MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador’s Correa and El Salvador’ Funes, leaders with the highest approval-rate

Brazil’s Dilma has 62% support and Cristina Fernandez, 41%

Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and El Salvador Mauricio Funes have the highest approval ratings with 80% and 72% among presidents of the Americas, according to a report from Consulta Mitofsky. At the other extreme stand Sebastian Piñera from Chile, Laura Chinchilla from Costa Rica and Paraguayan Federico Franco with the lowest support.

“Rafael Correa from Ecuador repeats first place with 80% (one point less that the previous assessment) retaining the level of approval with which he initiated his mandate five years ago”, points out the Mexican pollster.

Mauricio Funes from El Salvador joined the ranking of presidents with outstanding assessment, “gradually recovering the approval of its people”.

The presidents with high marks are Otto Perez from Guatemala who in six months of government is placed third with 69% support followed by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, who recovered positions and climbed to 64%.

Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff retains her position with 62% support followed by Leonel Fernandez from Dominican Republic, 61% and Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua, 59%.

The presidents with “medium” approval are Juan Manuel Santos, from Colombia, with 54% support (down 13 percentage points) followed by Ricardo Martinelli, Panama with 52%.

In tenth place comes Barack Obama, with 49%, followed by Mexico’s Felipe Calderón, who steps down next December first, with 46%.

The presidents with a “low” assessment are Cristina Fernandez from Argentina, 43%; Bolivian leader Evo Morales with 41%; Peru’s Ollanta Humala with 40% who shares the position with Uruguay’s Jose Mujica.

The “very low ranked” heads of government are Canadian PM Stephen Harper with 37%; Paraguay’s Federico Franco, 36% and Sebastian Piñera from Chile, 36%.

Bottom of the list figure Honduras Porfirio Lobo who collapsed to 14% support, together with Laura Chinchilla from Costa Rica with 13%, who has suffered a dramatic fall from the 64% when she took office.

Mitofsky methodology is based on the collection of opinion polls published in the electronic media of the different countries. In this case it refers to information from the months of June, July and August.