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Honduras, three years on
It’s three years since the coup in Honduras that sent President Manuel Zelaya into exile in his pyjamas. Porfirio Lobo, who took over as president in January 2010 following highly questionable elections, is more than halfway through his term. The only grounds for optimism are offered by the resistance movement that sprang up after the…
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Canada’s New Colony? – the ‘Charter City’ in Honduras
The economist Paul Romer has been in Canada promoting his idea for a so-called ‘charter city’ in Honduras. Interviewed for TV Ontario, he said that a charter city would attract investment by offering a completely fresh administrative, legal and financial system, separate from the country in which the city is built. The proposal has started…
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Book Review: Sandinista: Carlos Fonseca and the Nicaraguan Revolution by Matilde Zimmermann
Living in Nicaragua I’m keen to learn all I can about its history and particularly that of the Sandinista revolution. I’ve always been interested in Fonseca’s role as the political inspiration for the Sandinista party and – within the party itself – its most respected figure, even though he died before the ‘triumph’ of 19…
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At the Lighthouse
Beyond the Frame, an exhibition of Cuban paintings and photographs in aid of the campaign to release the Miami Five, is at the Lighthouse in Glasgow until Sunday (it was at Gallery 27 in London last month). Many of the works are apolitical but some are inspired by the various attempts by US governments to destabilise…
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Palo Alto gets connected
Following a substantial grant from the British Embassy in Costa Rica (which also covers Nicaragua) towards Proyecto Sol, and a new donation from Midland Heart, the Birmingham-based housing association, we were able to extend the solar panel project to yet another community. It’s in the very isolated area between Nicaragua’s two big lakes, called Palo…
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After Comayagua
The fire at Comayagua on 14 February brings the number of prisoners who have been killed in prison fires in Honduras in the last decade to more than 530. The government’s inaction in the face of repeated prison massacres may well mean that it is found guilty at a hearing of the Inter-American Court of…
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Our man in Havana
Alan Gross, a 62-year-old US citizen, has been imprisoned in Cuba since December 2009. He fell foul of the authorities while working for USAID, liaising with Cuba’s small Jewish community. The Washington Post earlier this month demanded his release, saying that ‘Cuba’s accusations stem from Mr Gross’s humanitarian work’. When he was convicted for ‘acts…