NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from May 2003

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from May 2003

REGION SEEKS AND GETS EXTENDED PROTECTION FOR CITIZENS IN US.
May 1, 2003... On April 16, a group of Salvadoran activists in Los Angeles initiated a campaign to extend the period of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) to citizens of El Salvador living in the US. TPS is, according to the Bureau of Citizenship and...

NICARAGUA PASSES TAX REFORM, PARTIALLY.
May 1, 2003... For the sixth time since 1997, and the third time in less than a year, a tax-reform package was being considered in the Nicaraguan Asamblea Nacional (AN). This latest, the third to be sent to the Asamblea by the government of President Enrique...

GUATEMALA ANTI-AIDS EFFORTS LACK SUPPORT.
May 1, 2003... [The following article by Jill Replogle is reprinted with the permission of Noticias Aliadas in Lima, Peru. It appeared in the April 24, 2003, edition of Latinamerica Press.] Felipe sits in the tiny reception area of the Luis Angel Garcia...

REGION IN LEGAL TURMOIL OVER US PRIVATIZED SPYING.
May 8, 2003... The US has opened its spying activities in the region to privatization. Using private companies that buy entire databases as intermediaries, US agencies including the Department of Homeland Security have bought personal data on millions of...

GUATEMALA'S JUSTICE SYSTEM SET BACK IN MACK TRIAL REVERSAL.
May 8, 2003... A Guatemalan court reversed the conviction of the alleged intellectual author of the murder of Myrna Mack, and affirmed the innocence of his superior officers on April 7. In doing so, Guatemala's criminal justice system took a giant step...

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION APPROVES WEAK RESOLUTION ON CUBA.
May 8, 2003... During is 59th annual session on the state of human rights around the world, the UN Human Rights Commission, meeting in Geneva, approved a resolution implicitly criticizing Cuba though without censure. Cuba took the weak resolution as a sign...

GUATEMALA: MAYAN BIOSPHERE UNDER SIEGE.
May 15, 2003... The Mayan Biosphere, a system of natural and cultural sites for which the government of Guatemala and a host of tourism-oriented businesses hold hopes of economic salvation, is in process of becoming a wasteland. The biosphere is the victim of...

REGIONAL CAFTA NEGOTIATORS BETRAYED BY ONE OF THEIR OWN.
May 15, 2003... The fourth round of negotiations on the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) opened in Guatemala City this week, in an atmosphere of expectation that this would be the round in which Central America got to throw a few punches (see...

GUATEMALA STILL SUFFERING EFFECTS OF US-LED COUP.
May 22, 2003... Forty-nine years after the fact, Guatemala is still suffering the effects of the overthrow of its government in a coup engineered by the US. This is the view of Piero Gleijeses, historian and author of an important book on the period,...

REGION OBJECTS TO NICARAGUAN OIL CONCESSIONS.
May 22, 2003... The Instituto Nicaraguense de Energia (INE) has authorized offshore oil-exploration leases to four foreign companies, amid complaints from Nicaragua's neighbors. The companies were MKJ Exploraciones Internacionales; Industria Oklahoma...

CUBA: RASH OF HIJACKINGS CREATES NEW TENSIONS WITH U.S.
May 22, 2003... Following the Cuban trials of 75 journalists and human rights workers (see NotiCen, 2002-05-08), an immigration crisis unlike any other is unfolding. What makes this crisis unique is that it occurs against the backdrop of President George W....

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC ECONOMY THREATENED BY MASSIVE BANK FRAUD.
May 29, 2003... A case of systematic bank fraud that has been in operation for at least 14 years has threatened to bankrupt the Dominican Republic. The scandal was once called the "Enron of the DR," but, as facts have emerged, the case of Banco Internacional...

STILL JUST A PLAN, PLAN PUEBLA PANAMA LACKS PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND POPULAR INPUT.
May 29, 2003... Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP), the scheme to integrate Meso and Central America, largely remains just that--a plan, a scheme. Little if anything has actually been built, installed, or initiated since the idea, usually if arguably attributed to...