GUATEMALA
Lessons from community organization in Totonicapán

On September 9, at least 20 thousand people from Totonicapán province took part in a peaceful march against the proposed Water Law (Ley de Aguas). In interviews with CAR, community leaders from four towns in Totonicapán denounced the media's distortion of events, which suggested the movement was manipulated by powerful politico-economic groups and NGOs. Some deputies linked to the passing of the law share this notion of a manipulated revolt. CAR however was able to verify the movement's legitimacy and strength, which derive from the fact that it is made up of traditional social networks responding to a genuinely participative central body searching for the common good based on Mayan cosmovision.

REGION
Millennium Development Goals a long way from being reached

The 2005 World Summit, held at the United Nations General Assembly on September 14,15 and16, was dominated by criticisms concerning the execution of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Prior to the summit, the UN Development Program (UNDP) published its 2005 Human Development Report, which indicates that modest improvements were made in the majority of developing countries although the situation had worsened dramatically in Africa. In Central America, recent development is considered to have been modest, despite persistently high levels of poverty and malnutrition in the region. The report states that despite large amounts of foreign assistance, Central America has not advanced as hoped. Development in Nicaragua and Guatemala has been especially resistant to external aid. The report ranks Honduras, Panama and Guatemala in a group of countries found to have the greatest degree of inequality in the world. At the end of the year, another report will be published in Guatemala measuring the country's specific progress in terms of reaching the MDGs by 2015 and include an overview of the costs involved. However, the fact that the study will for the first time be written by the government rather than the UNDP, is seen by some as a move to transfer the majority of Guatemala's politico-economic responsibility onto that of wealthy donors. Similarly on a worldwide scale, many believe that widescale changes to the economic or social policies of poor countries in order to reduce internal inequality and promote development "from within", are being sidelined in favor of rich countries providing quick fixes through continued development aid.

HONDURAS
Doubts over PRSPs, HIPC and CAFTA

The main economic policy tools designed by multilateral institutions and the US to cope with global commerce are the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement with the US (DR-CAFTA), Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and foreign debt relief for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). However, an analysis of the main components of each initiative reveals that there is no money for PRSPs, and that benefiting from DR-CAFTA will be difficult for many sectors of the economy.

PANAMA
Questions over new security advisor

The government's recent appointment of a Spanish espionage expert for an undefined post has sparked heated debates in the media and among the political opposition. The new security advisor, Julio López Borrero, who has worked with the two previous administrations and the Spanish embassy in Panama, has previously been implicated in a highly publicized scandal in which the Spanish royal family had their phones tapped without authorization.