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La Jolla Conference to focus on regional energy amid the economic crisis • Summer workshop series focuses on poverty, journalism and HIV/AIDS • IOA launches Carbon Market program • IOA plans September 2009 economic conference in China • Violence increasing against Latin American journalists • Optimists, Skeptics &Pessimists: Mexico’s Energy Reform & Implementation
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Davidow named White House adviser on Summit of the Americas
Institute of the Americas President Jeffrey Davidow has joined President Obama’s administration for a two-month posting as White House Advisor on the Summit of the Americas. In that position, Davidow will coordinate the participation of the United States government at the summit, which will be held April 17-19 in Trinidad. Davidow, who served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Venezuela and as assistant secretary of state before retiring from the State Department in 2002, will work with the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor to plan for President Obama’s participation in the summit. The Summit of the Americas will bring together all the heads of state in the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of Cuba. The U.S. objective, Davidow said, is to lay down guidelines for increased cooperation between the Obama administration and the leaders of countries in the region. Since Davidow joined the Institute of the Americas in 2003, the independent, non-profit organization has been recognized as a leader in bringing the many voices of Latin America together to analyze policies that will promote regional integration, economic development and efficient government. The Institute, which is located on the University of California, San Diego, campus, also hosts forums throughout Latin America and the United States to help government officials, business representatives and NGOs develop solutions for the hemisphere’s economic and social problems.
The La Jolla Conference brings together energy ministers of major Latin American countries, company CEOs and regulatory officials to discuss new projects, regional agreements, changes in regulations and new investment opportunities. This year, the conference will focus on regional energy issues amid the economic crisis, with an outstanding lineup of speakers confirmed to attend.. Tony Hayward, group chief executive, BP plc, will be a keynote speaker and Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served as drug czar under President Clinton, will give a presentaiton on energy security. Other speakers include: Dana Coffield, president and CEO, Gran Tierra Energy Inc.; Rolando González Bunster, president and CEO, Basic Energy; Alejandro Granado, chairman, president and CEO, CITGO Petroleum Corp.; J. Patrick Kennedy, CEO, OSIsoft Inc.; Ali Moshiri, President, Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production; Federico Turegano, Head of Energy Group Americas, Société Générale; Stephen Whyte, VP for EP, Shell Brazil. Summer workshops focus on poverty, journalism, migration and HIV/AIDS Join us for our summer workshops on journalism, energy, HIV/AIDS, migration and poverty. Led by the Institute’s program directors and their skilled teams, the workshops offer content-rich, hands-on sessions for mid-career professionals. You'll hear the latest research and opinions from public, private and academic experts working in the region. Then you'll head for the U.S.-Mexico border and Tijuana where you can see firsthand the massive flow of trucks, cars and people that make San Diego-Tijuana the world’s busiest border crossing. But that’s not all. We’ll host social events, too, so you can meet the vibrant people who live and work in our border region. At the Institute of the Americas, we conduct our workshops in Spanish and they are designed especially for Latin American participants. You’ll meet journalists, legislators, non-profit leaders, academics, researchers, government officials and company executives from countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua. Violence against Journalists as a Threat to Democracy (May 4-8) will focus on the essential value of a free press and the threat posed to fragile democracies by the rise in violence against journalists. The seminar will include presentations by journalists who have confronted attacks or worked in violent environments. The Geopolitics of Energy (May 8-13) is timed to coincide with the Institute's 18th Annual La Jolla Latin American Energy Conference. The participants discuss with experts the new realities of the global energy market, alternative energy prospects, the rise of resource nationalism and attend the Energy Conference where they will meet with Latin American government officials, and energy company representatives. Citizen Journalism (June 1-5) will focus on the growing practice of non-professionals who provide information through Internet blogs, written reports and viedo. Topics to be discussed include accuracy and credibility, legal questions, reporting ethics and the sourcing of information. The workshop will include hands-on training sessions for both established journalists and new entrants into the field of periodismo ciudadano. Public Policy and Migration (June 22-26) . Will look at immigration as a dynamic force in national and international politics. The role of remittances, labor flows, assimilation and other issues are discussed with relation to their impact on both sending and receiving countries. . Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism Workshop (July 6-17) convenes for the sixth consecutive year with reporters and editors from around the hemisphere spending nind days learning about recent scientific developments relating to the environment, medical research, and pubic policies to promote innovation and public/private partnership.Journalists may apply directly to the Institute for scholarships. Investigative Journalism (July 20-24) will offer journalists new tools for conducting investigative reporting and will focus in part on "following the money" and strategies for revelaing corruption and graft through press-induced transparency. The Migration of HIV/AIDS (Aug. 3-6) gives reporters a first-hand look at the pandemic from both sides of the border. Journalists will spendone day in north San Diego County, where migrants work in the fields, and a second day in Baja California, Mexico, where the HIV/AIDS rate is the second-highest in Mexico. On the third day, the journalists will hear presentations from researchers on their ground-breaking work on the escalating rate of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis at the San Diego-Tijuana border. Innovative Strategies to Reduce Poverty (August 17-21) will focus on successful programs to improve the lives of Latin Americans living in poverty. This program will bring together practitioners, academics and leading experts from multinational institutions to review best practices in poverty alleviation. Previous attendees from Mexico and andean and Central American countries used the tools and financial leads discussed at the seminar to benefit their anti-poverty programs. For additional information contact Lee Tablewski, Director of Professional Workshops or call (858) 453-5560 x116. IOA launches Carbon Market program The Institute of the Americas, in collaboration with leaders from the public and private sector and civil society, is launching a program to promote dialogue on key public policy issues that will encourage the development of CDM projects in Latin America. The Carbon Market Program will build on the Institute’s past experience in organizing successful programs on this issue in Mexico and Argentina. It will identify policies and programs that will enable the hemisphere to actively participate in the growing Carbon Credits Market and enhance its competitive status, protect its environment and promote economic development. Violence increasing against Latin American journalists
But journalists are dying in every region of the world. In Iraq, in Somalia, in Russia, in Bolivia, in the Philippines, journalists died last year while reporting the news in their countries. Journalists are dying at the U.S.-Mexico border, too. And they are vanishing in frightening numbers. Since 2000, 24 Mexican journalists have been killed, In the past three years alone, seven journalists have disappeared, making Mexico the only country in the region where journalists have been reported missing. The Committee to Protect Journalists now classifies Mexico as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Without a doubt, it is the most dangerous country in Latin America. Those disturbing findings brought the Committee to Protect Journalists to Tijuana and San Diego this week. Carlos Lauria, CPJ’s Americas Senior Program Coordinator, and CPJ board member Clarence Page, presented the CPJ’s 2008 worldwide survey, “Attacks on the Press,” before nearly 60 journalists in Tijuana on Tuesday, as CPJ executive director Joel Simon presented the report to the United Nations and other CPJ representatives discussed the report in Cairo and Madrid. Lauria and Page reviewed the findings during a session at the Institute of the Americas, a non-profit organization on the University of California, San Diego, campus, headed by Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Venezuela. They told the Institute’s audience of reporters, students and professors, about the self-censorship that is occurring among Mexican journalists who fear for their lives if they report on organized crime or the link between organized crime and government officials. They said the threat to journalists has spread from dangerous border cities such as Nuevo Laredo – where the newsroom of the daily newspaper El Manana was the target of a February 2006 grenade attack – to once “safe“ cities such as the industrial northern Mexico city of Monterrey. Lauria explained that reporters in small cities and towns far from Mexico City are most often the targets of murders and disappearances. In those distant cities, serious criminal investigations are rarely pursued by the authorities. As a result, few of the crimes committed against journalists since 2000 have been solved. As Lauria spoke, the tragic statistics on murdered and missing journalists flashed on a screen: Alejandro Zenon Fonseca Estrada, killed in Tabasco in September 2008 Roberto Marcos Garcia, killed in Veracruz in November 2006 Brad Will, killed in Oaxaca, October 2006 Dolores Guadalupe Garcia Escamilla, killed in Tamaulipas in April, 2005 Mauricio Estrada Zamora, missing in Michaocan since February 2008 Gamaliel Lopez Candosa, missing in Nuevo Leon since May 2007 Rodolfo Rincon Taracena, missing in Tabasco since January 2007 Alfredo Jimenez Mota, missing in Sinaloa since April 2005. Many more cases of murdered and missing Mexican have been documented by the Committee since 2000, Lauria said. The Committee to Protect Journalists is pressing Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s government to enact a law making it a federal crime to murder a journalist – something that would be considered in a broader context an attack on freedom of expression. Two bills are before the Mexican Congress now. As attacks against journalists continue, the Committee – and Mexico’s journalists – await the results. Optimists, Skeptics & Pessimists: