According to the “Latinobarómetro 2011” survey, United States President Barack Obama is the leader most admired by Latin Americans, while the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and former Cuban President Fidel Castro rank the lowest.
The survey, distributed today in Santiago, placed Obama at the top of the leader evaluations in Latin America with a score of 6.3 (on a scale from 1 to 10), the same score he received last year.
In 2010, Obama shared first place with Brazilian former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. His successor, Dilma Rousseff, comes in second place this year with a score of 6.
The King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, again took third place in the list of leaders and received a score of 5.9, the same as Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who gained .4 points from 2010.
Next on the list is Mexican President Felipe Calderón, with a score of 5.8; his Uruguayan counterpart, José Mujica, and Argentinean President Cristina Fernández both scored 5.7.
The least popular leaders among Latin American citizens are former Cuban President Fidel Castro and the Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega, both receiving a score of 4.1.
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, obtained a score of 4.4, while his Bolivian colleague, Evo Morales, scored a 4.9.
Despite occupying the last places on the list, Castro, like both Chavez and Morales, experienced an increase in their scores this year compared to last year. Ortega, in contrast, fell two tenths from 2010.
The most pronounced increase occurred with the Venezuelan president, who went from 3.9 to 4.4 due to, according to Latinobarómetro, his bout with cancer this year from which he is currently recuperating. “Undoubtedly, the illness has brought him an increase in sympathy,” stated the poll.
Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero received a score of 5.6, followed by President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador (5.5), the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, and President Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica, both with a score of 5.3.
The presidents of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, and of Peru, Ollanta Humala, recieved scores of 5.2, while their Chilean colleague, Sebastián Piñera, received a 5.1.
As for countries, Brazil again ranked as the country with the best leadership in the region, with 20 percent of the votes, one point higher than last year.
In second place came the United States and Venezuela with 10 percent. The United States also ranked as the global power that Latin Americans had the best opinion of, with 72 percent, followed by Spain, which scored 4 percent lower than the previous year with 71 percent.
The survey was conducted between July 15 and August 16 in 18 countries — Cuba not among them — and included 20,204 personal interviews.
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