On October 1, Guy Ryder assumed his elected position as the new Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Ryder replaces Juan Somavía, who held the post since 1999, eighteen months ahead of schedule. The Director-General of the ILO is a key figure in promoting the human right to work and in addressing its realization […]
Investors often fear one outcome to their investments beyond any natural disasters or recessions, one that has characterised possible nightmare results of investing in Emerging Markets, that of a nationally supported expropriation. Latin America as a whole has often fought and suffered as a result of state expropriations of American and European companies over the […]
Standard and Poor’s rating agency has lowered the credit ratings of 9 eurozone members, including formerly AAA-rated France and Austria. The move is significant, affecting as it does the future of the eurozone’s bail-out fund, the French presidential election, the roll-over of existing European sovereign debt, and more. However, the downgrade is not really a […]
Since 1959, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna [ETA] has waged a violent campaign for Basque independence from Spain and France. The body count since the first murder in 1968 stands at 829. On October 20, ETA announced an end to its paramilitary activities in a statement that read in part, “ETA has decided on the definitive cessation […]
I flagged an event to you recently, “The Climate for Renewable Energy,” cosponsored by the government of Navarra and NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. There were some excellent presentations made by the impressive group of panelists assembled for the evening. The President of Navarra, Miguel Sanz Sesma, noted that his province has developed a “comprehensive […]
The big news coming in is about the arrest of six Pakistanis and a Nigerian by the Spanish police in Barcelona late on Tuesday. The arrested men have been accused of having links to radical Islamic cells in Pakistan. They are suspected of providing forged passports to groups linked to al-Qaeda, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba in […]
by Meritxell Ramírez-Olle This Sunday, November 28, voters in Catalonia go to the polls. Catalonia (El Principat de Catalunya) is one of the Spain’s 17 autonomous communities with a population of 7.5 million people whose capital is Barcelona. Catalan, spoken by more than 9 million people, is the national language and has, since 2006, been […]
Europe in the past has seen its fair share of successful (and unsuccessful) mass movements descending in the street and clamoring for justice of course. The 1968-69 demonstrations spectacularly failed (Prague) or led to ambiguous changes in the social life styles of society difficult to measure (Germany, France). The 1989 mobilizations were an unequivocal success […]
Desmond Boylan/Reuters Negotiations at the end of July between Cuban President Raul Castro, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Havana Jaime Ortega, and Spain’s foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, yielded unusual results: Havana decided to release 52 of the individuals currently identified internationally as political prisoners—a full third of those currently held under that status. The website […]
Excerpts from a European Parliament resolution passed on March 10, 2010: The European Parliament… strongly condemns the avoidable and cruel death of the dissident political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo after a hunger strike of 85 days, and expresses its solidarity and sympathy with his family; Condemns the pre-emptive detention of activists and the government’s attempt […]
FPA blogger Richard Basas discusses COHA’s recent article—“No ‘Common Policy’ as Europe Grapples over its Future Ties to Cuba“—in this post on the Latin America blog. He addresses the difficulty the EU faces in adopting a single policy toward Cuba when its member states have diverse levels of connection to the island: Spain, which has […]
The Venezuelan flag carries a rich historical tradition, and is based on versions used by rebels who fought for the country’s independence in the early 19th century. At the same time, like Venezuela as a whole, the flag has undergone changes in recent times. The flag has three horizontal colored stripes. The red is said […]