Mexico’s Energy Reform & Implementation 2008 was a bad year for PEMEX, but the future holds promise for the company, Jesus Reyes Heroles, director general of Mexico’s national oil company, said during a keynote speech at the Institute of the Americas energy roundtable in Mexico City on February 3. For Reyes Heroles the ‘bad’ was precipitated by the significant decline of the country’s oil production, particularly at the massive Cantarell field. In 2008, oil production dropped 9% to a 13-year low. But Reyes Heroles said 2009 provided PEMEX and Mexico’s oil outlook with a proverbial new leaf. In speaking of the opportunity that recently passed reform measures afford PEMEX, he emphasized that he prefers the current ’day after tomorrow’ from the alternative of no reform which he noted was a real possibility as the debate dragged on last year. Indeed, as oil production – and global prices – fell off the cliff, Mexico made a giant political leap in 2008 by approving energy reform legislation aimed at reinventing PEMEX and its financial, managerial and contractual abilities as an oil company. Dr. Reyes Heroles also echoed Secretary of Energy Georgina Kessel’s opening keynote remarks stating that the new mandate is clear: Maximize the economic value of the company (PEMEX). During a two-day conference last month at the Institute of the Americas, 32 leaders from throughout the Western Hemisphere discussed and debated ICT opportunities and challenges in the region. The speakers came from many sectors – governmental, telecom carriers, information technologies enterprises, cable companies, multilateral institutions, law firms and consulting companies. But can the ominous trends so imposing in the near term be arrested or reversed in the medium to long-term? Is this in fact a better ’day after tomorrow’ for PEMEX and by extension Mexico’s oil future? These central questions, together with a closer look at the some of the broader issues facing implementation of the reform measures, were at the core of the discussions during the day-long round table. After months of acrimony, the Mexican Congress approved energy reform legislation and President Calderon signed it into law in late 2008, effectively leaving the first stage of implementation to 2009. However, there continues to be fierce debate over many parts of the law, such as the nomination and confirmation of the four new PEMEX board members, as well as further definition of the contract schemes that PEMEX will be able to utilize and when they will be unveiled. Some have pointed to the delayed appointments at PEMEX as symbolic of impending failure for the overall package; others see it more as a delaying tactic by the government and Congress. When it comes to the debating the merits of the reform, there seem to be three clear camps that have evolved across Mexico’s energy landscape, or at least its opinion making terrain: Optimists, skeptics and pessimists. Each camp has its core members and central tenets and thus the three are useful categorizations to broadly capture the divergent viewpoints. . Government officials followed closely by oil field service companies lead the group of ‘optimists’ and those who feel that the reform measures will indeed enable the recovery of Mexico’s oil production to a level such as the 3 million barrels/day platform as set forth by Secretary Kessel in her remarks. Indeed, the government of President Felipe Calderón is unapologetically optimistic about the historic nature and potential of the reform measures passed last fall. Moreover, and as noted above, PEMEX management fits squarely into this camp as well. Having endured months if not years of running discussion, statistics, and intrigue there remains a large and important group of ‘skeptics’ across Mexico’s energy industry. They are slow to buy the numbers or the potential of what the government is selling vis a vis the reform, and have many reasons to wonder about its potential, but nor do they wish to pass final judgment. Skeptics are quick to note that in addition to the debatable oil production outlook, what is not abundantly clear yet is how the government has arrived at its economic projections of $158 billion in investment in the sector over the period of 2010 to 2025 and the estimated 1% additional bump in the country’s GDP. Yet, a quick survey of the world’s oil opportunities and companies’ histories strongly supports the notion that while they may bemoan the measures, they will indeed reserve the right to consider the opportunity in Mexico. News reports out of Davos that President Calderon had met with a group of international energy firms on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum lend credence to the idea that while skeptical, major energy industry players will continue to engage in dialogue with the government as 2009 unfolds. And then, there are the ‘pessimists,’ those who point to the political, geological and - especially now - economic challenges of the times rendering the reform wholly inadequate for the challenges at hand. While Secretary Kessel and other government officials anointed Chicontepec as a major piece of the supply and output puzzle - production at the onshore field is to more than double in the next ten or so years - they also heralded the potential of a reinvented PEMEX to exploit the country’s hydrocarbon potential. Yet, the pessimists point to Chicontepec as a hallmark of the distorted perception of reality that pervades the government and the argument for the potential of the reform measures. The more pointed of the pessimists call Chicontepec an inexplicable obsession and they deem the culture at PEMEX virtually impossible to alter. But despite the ferociously polemic nature of the matter, there is and continues to be ample discussion, dialogue and interaction amongst all of the key stakeholders. This was perhaps the most salient take away from the February 3rd meeting: Upwards of 120 participants from across government, industry, civil society and academia and across Mexico and the world participated in an open, honest and civil discourse on the reform measures and next steps. Simply put, Mexico has no choice but to move toward a post-Cantarell energy sector. How to reconcile this plain fact with the reality of the reform measures at hand is Mexico’s worthy energy challenge over the next several years. Whether such a scenario is feasible brings us back to where one sits among the three distinct opinions gripping the discussion in Mexico today. Security, migration top Mexico’s national agenda
