Central America agrees on
anti-crime cooperation, tsunami
aid
Members of the
Central American Integration
System (SICA) held a summit
Tuesday in the Honduran capital
of Tegucigalpa, agreeing to
strengthen anti-crime
cooperation and provide
assistance to the tsunami
victims.
Honduran President Ricardo
Maduro announced that the
Central American countries will
improve coordination to cope
with crimes and introduce
regional arrest warrants, in
efforts to avoid a crisis in the
future like the one between
Colombia and Venezuela.
The leaders also agreed to form
a humanitarian force to provide
technical assistance to the
tsunami victims around the
Indian Ocean.
In December 2004, the Colomiban-Venezuelan
relations soured after the
alleged arrest of Rodrigo Granda,
foreign relations chief of
Colombia's rebel group, the
Revolutionary Armed forces of
Colombia, by Colombian
law-enforcement personnel.
Venezuela accused Colombia of
abducting Granda on the
Venezuelan soil, while Colombia
insisted the capture took place
within its borders.
Venezuela froze diplomatic and
commercial relations with
Colombia and demanded a public
apology from Colombia.
SICA, founded in 1991 and
headquartered in El Salvador's
capital of San Salvador, is made
up of Belize, Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua and Panama, with the
Dominican Republic as an
associate member and Mexico as a
regional observer.
Its aim is to coordinate the
regional integration process in
Central America.
Cuban and Russian New Agencies
Sign Cooperation Agreement
Latin American News
Agency Prensa Latina (PL) and
Russian ITAR-TASS agreed Tuesday
the mutual exchange of
digitalized photos, with which
they expand previous accords on
information exchange.
The agreement was signed by
Francisco Gonzalez, president of
PL and Vitali Ignatenko,
ITAR-TASS director general.
According to the agreement, both
agencies will exchange in a
non-exclusive manner public
communication, reproduction and
distribution rights of the
photos taken in Cuba and the
possibility to expand current
commercialization activities.
The rights given by ITAR-TASS to
PL will be effective on Cuban
territory and abroad, while in
the opposite case they will be
effective in Russia, Latvia,
Litva, Estonia and other
countries of the Community of
Independent States.
The accord is for one year,
extendable for a longer period.
Gonzalez remembered PL has a
cast in Russian language that
broadens that given by ITAR-TASS
on Latin America and expressed
his will to continue
strengthening their links.
Ignatienko, on his part,
highlighted PL´s news authority
and said "the signing of this
agreement increases the
possibilities for our countries
to write their own
autobiographies."
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El Salvador Congress approves
FTA
The Legislative Assembly
ratified the Central America
Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA),
signed in May by Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras
and Nicaragua with the United
States. El Salvador was the
first country to ratify the
accord.
The agreement was approved by 49
votes in favor and 39 against
even though the full Congress
never debated even a single line
of the 2,500-page text. Economy
Minister Yolanda Mayorga de
Gavidia had presented the text
two weeks earlier.
The government considers that
when the accord takes effect the
Salvadoran economy will improve.
Nevertheless, a study of the
Chamber of Commerce and Industry
of El Salvador shows that 47
percent of the businesses are
not ready to compete with
foreign companies.
"Small businesses are not ready
for the CAFTA," said the
president of the Association of
Small and Mid/sized Businessmen,
José Mariano Pinto.
Obsolete technology, lack of
credits, high electricity rates
and problems of labor security
are difficulties to which small
and mid-sized companies are
exposed in the context of the
CAFTA.
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