Caribbean & Central America - February 2024

We begin the February 2024 edition of the Latin American Regional Report: Caribbean & Central America in Guatemala where, against all the odds, anti-corruption reformer Bernardo Arévalo was finally sworn in as president last month.... Read More

Against all odds, anti-corruption reformer Bernardo Arévalo, who won a resounding victory in Guatemala’s 20 August election on the pledge to tackle the ‘pacto de corruptos’ network of institutional corruption [SSR-23-08], was finally sworn in as president last month.... Read More

In its first address of the New Year, on 8 January Honduras’s private sector lobby Cohep called on the leftist Partido Libertad y Refundación (Libre) government led by President Xiomara Castro to make good on its pledge to establish a United Nations (UN) anti-corruption commission (CICIH) – a key campaign promise of Castro, who took office in January 2022.... Read More

In January Nicaragua’s official gazette published changes to the country’s constitution which weaken the judiciary.... Read More

On 12 January the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega seized the assets of CISA Exportadora, the largest buyer of the country’s coffee, after its parent company, Netherlands-headquartered Mercon Coffee Group, declared bankruptcy the previous month and plunged the vital sector into crisis.... Read More

Goods exports from Costa Rica were worth a total US$18.24bn in 2023, according to the country’s official export promotion agency (Procomer), a 15.5% increase on the previous year, with the medical devices sector continuing its strong recent growth.... Read More

Two heightened US security warnings on the Caribbean, as well as the publication of the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by the NGO Transparency International, have kept Caribbean Community (Caricom) security and governance issues in the spotlight at the start of 2024.... Read More

Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programmes are hugely important for those Caribbean countries that have them, namely Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, and St Lucia, but they also cause anxieties over the type of people who might be benefiting from the programmes.... Read More

In December, international credit ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) raised their rating on Suriname debt following successful restructuring talks with private sector creditors.... Read More

Two private companies said in December that they were working together to release mosquitoes across the Caribbean that have been bred with a bacterium that attacks the dengue virus.... Read More

The world’s largest – and brand new – passenger cruise ship, the ‘Icon of the Seas’ set out from Miami on 27 January for a seven-night maiden tour of the eastern Caribbean taking in St Thomas and St Kitts & Nevis.... Read More

*** BOUTERSE DISAPPEARS IN SURINAME.... Read More

HONDURAS | Private sector highlights new EU deforestation export rules.... Read More