NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from April 2004

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from April 2004

MEXICAN PRESIDENT VICENTE FOX TOUTS PLAN PUEBLA-PANAMA TO TOO FEW PRESIDENTS, TOO MANY PROTESTERS.
April 1, 2004... Guatemalans gave Mexican President Vicente Fox an angry reception on his first stop on a tour of Central America aimed at resuscitating his waning Plan Puebla Panama (PPP). Fox's take on his visit with President Oscar Berger was that...

AGRICULTURAL SALES TO CUBA KEEP RISING DESPITE EMBARGO & ADMINISTRATION POLICY CRACKDOWN.
April 1, 2004... Since late 2001, US exports to Cuba have gone from next to nothing to a multimillion-dollar business that has producers in virtually every state competing to sell in the Cuban market. While US President George W. Bush has made extraordinary...

CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY DENIES RECOGNITION OF HAITI REGIME.
April 1, 2004... Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders bore up under tremendous pressure to withhold recognition of Haiti's US-installed interim government at a March 27 meeting in St. Kitts. They said they would take the matter up again at a July summit in...

PANAMA CANAL: SIZE MATTERS; VULNERABILITY AN ISSUE.
April 15, 2004... Personnel from Panama's Ministry of Government and Justice met with counterparts from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 23 in Panama. "We talked about all the security issues that concern both of us: maritime, border, and...

SIZE MATTERS: GUATEMALAN ARMY TO SHRINK.
April 15, 2004... The Guatemalan Army will soon be a lot smaller. Reports differ on the size of the cuts, but the budget, number of bases, and troop strength will shrink on the order of from one-third to one-half. "This unprecedented historic act consists of...

DIGGING UP THE TRUTH IN GUATEMALA.
April 15, 2004... [The following article by Eduardo Garcia is reprinted with the permission of Noticias Aliadas in Lima, Peru. It appeared in the March 6, 2004, edition of Latinamerica Press.] Forensic anthropologists are digging up clandestine cemeteries...

SALVADORANS REMAIN AS THE REIGN IN SPAIN PUTS REGION'S TROOPS ON THE PLANE.
April 22, 2004... Honduras has become the first Latin American country to follow Spain out of Iraq, but will be the second Central American country to leave. Nicaragua was first; it repatriated its troops on March 1. But State Department spokesman and...

THREE SMALL STEPS TOWARD JUSTICE IN GUATEMALA.
April 29, 2004... Efrain Rios Montt, former general, president, congressional leader, and presidential candidate (See NotiCen, 2003-07-24 and 2004-01-08) has been indicted in connection with the death of a journalist. He is under house arrest, and has been...

COCOA IN HONDURAS AND NICARAGUA THREATENED BY FUNGUS.
April 29, 2004... Honduran cocoa growers will not benefit this year from high world prices for their commodity. The crop has been hit by disease. First infected in 1998, Honduran cocoa plantations are in danger of being destroyed by the fungal disease...