatory laws have been abolished.Progress is unquestionable in relation tothe participation of women in the labormarket, where they increased their pres-ence from 34.1 percent to 42 percentbetween 1990 and 2010. In Brazil, this

rate was 48.9 percent in 2010. However,even though this increase has happenedall over the region, there are significantvariations between countries. While menstill receive more than women for thesame work, this difference is decreasing.Patriarchal values are, however, still per-sistent: while women went out of thehome, to work, men did not enter thehome to share family responsibilities,resulting in an overload of work, a barri-er to women's progress in the labor mar-ket. Women advanced in education. InBrazil, they study more years than men.Between 18 and 24 years of age, 32 per-cent of women and 28 percent of menare still studying. However, in spite of thefact that this is the region with the mostwomen holding the presidency, theirparticipation in politics is very low (25percent), particularly in Brazil (12 per-cent). The main barrier to the fulladvancement of women in the region iscultural: a combination of patriarchal-ism and a growing influence of conserva-tive religions that deny sexual and repro-ductive rights and emphasize the domes-ticity of the role of women."

AMaria de los ÁngelesFernández R., political analystand founder of 'Hay Mujeres':"The subprime crisis of 2008

found Latin America on strong footing.Revenue from the 'commodities super-cycle' permitted advances in combatingpoverty as well as an increase in its mid-dle classes. This coincided with the riseto executive power of various women:Michelle Bachelet (Chile), LauraChinchilla (Costa Rica), CristinaFernández de Kirchner (Argentina) andDilma Rousseff (Brazil). Their impact isundeniable but should not be exaggerat-ed. Even for someone who has a statedcommitment to gender equality, likeBachelet who also headed U.N. Women,this does not translate to automaticresults. Just as it is not gender thatdefines the performance of a woman asthe head of a country, it can be observedthat gender equality policies that are

Featured Q&AContinued from page 1

Continued on page 4

Fernández

File Photo: ArgentineGovernment.

“ High on the unfinished

agenda are domestic violence

and reproductive rights.”— Joan Caivano

Page 4 of 4Copyright © 2014, Inter-American Dialogue

Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin America Advisor Friday, October 24, 2014

promoted will have different effectsdepending on historical legacy, institu-tional capacity, degree of democracy andvulnerability to international pressure.

That Latin Americans are less likely thanpeople in other regions to say thatwomen are treated with respect and dig-nity is indicative of how much remains tobe done. Although life is better than 20years ago, as recognized by the EconomicCommission for Latin America and theCaribbean (ECLAC), it remains the mostunequal region. When analyzing indica-tors of physical, economic and decision-making autonomy of women, ECLAC hasshown advances. However, it also warnsof areas such as labor where, despite the

economic growth of the last decade, therepersists a significant percent of womenamong the poor and indigent. Equally, ithas called attention to the way in which

conditional transfer programs, whileeffective at combatting poverty, have con-tributed to reinforcing the stereotype ofwomen as mothers. In the period ahead,gender equality will experience a litmustest as some economies show signs ofdeceleration."

The Advisor welcomes reactions to theQ&A above. Readers can write editorGene Kuleta at gkuleta@thedialogue.orgwith comments.

Featured Q&AContinued from page 3

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“ In the period ahead, gender equality will experience a litmus test

as some economies show signs of deceleration.”— Maria de los Ángeles Fernández R.