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 According to respected Mexican pollster Mitofsky Consultants, MC, despite 7 years in office, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the second most popular leader of the Americas, losing only to the president of El Salvador, who took office recently. In the other extreme of the list is Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, with the worst ranking.
Mauricio Funes from El Salvador who has been in charge since March, is top of the list with 84% support, followed by Brazil's Lula with 81%; Chile's Michelle Bachelet comes in third with 78% approval followed by freshman Panamanian leader Ricardo Martinelli with 77% and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe with 70%.
The continental public opinion poll was done during the months of May and September this year, in each of the countries.
The Mitofsky report underlines that the leadership cases of Brazil and Colombia, Lula and Uribe, are "exceptional examples of high public opinion support given the fact that the presidents have been in office for almost eight consecutive years.
The top five are followed by a group of presidents with support in the range of 60 percentage points: Mexico's Felipe Calderón, 62%; Uruguay's Tabaré Vazquez, 61% and Bolivia's Evo Morales, 60%.
The next step includes US President Barack Obama, 52%; Ecuador's, Rafael Correa, 51%; Fernando Lugo from Paraguay, 50% and Guatemala's Alvaro Colom, 46%.
The presidents with below average support include Oscar Arias from Costa Rica with 37%; Alan García from Peru with 27% and bottom of the list, Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, 23%.
Missing in the poll are Venezuela's Hugo Chavez; Leonel Fernandez from Dominican Republic; PM Stephen Harper from Canada and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. Apparently "lack of sufficient information" prevented Mitofsky from completing the surveys.
For "very special reasons", Honduras, currently in the midst of a political and institutional crisis, was not included.
Overall the leaders of South America managed an approval average rating of 58%; in North America, 56% and in Central America, 52%.
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