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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities in the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.
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1 topic to highlight: The power of the Latino vote in Nevada
Catherine Cortez Masto, recently re-elected senator from Nevada, tells Axios Latino that constant contact with Latino voters was one of the reasons she won and, with it, ensured that Democrats maintain a majority in the US Senate.
Why it matters
: Cortez Masto is since 2017 the first (and only) Latina senator.
This month she narrowly defeated Republican Adam Laxalt.
In her own words
: "I saw a lot of energy among the Latino community in both parts of the state: they were active, engaged, paying attention," said Cortez Masto.
"It's very important that no voter, whether they're Latino or of Asian descent or Pacific Islander or whoever, doesn't feel like they're being taken for granted," she added.
More details
: His campaign began running ads in Spanish in March that highlighted his family's Mexican roots and immigration history.
It also published ads in English with a Latino focus.
Several of his campaign leaders are Hispanic.
Yes, but
: Even so, he was re-elected by a tiny margin (0.5%).
Enlarge
: Latinos make up 30% of Nevada's population and have a significant contribution to the powerful unions that helped Cortez Masto win re-election.
What's Next
: Cortez Masto says he will continue to work toward a path to citizenship for Dreamers (brought to the country irregularly as children) and farmworkers;
and that he will focus on helping people weather inflation.
2. Massive protest in Mexico does not stop AMLO
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, advances in his plans to reform the political-electoral system despite the massive protests this weekend.
News Momentum
: Tens of thousands of people marched in more than a dozen cities on Sunday against López Obrador's (nicknamed AMLO) proposal to reform the National Electoral Institute (INE).
Specialists say that it will weaken the independence of the body that manages the voting and counts the votes.
López Obrador says that the reform is necessary to "strengthen democracy", since he affirms that the INE and the electoral tribunal have biases and that their budgets are too large.
On Monday, in response to the marches, he branded the protesters "conservatives" who marched "in favor of corruption."
But critics argue that the proposed changes would only concentrate more power for the ruling Morena party.
Lorenzo Córdova, the president of the INE, considers that the reform seeks to undermine the institute to prevent an alternation in power in 2024. "We are the arbiter in the contest... and a subordinate authority is wanted," he said in an interview with El País .
AMLO describes the protest against the electoral reform that he promotes as "political striptease"
Nov 14, 202201:24
Count
: The INE currently has 11 members on its governing council, elected for nine years through a public call and a special commission of representatives from Congress and autonomous government agencies.
The INE has 32 state-level offices to organize local elections on the ground.
Among other things, the reform proposed by López Obrador wants to eliminate state offices and have a single national organization for all votes.
It is also proposed that electoral advisers be chosen by the public rather than by the commission, from a list approved by the president.
With the reform, the census list (with voter information) would not be in charge of the electoral authority as is the case now.
Instead, the ruling party would take over;
something that, according to experts, can lend itself to tampering.
General panorama
: Concerns about the electoral reform are growing in a scenario in which López Obrador has promoted controversial institutional changes.
For example, it has decimated the budgets of autonomous agencies such as the National Human Rights Commission and the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI).
He also wants his cabinet to take control of independent control bodies such as INAI or the regulator of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications.
Morena controls Congress and recently presented a plan to limit the scope of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
Current situation
: The political-electoral reform has divided Mexicans.
Along with the protests, some surveys —including one from the INE— show that approximately half of those polled are in favor of replacing the electoral body.
Even so, the majority say that they approve of the work done by the INE.
What's next
: Congress, controlled by Morena, debates the reform in commissions with the expectation of having a text ready to be voted on in December.
3. Latinos close to a record in legislatures
Everything points to a record number of Latino candidates, mostly Democrats, being voted for at the state level in last Tuesday's elections in the US. This happened even in states where the Latino population is still not that large (although it is on the rise ) as in Iowa and Vermont.
Why it matters
: Latinos are the fastest-growing group of eligible voters in five years, according to a Census analysis by the Pew Research Center.