“Our demographics are changing dramatically,” Sarukhan told an audience of more than 100 during a Feb. 12 speech at the Institute of the Americas. “If we can’t hold on to the 300,000 men and women – bold and entrepreneurial people -- who immigrant to the United States each year, then we cannot continue to grow.” The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has reshaped the labor force over the past 15 years, he said. “There is no giant sucking sound. Jobs have not been lost because of NAFTA. “NAFTA has been a success story,” said Sarukhan. “We are today the second largest consumer of U.S. exports. For every dollar’s worth of goods that China buys from the U.S., Mexico and Canada buy $8.” As other regions of the world strengthen trade alliances, “there’s no more important challenge in North America than human capital,” he said. “If Mexico and the United States and Canada are to continue competing, we need to develop a holistic approach to border management.” Managing the border also calls for a common strategy to fight drug trafficking, Sarukhan said. “As Mexico seeks to shut down the flow of drugs, we need the United States to slow the flow of bulk cash and weapons. The violence that’s taking place in Mexico today does not take place in a vacuum. We are caught between the producers of cocaine and the largest drug market in the world.” On Jan. 22, Jorge Tello Peón, who is President Felipe Calderón’s special adviser on security issues, spoke with a standing room-only crowd about the administration’s fight against organized crime. The Mexican government reported that 6,250 people died in drug-related violence last year. In the first two months of 2009, more than 1,000 have been killed. Amid escalating killings and kidnappings, Tello said many in Mexico – including one of the country’s prominent businessmen – have urged the Calderón government to negotiate a truce with drug traffickers. “I understand the mayor who said, ‘I don’t want to be with them, but I don’t want to be their enemies, because they’re going to kill me, there is no way I can protect myself,’ ” Tello said. “I understand (when) the business guy who is starting his business, says ‘I don’t want to be their enemy ... because they are going to kill me and my family.’ ” But the Calderon government’s position is that, “You don’t make a deal. Don’t think about it," Tello said. "There is no deal possible.”
Over the past five years, BP has invested more than $30 billion in the United States to find new sources of oil and gas, extend production from existing fields, improve the reliability of its U.S. refineries, expand its wind and solar businesses, create better biofuels and develop new, low-carbon technologies. Over the next decade, BP expects to invest an average of $6 billion a year in the United States. "In an uncertain world, our aim is to build a balanced and diverse energy portfolio, both geographically and through the primary energy mix," Hayward said. "BP, like many of its competitors, is doing all it can to continue investing for growth." Hayward will share his perspectives on energy security in the Western Hemisphere during a May 13 keynote address at the La Jolla Conference at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. The annual energy forum, which has been convened by the Institute of the Americas for the past 18 years, brings together energy ministers of major Latin American countries, company CEOs and regulatory officials to discuss new projects, regional agreements, changes in regulations and new investment opportunities. At this year's conference, confirmed speakers include General Barry McCaffrey, former Drug Czar under President Bill Clinton, who will speak about regional security; Alejandro Granado, Chairman, President & CEO, CITGO Petroleum Corp.; Rolando González Bunster, President & CEO, Basic Energy; Ali Moshiri, President, Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production; Dana Coffield, President & CEO, Gran Tierra Energy, Inc.; J. Patrick Kennedy, CEO, OSIsoft, Inc.; Federico Turegano, Head of Energy Group Americas, Société Générale; and Stephen Whyte, VP for EP, Shell Brazil. To register for the May 12-13 conference, click here Drug violence is subject of media project
