SANTO DOMINGO.- President Leonel Fernandez’s job approval rating is at 46 percent, the third and last block of popularity among twenty chief executives of the hemisphere, according to the surveyor, Consulta Mitofsky, quoted by the newspaper Diario Libre.

It says the first block includes those whose popularity is more than 60 percent: Alvaro Uribe, of Colombia; Hugo Chávez, of Venezuela; Felipe Calderón, of Mexico, and Oscar Arias, of Costa Rica.

Between 50 and 60 percent are the recently-arrived Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, of Argentina, Ecuadorian Rafael Correa, the Panamanian Martín Torrijos, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, the Uruguayan Tabaré Vásquez, the Salvadoran Antonio Saca and the Brazilian Luis Inácio Lula Da Silva.

Fernandez heads the last third, those below 50 percent, with the Chilean Michelle Bachelet, with 39 percent; the American George Bush, with 34 percent; the Honduran Manuel Zelaya, and  the Peruvian Alan Garcia both with 33 percent; the Guatemalan Oscar Berger, with 27 percent, the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega, 21 percent, and the Paraguayan Nicanor Duarte, with 17 percent.

Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, has 30 percent.