NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs articles from September 2002

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs archives from September 2002

GUATEMALA: MYRNA MACK MURDER TRIAL BEGINS.
September 5, 2002... It has been 12 years since Guatemalan anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang was stabbed to death. On Sept. 3, the military officers accused of ordering and planning her murder finally came before a court of justice to defend themselves. The trial...

REGION: AN END TO A LONG BORDER DISPUTE.
September 5, 2002... The long-standing territorial dispute between Guatemala and Belize may be coming to a conclusion, with the help of the Organization of American States (OAS). Guatemala's Foreign Minister Gabriel Orellana confirmed on Aug. 30 that a process of...

NICARAGUA: RULING PARTY INFIGHTING CAUSES COASTAL CHAOS.
September 12, 2002... On Aug. 19, four members of the Nicaraguan Consejo Supremo Electoral (CSE) refused to travel to Bluefields on the Atlantic Coast to certify the results of an election there that would have ushered into the Consejo Regional del Atlantico Sur...

EL SALVADOR: SAN SALVADOR MAYOR SEEKS THIRD TERM AS COALITION CANDIDATE.
September 12, 2002... Hector Silva, twice Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) mayor of San Salvador, has decided to run for another term, but this time he insisted on running as a coalition candidate. Putting a pluralist face on his candidacy meant...

CUBA UNDERTAKES MASSIVE SCHOOL RENOVATION PROGRAM.
September 12, 2002... Cuba has recently completed a massive project to rehabilitate substandard schools, especially in Havana, and to strengthen a teaching staff, which, according to some accounts, had become as rundown as many of the schools. Despite the...

EL SALVADOR AND HONDURAS RENEW BORDER DISPUTE.
September 19, 2002... On Sept. 11, 1992, at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a judgment was handed down that would resolve the simmering border dispute between Honduras and El Salvador once and for all (see NotiCen, 1998-01-29). Honduras was the...

PANAMA, GUATEMALA, AND THE TWIN CRISES OF THE CENTRAL AMERICAN BANANA.
September 19, 2002... In what is now being called a crisis in Panama, banana exports fell 10.8% from January 2002 to July, according to a report from that country's Ministry of Commerce. Panama exported 13.2 million 18-kg boxes, compared to 14.8 million boxes for...

SEEKING THE SECRETS OF GUATEMALA'S MYSTERY BONDS.
September 26, 2002... A plan to offer US$700 million worth of government bonds on European markets has become shrouded in mystery as several sectors of Guatemalan society have begun to ask exactly where the proceeds will go. Strangely, there seems to be no coherent...

NICARAGUAN LEGISLATURE PURGES ALEMAN-LED LEADERSHIP.
September 26, 2002... A majority in the Nicaraguan Asemblea Nacional (AN) found a long-sought solution to its institutional logjam on Sept. 19 by replacing the membership of its Junta Directiva. The old junta represented the faction of the ruling Partido Liberal...

MEXICO CANCELS INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS IN HAVANA EMBASSY, DELIVERING ANOTHER BLOW TO RELATIONS WITH CUBA.
September 26, 2002... Cuba-Mexico relations have deteriorated since the early 1990s, as Mexico steadily aligned itself with US policies. During the last month, President Vicente Fox's administration seemed to go out of its way to offend Cuba, ordering its embassy in...