NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from July 2003

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from July 2003

REGION HITS SNAG IN FREE-TRADE NEGOTIATION WITH CANADA.
July 3, 2003... The countries of the region that comprise the Grupo CA-4, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, have begun a ninth round of free-trade negotiations with Canada. The players took their seats without concrete expectations of a signing...

COSTA RICA DEBATES PROPRIETY OF U.S.A.I.D. PAYMENTS TO C.A.F.T.A. NEGOTIATORS.
July 3, 2003... The Costa Rican government rushed to its own defense following an outbreak of news about who is paying its expenses in the CAFTA negotiations. On June 27, the newspaper La Nacion revealed that a private organization called CR-USA had channeled...

CUBA NEWS IN BRIEF.
July 3, 2003... Instead of passing sentence on defendants in the James Sabzali case, the trial judge threw out the convictions citing unsupported and inflammatory arguments by the federal prosecutor. Sabzali and others were convicted of violating the US...

REGIONAL INTERNAL CONFLICTS OVER TROOPS TO IRAQ.
July 10, 2003... With the intention of lengthening the list of countries contributing troops to the post-war situation in Iraq, Spain has signed up El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic in its Brigada Multinacional Plus Ultra. The plan...

REGION'S COFFEE THREATENED BY BERRY BORER.
July 10, 2003... A parasite in Central America is threatening to make a bad situation intolerable for the region. Coffee producers were first hit by record-low prices (see NotiCen, 2002-08-01). Then there was a sharp decline in production accompanied by...

GUATEMALA'S HIGHEST COURT SHREDS CONSTITUTION TO LET GEN. EFRAIN RIOS MONTT RUN.
July 17, 2003... In what is already being called "a new type of coup," Guatemala's Corte de Constitucionalidad (CC) has ruled that Gen. Efrain Rios Montt is eligible to run for the presidency of the republic. The ruling allows the 77-year-old perennial...

REGION FOLLOWS SPANISH LEAD--AT ITS PERIL?
July 17, 2003... Spain's President Jose Maria Aznar arrived in El Salvador on July 8, on a four-pronged mission. He needed simultaneously to express gratitude for Central America's contribution to the international troop presence in Iraq while ensuring that...

CUBA NEWS IN BRIEF.
July 17, 2003... A Florida court convicted a Cuban hijacker of air piracy in the March diversion of a passenger plane to Key West. He faces a sentence of from 20 years to life. The Cuban government lodged a complaint against the State Department for placing...

GUATEMALA: VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN CAPITAL, RIOS MONTT DENIES RESPONSIBILITY.
July 24, 2003... Embattled former dictator Efrain Rios Montt returned to form on July 21, when he made statements to the press that were little more than calls to violence from his supporters. Frustrated by a Corte Suprema de Justicia (CSJ) decision that...

GUATEMALAN BUSINESSMEN PURSUE LOST POWER ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL.
July 24, 2003... Years of estrangement between the business sector and the Alfonso Portillo government (see NotiCen, 2003-01-15) have produced a political wrinkle not seen before in Guatemala politics. Individual business leaders, who traditionally allowed...

PANAMA'S LONG SIMMERING TRADE PACTS COMING TO A HEAD.
July 24, 2003... Panama is breaking out in a rash of free-trade agreement negotiations (FTAs). The government expects to engage the US, Taiwan, and Mexico in separate pacts. President Mireya Moscoso announced in early June that an FTA was the first item on...

REGION'S DEFICIENT SOCIAL SPENDING RETARDS DEVELOPMENT, SAYS U.N. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.
July 31, 2003... Central American governments continue to invest less than the average for all of Latin America in social spending, the UN Development Program (UNDP) said in its Second Report on Human Development in Central America and Panama. For...

REGION MUST KEEP WHAT IT ALREADY HAS IN CURRENT CAFTA ROUND.
July 31, 2003... Round six of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) negotiations started on July 27 in New Orleans. This is the round that could trigger the Matthew effect, so called for the passage in the gospel of Matthew: "For to him who has will...