In little over a week since officially entering Mexico’s 2012 Presidential contest, the campaign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) Enrique Peña Nieto already finds itself in full damage control following an embarrassing performance by the candidate during the presentation of his new book, and disparaging comments made by the candidate’s teenage daughter. While speaking […]
“The Venezuelan cooperation is now number one,” said President Michel Martelly shortly before boarding his plane to Caracas, land of Hugo Chavez. “It gives most grants and aids to Haiti,” added the president at Toussaint Louverture airport’s diplomatic room ahead of his first official trip to Venezuela as a member of the Community of Latin […]
This year in Cuban history will be viewed as a significant one, having seen more economic change and reform on the island than some entire decades. But Washington’s response over the course of a year has proven insignificant. Let’s start with a brief summary of the past year. In January, the executive branch of the […]
Haitians began 2011 with heavy hearts as they approached the first anniversary of the Jan. 12 earthquake that crippled their homeland and crushed 316,000 lives. Haitian leaders watched a steady stream of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) invade the country, carrying a $1-billion purse collected on behalf of the victims. Meanwhile the population remained on edge, following […]
Mexico has been slow to mend from the repeated stabs of a drug war, declared in 2006, and the blunt pummel of America’s recession in 2008. But 2011 showed more signs of recovery than relapse. At least 40,000 Mexicans have been killed from drug-related violence over the past five years, and the number directly affected […]
“Haiti is a country that supported the fight for freedom in Latin America, a country that terrified slave owners across America and is now subjugated to foreign occupation that has nothing to do with humanitarian purposes, as proposed,” said Julio Turra, president of Unified Confederation of Workers (CUT French acronym). “It’s embarrassing,” added Turra during […]
According to a recent poll by Latinobarómetro, a public opinion survey conducted in 18 countries in the Latin American region, 45% of Brazilians agree that “democracy is preferable to any other type of government.”[1] Alarmingly, the figure is down from 54% last year. The Economist proposes an explanation: “Dilma Rousseff, the new President, has taken […]
Conventional wisdom holds that Mexico’s economy marches in lockstep with America’s. Mexico sends most of its exports to the US, after all, and Mexico is a middle class nation thanks in large part to the country’s integration into the North American economy. But on 22 November Mexico reported growth of 4.5 percent over the same […]
I was rather surprised to see a Cuba headline make it to the front page of the New York Times recently. The surprise is not because the placement is unmerited: indeed, such attention is quite timely and relevant. It is due to the fact that Washington still seems to be deaf to all of the changes […]
President Michel Martelly took his first official trip to Cuba on Tuesday Nov. 15, 2011, a diplomatic mission he hoped would strengthen bilateral relations and traditional cooperation between Haiti and Cuba while identifying new avenues of cooperation. “That does not make sense,” said Martelly, talking about U.S.’s embargo against Cuba. “Haiti pleaded the cause of […]
Facing his first major judicial-political crisis sparked on Thursday Oct. 27 following the unconstitutional arrest and overnight detention of Deputy Arnel Belizaire, Prime Minister Garry Conille created a three-member commission to help uncover the incident’s hierarchical authors and diffuse escalating tensions. The “Belizaire Affair,” as it is now known, directed the national dialogue for more […]
For the second time in President Calderon’s administration, a secretary of interior (Secretario de Gobernación) has died in what government officials have prematurely dubbed as an aerial accident. Francisco Blake Mora, the de-facto second in command in Mexico’s executive branch, was en route to a conference in the central state of Morelos when his helicopter […]
Accompanied by wife Rosalynn, US Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten and Haiti’s Public Health Minister Florence Duperval Guillaune, Former US President Jimmy Carter launched National Initiative to Eliminate Filariasis on Sunday Nov. 7, 2011, a massive $1.5 million medication distribution campaign to help eradicate Lymphatic Filariasis in Haiti. Also known as elephantiasis, lymphatic Filariasis infected […]
The apprehension and brief detention of a sitting legislator last Thursday was a prelude to looming political paralysis that also served as a catalyst for change, engaging citizens in substantive debates about institutional corruption decaying Haiti’s political and judicial systems. The national consciousness came to life after government Commissioner Felix Leger ordered the national police […]
This week Raul Castro’s government took to expanding on its opening of the Cuban economy. After September’s announcement allowing Cubans to freely sell and purchase automobiles for the first time legally since the Cuban Revolution, today it was announced that Cubans could now sell and purchase private property without restrictions or licensing from the government. […]