NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from April 2006

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from April 2006

NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS JOIN CAFTA; THREE DOWN, THREE TO GO.
April 6, 2006... Honduras and Nicaragua have brought to three the number of countries now fully participating in the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the US. The latest officially came on board April 1; El Salvador has been a CAFTA country...

WITH U.S. OPPOSITION AT HIS BACK, ORTEGA SURGES IN NICARAGUA PRESIDENTIAL RACE.
April 6, 2006... Daniel Ortega has gained considerable ground in the race for Nicaragua's presidency. The election is seven months away. The ex-president (1979-1990) and evergreen candidate of the Frente Sandinista para la Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) is now in...

PANAMA CANAL EXPANSION PLAN CHALLENGED: A MEGAPORT WILL SUFFICE.
April 20, 2006... A group of Panamanian experts has determined that enlarging the Panama Canal is a bad idea. What the country really needs, say the experts, is a megaport that would allow container ships too large to navigate the present canal to offload...

PREVAL REESTABLISHES RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD AS LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS DETERMINE FATE OF HIS PRESIDENCY.
April 20, 2006... Haiti is about to go through another election. With scarcely a couple of months to catch its breath since the presidential election won by Rene Preval (see NotiCen, 2006-02-16), the country faces another democratic exercise April 21, this time...

STEPPING BACK TOWARD DEATH: CRIME, SUICIDE, AND POLITICS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.
April 27, 2006... Reeling under rising indices of violent crime, Dominicans are embracing restoration of the death penalty. An April poll in the newspaper Hoy found that more than 67% of respondents favor a return to capital punishment, at least in the case of...

HAITI'S LEGISLATIVE RUNOFF: A BIT TARNISHED AND POORLY ATTENDED, BUT GOOD FOR PREVAL.
April 27, 2006... Haiti's April 24 legislative runoff elections went off without major problems, and the results spelt moderately good news for President-elect Rene Preval. With 98% of the votes counted, Preval's Lespwa party had won at least 11 of 30 seats in...

CALL IT SOLIDARITY OR CALL IT MEDDLING, NICARAGUA GETS A BREAK ON FUEL COSTS.
April 27, 2006... Nicaragua has become the second country in the isthmus to benefit from Venezuela's oil diplomacy. Earlier this year, El Salvador's mayors signed a highly unusual pact with Venezuela to supply fuel under favorable terms, and now Nicaragua's...