Tijuana drug violence has claimed more than 100 lives this year, as the battle intensifies for control of the lucrative smuggling corridor on the U.S.-Mexico border. Amy Isackson, border reporter for KPBS, and Vicente Calderon, editor of tijuanapress.com, spent six weeks investigating the unprecedented violence in the drug war along the Tijuana-San Diego border. They presented the results of their investigation -- a multimedia project entitled “Border Battle: Bringing Home the Drug War” – on Feb. 19 at the Institute of the Americas. Isackson and Calderon focused their project on the causes of the violence. “We had to go beyond the body count and report on the human tragedy of all these killings,” Isackson said. “We wanted to put the violence in context, to show that this is an international problem driven by U.S. demand. Too often the finger is pointed at Mexico. This war is for the U.S. drug market.” U.S. law enforcement estimates that 40 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States is smuggled through the Tijuana-San Diego corridor. Traffickers have built elaborate tunnels under the border as they moved narcotics over land in truck shipments through U.S. ports of entry. With the arrests of three Arellano Felix brothers over the past seven years and the death of another, some law enforcement officials say the deadly cartel that controlled the corridor for 20 years has been dismantled. But Isackson said warring factions of the Arellano Felix family are still shipping massive quantities of drugs to the United States. “The cartel regenerates,” she said in a recent interview on KPBS. “The Arellano Felix cartel over the years has had an amazing ability to adapt to whatever conditions it faces and to continue.” The struggle within the family for the drug corridor is claiming lives in Tijuana at a rate of about two per day. In January, Tijuana reported 70 drug-related deaths, a record for the city. Tijuana drug murders echo the violence that is taking place all over the country. Last year, more than 6,200 people lost their lives in drug violence, double the number reported in 2007. “There’s a brutal fight between drug gangs throughout Mexico. Here in Tijuana, it is a fight to control the key smuggling route between Tijuana and San Diego,” Isackson said. “It’s lucrative and nobody wants to give it up.” Despite the violence plaguing Tijuana, “people are living their normal lives as much as they can,” Calderon said in a KPBS interview. “It’s good to see kids holding the hands of their fathers and mothers, going to school in their crispy uniforms in the morning,” he said. “But we have to acknowledge that on their way to school, many kids have seen corpses dumped in the streets. The fear is there.” To hear an interview with Amy Isackson and Vicente Calderon, click here
IOA plans economic conference in China Her hosts noted that China and Latin America enjoy a time-honored friendship and spoke of their vision for “greater mutual understanding and closer cooperation.”
IOA joins SD Latino Film Festival as community partner It’s lights, cameras and lots of action as the San Diego Latino Film Festival presents 173 outstanding films and documentaries from the Americas and Spain. Now in its 16th year, the Film Festival is screening the films March 12-22 at the UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas at Hazard Center in San Diego. Spain is the featured country at this year’s festival, with nearly 40 films in the lineup. Among them are Before the Fall, a quadruple winner at the Málaga film festival about a Spanish village preparing for the end of the world, and Que Parezca un Accidente, a comedy about a widow who contracts a hit man to kill her son-in-law. Other films include Silent Light, a drama about an isolated Mennonite community in the northern Mexico state of Chihuahua, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007, and The Garden, an Oscar-nominated documentary about a Los Angeles neighborhood’s fight to save its 14-acre urban garden from development. The Institute of the Americas board of directors elected two new members on March 12, bringing the total number to 35. The new board members are: Kelvin Dushnisky, executive vice president of corporate affairs at Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s leading gold producer with 27 operating mines across five continents. Dushnisky is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, a director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Mining Association of Canada, the Canadian Council for the Americas and the Canada-Chile Business Association. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the International Council on Mining and Metals. Andres Gluski, executive vice president and chief operating officer of AES Corp., an Arlington, Va.-based global power company. Prior to joining AES in 2000, Gluski was executive vice president of corporate banking for Banco de Venezuela (Grupo Santander). He has also worked with the International Monetary Fund in the Treasury and Latin American Departments and served as Director General of Public Finance and as Senior Macro Economic Policy Adviser to the Minister of Planning of Venezuela. |
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Latin America’s largest energy conference, convened by the Institute of the Americas for the past 18 years, will be held May 12-13 at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines.
Latin America is poised to assume a leadership role in meeting the environmental challenges of today. Its rich natural resources and sustained economic growth present an opportunity to lead international efforts to address climate change by taking advantage of investment opportunities in Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects and the emerging global carbon market.
There is an often-repeated phrase among journalists. No story is worth dying for, they say. 
Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, said his country will face a shortage of workers if measures are not taken to stem migration to the United States.
The Institute of the Americas is proud to annouce that Dr. Tony Hayward, Chief Executive Officer of 
From its strategic location on the Pacific Coast and the U.S.-Mexico border, the Institute of the Americas is building bridges between China and Latin American countries. 
Workshops Events
