Central America & Caribbean Archives - Page 23 of 47

Cuba Officially Removed from U.S. Terrorism List

The era of acrimonious relations between Cuba and the U.S. may soon come to a close as Cuba’s designation on the U.S. Department of State’s list of state sponsors of terrorism (SSOT) has officially been rescinded after a final decision from Secretary of State John Kerry today. On April 14, President Barack Obama announced his … Read more

Corruption Network in Guatemalan Health System Exposed

Guatemalan authorities arrested 17 people, including the head of the Guatemalan Central bank, on Wednesday in an ongoing investigation into fraud at the Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social (IGSS—Guatemalan Institute of Social Security) that resulted in the deaths of at least five kidney failure patients. In December 2014, IGSS changed its supplier of kidney dialysis … Read more

Additional Guatemalan Officials Resign Amid Allegations of Corruption

Guatemala’s Ministers of Interior, Energy and Mining, Environment, and the Secretary of Intelligence resigned on Thursday, amid a series of corruption scandals. The resignations come two weeks after Vice President Roxana Baldetti was forced to step down due to a top aide’s involvement in customs fraud. Despite the resignations, President Otto Pérez Molina refuted claims … Read more

Veteran Judge Sworn in as Guatemala’s New Vice President

Judge Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre was sworn in as Guatemala’s new vice president on May 15 after his predecessor, Roxana Baldetti, was forced to step down in the wake of a major corruption scandal. Maldonado Aguirre was not originally included in the shortlist of candidates that President Otto Pérez Molina sent to Congress. The original list … Read more

Dominican Republic Denies Extension Request from 18 Haitian Migrant Rights Organizations for the National Regularization Plan

On Wednesday, the Dominican Republic government denied a deadline extension request for applications to the Plan Nacional de Regularización (National Regularization Plan) from 18 advocacy organizations dedicated to defending Haitian migrant workers’ rights. The deadline for registration is scheduled for June 17. Roudy Joseph, spokesman for the coalition of organizations, announced that a document would be … Read more

Guatemalan Customs Fraud Scandal Taints Lawyers, Judges

On May 8, Guatemalan authorities arrested three lawyers representing defendants in a massive customs tax fraud case known as Caso SAT that has thrown the current administration into a state of disarray and forced Vice President Roxana Baldetti to resign. The UN Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala (International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala—CICIG), … Read more

Baldetti’s Resignation Deepens Guatemalan Political Crisis

Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti resigned last Friday, ending a tumultuous three weeks of protests after an investigation raised questions about her possible involvement in a high-profile corruption scandal known as Caso SAT. Baldetti’s former private secretary, Juan Carlos Monzón, was recently accused of organizing a corruption network targeting Guatemala´s tax collection agency—the Superintendencia de … Read more

AQ Interview: Robert Muse on U.S. Ferry Service to Cuba

The last ferry between Cuba and the United States left Havana for Key West at 3pm on October 31, 1960. Operated by the West India Fruit and Steamship Company of West Palm Beach, the SS Havana City was just one of many commercial ferries bringing American travelers (and their cars) to Cuba. The U.S. trade … Read more

Monday Memo: Castro visits Pope—Chilean Cabinet—Colombian Coca—Guatemalan Corruption—Central American Geothermal

This week’s likely news stories: Raúl Castro has an audience with the Pope; Michelle Bachelet shakes up her Cabinet; Colombia bans coca spraying; a Guatemalan judge is linked to a corruption scandal; Germany will invest in Central American geothermal projects. Cuban President Meets with the Pope: Cuban President Raúl Castro met with Pope Francis this … Read more

Haiti: Back to the Future?

January 12, 2015, was a grim day in Haiti. Not only was it the fifth anniversary of the devastating earthquake of 2010, it was also the day that President Michel Martelly placed a major question mark over the future of Haiti’s troubled democracy. On that day, Martelly began to rule by decree while a long-simmering … Read more

Decoding the Digital Cold War

Among the pressing issues raised by the historic thaw in U.S.–Cuba relations is the role the Internet might play as the two nations enter a new chapter in their shared history. Cuba has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the Western hemisphere. Government data suggests that over 25 percent of Cubans are using … Read more

The Caribbean’s Fiscal and Economic Challenges

Pack your bags. The vacation is over. This was the panorama of the Caribbean in 2008 and 2009, when the Great Recession emptied the islands’ beaches of tourists and dried up foreign direct investment for hotels, condos and restaurants. Current account and fiscal deficits widened in many of the Caribbean nations, and belt-tightening was the … Read more

Business Innovator: Jose Kont

Every entrepreneur aims to reinvent the world, but José Contreras went one step further by reinventing his identity. The 28-year-old Guatemalan, who has brought a social media marketing technique called “neuromarketing” to companies in Central America, not only established a new firm called iLifebelt to promote it; he gave himself a new name. Under the … Read more