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| Welcome to edition 3503 published on 01/18/2008 | There are 5 articles in this week´s edition.
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Álvaro Colom assumed the presidency on January 14. In his inaugural speech he called for a national dialogue to address the most grievous problems facing the country – poverty above all. But even though Colom has repeatedly defined his incipient government as a “socially democratic” one, his cabinet appointments indicate that the reality will be more complex. Alongside the many officials who are true “social democrats” will serve others who represent entrenched business and social interests.
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published 01/18/2008 |
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On December 29, 2007 the Minister of Foreign Relations, Milton Jimenez Puerto, was detained by a patrol of transit police for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol. The Minister faced the media on January 3 to announce his resignation and apologize to the Honduran people. In response to the resignation, President Manuel Zelaya buckled to political pressure and criticisms from within his party, and made modifications to his Cabinet, including changes to security and banking officials. According to analysts, Zelaya´s reaction is consistent with his impulsive and insecure management of the government.
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published 01/18/2008 |
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Nicaragua began the year with steeply rising prices for fuel and other goods, which threatened to reduce still more the purchasing power of an already financially strapped population. While the government's opponents focus on the “dictatorship” being forged by President Daniel Ortega, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) praises the country for its macroeconomic stability, everyday life for most people looks much different. Rising fuel prices and a bad year for crops have pushed real salaries back to pre-1996 levels. The government has announced that the price of basic services will rise. Unions are demanding another raise to the minimum wage, for the second time in the past year. And the government, rather than create an ambitious social policy paid for by substantial tax reform, has rather turned to the IMF and Venezuela for help.
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published 01/18/2008 |
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Overriding an executive veto, the National Congress recently passed a set of electoral reforms that, most controversially, would drastically increase government financing of the nation's political parties. But after complaints about parliamentary violations and nationwide uproar over political self-dealing, Congressional leaders say they will reconsider their decision to dig deeper into the public coffers.
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published 01/18/2008 |
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Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly and Oscar Arias' government are in a race against time to pass the laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) before a February 29 deadline. But the final stretch of the race has been looking increasingly steep; it is now becoming more and more doubtful that the 13 pending laws will be passed in time. The opposition party, the Citizen Action Party (PAC), has taken it upon itself to present hundreds of amendments to each of the pre-CAFTA laws - a stalling mechanism which adds hours to the debates in the Assembly. Meanwhile, the parties that support DR-CAFTA are frantically searching for ways to buy time. But in a further attempt to stall CAFTA's progress, opponents of the trade agreement are working to force the government to call a referendum on a convention on the intellectual property rights for new species of plants. The Electoral Supreme Court has supported the motion, though there is little chance that the referendum will block CAFTA in any way .
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published 01/18/2008 |
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