News in English

28.11.2003 Interest of multilateral organisms in the Guaraní Reserve, one of the largest subterranean water reserves in the world and capable of supplying water indefinitely to 360 million people, have placed organizations that fear the reserve could be privatized on alert.

27.11.2003 In a new report on torture in Colombia, Amnesty International renews its call on the Colombian government to strengthen its efforts to combat this horrendous practice and to end impunity. The report is being launched when the United Nations Committee Against Torture is presenting its concluding observations regarding the situation of torture in Colombia.

27.11.2003 Despite the Guatemalan Constitutional Court’s August 2003 ruling that the country’s Congress did not have the legal capability to adhere to the Hague Convention on International Adoptions, the mechanism has entered into force and will determine relations between Guatemala and a long list of other countries with regards to international adoptions.

25.11.2003 As state party of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Nicaragua has the international obligation to respect, protect and fulfil these rights. However, the state of Nicaragua has still not taken the measures necessary in order to fulfil these goals. The high level of extreme poverty and malnutrition remains, the level of quality of life has declined to lowest in history, which means that after Haiti, Nicaragua today is the poorest country in Latin America.

25.11.2003 After a tense and violent campaign period, Guatemalans breathed a sigh of relief after the Nov. 9 elections. Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, dictator during the worst moments of the armed conflict and presidential candidate for the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), came in a distant third place, with 19.21 percent of the vote.

21.11.2003 The tiny courtroom in Lago Agrio, a jungle town in northeastern Ecuador, was packed on Oct. 21 for the start of a landmark trial against US oil giant ChevronTexaco for pollution caused by its operations more than a decade ago.

21.11.2003 Textiles, agricultural products, and publicly held companies are just a few of the themes currently being negotiated between the United States and Central America. Countries in Central America have understood the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) as their promised entry onto the list of preferred trading countries with the most powerful State on the planet.

19.11.2003 Trade ministers from 34 countries will begin three days of closed-door sessions to advance negotiations on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Under this agreement, US regulations that protect media diversity, localism and the public interest could be attacked as 'barriers to trade.'

19.11.2003 Free trade advocates and multinational corporations are pinning their hopes on Robert Zoellick, the United States trade representative, as negotiators from around the two continents gather in Miami this week for the Free Trade of the Americas talks.

17.11.2003 In the month of October 2003, a total of 25 children and youth under the age of 23 were murdered, a significant drop from the average of 50-70 murders per month over the past year. This is the second month of significantly lower child murder rates, after 27 child and youth murders in September.