In an otherwise contentious race for the U.S. presidency, free trade has been a surprising point of convergence for President Obama and Governor Romney. Specifically, Obama has emphasized the success of the free trade deals (FTAs) passed last year with Colombia, Korea and Panama, saying these¨…are helping us to double our exports and sell […]
This morning Cubans awoke to learn in the daily Granma newspaper that after years of discussion and rumors, the carta blanca policy that requires Cubans to receive permission to travel from Cuba for any length of time will be rescinded. As of January 14, when this new policy goes into effect, Cuban citizens will need only a […]
As Colombia prepares for peace talks with the nation’s oldest guerrilla group, the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) set to begin next week, a new report sheds light on the immense challenges to land restitution in Colombia, where conflict has displaced nearly five million people. ¨Still a Dream: Land Restitution on Colombia´s Caribbean Coast, ¨ […]
Perhaps the biggest underlying tension among Cuba watchers is on the issue of whether things (policies) on the island are changing for the better, or whether they remain upsettingly the same as they have for half of a century. A comprehensive view, of course, would acknowledge that both phenomena exist. And a realistic observer would […]
“Violence in Haiti is systemic, that is to say, it’s related to the abandonment of the state, the abandonment of society by public institutions that fail to provide basic services.” “I reject the ontological definition of an inherently violent Haitian,” declared Anthropologist Rachelle Charlier Doucet at Port-au-Prince’s Hotel le Plaza on Friday, June 29, 2012. […]
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will spend this weekend campaigning in Florida, long a power player in the realm of swing states. Representative Ryan’s success there will depend mainly upon his appeal to two voting groups: seniors and Hispanics. This includes the Cuban-American community. Following the announcement of Ryan as Romney’s running mate and a […]
Today marks one year that The Association of Sick and Fired Workers of General Motors Colombia (ASOTRECOL) members have been camped outside the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia in an act of protest. ASOTRECOL is an association of Colmotores, or General Motors Colombia, employees who assert they were injured while performing their duties at the company’s […]
“Haiti walks a fine line between a failed state and fascistic state.” More than two months before its forthcoming August 2012 released, Jeb Sprague’s book, “Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti,” stormed academia, political and diplomatic communities, delivering what some reviewers perceived as a brilliant diagnosis of the history of political violence […]
“Haitians Continue to drown at sea, fleeing, against all odds, the land their forebears fought for so heroically and valiantly on a quest for a better life.” Hardly a new phenomenon, Haitian migration took center stage as the United Nations in mid-July after a woman drowned when a boat carrying more than 100 Haitian migrants, […]
Ask a self-employed Cuban how she came to possess the goods she is selling, and she might tell you that they came from “Roberto.” The euphemism indicates that the goods are stolen, and given the scarcity of many products and the unreliability of state retail stores in Cuba, many new entrepreneurs in Cuba are struggling […]
The organization Global Witness recently released a briefing entitled “A Hidden Crisis? Increase in killings as tensions rise over land and forests.” The briefing shows that 711 activists defending rights related to land and forests have been assassinated in the last decade (2002-2011), word-wide. The report shows that Latin America is home to three of the […]
Human rights activists acclaimed a Dominican Republic (DR) court’s historic conviction and 15-year prison sentencing of two Haitian child traffickers charged with smuggling, trafficking, and exploiting Haitian children’s labor. “It is the first time Haitian traffickers have been jailed in the Dominican Republic for trafficking children,” declared the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through a […]
World Refugee Day gives us a chance to reflect on the refugees closer to home, including thousands of Colombian refugees living throughout the Western Hemisphere. And the opportunity to understand what is driving them out of Colombia. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports today that there are officially 400,000 Colombian refugees living […]
Colombia is enjoying a growth spurt, thanks in large part to security gains made in recent years. The amount of coca cultivated in Colombia has decreased from 357,800 acres in 2001 to 140,847 acres in 2010. An international aid effort is helping the Colombian government. Notes an article in today’s Miami Herald: The alternative development […]
Mariela Castro’s U.S. tour continued this week with a visit to the United Nations, a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and a public presentation at the New York Public Library. The East Coast stopover followed a busy agenda in San Francisco last week, and has upset those who say that […]