President Piñera of Chile at 27% approval

Today we have the new Adimark GfK poll on the approval ratings for President Sebastian Piñera, his government and all other things Chile. Here's the headline chart from the Adimark PDF (i haz teh copy):

Question: Independent to your political position, do you approve or disapprove of the form in which Sebastian Piñera is running his government?

Oh dear. That 27% approval rating is another all-time record for a Chilean Prez racked up by Seb. Mind you, he actually beats out the approval for his government, at 25%. News report on this trainwreck approval result here.

Chile: President Piñera's approval ratings drop to all-time low

The 30% approval (62% disapproval) scored by Seb Piñera in the Adimark GfK poll released today isn't just the worst approval rating he's had; it's the worst approval rating ever scored by any Chilean president.

So IKN goes for the succinct analysis commentary: It sucks. Casillero del Diablo served, the end.

Chart of the day is.....

...the approval ratings of President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, November 2007 to November 2009.

The bimonthly survey run by Gallup has just registered its lowest reading for Uribe in seven years. Hey, 64% is still better than most and he has a hardcore of supporters that verge of deification over there. But that 64% is also an interesting move, what with the US troops coming to breakfast and the dude battling to get the rules changed so he can be king again and all that. Plus the reasons given below, of course. Here's Reuters with the quotes:

BOGOTA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A scandal involving accusations of improper state payouts to friends of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has cut his popularity and threatens to complicate his re-election plans, according to a poll released on Friday.

Uribe's popularity dropped to 64 percent from 70 percent two months ago, said the Invamer-Gallup survey.

Washington's ally in the left-tilting Andean region, Uribe may run for a third term if the subsidy scandal and sluggish economy do not bog down efforts by his supporters to change the constitution to allow him to stand in next May's election.

The conservative leader remains the most popular politician in the country thanks to his U.S.-backed crackdown on drug-running Marxist guerrillas who are widely loathed for their practice of kidnapping.

But the scandal -- in which the opposition accuses the agriculture ministry of handing out millions of dollars in subsidies to businesses and individuals, including a local beauty queen, with ties to Uribe -- has taken a toll.

"It has affected the perception of the government's handling of corruption," said Jorge Londono, head of Invamer-Gallup, which carried out the survey of 1,000 voters in the cities of Bogota, Medellin, Cali and Barranquilla.

Adding to Uribe's troubles, Colombia has been pushed into recession by fallout from the world economic slowdown.

"This is the lowest popularity rating we've ever seen for Uribe," Londono said. "When there is a scandal at a time of slow economic activity, it hurts."

CONTINUES HERE

Chart of the day is....

....Hugo Chávez's presidential approval ratings, monthly in 2009.

There are many surveys done in Venezuela on this subject, but with yesterday's Datanalisis survey results for July published it give us a chance to track one single (and reputedly reliable) survey company's results using the same question and same demographics every time.

We see that in the period January to March, Chávez won support through the constitutional amendment period (when there was no poll taken). No poll taken for April. Then his support dropped back down to what the boss of Datanalisis calls his "traditional support" of between 50% and 54%. This month it's moved back up to 57.3%. The negative views towards Chávez dropped from 41% in June to 38.8% in July. Presumably the other 13.9% are neutral towards him or offered no opinion.

Thus, if media channels were to reflect the true state of opinion in Venezuela, on average 573 out of every thousand news reports or articles should be supportive of Chávez, 388 should criticize him and 139 should take a neutral stance. Anybody note a slight discrepancy with reality there?

Twobreakfasts approval rating drops 9 points to 21%

The thing about populations is that they've consistently proven themselves to be much smarter than either politicians or media outlets give them credit. Today's opinion poll published by IPSOS Apoyo is the regular monthly roundup of approval ratings in Peru, but is also the first one to be published since the Bagua massacre. Here are some of the choicer details, but you should click through and look for yourself; there's a lot of info and even basic Spanish should see you through (numbers are numbers, y'see);

• Twobreakfasts' approval rating drops 9% to stand at 21%
• His disapproval rating rises 15% to stand at 78%

• Prime Minister Yehude Simon's approval rating drops 10% to stand at 25%
• His disapproval rating rises 17% to stand at 61%

• Finance Minister Luis Carranza's approval rating drops 7% to stand at 19%
• His disapproval rating rises 9% to stand at 60%

Also, 63% of those polled said Yehude Simon sould resign, and a full 73% said Interior Minister Mercedes "nothing to do with me" Cabanillas should also resign. As for "who's to blame" for the Bagua massacre, here's how the percentages line up (more than one answer sometimes given)

• Twobreakfasts 57%
• Cabanillas 39%
• Simon 24%
• Alberto Pizango 17%
• National Police 17%
• Extremist Infiltrators 11%
• Foreign Infiltrators 11%
• Native Communities 7%
• NGOs 5%
• other/no answer 6%

So much for Evo Morales getting the blame, eh? As my personal favourite stat, 92% of Peruvians think that Amazon natives should be been consulted before the "law of the jungle" decrees (DL1064, DL1090) were passed. It makes the Peruvian embassy's argument last week look as stupid as it is and shows that Peruvians aren't going to settle for anything less than democracy.

All in all, it's good to note that the people of Peru weren't led up the garden path by the heinous propaganda spewed by Twobreakfasts and his lapdog press corps this month. The country of Peru really does deserve far better leaders than the dross it has to put up with.

The late night Saturday chart of the day is.....

..Alan García's job approval rating in Lima and Metropolitan area. May 2009.

Sooooo..... he gets 59% approval with the socioeconomic A level of society, and 30% rating (down two points since last month) from all socioeconomic groups including the As. Go on, take a wild guess as to what all that points to.....

Meanwhile, from the same news report where I culled the numbers, take a look at this opinion about Chile's recent purchase of arms. After you read it, have a look at who actually said it below. These are the people forming public opinion and running the all-white criollo show in Peru, folks. Frightening.

"The arms that Chile is buying is to prepare an attack against us. Chile has alwas tried to take over Peruvian territory. In Perú, on the other hand, we don't buy arms for expansionary reasons or for attack. The reason has always been for dissuasive purposes, and this is the spirit that is reflected in the survey. What we need is a real policy of national defence to dissuade any possible aggressor. This will also be used to confront internal dangers such as narcotrafficking so that the population can develop peacefully."

The man behind those words is Rear-Admiral Alfonzo Paniza who was head of the Peruvian Intelligence Service (CNI) on two occasions. He lost his job in 2003 when he was discovered using his spooks to track journalists.

Confirmed: 19% of Peruvians are officially and certifiably insane

Chile player Orellana, about 0.7 seconds after scoring Chile's winning goal against
Argentina last night....have a guess what word he's about to scream?

The following two survey results cannot possibly be a coincidence:

1) President Twobreakfasts García has a job approval rating of 19%

2) 19% of Peruvians think their national football team can make it to the World Cup finals in 2010.

Nineteen percent! In the world they call "bleedin' reality, mate", both of those percentages should be stuck at zero. This can only mean that if you ever walk round Lima the chances are that 19% of the people you meet will be saying "wibble wibble" a lot and having long conversations with dogs and their own shoelaces and things like that.

Be clear; Peru cannot and will not make it to the Finals and anyone who understands the offside law can see that one. Meanwhile, Otto proved again last night that he totally sucks at soccer betting, as none of his three selections came in and his bankroll is back to zip nada nothing. At least Otto isn't mad enough to actually bet real money on his own selections......