In The News

Mexican President Rivals Both Claim Win in Tight Vote

Manuel Roig-Franzia July 3, 2006
Mexican presidential candidates Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Felipe Calderón both claim to have won the election, but exit polls show the race too close to call. López Obrador, former mayor of Mexico City, whose progressive government policies are popular with Mexico’s working-class population, argues that domestic initiatives like improving public transportation and social services will...

Lost in Translation

Gregory Kulacki June 30, 2006
Pundits and politicians often raise China as a possible military threat for the US and other neighbors– but the characterization could be inaccurate. The US intelligence community must revise its techniques for gathering reliable information about the Chinese military apparatus, argues security analyst Gregory Kulacki. US strategy vis-à-vis China could be culled from scattered and unofficial...

Supreme Court Blocks Trials at Guantánamo

John O’Neil June 30, 2006
Protesters throughout the world have vehemently opposed the US indefinitely holding suspected terrorists in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba – and the US Supreme Court has lent some support to that argument. The court ruled against the US use of military tribunals to try detainees held in the Guantánamo prison, and in so doing, finally delivered the Bush administration from a legal limbo. In a 5-3 ruling,...

Congress May Yet Move on Immigration

Gail Russell Chaddock June 28, 2006
US legislators are polarized over immigration reform, but they also recognize that voters on both sides – those who welcome hardworking illegal immigrants who otherwise don’t break laws versus those who want to deport all illegals – are passionate about the issue. Voters question the ability of Congress to act on an obvious and glaring problem, with more than 12 million illegal aliens in the US....

Panama Hopes to Sail into “First World” by Enlarging Its Waterway

Duncan Campbell June 21, 2006
Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and is regarded as one of the greatest engineering feats of all time. A proposal by the Panama Canal Authority to create two new “lanes” along the 50-mile canal is touted by Panamanian president Martín Torrijos. The plan will go to referendum in the fall. Average ship size has been increasing and analysts suggest that...

Mexico Worries About Its Own Southern Border

Ginger Thompson June 15, 2006
While Mexican authorities have chided the US for its policy of increasing militarization of the US-Mexico border, Mexico’s President Vicente Fox also makes plans for more patrols of the southern border in his own country. Indeed, Mexican regulations on immigration are far tougher than those in the US. Detentions and deportations have risen by about 74 percent in the past four years, according to...

For Venezuela, A Treasure in Oil Sludge

Juan Forero June 13, 2006
Venezuela has high levels of sludge, called bitumen, once thought of as useless. But now, technology introduced by foreign oil companies such as Chevron Corporation transforms the sludge into oil. The discovery puts the government and oil companies at odds. The government claims that exploration and production in the Orinoco Belt is easy, risk-free and inexpensive and suggests that oil firms...