NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from August 2005

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from August 2005

CENTRAL AMERICA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT INCREASINGLY DIVISIVE AS U.S. BECOMES FOURTH TO RATIFY.
August 4, 2005... The US House of Representatives passed the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) into law on July 28, by the narrowest of margins, 217-215. The agreement squeaked by only after the time allotted for the vote was extended to allow for...

CUBA DOES NOT HAVE ROGER NORIEGA TO KICK AROUND ANY MORE, BUT ISLAND NOW FACES A NEW U.S. POLICY ONSLAUGHT.
August 4, 2005... Cuba's long-time archnemesis Roger Noriega announced his resignation as US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, the last in a series of government platforms from which he has been taking pot shots at Cuban President...

WTO RULES A WIN FOR REGION AND TRANSNATIONALS IN EU BANANA-TARIFF DISPUTE.
August 11, 2005... Latin American banana producers advanced their cause on Aug. 1 when the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in their favor against a European Union (EU) proposal to raise import tariffs on the region's bananas (see NotiCen, 2004-11-04). The...

CUBA CLAIMS VINDICATED AS COURT OVERTURNS CONVICTIONS OF THE CUBAN FIVE.
August 11, 2005... A three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, vacated the 1998 conviction of five Cubans charged with serving as unregistered agents of a foreign government, in effect, espionage (see NotiCen, 2001-06-21)....

HAITI BACKTRACKS ON ELECTION DATES; MIXED SIGNALS FROM LAVALAS ON PARTICIPATION.
August 11, 2005... Haiti will postpone local elections, scheduled for Oct. 9, until after legislative and presidential elections. Those latter elections will be moved up to Nov. 6 from Nov. 13. A runoff presidential election, should it be necessary, will be...

SOCIAL SCIENTISTS TRACE GANG DEATHS TO POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM AND MEDIA COMPLICITY AS MANY DIE IN GUATEMALA PRISON RIOTS.
August 18, 2005... At least 35 members of international youth gangs perished in Guatemala's prisons on Aug. 15, adding to the hundreds who have died in penitentiaries in Honduras (see NotiCen 2004-05-20) and the Dominican Republic (see NotiCen, 2005-06-30) in...

US CHANGED CAFTA TO WIN VOTE; REGION'S OPPOSITION BOLSTERED BY DISCLOSURES.
August 18, 2005... In selling the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), US officials made late changes to the agreement, long after negotiations concluded, that undermine the notion that CAFTA is a treaty in the commonly understood meaning of the word....

CUBA GRADUATES FIRST CLASS OF DOCTORS FOR WORLD'S POOR, HEALS POLITICAL WOUNDS, AND FURTHERS THE BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION.
August 25, 2005... Cuba's Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina (ELAM) graduated its first class of new physicians Aug. 20 in a ceremony headed by Presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Martin Torrijos of Panama. About 1,600 graduates from...

PROFOUND CHANGE POSSIBLE IN NICARAGUA'S 2006 ELECTIONS.
August 25, 2005... Herty Lewites, former mayor of Managua and erstwhile pillar of the Frente Sandinista para la Liberacion Nacional (FSLN), has received a leg up from the Partido Alternativa Cristiana (AC) in his run for president of Nicaragua in 2006 (see...