NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from February 2006

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from February 2006

MOURNING ON THE LEFT; SHAFIK HANDAL DEAD, BUT STILL A PROBLEM FOR EL SALVADOR'S GOVERNMENT.
February 2, 2006... Shafik Handal is dead. The 75-year-old leader of El Salvador's opposition Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) suffered cardiac arrest in the airport upon returning home from the inauguration of President Evo Morales in Bolivia....

HONDURAS' NEW PRESIDENT PROMISES SYSTEMIC CHANGE; OUTGOING PRESIDENT ALSO FACES SWEEPING CHANGE.
February 2, 2006... Manuel Zelaya Rosales was sworn in Jan. 27 as president of Honduras. He is known popularly as Mel, is 53 years old, and is the pick of the former opposition Partido Liberal (PL). He does not have a majority in the 128-seat Congress, but the...

MOURNING ON THE LEFT; SHAFIK HANDAL DEAD, BUT STILL A PROBLEM FOR EL SALVADOR'S GOVERNMENT.
February 2, 2006... [Editor's Note: This article corrects acronym for Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional to FMLN. It was previously sent out as FSLN]. Shafik Handal is dead. The 75-year-old leader of El Salvador's opposition Farabundo Marti para la...

NEARLY TIED VOTE IN COSTA RICA A BLOW TO MAJOR PARTIES, A THREAT TO CAFTA.
February 9, 2006... Costa Ricans went to the polls Feb. 5 to elect a new president, but this reputedly most democratic and technologically advanced of Central American countries still has no president-elect, and experts say it will be weeks before it has. The...

LOW SCORES FOR REGION ON ABILITY TO PROTECT ENVIRONMENT.
February 9, 2006... Yale University has released its 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), and Central America, with the exception of Costa Rica, fared badly. "The ESI benchmarks the ability of nations to protect the environment over the next several...

HAITI HOLDS ELECTIONS AFTER FOUR POSTPONEMENTS; CARICOM WEIGHS RECOGNITION.
February 9, 2006... Haiti held its presidential elections Feb. 7. The event started chaotically, but, in the end, large numbers of people voted. Preliminary results indicate that former President Rene Preval prevailed, but it remains unclear whether he won...

HAITI HAS A PRESIDENT, BUT NOT NECESSARILY A DEMOCRACY.
February 16, 2006... The international community ganged up on reluctant Haitian officials Feb. 16 to award the delay-plagued presidential election to Rene Preval. Vote counting was halted Feb. 15, after leading candidate Preval alleged fraud and called for an...

LITTLE PROSPECT OF AN INDIGENOUS PRESIDENT IN GUATEMALA.
February 16, 2006... The election of Evo Morales in Bolivia has led to speculation that an indigenous leader could be elected president in Guatemala as well. Morales has spoken of the possibility of a resurgence of indigenous leadership in the Americas and an end...

MONTEALEGRE LEADING IN NICARAGUA, MAJOR PARTIES HURTING.
February 23, 2006... Eduardo Montealegre has overtaken Herty Lewites in recent polls to become the man most likely to succeed President Enrique Bolanos in Nicaragua's November elections (see NotiCen, 2005-08-25). Montealegre split from Bolanos' ruling Partido...

PREVAL SAYS ARISTIDE CAN COME HOME TO HAITI; INTERNATIONALS FEAR THE WORST.
February 23, 2006... Haiti's new president, Rene Preval, took a sharp slap at the former interim government and the US policy that installed it with the announcement that former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991, 1994-1996, 2001-2004) could come home....

PANAMA'S COMMERCE CUP RUNNETH OVER; A BACKLOG OF TRADE DEALS.
February 23, 2006... Having just concluded a free-trade agreement with Chile, Panama finds itself pressed, pressured, and wooed by others to do the same with them. The boy next door on the list of suitors is Central America. Pining from afar is the US. ...