60 Percent of Latin America Indifferent to U.S. Election

The most expensive election ever in the United States doesn’t matter for 60 percent of people in Latin America. The conclusion has been shown by a pre-report by Latinobarómetro Studies 2008, which focused on the impact of next week’s election in 18 countries in the region researched by the Chilean nongovernmental organization.

When questioned about which candidate’s (Barack Obama or John McCain’s) victory would be better for Latin America, 60 percent answered “it’s the same” (29 percent) or didn’t know the answer (31 percent). The survey interviewed 1,000 to 1,200 people in each of the 18 countries between Sept. 5 and Oct. 5.

Accordingly to the study, “The data is representative of all the population older than 18 years from Rio Grande [on the border of Mexico and the US] to Punta Arenas [southern Chile], about 5 millions inhabitants.” The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 to 3 points.

The Latinobarómetro study tested the awareness level Latin Americans have about the election in the USA. It stated that 57% have “little or no” knowledge about it.

The country with first position among countries with “a lot or some knowledge about the election” is the Dominican Republic, with 66 percent. Brazil is the seventh, with 46 percent (behind three other South American countries).

About the question, “Which candidate is more convenient?” the Democrat Obama is higher than McCain, but is behind the group that don’t know (31 percent) and tied up with “it’s the same,” with 29 percent. The Republican candidate had 8 percent of the mentions. The Dominican Republic was the most pro-Obama country, with 52 percent. Then it was Costa Rica (43 percent), Brazil and Uruguay (both with 41 percent).

McCain did better in Colombia, with 19 percent. Then came El Salvador, with 16 percent mentioning the Republican — the percentage corresponds to Obama’s lowest approval. In Brazil (the fifth country with most citations to the Republican), the percentage was 10 percent. In Panama, where he was born, the candidate of President George W. Bush’s party had 6 percent of mentions against 18 percent of Obama mentions.

Latin American’s preference categorized by economic level reveals two interesting conclusions. Indifference about the candidates (“it’s the same”) is homogeneous in all groups. And the preference for the Democrat is not larger among the poorest ones — “The idea that a mass identification between poor people in Latin America and Barack Obama would happen is not true,” states the study.

Latinobarómetro also tested how much attention people think the new president of the U.S. will give to the region. The same as the current president was the most-given answer (34 percent), one point more than those who didn’t know. The percentage that think it will be more is 22 percent, and 8 percent think the region will have less attention. Among the countries that think the new president will give more attention, the Dominican Republic leads (39 percent) and Brazil is second (31 percent).