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| Welcome to edition 3507 published on 02/15/2008 | There are 5 articles in this week´s edition.
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The centrist United Democratic Party (UDP) won a landslide victory last Thursday, gaining 25 of 31 seats in an election marked by accusations of corruption. The remaining six seats were won by the center-left People's United Party (PUP). The UDP alleged the PUP was illegally doling out land leases and housing loans in order to garner last minute support, scandals that the new PM has promised to investigate.
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published 02/15/2008 |
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CAFTA is struggling to make it over the final hurdle. After being narrowly approved in a referendum last October, the treaty's fate has been in the hands of the National Assembly. Under the current rules, the treaty's so-called “implantation agenda” – a package of 12 laws - must be approved by February 29. Although congress recently took one step closer to approval – passing the first vote on an important telecommunications law - there are strong doubts that the deadline will be met. For this reason, the government will solicit the other CAFTA member countries for an extension. Even then, the treaty's consummation is not assured. Many congressmen are still determined to thwart it.
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published 02/15/2008 |
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Álvaro Colom kick-started his term in office by launching a Rural Development Program in Ixcán, a war-torn and poverty stricken region in northern Guatemala. The program is one of the key pillars of Colom's social spending plan and part of the vote-grabbing poverty reduction strategy that brought him to power in November last year. Forty one municipalities will be included in the program. However, Ixcán stands out as it is a region exceptionally rich in natural resources, particularly oil, that the business elite is eager to get its hands on despite fierce resistance from the local population. The people of Ixcán have strongly opposed the construction of the Xalalá hydroelectric dam and the Northern Transversal Strip (FTN), a huge highway that will run from Izabal to Huehuetenango. These controversial projects are largely favored by the new Colom administration as well as the elite which has fuelled suspicions that the real aim behind the government's Rural Development Program is to win the hearts and minds of the local population.
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published 02/15/2008 |
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Government negotiations with the International Monetary Fund have apparently reached an impasse. On February 1, a year after the last IMF agreement expired, Honduran officials traveled to Washington D.C. to discuss the conditions of an eighteen month “Stand-By” initiative. Above all, the Fund is pushing President Manuel Zelaya to seriously restrain spending. The government has said it is ready to make some concessions, but nevertheless claims to staunchly oppose pressures by the Fund to devalue Honduras' currency. For this reason and others, some civil society organizations have doubts that an agreement will come to pass. Meanwhile, the familiar criticisms of the IMF – of its secrecy and excessive intervention in the affairs of an elected government - have resurfaced once again.
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published 02/15/2008 |
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Public statements made by both union and business leaders throughout last week point to fresh political unrest brewing in Nicaragua's Free Trade Zone. Since April 2006 when the country signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) foreign businesses operating have been given numerous tax advantages, and many have shown strong business reports as a result. But the advantages haven't proved enough to satisfy a textile industry that, according to Sandinista unions, is still lobbying for a better “investment climate.”
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published 02/15/2008 |
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