NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from March 2005

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from March 2005

THE BIG LIE STRATEGY: LINKING GANGS TO TERRORISM IN EL SALVADOR.
March 3, 2005... The gang problem with which Central American countries have been dealing during the past couple of years appears now to have become an international war on gangs with the entry of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and at least a...

CUBA: ECONOMIC GROWTH IN 2004 ACCOMPANIED BY RESTRUCTURING & NEW SOCIALIST GROWTH INDEX.
March 3, 2005... Cuba's economy grew by 5% in 2004, compared with 2.6% in 2003 and a considerable increase over most of the previous decade after the end of Soviet assistance. Between 1989 and 1993, there was negative growth of 35%. Since then, Cuba's growth...

FSLN SEEKS TO STOP ANOTHER SANDINISTA REVOLUTION.
March 10, 2005... A formidable adversary to the presidential aspirations of Frente Sandinista para la Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) perennial candidate Daniel Ortega has arisen in the person of Herty Lewites, longtime party leader and popular ex-mayor of Managua...

IMPORTANT NEW DISCOVERIES AT COPAN, HONDURAS.
March 10, 2005... Honduran and Japanese archeologists have discovered 30 new structures and the remains of 69 Mayans at Honduras' famed Copan archeological site. Project director Seiichi Nakamura said the structures are from the early classical period, 300-600...

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC'S DRACONIAN GANG LAWS LEAD TO IMMOLATION OF 134 TRAPPED PRISONERS.
March 10, 2005... Yet another chapter in the history of deplorable prison conditions and mishandling of the gang problem in the region opened in the Dominican Republic March 7 when a prison fire claimed the lives of at least 134 prisoners. No fewer than 26...

GUATEMALA'S CONGRESS RATIFIES, AND THE MASSES REJECT, CAFTA.
March 17, 2005... In defiance of massive popular opposition, the Guatemalan Congress ratified the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the US, becoming the third country to do so. It was a rush job, with lawmakers resorting to extraordinary means...

COSTA RICA COULD DECIDE CAFTA BY REFERENDUM.
March 17, 2005... Costa Rica may take a different path in determining whether it will become part of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The three countries that have so far ratified the pact, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, have done so by...

US RESUMES MILITARY AID TO GUATEMALAN MILITARY.
March 31, 2005... US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld paid a short visit to Guatemala on March 24. In less than 18 hours in the country, the secretary reversed long-standing US policy toward the Guatemalan military. He released a US$3.2 million...

US DENIES VISA TO DORA MARIA TELLEZ, NICARAGUAN HERO AND SCHOLAR.
March 31, 2005... Academics and legal scholars were flabbergasted when Nicaraguan Dora Maria Tellez, president of the Movimiento de Renovacion Sandinista (MRS), announced in February that the US had denied her a visa for alleged terrorist activities. Tellez had...

HONDURAS CLAIMS COLOMBIAN THREAT TO PRESIDENT RICARDO MADURO.
March 31, 2005... Honduran security officials have claimed that the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) is out to assassinate President Ricardo Maduro. Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said the FARC has "several fronts charged with destabilizing...