NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from February 2007

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from February 2007

REGION COULD SUFFER SEVERELY FROM U.S. ETHANOL POLICY.
February 1, 2007... The tortilla paradox is coming to Central America. First seen in Mexico (see SourceMex, 2007-01-10 and 2007-01-31), the phrase has come into use to denote a price reversal by which tortillas now cost more in the lands where they are the staple...

EL SALVADOR SENDS MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ AMID PUBLIC DISAPPROVAL.
February 1, 2007... With a good deal of fanfare and against public sentiment, El Salvador's President Antonio Saca sent off another 380 of his nation's soldiers to fight the US's war in Iraq. On Jan. 29, he stood before his soldiers at the Brigada de Artilleria...

XIII FORO DE SAO PAULO; SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE IN EL SALVADOR.
February 8, 2007... The XIII Foro de Sao Paulo (FSP) convened in San Salvador Jan. 12-14, bringing together leftist organizations from 33 countries, the majority from Latin America. It was an upbeat and celebratory forum, a departure from the years when the left...

NICARAGUAN MISSILES AND HONDURAN WARPLANES ON POLITICAL COLLISION COURSE.
February 8, 2007... The US has thrust a stick in a long dormant hornet's nest with the near-simultaneous sale of military aircraft to Honduras and demand that Nicaragua destroy its stock of Soviet-era Sam-7 anti-aircraft missiles (see 2001-04-05). Nicaragua's...

PANAMA TRADE PACT KEY TO U.S. RECAPTURING THE HEMISPHERE.
February 15, 2007... Panama and the US concluded a free-trade agreement (FTA) in December that must now be ratified by each country's congress. This "triumph of optimism and hope in the future," as President Martin Torrijos called it, should have smooth sailing...

DEPORTATIONS FROM U.S. STRAINING ISTHMUS SOCIETIES AND ECONOMIES.
February 15, 2007... The US deported about 70,000 Central Americans back to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala during 2006. Against the backdrop of legislative failure in the US to pass immigration reform, immigration authorities responded to public clamor for...

PRESIDENTIAL RUN FOR RIOBERTA MENCHU WOULD ALTER THE POLITICAL EQUATION IN GUATAMALA.
February 22, 2007... The 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum has announced her intention to run for president in the September 2007 general elections, setting the stage for the most profound change in the way Guatemala does its political business in...

MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF PARLIAMENTARIANS HAS SALVADORAN AND GUATEMALAN AUTHORITIES GUESSING.
February 22, 2007... Three members of the Central American Parliament, Parlacen, and their driver were murdered the night of Feb. 19 in Guatemala. The deputies, Eduardo D'Aubuisson, Jose Ramon Gonzalez, and William Pichinte, were members of the Alianza Republicana...