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| Welcome to edition 3702 published on 15/01/2010 |
There are 4 articles in this week´s edition. |
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Rodrigo Rosenberg became a household name in Guatemala after he posthumously accused the President and First Lady of ordering his Mother’s Day murder last year. His words, left behind in video taped days before he was shot to death on a tree-lined boulevard, sent tens of thousands of protesters into the streets and sparked youth-led reform movements. But the case that once seemed powerful enough to topple a presidency came to a bizarre end on January 12 as investigators concluded that Rosenberg, distraught over the murder of his girlfriend and her father, ordered his own death.
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published 15/01/2010 |
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Pressure is mounting against President Ortega’s recent decree to extend the terms of state officials. On January 11 various groups, including members of the political opposition, civil society and the private sector, uniformly rejected Ortega’s illegal 9 January decree which extends the terms of state officials – normally the exclusive responsibility of Congress. However, previous shows of opposition unity to the president’s constitutional breaches have yet to translate into action. In October 2009, for example, the Supreme Court illegally ruled to overturn the ban on consecutive presidential re-election; and in November 2008 controversy erupted over allegedly.
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published 15/01/2010 |
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“Everything must change so that everything can remain the same”, once said a famous Italian Marxist. The author was of course referring to 19th century Sicily, but the quote could just as easily apply to 21st century Guatemala. 2009 was no exception; amid a year of political, economic and social tumult, the country’s underlying internal struggles and serious structural problems simply intensified. The government ended a particularly difficult year with little to show for it, especially in terms of significant social progress. Many vital projects and political reforms were once again postponed. Furthermore, public security concerns, social conflict, political polarization and institutional instability have reached points of no return. Events in 2009 also revealed the extent to which networks of “parallel powers” and other shady mafia-type groups have co-opted state institutions and political life generally. Increasing inequality has also become more obvious within the context of an economic crisis in which the country’s poor majority has been the only group to really suffer.
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published 15/01/2010 |
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2009 was a historic year for El Salvador’s left, which finally returned to power after 20 years of right wing rule. Not even the ongoing economic crisis, which saw thousands of Salvadorans lose their jobs, has dampened the public’s enthusiasm for their new leader, Mauricio Funes. The president was recently voted Latin America’s most popular head of state by a long margin. Funes promises that 2010 will be a year of recovery for his country, which also suffered devastating rains in November costing millions of dollars in damage. The government is set to invest a record “close to $800 million”, in social projects, and new homes will be built for victims of the storms and others in sub-standard housing. Meanwhile, the opposition ARENA party suffers. |
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published 15/01/2010 |
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