All Eyes on U.S.

The presidential election is being watched closely not just in the United States but around the world. The Observer spoke with four foreign reporters covering the election here in the U.S. as part of a program organized by the International Center for Journalists.

Observer reporter Kat Aaron asked the foreign correspondents what people in their countries think about the two candidates. The interviews with these multilingual journalists were conducted in English, French and Spanish, and are presented as edited transcripts.

----

Mouzinho Lopes de AraujoEast Timor: Mouzinho Lopes de Araujo, editor in chief, The Timor Post, Dili.

The election is very important for our country because actually, East Timor has a very good relationship with the United States. The administration really supported our independence in 2002. After independence, the U.S. allowed us to use its currency –- I don’t know if you know that we use U.S. dollars. We are the only country in Asia that uses dollars.

It’s very important for us that America has a new leader who can resolve the country’s problems, and the global financial crisis. The economic crisis really affects our country because we use your currency.

People in East Timor are very keen to follow the election. The majority of our people want to see Obama become president. Most of them wanted Hillary Clinton, but she did not make it. Bill Clinton really supported our independence, and also she is a very energetic figure. So now they want Obama. They see him as a very good leader, a man of transformation for America and the whole world. He is not talking about war but about peace, about good relationships with Asia. And he wants to resolve the economic crisis.

This election is very important for our people because the democratic process in the United States is the best one in the world, and our people want to learn from it. East Timor is a new democratic country, and the democracy is fragile.

-----

Dieudonne SaincyHaiti: Dieudonne Saincy, reporter and anchor, Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince.

This is a big election. Why? It has the first black man as a candidate for president. It has a woman vice president.

Many Haitians want good cooperation with the American government and the American people. Many Haitian families live in the U.S., or hope to live in the United States. Of all the countries in the world, only America gives so many opportunities. You can reside, you can study, you can go to university, you can have a good job. The diaspora -- Haitians in the United States -- sends money to Haiti.

When you think about Florida or New York, many Haitians don’t have their papers. There was a demonstration in Florida about this when Barack Obama was in Florida, hoping that his administration would change the policies around immigrants. People in Haiti hope that their families who are here illegally could adjust their status.

We need stability right now in Haiti. The Americans give a lot of money to Haiti, for policing, and for health care. After the European Union, I think the Americans give the most money to Haiti. And we hope that the U.S. will increase its aid because it is not really enough right now.

In Haiti, the majority of the people don’t like the Republicans. Haitians hope something will change. They like Barack Obama. He is black, he is a Democrat – they hope with an Obama administration, something with change with regard to Haiti. This is not just people in Haiti, this is a whole world phenomenon.

So it is very important to us to cover this election because we have many hopes. I think it will be better for us if Obama wins. In the past, people in Haiti don’t really like the American government. Many people don’t like the Bush administration. But today, the image has changed. Barack Obama is the reason.

We do a lot of reporting on the American elections at the station where I work. We do one or two reports a day about what people in Haiti think about the elections: the students, the shop owners. And I am here doing reporting every day, doing the live and direct reports from Washington.

This is the third time I’ve covered the elections in the United States. I was here in 2000 and 2004, and now 2008. This time is completely different.

----

Maria Luisa Diaz de LeonMexico: Maria Luisa Diaz de Leon, deputy editorial director, Excelsior, Mexico City.

For Mexico and my readers, the way that the American government manages the financial meltdown is very important. We have very strong commercial relationships with the United States –- we have an interchange of $250 billion, if you sum up the imports and exports between both countries.

It’s important because if you don’t get well here in the United States, a lot of Mexicans that come here to work won’t have anything to do here and will go back to Mexico. And, unfortunately, Mexico does not have the work they are looking for, and we will have thousands and thousands of Mexicans without work, both in the US and in Mexico.

Another thing is that if you stop producing articles (stop manufacturing) here in the United States, we won’t be able to import them, so your workers won’t have work either.

The other thing that is very related is immigration, of course. This administration and the American federal government began to construct a wall along the border. I know the security concerns are very important. This wall has not stopped the migration, but it has become very dangerous, and people who get money out of it (illegal migration) are charging more. It isn’t really stopping the problem; it’s making it more costly and more dangerous.

They have conducted polls in Mexico, and they all like Obama. I think in the history of our country, the presidents who have been more understanding of the bilateral relationship have been Republicans. Democrats are more protective of internal things in your country –- unions have pressured more to stop migration, and Democrats are more inclined to respond to their pressure. Republicans have been more pro-NAFTA, pro-free commerce.

---

Juan Pablo TettayColombia: Juan Pablo Tettay, international reporter, El Colombiano, Medellỉn.

In Colombia, the elections in the United States are very important, because we have commercial relationships on one side, and on the other the anti-drug programs, Plan Colombia. It’s very important for us.

In the last debate between the candidates, there was a discussion of the situation in Colombia. We are waiting on the free trade agreements. McCain would have more open trade; Obama might have more restrictions on free trade. McCain came to Colombia in July, which is a good indication that U.S. politicians are interested in Colombia.

McCain is the only one who has made a direct statement about his policies around Colombia, Obama has not. Colombia is not a major theme in the election, we know that.

It’s been a good experience being here. I’m in the field –- from Colombia, I understood a lot about the elections, but here I can talk to students, adults, workers. It’s been a very enriching experience.

If you ask people in Colombia, probably they would tell you that, in reality, they are not interested in who wins. But the people who read newspapers, who are informed, they prefer McCain, because of the free trade and the anti-drug cooperation. At the same time, if you ask certain other informed people, they might say Obama. We do know that most of the world would prefer Obama.