Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis is on a two-week visit to the Americas, with tours of Brazil and the United States on his agenda to promote trade and development.

Dombrovskis headed to Brazil on July 8 and will be there until July 12, according to spokeswoman Zanda Šadre. With him are representatives of seven Latvian companies.

The prime minister’s first stop was July 9 in Rio de Janeiro, where he was scheduled to tour the city’s port and meet with Latvians in Brazil who are involved in business. On July 10, Dombrovskis is to meet with the mayor of Nova Odessa, visit the Fazenda Velha Latvian church and meet with representatives of Brazilian Latvian organizations.

Dombrovskis heads to São Paulo on July 11, where he will meet with Mayor Geraldo Jose Rodrigues Alckmin Fliho and, together with the Latvian trade delegation, attend the second Latvian-Brazilian business forum hosted by Commerce and Industry Federation of São Paulo.

During the visit to São Paulo, the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Commerce and Industry Federation, while the Freeport of Rīga will sign a memorandum with officials of the Santo port.

Dombrovskis also is to be interviewed by the daily newspaper Folha de São Paulo.

On July 12, the prime minister is to travel to the capital city of Brasilia where he will meet with Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer and other government officials. He also is to be interviewed by the newspaper Correio Braziliense and will visit the Swedish Embassy to meet with Brazilian business people.

After his arrival in Washington, D.C., Dombrovskis is scheduled July 13 to meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The balance of the day will be spent visiting with representatives of several American companies and, in the evening, with leaders of the American Latvian Association.

On July 14, the prime minister is to be interviewed by The Washington Post and Newsweek; present his book How Latvia Came Through Financial Crisis to the World Bank; meet with Rep. Gregory Meeks and Sen. James Inhofe; and, together with economist and co-author Anders Aslund, present his book to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The prime minister will then switch coasts and on July 15 visit the San Francisco area and Silicon Valley. On his agenda are a visit to the Plug and Play Tech Center; opening of an office of the Latvian Business Association; meeting with officials from Google, Cisco and Juniper Networks; and visiting Stanford University. He also is expected to meet in the evening with San Francisco-area Latvia business people.

On July 16, Dombrovskis is scheduled to meet with the San Francisco-area Latvian community and open a new Latvian honorary consulate.

From July 17-18, the prime minister will be in Los Angeles, where he will meet with the local Latvian community; open an honorary consulate; meet with city and Orange County officials; meet with the Baltic-American Freedom League; attend a business seminar hosted by Allergan; address the World Affairs Council; and pay a visit to Warner Brothers Studios.

Dombrovskis then travels to Austin, Texas, where on July 19 he will meet with President William Powers of the University of Texas at Austin; visit with Gov. Rick Perry; and attend a business seminar.

From July 20-22, Dombrovskis and the trade delegation will be in New York. On the schedule are interviews with Bloomberg News and the Thompson Reuters agencies; meetings with IBM computer company officials and banking sector officials; and visits to the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. He also will talk about his book to the Council on Foreign Relations.

A longtime Latvian political party—once a darling among voters in the homeland and abroad—has thrown in the towel.

During its 15th annual congress on July 9 in Rīga, and at the urging of its leader Andris Šķēle, the conservative People’s Party (Tautas partija) voted to disband.

Meanwhile, former President Valdis Zatlers is readying his own political party, which would be expected to field candidates in a parliamentary election later this year should a July 23 referendum on dissolving the current Saeima succeed.

Šķēle, one of three oligarchs whose power in Latvian politics has been under fire, urged his party to close down in the face of not only its low ratings in opinion polls, but because the movement has suffered insurmountable damage to its reputation.

Referring to the party’s trademark color, Šķēle told the congress that “orange has become the new black,” according to a transcript of his speech posted on the party’s website.

“No matter what kind of proposals come from our party,” Šķēle said, “no matter what ideas our people express—no matter if they are a Saeima deputy, a city mayor, a rank-and-file member or just a simple supporter—what they say is taken as if it were a message from an apocalyptic monster.”

