News in English

27.02.2004 Haiti has a few hours left to find a compromise that will stop the country's slide towards all-out civil war. Rebel leaders agreed late on Monday to reconsider an international peace plan but there are few positive signs. They still insist that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide must step down. Meanwhile, the rebels continue to advance and are now poised to attack the capital.

23.02.2004 Rebels overran Haiti's second-largest city in their biggest victory of a bloody uprising and said soon they will attack the capital in their campaign to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. As thousands of looters rampaged through Cap-Haitien Sunday, rebel leader Guy Philippe predicted a quick victory over Aristide's partisans, who sought to block any advance by erecting flaming barricades on the highway into the capital, Port-au-Prince, from the north.

20.02.2004 On January 20, the Guatemalan Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a senior military officer, Col. Juan Valencia Osorio, for plotting and ordering the political assassination of Guatemalan anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang in 1990. The colonel has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

19.02.2004 President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina is emerging as the leading nemesis of the International Monetary Fund and the private financial speculators in South America. Assuming office in May 2003 with less than a quarter of the popular vote, he now enjoys 85% support in the opinion polls due in large part to his determination to take on the neo-liberal policies that lead to the country's economic collapse in 2001-2.

18.02.2004 The emergence of former paramilitary leaders convicted of past human rights violations as leaders of the armed opposition force is fuelling a conflict that has already taken too many lives, said Amnesty International as the crisis in Haiti continues to deepen.

17.02.2004 Peruvians disillusioned with President Alejando Toledo pondered his fifth cabinet reshuffle in 30 months yesterday, a last-ditch effort to end his worst crisis yet. The prime minister, Carlos Ferrero, announced on Sunday the seven new ministers - most politically independent - who will join the 16-member cabinet.

16.02.2004 In responding to Haiti’s worsening violence, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide should ensure that the country’s security forces respect international human rights standards on the use of lethal force, Human Rights Watch said

13.02.2004 The Forces Armées d'Haïti (FAD'H) was demobilised by Aristide in early 1995. The following snips were pulled together by the Haiti Support Group to suggest that there may be moves to reinstate it.

12.02.2004 The Fourth Caribbean Ministerial Conference on Women will convene in St. Vincent and the Grenadines from 12 to 13 February 2004 to review the objectives of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action and assess their implementation. It will be preceded by a technical meeting on 11 February 2004 attended by the heads of national machineries for women in the subregion.

11.02.2004 Haiti appears to be on the brink of a major humanitarian crisis as armed groups opposed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide battle police for control of several towns and cities in the north of the country. The UN's World Food Programme says deliveries of aid supplies are proving difficult because of the security situation.