NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from July 2004

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from July 2004

PANAMA PUSHES A DEADLINE TO AMEND CONSTITUTION.
July 1, 2004... Panama's president-elect has already set about establishing an ambitious legislative agenda, even though he does not take office until September. Martin Torrijos has asked legislators in his Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD) to...

PAC HOLD GUATEMALA'S FEET TO FIRE; THEY WANT THEIR MONEY.
July 1, 2004... Organized former members of the Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil (PAC) have coerced, threatened, and agitated to be paid for their service during the 36-year internal war that ended with the signing of Peace Accords in Guatemala in December 1996....

KIDS CUT CANE IN EL SALVADOR.
July 15, 2004... Somewhere between 5,000 and 30,000 children in El Salvador, some as young as eight years old, are doing hazardous work on sugar plantations, according to Turning a Blind Eye: Hazardous Labor in El Salvador's Sugarcane Cultivation, a recent...

CUBA NEWS IN BRIEF.
July 15, 2004... President George W. Bush's recent stiffening of sanctions against Cuba has incensed many Cuban-Americans and raised the possibility that he could lose critical votes in the November election. The State Department has again put Cuba on its list...

US-PANAMA TRADE TALKS: THE PATTERN OF EXCLUSION AND DISCONTENT CONTINUES.
July 22, 2004... Panama and the US finished the third round of free-trade negotiations on July 16 without progress on the protection of Panamanian farmers and without US concessions on shipping. There was some forward motion on the less controversial...

THE TREELESS FORESTS OF HAITI.
July 22, 2004... [The following article by Jane Regan is reprinted with the permission of Noticias Aliadas in Lima, Peru. It appeared in the July 14, 2004, edition of Latinamerica Press.] A 10-foot-high mound of charcoal sacks heaped at Edmond Pierre's...

CAN REPARATIONS HEAL WOUNDS IN GUATEMALA?
July 22, 2004... [The following article by Jill Replogle is reprinted with the permission of Noticias Aliadas in Lima, Peru. It appeared in the July 14, 2004, edition of Latinamerica Press.] Faced by a crowd including hundreds of Mayan indigenous people in...

HAITI: BATTLEGROUND FOR HEMISPHERIC POWER SHIFT.
July 29, 2004... In a partial reversal of policy, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) expressed in mid-July a desire to have Haiti return as an active participant in the organization. Barbados Minister of Foreign Relations Billie Miller told the media, "We want...

THE PARALLEL UNIVERSES OF PLAN PUEBLA-PANAMA.
July 29, 2004... The breach between the organized poor of the region and the political-industrial complex that would have them believe Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP) megaprojects and free-trade schemes are good for them yawned wider recently, as groups on both sides...