NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from November 2007

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from November 2007

COSTA RICA'S SOPHISTICATED AND SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN FOR THIRD TERM ON UN SECURITY COUNCIL.
November 1, 2007... Costa Rica bested the Dominican Republic in the contest for a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council. The two countries stood for election by the 192 nations that make up the UN. It was a hard-fought battle between the two nations in...

HAITI: RIGHTS GROUPS URGE GOVERNMENT TO BACK OUT OF TRADE PACT WITH EUROPEAN UNION.(Reprint)
November 1, 2007... [The following article by Charles Arthur is reprinted with the permission of Noticias Aliadas in Lima, Peru. It appeared in the Oct. 17, 2007, edition of Latinamerica Press.] Development and human rights organizations in Haiti are...

ALVARO COLOM DEFIES MOST POLLS TO WIN GUATEMALA PRESIDENCY.
November 8, 2007... Guatemala has elected a new president, center-leftist Alvaro Colom. Voters gave the third-time candidate a roughly 52%-47% edge over right-wing Gen. Otto Perez Molina. The election went off fairly smoothly, according to observers, a relief...

UN VOTES AGAIN FOR END TO US BLOCKADE OF CUBA; BUSH ROUNDLY REPUDIATED.
November 8, 2007... Every country in the world, with the exception of the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands, and Palau, voted in the UN General Assembly to end the US-imposed economic blockade against Cuba. The Oct. 31 exercise was the 16th time in as many years...

AFTER REFERENDUM, COSTA RICA STILL A LONG WAY FROM CAFTA IMPLEMENTATION--THE BATTLE CONTINUES.
November 15, 2007... The fight regarding the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is not over in Costa Rica. One might have thought that, when the electorate narrowly approved the referendum on Oct. 7 (see NotiCen, 2007-10-18), the contention would have...

COSTA RICA SEES ACCELERATED POVERTY REDUCTIONS.
November 15, 2007... Surpassing government expectations, poverty in Costa Rica declined by 3.5% during 2007. President Oscar Arias had made a campaign promise to reduce the index by 4% by 2010, the end of his term. "In the political campaign, we said we were...

PRESIDENT-ELECT ALVARO COLOM COULD END CORRUPTION IN GUATEMALA; ONE ANALYST'S VIEW.
November 29, 2007... To win the Nov. 5 election, President-elect Alvaro Colom had to, and did, overcome accusations of corruption that have dogged him for years. In 2004, he was investigated in connection with illegal transfers of government money into the...

HONDURAS TAKES ACTION TO RELIEVE ECONOMIC PRESSURE POINTS.
November 29, 2007... A faltering economy in the face of substantial GDP growth has led Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's administration to take a series of dramatic actions. Chief among them is a freeze on the prices of basic goods. The general public, strained...