The party also faces having to pay nearly LVL 1.03 million to the government for allegedly violating Latvia’s campaign finance rules. The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs) found that the party illegally received and spent the money during the 2006 parliamentary election. The party has appealed the ruling.

Formed in 1998, the People’s Party appeared to represent a break from the political stagnation in which Latvia found itself just a few years after regaining its independence. The party presented itself as conservative and oriented to reform. At its head was Šķēle, who was viewed as a successful businessman.

In the 1998 parliamentary election, the People’s Party scored 21.19 percent of the vote and earned 24 seats in the Saeima. Among the 10,008 voters abroad, 33 percent supported the People’s Party, second to the more conservative For Fatherland and Freedom (Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK), which garnered 46 percent of diaspora balloting. MPs elected from the People’s Party included Vaira Paegle, who had spent most of her exile years in the United States.

Zatlers readies new party

Zatlers, whose term in office ended July 7, announced on July 9 that his next step in politics will be formation of the Reform Party.

The former surgeon, much criticized when he was elected president four years ago, has become a folk hero in Latvia. His announcement May 28 that he was using his consitutional power to call for the dissolution of the Saeima came just a week before his possible reelection by the parliament.

Zatlers lost the vote to Andris Bērziņš, a member of the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība) who took the presidential oath of office on July 8.

However, Zatlers is riding a wave of popularity ahead of the July 23 referendum. (Under the Latvian constitution, the president may initiate a national referendum on dissolving the parliament.) Should the referendum succeed—and many observers believe it will—a new parliamentary election would be scheduled for the autumn.

Zatlers told a July 9 press conference in Rīga that the party will be formally founded on July 23, according to press reports.

Latvia’s Ministry of Culture has proposed a nearly LVL 5 million plan to complete renovation of and expand The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, as well as to develop a memorial to victims of the Soviet era.

Under the plan, submitted July 5 to the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Finance is asked to allocate LVL 4.96 million from 2015-2017 to support work on the museum and the memorial. In addition, the plan seeks LVL 53,271 per year from 2015-2034 to help maintain the museum.

The museum was founded in 1993. It tells the story of the country’s occupation from 1940-1991 by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

The downtown Rīga building, which during the Soviet era was the Latvian Red Riflemen’s Museum, is now owned by the state government. Next to the building is Riflemen’s Square, featuring a massive statue of three soldiers. The museum’s board of directors several years ago approved the expansion, called “Nākotnes Nams,” as well as development of the memorial to victims of communism.

Designed already in 2001 by Latvian-American architect Gunnars Birkerts, the expansion calls for doubling the space of the museum.

However, progress on the expansion has stalled because of both legal and financial issues. Museum officials at one time expected the work to be completed by 2010, but Latvia’s economic crisis dashed those hopes. According to the museum’s website and the Ministry of Culture’s proposal, the reconstruction and expansion should be completed by 2014, when Rīga will be one of two European culture capitals. In addition, Latvia in 2015 will take over the presidency of the European Union, meaning Rīga will be in the international spotlight.

The Ministry of Culture’s proposal seeks funding to focus first on renovation of the existing museum building, including such aspects as renovation of the facade, and reconstruction of the plumbing and drainage system. Total cost of the renovation is expected to be LVL 648,495. The renovation work would be completed by October 2012, according the Ministry of Culture’s proposal.

The “Nākotnes Nams” expansion would be finished by December 2013 at a cost of more than LVL 3.2 million.

The memorial—based on a design by artist Kristaps Ģelzis, architect Ilze Miķelsone and sound engineer Voldemārs Johansons—is to be located on Riflemen’s Square. Under the Ministry of Culture’s proposal, it would cost LVL 2.5 million and also would be completed by December 2013.

Beyond funding from the government, the renovation and expansion project is relying on private donations to the museum.