NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from October 2006

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from October 2006

INDIGENOUS INVADE THEIR OWN LANDS TO FIGHT MINING USURPATION.
October 5, 2006... Mining companies operating in Guatemala face increasing resistance as residents of lands encroached by the companies have begun to occupy and hold the sites. The occupation tactic was in times past used to protest and refute the ownership of...

MILITARIES MEET IN NICARAGUA, DEBATE U.S.-DRIVEN AGENDA.
October 5, 2006... The hemisphere's defense ministers met in Nicaragua Oct. 1-5, with an agenda aimed at a further blurring of the lines between military and civil security functions. Within the broader context of the VII Western Hemisphere's Defense Ministers...

CIA KNEW IN ADVANCE THAT POSADA CARRILES PLANNED BOMBING OF CUBAN AIRLINER, SAY NEW DOCUMENTS.
October 12, 2006... As Cubans gathered in Havana's Karl Marx theater to commemorate the30th anniversary of the bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion airliner that killed all 73 people aboard, new evidence was released in the US showing that the government had...

REGION'S PRESIDENTS MEET TO INTEGRATE POLICE, PROMOTE MEGAPROJECT, AND DENOUNCE A WALL.
October 12, 2006... Central American heads of state met in Tegucigalpa Oct. 3 for an "extraordinary summit" on security and other issues of mutual concern. Among the twenty-odd issues they agreed to in their final statement, the Declaration of Tegucigalpa, was a...

TINY ISLAND, BIG CONSEQUENCES FOR HONDURAS AND EL SALVADOR.
October 19, 2006... Isla Conejo is a tiny island in the Gulf of Fonseca. The little island, scarcely 600 meters off the shore of Honduras and measuring no more than 1,000 sq meters, could hardly be less imposing. But for El Salvador and Honduras its strategic...

AFTER SIX MONTHS, CAFTA FAILING THE POOREST, BENEFITING THE RICHEST.
October 19, 2006... CAFTA has been in effect for six months in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and data show that the results are in line with what both supporters and opponents of the agreement expected; the strong players are benefiting, the weak are not (see...

PANAMA CANAL EXPANSION APPROVED IN HEAVILY CRITICIZED REFERENDUM.
October 26, 2006... Surprisingly few Panamanians turned out to vote on a referendum that would permit a vast expansion of the Panama Canal, but those who did voted overwhelmingly in favor of the project. The expansion is needed to accommodate larger vessels that...

REGIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SEAT IN DOUBT IN MARATHON GUATEMALA-VENEZUELA GENERAL ASSEMBLY BALLOTING.
October 26, 2006... After 35 successive ballots Oct. 17-18, the UN General Assembly was not able to give the decisive 128 votes either to Guatemala or to Venezuela to fill the Latin America regional seat on the Security Council. Guatemala led on all but one of...