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	<title>Council on Hemispheric Affairs &#187; Front Page</title>
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	<link>http://www.coha.org</link>
	<description>COHA is an NGO specialized in monitoring Latin American and Canadian Relations for more than 30 years...</description>
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		<title>When Will Washington Learn? Alternative Drug Policies Needed to Prevent Violence</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/when-will-washington-learn-alternative-drug-policies-needed-to-prevent-violence/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/when-will-washington-learn-alternative-drug-policies-needed-to-prevent-violence/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:17:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Daily News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=14649</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, like fire and powder which, as they kiss, consume.” - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Distressingly, the United States has long ignored its role in the illegal drug trade and its contribution to the ongoing violence plaguing the territory throughout Mexico and Colombia. Recently, however, counteractive efforts have begun to assume an inclination toward violence as a strategy to curtail the further proliferation of drug trafficking and illegal immigration from Colombia and Mexico. Similarly, Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s strategy of rooting out drug cartels with widespread flame and combat has only aggravated the problem. Over the course of a four-year initiative, over forty thousand Mexicans have been killed, the overwhelming majority of whom had no connection to drug cartels. New York Times columnist Damien Cave’s article on the hacker syndicate Anonymous retells how after the Zetas drug cartel kidnapped an Anonymous employee, the syndicate released a haunting video (much like those filmed and used for intimidation by the Zetas), threatening to release hundreds of names of political officials tied to the cartel, intending to foment violence against those individuals. This poses a terrifying situation: responding to the violence in [...]]]></description>
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		<title>At Washington D.C. Film Premiere of “Leaving La Floresta,” Filmmakers Take on U.S.-Colombia Drug, Trade Policies</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/at-washington-d-c-film-premiere-of-leaving-la-floresta-filmmakers-take-on-u-s-colombia-drug-trade-policies/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/at-washington-d-c-film-premiere-of-leaving-la-floresta-filmmakers-take-on-u-s-colombia-drug-trade-policies/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:57:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Colombia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=14607</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the evening of October 13, 2011, the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) premiered a newly made independent film, “Leaving La Floresta.” The film follows a group of young men who document their journey in Colombia -the home of the largest population of internally displaced people in the world- in order to learn more about the causes of this displacement. Part travel documentary, part advocacy journalism, the movie focuses on the role that the United States’ Plan Colombia coca fumigation policies play in the process of this vast migration to urban centers of the country. The filmmakers seem aware of their limitations as outsiders, acknowledging their intrinsic privileges as well as their naïveté from the start. They show genuine reverence for the Joya family, who they showcase as an example of the deplorable human consequences of U.S.-Colombian drug policy. Olga and Abelardo Joya, parents of five, were forced to abandon their cacao farm in the Colombian countryside and relocate to an urban slum after their property was contaminated by herbicides intended to be sprayed on coca fields in the area. Their story is both touching and compelling. The film&#8217;s screening was followed by a presentation promoting both Colombian agrarian [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>El Gobierno calla mientras más periodistas mueren en Honduras</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/el-gobierno-calla-mientras-mas-periodistas-mueren-en-honduras/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/el-gobierno-calla-mientras-mas-periodistas-mueren-en-honduras/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:48:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dissent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Español]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honduras]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=14600</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Avances Honduras ocupa el deshonroso segundo puesto como el país más peligroso para los periodistas en el hemisferio occidental. Desde que el presidente Porfirio Lobo asumió el poder, 15 periodistas han sido asesinados; el gobierno niega que estos crímenes hayan sido cometidos por motivos políticos. Organizaciones de derechos humanos y de periodistas insisten con mayores exigencias al sistema judicial y a la policía hondureña a fin de identificar y castigar a los responsables. Desde siempre, pero con una inusitada agresividad desde 2010, la libertad de expresión y los periodistas de Honduras se encuentran bajo ataque permanente por parte de grupos, organizaciones e individuos hasta ahora no identificados. El periodista Medardo Flores, cercano al ex presidente Manuel Zelaya, es la última víctima de esta ola de violencia, dirigida contra los periodistas en Honduras. Con el debido respeto al gobierno de Porfirio Lobo, desde este espacio no es descabellado presumir que alguien con motivaciones muy particulares procura acallar a los periodistas. Presidente Lobo, “¿quién es el responsable de asesinar a los periodistas?” es la insistente pregunta que formulan varios frentes nacionales e internacionales. Las respuestas son el silencio y la impunidad. Sin embargo, este estado de arbitrariedad desemboca en una autocensura generalizada [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Wait Is Over: Congress Awards Free Trade Agreements, Ignoring Workers&#8217; Plight</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/the-wait-is-over-congress-awards-free-trade-agreements-ignoring-the-benefits-of-workers/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/the-wait-is-over-congress-awards-free-trade-agreements-ignoring-the-benefits-of-workers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:53:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Daily News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=14458</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As COHA previously reported, the free trade agreements (FTAs) with South Korea, Panama, and particularly Colombia were overwhelmingly approved, but not without controversy by U.S. legislature, as several Democratic lawmakers and labor unions staunchly opposed the passage of these agreements. Their opposition was based on the claim that workers’ rights would not be adequately protected under the new system. On October 12, 2011, the U.S. Senate passed the long awaited deals through a rare display of bipartisanship with a 83-15 vote for the U.S.-South Korean measure, a much closer 66-33 vote for the trade arrangements with Colombia, and a 77-22 vote for the FTA tie with Panama. Of the three accords, the U.S.-Colombia trade agreement was attacked the most, even though Panama, the region’s quintessential corrupt society, should have drawn much more negative attention than it did from U.S. policy makers. Right after President George W. Bush backed a trade pact with the South American country in 2006, ranking Democrats like Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-NV) highlighted Colombia’s deplorable human rights and labor rights records and the fact that U.S. workers would be hit hardest in the all but certain event that textile jobs and other factory jobs would be [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Free Trade’s Not So Free: The Panamanian Case</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/free-trades-not-so-free-the-panamanian-case/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/free-trades-not-so-free-the-panamanian-case/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:13:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Daily News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=14454</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When it comes to workers’ rights and high living standards, where’s the beef? Eight years after Panama’s original free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations were carried out, October 12, 2011, witnessed the approval by the Houses with relatively little opposition from either the Democrats or Republicans.  Both countries hailed the passing of the agreement with enthusiasm, and calls for continued economic progress and integration have resulted from the now-ratified agreement. Panama’s development in recent years has been all but unprecedented. In comparison to its regional neighbors, including El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, which have undergone pandemic violence and relentless economic and social chaos in recent years, Panama’s evolution has proven to be stable and productive, if driven by unhesitating corruption. This expensively-bought stability has prompted the U.S. to negotiate an FTA with Panama since 2003 out of the certain knowledge that so much would illicitly be earned by so few. There was no mystery that the Panamanian FTA with the U.S. would be passed by a definitive vote. Previous FTA pacts between the U.S. and such Latin American countries as Peru and Chile have exposed the susceptibility of countries with small and fragile markets. Panama will be no exception to this [...]]]></description>
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