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	<title>Council on Hemispheric Affairs &#187; Puerto Rico</title>
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	<description>COHA is an NGO specialized in monitoring Latin American and Canadian Relations for more than 30 years...</description>
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		<title>The CARICOM Blueprint for Illicit Drug Trafficking</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/the-caricom-blueprint-for-illicit-drug-trafficking/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/the-caricom-blueprint-for-illicit-drug-trafficking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:05:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Bahamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Haiti]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jamaica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Puerto Rico]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=15474</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Drug trafficking and related violence is on the rise throughout the Caribbean at a time that the region is being heavily influenced by organized Latin American criminal groups. U.S./Mexico border controls have been profoundly tightened, resulting in a growing spillover of drugs into the wider Caribbean. The Caribbean’s natural landscapes and diffuse geographical locations make it appealing for drug traffickers who take advantage of such terrain that features long often uncontrolled coastlines and mountainous interiors for the growth and transportation of narcotics. The role of the U.S. has increased with the creation of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, targeted on helping to combat the growing menace of the drug trafficking phenomenon. Drug traffickers target vulnerable CARICOM islands such as Haiti to earn big profits by corrupting high officials. The 1970s marked the dawning of the drug trafficking phenomenon in the Caribbean. Since then, the tentacles of this multibillion-dollar illegal industry has plagued the West Indian islands with expanding drug cartel ramifications from Central and South America which continue to make use of the islands as a channel to deliver supplies to high-demand markets in the United States and Europe. Drug cartels use the Caribbean as a mode of transit, mainly [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Clearing Out without Cleaning Up: The U.S. and Vieques Island</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/clearing-out-without-cleaning-up-the-u-s-and-vieques-island/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/clearing-out-without-cleaning-up-the-u-s-and-vieques-island/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 May 2011 18:58:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Publications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Puerto Rico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reports]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=12688</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The island of Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, has long been known for its beauty and its distinct culture, which are unique to the island. The name of the island itself means “rich port” in Spanish, indicating that for years Puerto Rico has served as an economic asset for Spain and the U.S. and, more recently, as a tourist paradise in the Caribbean. The commonwealth of Puerto Rico historically has been subjected to abuse by foreign powers intent on exploiting its rich resources, including a small stretch of land off the island’s east coast called Vieques. The U.S. Navy made extensive use of Vieques for weapons testing up until 2003, when it abandoned the island without cleaning up the traces of years of gunnery practice and test bombings, which were capriciously left behind. The consequences of these bombings continue to surface as cancer rates and incidents of ecological damage begin to mount. U.S. Congressman Steve Rothman has said that, “The injustice toward the people of Vieques, Puerto Rico must end. The time for the U.S. government to right this wrong is long overdue.”1 This is a sentiment shared by thousands of Puerto Ricans who today seek to rectify the past [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
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		<title>Puerto Rico: Statehood and Strike</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/puerto-rico-statehood-and-strike/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/puerto-rico-statehood-and-strike/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:54:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Puerto Rico]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=9495</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Spanish American War ended in 1898, but one aspect of the conflict remains unresolved: the status of Puerto Rico. Despite the importance of the issue, it is rarely an agenda priority in the continental United States. Recently, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2499 (“The Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2010”), a bill sponsored by Puerto Rico’s Representative Pedro Pierluisi. As the Act awaits its fate in the Senate, however, the White House refuses to voice its opinion on the matter. The Obama administration seems to be stalling until October, when the Presidential Task Force is scheduled to release its official report on the status of Puerto Rico. While the administration remains tight-lipped pending the release of the Task Force Report, unrest in Puerto Rico may speed up the tempo as to when the international community will take an interest in the island. This spring’s student strikes at the Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR) threaten to shut down the public university system, and the strife has become multi-generational as unions and students’ relatives join the ranks of the protestors. The scale of the UPR strike and the goals it advocates are effectively bringing light to very serious economic problems [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
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		<title>Puerto Rican Nationalism and the Drift Towards Statehood</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/puerto-rican-nationalism-and-the-drift-towards-statehood/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/puerto-rican-nationalism-and-the-drift-towards-statehood/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:11:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Press Releases]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Puerto Rico]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=5598</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Near the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola and Cuba lies another, smaller island, the inhabitants of which have never experienced sovereignty. The arrival of Christopher Columbus [Colón] to its shores in 1493 heralded an era of enslavement and destruction of the native Taíno population at the hands of the Spanish colonial system. Four centuries later, the decadence of the Spanish royalty had significantly weakened the once-formidable imperial structure. The Spanish-American War of 1898 became the capstone of the demise of the Spanish empire and the Treaty of Paris ceded control of several Spanish-held islands to the United States. Of the territorial possessions to change hands in 1898, Puerto Rico is one of the only ones that persist in a state of colonialism to this day. &#8220;Puerto Rico has been a colony for an uninterrupted period of over five hundred years,&#8221; writes Pedro A. Malavet, a law professor at the University of Florida who has studied the subject extensively. &#8220;In modern times, colonialism – the status of a polity with a definable territory that lacks sovereignty because legal [and] political authority is exercised by a peoples distinguishable from the inhabitants of the colonized region – is the only legal status that the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Sonia Sotomayor About to Win the Laurel Crown</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/sonia-sotomayor-about-to-be-awarded-the-laurel-crown/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/sonia-sotomayor-about-to-be-awarded-the-laurel-crown/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:09:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Press Releases]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Puerto Rico]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=5312</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[- If confirmed, Sotomayor would be the first Latina to serve on the nation’s highest court - How does the U.S. Supreme Court affect the rest of the world? - What is the status of Sotomayor&#8217;s Puerto Rico and what should it be? - If voted on favorably, how would Sotomayor impact future judgments issued by the Supreme Court? As this week&#8217;s hearings to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court wind down, there have been few surprises. Rather, the Senate has performed a predictably ritualistic act, with Democrats trying to protect the President&#8217;s nominee and Senate Republicans trying unsuccessfully to elicit embarrassing disclosures without damaging their own political prospects. While the next Puerto Rican nominee is unlikely destined to receive as much attention, Sotomayor&#8217;s candidacy has caused quite a fuss. As expected, Republicans questioned Sotomayor on statements she had made regarding her identity, but no one broached the subject of her relationship to the U.S. territory from which her parents emigrated: Puerto Rico. As the open hearings come to a close today, there is little doubt that President Barack Obama&#8217;s nominee will be confirmed. Yet, in spite of the routine nature [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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