With the election of Felipe Calderón Hinjosa as president of Mexico
earlier this week, Harvard-related politicians capped off an impressive
year that included electoral victories in Liberia, Canada, and
Colombia.
In November 2005, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected
president of war-torn Liberia, becoming the world’s first black female
president and Africa’s first elected female head of state. A 1971
graduate of the Kennedy School of Government—where she earned a
master’s in public administration—Johnson-Sirleaf is a former World
Bank and Citibank economist who has promised to bring stability and
economic development to her West African nation.
In Canada
this past January, Michael G. Ignatieff, a prominent human rights
scholar, was elected to the House of Commons where he now sits as a
Liberal. A former Kennedy School professor who holds a Ph.D. in History
from Harvard, Ignatieff has since declared his candidacy for his
party’s leadership. The Liberals suffered a historic defeat in January
when the Conservatives took power for the first time in over 12 years.
Earlier
this month, Ignatieff picked up an important endorsement from Lt. Gen.
Roméo A. Dallaire, the force commander of the 1993 United Nations
mission in Rwanda who now sits as a Liberal in the unelected Canadian
Senate. In the 2004-2005 academic year, Dallaire was a fellow at the
Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. At the time,
Ignatieff served as the center’s director.
Finally, Álvaro
Uribe Vélez, the staunchest American ally in Latin America, was
re-elected president of Colombia in May. A conservative who was first
elected in 2002 and holds a certificate in Administration and
Management from Harvard, Uribe has won acclaim for improving security
in a nation long ravaged by drug cartels, Marxist insurgent groups, and
right-wing paramilitaries—although some have accused him of having ties
to these groups.
By electing conservatives, Colombia and
Mexico have bucked the leftist trend sweeping through Latin America.
Over the past few years, left-of center governments have come to power
by winning elections in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia,
and Peru.
—Staff writer Paras D. Bhayani can be reached at pbhayani@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Claire M. Guehenno can be reached at guehenno@fas.harvard.edu.
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