The young Latino vote was decisive in these elections: 70% voted for a Democrat
Nov 14, 202201:47
In figures
: Based on the counts already completed, 64 Latino Democrats and 15 Republicans will reach state legislatures for the first time, according to the executive director of the National Caucus of Hispanic State Legislators, Kenneth Romero-Cruz.
With counts still pending, everything indicates that there will be more than 500 Latino state congressmen, a record, Romero-Cruz told Axios Latino.
More details
: Before the November 8 elections there were 451 Hispanic state legislators;
87% were Democrats and 13% Republicans, according to Romero-Cruz.
That means that the percentage of Republicans has decreased in the last two decades;
in 2002 they represented 30% of Hispanic state legislators, according to caucus data.
"That counters the idea that the Republican Party has had a lot of gains among the Hispanic community," Romero-Cruz opined.
"Latinos are being voted for more and more by Latinos when they run as Democratic candidates," she added.
Between the lines
: Among the Latino candidates elected for the House of Representatives there were also several who were former state legislators, as happened with Yadira Caraveo, who will be the first Latina to represent Colorado at the federal level.
It is an example of how these state positions can be a springboard to other positions of greater importance.
The intrigue
: The elections also illustrated the diversity of Latinos in the United States.
Adam Zabner, who is Venezuelan-American, became the second Hispanic elected to the legislature in Iowa history. And Latinos of Colombian, Salvadoran, Honduran, Cuban and Nicaraguan origin were elected from across the country.
4. The economy for Latinos is good, but...
Latinos are experiencing the largest boom in economic production in the United States.
But the financial health of the community is at risk because of the barriers they have to accumulating savings, according to a new report from the consultancy McKinsey.
Why It Matters
: It's the latest study on the financial situation of Latinos, which, due to the coronavirus pandemic, is as promising as it is bleak.
In figures
: The purchasing power of Latinos registered a 6% compound annual growth in the last decade, compared to 3% for the non-Latino population, according to the McKinsey report.
Latino net wealth has increased over the past decade at a rate of 9% for Latinos compared to 4% for non-Hispanic whites.
That has reduced, but still not eliminated, the overall wealth gap between the two groups, according to the report.
Yes, but
: Almost half of Latinos have little or no retirement savings and find it difficult to access financial products such as bank accounts.
Latinos' savings have been depleted since the pandemic, and almost half of the community no longer have funds saved for when they retire.
Furthermore, Latino savers have only one-fifth the median wealth of their non-Hispanic white counterparts.
In the McKinsey survey, only 23% of Latinos said they feel financially stable, compared to 35% of non-Hispanic white respondents.
In their own words
: "Latinos have also been more affected by COVID-19 and inflation than other populations, and this has exposed their vulnerabilities," the report states.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández
appeared this Tuesday before a Manhattan court for a hearing on drug trafficking charges he faces in the US.
Hernández, in April 2022Jorge Cabrera/Getty Images
Hernández, who pleaded not guilty in a case for which he potentially faces life in prison, was extradited to the United States in April.
US authorities say he "associated with some of the biggest cocaine traffickers in the world" when he was president (2014-2022).
2. The Inter-American Development Bank
will choose
its new president this week from among five candidates from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The last president of the IDB, the American Mauricio Claver-Carone, was removed in September after revelations that he had a relationship with a subordinate to whom he approved several unjustified salary increases.
Claver-Carone was nominated for the position by former President Donald Trump.
6. 🥁 What a hit, what a hit, what a record hit
More than 400 Venezuelan musicians broke a world record last week by playing an open-air concert that established them as the largest folk music orchestra.
Guinness Record with Venezuelan flavor: 414 musicians form the largest folk band in the world
Nov 10, 202200:26
More details
: The band, made up of men, women, and children, sang and used traditional instruments, including chimbanguele-style drums and requinto-style guitars.
They performed 10 songs of the bagpipe genre, traditional from the state of Zulia, during the event, sponsored by the Maracaibo mayor's office.
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