Dos Interpretaciones a la Visita de Sánchez Cerén a Venezuela
Luego de pasar por la elección más reñida en la historia reciente de El Salvador, el país espera que en menos de un mes Mauricio Funes, el primer presidente del partido de izquierda Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), deje el poder y le pase la banda presidencial al primer presidente excombatiente del … Read more
Paz y Paz Sidelined in Guatemala Attorney General Vote
Guatemala’s Comisión de Postulación, a national selection committee, announced the six nominees for country’s next attorney general last week, with the name of current attorney general Claudia Paz y Paz conspicuously absent from the list. Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina will make his choice after interviewing the remaining candidates, and must announce a new attorney … Read more
Monday Memo: Panama Elections – Haiti and the Dominican Republic – Uruguayan Marijuana – Colombian Mine Collapse – Brazil Soccer Death
This week’s likely top stories: Juan Carlos Varela will be Panama’s next president; talks between Haiti and the Dominican Republic are postponed; marijuana legalization goes into effect in Uruguay; a Colombian mine collapse kills at least 12 people; a Brazilian soccer fan is killed in Recife. Juan Carlos Varela Wins Panamanian Election: Juan Carlos Varela … Read more
Protesters in Haiti Demand President’s Resignation
Protesters in Haiti called for the resignation of Haitian President Michel Martelly as they closed a major road in Port-au-Prince on Thursday. Some 2,000 protesters accused Martelly of corruption and demanded that the government hold elections. This is the third protest against the Haitian government this week after elections have been delayed for almost two … Read more
While Brazil Sambas with Cuba, the U.S. Dances Alone
Brazil is betting on an eventual opening in Cuba. The bet is more than economic; it’s linked directly to a larger geopolitical project intended to draw Cuba toward its own model of economic and political organization as Cuba wakes up from its 55-year slumber under the Castro regime. The process has already started with a … Read more
Monday Memo: Panama Elections – Colombian Farmers – Venezuela – Mexico Telecom Reform – Brazilian Colonel’s Death
This week’s likely top stories: Panamanian voters go to the polls on Sunday; Colombian farmers launch another strike; Venezuelan dialogue enters its third week; protesters demonstrate against Mexican telecom reform; the murder of a former colonel could challenge Brazil’s truth commission. Panama Prepares for Presidential Election: Panamanians will go to the polls on Sunday, May … Read more
Two Views of Consulta Previa in Guatemala: A View from the Private Sector
Read a view from Indigenous peoples here. Guatemala ratified International Labour Organization Convention 169 (ILO 169) on June 5, 1996, more than a year after Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, ruled in Document 199-95 that the Convention did not contradict the Guatemalan Constitution.1 But the lack of clarity in ILO 169 … Read more
Country study: Guatemala
Read the introduction here. Read a case study from Chile here. Read a case study from Colombia here. Read a case study from Peru here. Although they constitute 40 percent of Guatemala’s population, Indigenous Guatemalans face great inequality in terms of access to health, education, housing and—most critically—political representation.1 In 1995, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court … Read more
The Promise of Participation: Experiments in Participatory Governance in Honduras and Guatemala by Daniel Altschuler and Javier Corrales
Can democracy be built from the bottom up? Does community participation in small-scale initiatives increase civic and political engagement in the democratic process overall? In The Promise of Participation: Experiments in Participatory Governance in Honduras and Guatemala, Daniel Altschuler and Javier Corrales argue that efforts to engage local communities through community-managed schools (CMS) can increase … Read more
Cuban Revelations: Behind the Scenes in Havana by Marc Frank
Popular interest in Cuba will continue to grow as Americans open their eyes and ears to one key fact: after 55 years, Cuba is changing. It is shifting from a highly centralized, paternalistic, socialist regime, both lauded and vilified for achieving social progress at the cost of democracy and civil liberties, to a hybrid system … Read more
From the Think Tanks
Red de Seguridad y Defensa de América Latina (RESDAL), International Crisis Group, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Crossborder cooperation on crime, the institutional development of police and armed forces, and the role of private security are high on Central America’s public safety agenda. In “Public Security Index, Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, … Read more
Ahora Sí Llego
Halfway between the Cuban towns of Martí and Baracoa, Cuban and Italian filmmakers José Balboa and Desiderio Sanzi plug a hole in the gas tank of their Russian Ural sidecar motorcycle with a glob of powdered deodorant and super glue. It’s a temporary fix for the machine that will carry them across all 15 Cuban … Read more
Crop Over
The island of Barbados’ economy has evolved from its mono-crop dependency in the eighteenth century as the world’s largest sugar producer. But every summer, the island pays tribute to this legacy with a revival of a three-centuries-old harvest festival known as Crop Over. Originally, the festival was meant to cap the long sugar cane growing … Read more
Travel Regulations: OFAC and Cuba
The re-opening of “people-to-people” travel to Cuba by President Barack Obama in early 2011 was the boldest and, arguably, the single most consequential step taken by his administration in relation to the island. It was in fact a revival of a Clinton-era exemption to the decades-old ban on U.S. citizens visiting that country. The exemption … Read more
Political Innovator: Mardoqueo Cancax
Growing up in the Indigenous municipality of Patzún, Guatemala, Mardoqueo Cancax experienced first-hand the frustration of living in a community without good roads and adequate infrastructure. But when he became a parent, he felt even more keenly how such challenges imperiled the future of Patzún’s children. He joined a parents’ committee working on municipal development … Read more
