NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from May 2004

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from May 2004

PANAMA WITH PROSPECTS OF A MUCH IMPROVED TORRIJOS.
May 6, 2004... Martin, son of Omar, will restore the Torrijos name to Panama's presidency. The office was destined from the beginning to see a familiar name on the door, but it took the May 2 election to determine that it would not be former president...

CUBA ASKS HONDURAS HELP TO BRING UN TO GUANTANAMO.
May 6, 2004... In March, Honduras presented, at the behest of the US, a proposal written by the US petitioning the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to ask Cuba to allow a human rights relator to visit the island. This is an...

ECLAC REPORTS PRIVATIZATION HAS BEEN BAD FOR REGIONAL POWER.
May 13, 2004... Representatives of government and industry officiated at the opening of a hydroelectric facility on the Samala River in Zunil, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala on May 7. With fanfare and pomp, the bureaucrats and executives of the Italian firm ENEL...

NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN GUATEMALA SUGGEST RETHINKING TIMELINE.
May 13, 2004... Recent archeological finds in Guatemala have reset the clock for scientists engaged in the ancient art of trying to decipher the mysteries of the Mayan civilization. Workers in the field have abandoned one certainty after another in the...

LEONEL FERNANDEZ BACK FOR ANOTHER DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PRESIDENCY.
May 20, 2004... Leonel Fernandez, president of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000, is back. He won the May 16 elections handily against President Hipolito Mejia, who was seeking re-election, and against Eduardo Estrella. Although the official tally is...

HONDURAN YOUTHS BURNED TO DEATH AS CONSEQUENCE OF ANTI-GANG POLICIES.
May 20, 2004... Honduras' war on gangs took a coincidence-stretching turn early Monday morning, May 17, when, for the second time in a year, scores of gang members were burned to death in a prison fire. A year ago, a fire and bullets at El Porvenir prison...

GUATEMALA CATCHES US IN A CAFTA DIRTY TRICK.
May 20, 2004... Guatemala appears to have caught the US in a subterfuge and has warned that it will not sign the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) if the US persists in violating the agreements negotiated last year. Enrique Lacs, Guatemalan...

GUATEMALA STILL NEEDS TO KNOW WHO OWNS WHAT.
May 27, 2004... "To give everyone the land to which they claim title," goes the old saying, "Guatemala would have to be five stories tall." Seven years after the December 1996 Peace Accords, which mandated a land registry, were signed, the saying has ceased...

WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES ANOTHER ROUND OF SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA.
May 27, 2004... The decision by Mexico and Peru in May to recall their ambassadors from Cuba coincided with a White House escalation of the 44-year-old sanctions policy. The diplomatic crisis fits into White House plans to employ third-country support to...