Year: 2007

JamaicaPress ReleasesTrinidad & Tobago
COHA

Containment in Their Shanty Towns is not a Solution: Constructive Engagement and not a Face-off between Gangs and New Jamaican Prime Minister is Needed

    • Jamaica should be a paradise not just for tourists, but also for day-to-day citizens trying to live out their lives

    • London’s behavior towards its former colony based on deporting Jamaican criminals back to overcrowded Kingston jails does not do the job

    • How much of the violence in Jamaica is gang-related and how much is politically-motivated?

    • Jamaica does not need “chameleon” politics; it needs leadership

After three months in power, Jamaican Prime Minister Orette Bruce Golding has his work cut out for him regarding national security issues, and the time for action is at hand. The proliferation of gang warfare is a growing cancer on the island, which, combined with corruption, political violence and common crime, creates a deadly pathological social cocktail that inevitably will prevent the nation from achieving its rightful place as a Caribbean leader. If some dramatic anti-crime and corruption program is not implemented in short order, the island’s stature will undoubtedly deteriorate, leaving regional competitor Trinidad-Tobago in a much more favorable status within the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the local tourist industry suffering from grievous injury. More and more, Jamaica is being alluded to for its punishing problems with crime and not as an island in the sun. The two factors simply cannot coexist.

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NicaraguaPress Releases
COHA

To Risk Not Saving a Life: Abortion Ban in Nicaragua and its Societal Implications

  • Once a born again Marxist and now upholding an ultramontane pedigree, the question is which is which when it comes to the puzzling Daniel Ortega?
  • The mortmain of the Church when it comes to issues of justice and personal rights.

About a month ago, 22-year-old Olga Reyes was suffering from an ectopic pregnancy in which a fetus develops outside of the uterus, making its survival an impossible outcome. Such a pregnancy also can put the mother in grave danger, as there is a risk of excessive bleeding that can lead, in extreme cases, to death. Unfortunately, this is exactly what occurred in the case of Reyes. If an ectopic pregnancy goes undetected, the only chance to minimize death or injury of the mother is to terminate the pregnancy through an abortion. In most countries—even many of the most conservative ones—abortions are permitted when a mother’s life might be in danger.

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BrazilColombiaPress ReleasesVenezuela
COHA

Bank of the South: Another step toward Latin American integration

  • Member countries analyze the proposal as Banco del Sur (Bank of the South) is about to be launched
  • Lula, while skeptical, is moving ahead
  • Dealing with the opposition to the Bank
  • Not a Chávez-controlled institution, but one aimed at development and integration, infrastructure loans and aiding each other’s investment requirements

Since coming to power in 1999, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez may have been seen as a controversial figure, universally known for his confrontational stance regarding U.S. foreign policy aims. However, his zeal for social reform, promotion of Latin American integration and his unquestionable good will toward other nations will reach a high-water mark on Sunday, December 9, 2007, when the Bank of the South will be formally launched.

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BrazilPress Releases
COHA

Brazil’s Bolsa Familia at Risk

  • With the Calheiros scandal still hanging over it, an increasingly tarnished Lula administration cannot afford to lose the one social program that has brought it a modicum of luster
  • Thanksgiving arrived the other day, but 36.1 million Brazilians would not have been at the table. The Getúlio Vargas Foundation reported last September that the income of 19.3 percent of all Brazilians is so low that they can't afford to maintain the minimum 2,288 daily dose of calories recommended by the World Health Organization
  • The government's formula is to put children in school as a means of putting food on the table
  • Now that the Provisory Contribution over Financial Movements (CPMF) tax is at risk, the funds for social programs might be equally endangered. This would be a catastrophe and would knock out Lula's only clearly successful major social justice program since he became president
  • Can the new trend in international development–microfinancing–complement Lula's social flagship, the Bolsa Família program, or will it end up replacing it?

In the last few weeks, social reforms intended by Latin America's "New Left," to enhance the social content of their legislative programs, have been overshadowed by challenges to their political agenda. Not only have Venezuelans voted "no" to the constitutional reforms that would have expanded Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's power, but in an attack against President Evo Morales Bolivia's rich provinces have decided to draft a local applicable constitution that, if achieved, would claim more autonomy from the central government. However, this new counter-trend is not unique to Latin America's "New Left." Brazil and its centrist government are also in the midst of a considerable political challenge, as Lula's main social program, the Bolsa Família, is threatened by a killer tax-cut, and his ruling PT party is in a free-fall. His comrade-in-arm and president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros has just been forced to give up his post on the basis of corruption charges that have been lodged against him.

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