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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 3
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Bank has
battle with its electronics
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Some expats feared the worse when the Banco Nacional Web site went out of service Tuesday morning. The problem was more technical than financial. The bank reported that a central system of communications failed. By 2 p.m. the bank was back in business, although the detailed technical nature of the failure was not reported. As a result of the failure, tellers could not post deposits and payments and online users could not make transfers. The bank said that the administration authorized bank branches that had customers waiting to remain open until 4:45 p.m. The branches usually close an hour earlier. When the incident happened, the bank was quick to send out notices to the new media and also made use of a Twitter account. Banco Nacional is a major state bank with deposits guaranteed by the Costa Rican government. Migrant rights will be defended By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
When and if Cuban migrants leave Costa Rica, they will be under the eye of several protectors of human rights. The Defensoría de los Habitantes said Tuesday that the Consejo Centroamericano de Procuradores de Derechos Humanos will supervise the travel. The Defensoría also said that the number of Cuban migrants now in the country total 7,800. That is more than has been reported. The Defensoría said that the human rights organization in each country would supervise the passage so that the migrants enjoy a secure trip free of rights violations. Each of the rights organizations, as well as the Defensoría are generally referred to as an ombudsman, an arbiter of citizen complaints. The Defensoría said that plans for this supervision were laid out when representatives of the various countries met Dec. 28.The tentative plan is for the Cuban migrants to fly to El Salvador and then go by bus to the northern Mexican border where they will seek admission to the United States. Costa Rica plans to first move those with children and those who have been in the country the longest, officials said. The airlift is needed because Nicaragua has closed its borders to the migrants. The bulk of the Cubans have been living in public shelters since the middle of November when they arrived overland from Ecuador. The cowboy days are long gone Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Yes, the world has changed in 60 years. The editor went to a different high school then I did. No one had guns, and there were no gun violence incidents as well. I didn't go out hunting. Instead I would feed the local wildlife and just watch them. That was fun enough. I didn't need a red jacket in fear someone might mistake me for a rabbit, squirrel or deer. It was mentioned, there are two worlds out there. Those who are comfortable with firearms and those who are not. I am comfortable with firearms but that doesn't make me think everyone is entitled to one and that people shouldn't be checked thoroughly before purchasing one. There are several groups of people that shouldn't be allowed to own guns. I wouldn't say that Barack Obama's new proposal won't stop any terrorists. That is an unsubstantiated statement. As the article mentioned, 10's of thousands of people are killed yearly in the U.S. not from terrorism. We have home grown terrorists who kill people in the name of American freedom. More people are killed by these right wing terrorists then the Muslim scare we keep being told about. Most of the mass shootings have been done by mentally ill people who are usually on psyche meds. More needs to be done for those who are mentally disturbed and those on drugs. All three groups should be part of the information gathered to keep guns out of their hands. Maybe the real question should be why are there so many more mentally ill people and so many more people using drugs, including prescription drugs. I am sorry there isn't more in Obama's plan for both of these problems. Maybe we will address those issues in the future. In the meantime stronger background checks, which 85 percent of the gun owners agree, is a step forward. The U.S. leads the industrialized countries in homicides by guns. All industrialized countries of the world have way less then 1 percent of homicides per 1000. The U.S. had over 3.5 per thousand. The laws are much stricter in all of those countries. Hopefully some day we won't have this love affair with guns. The cowboy days are long gone, thankfully, and should not return. Henry Kantrowitz
Punta Leona
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reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 3 | ||
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| Thousands of LP gas cylinders destroyed for customer safety By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Expats who use liquid petroleum gas for cooking and other household purposes have fewer corroded cylinders that might cause an explosion. The Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía said that its inspectors flagged and had destroyed 3,588 cylinders that were on the market by the four private gas providers. Each of the four firms had significant numbers of corroded or damaged metal containers, the ministry reported. The cylinders hold 25 or 100 pounds of gas. The ministry issued a directive about the condition of the cylinders last June. In part, it was the result of a fatal explosion in an Alajuela sandwich shop. More inspections are likely to turn up more cylinders to be destroyed, the ministry said. |
 Ministerio
de Ambiente y Energía photo
Don't
try this at home! Workman punctures a cylinder.
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| Investigators believe that killers were seeking something in
Sardinal |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Whoever killed two Dutch expats and their hired hand in Sardinal late last month was looking for something. Even though many items of value were left, investigators said that someone tossed the living quarters and left it a mess. The reason obviously was a search for some item. There also were indications that the male expat was beaten. The Judicial Investigating Organization revealed Tuesday that he suffered a blow to the head. Agents are reporting that the cause of death in all three cases was a bullet to the head. All three victims had been tied up, the investigation agency said. The bodies were not found until earlier this week. |
Judicial
investigators have yet to identify the victims, but
informally they have been identified as Johan Snelderth and Zita Taver,
both Dutch, and the hired hand Rivar Avenac Montalbán. The
killings
took place on the Finca La Flecha. Investigators are wondering if this is another case of a land grab in which crooks steal property with false paperwork. To do so with property owned by a corporation, they would need the corporate books to forge a sale. One U.S. expat still is missing in another case, and investigators said that they have been exploring the land grab scenario and detained a lawyer. The other possibility being explored is some type of loan that would have generated as pagaré or an IOU in favor of the dead expat. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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be
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 3 |
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| The future goes on display today at Las Vegas electronics
show |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The world’s biggest Consumer Electronics Show opens today in Las Vegas and the Internet is abuzz with expectation. Big news is expected about several different technologies, including autonomous vehicles, high-resolution television and video games. Major TV manufacturers are going to try to convince buyers that their present HD TVs are obsolete and that they should upgrade to 4K or even 8K resolution sets. Those numbers refer to Ultra High Definition screens that provide up to 4,000 or 8,000 pixels horizontal resolution, rendering pictures very close to reality. Another technology expected to show important advances is virtual reality, with goggles for transporting video gamers to different worlds. “We truly believe that it's going to bring new people into gaming that haven't been in gaming before,” said Eric Bright of GameStop. Technology developments and extensive testing of self-driving cars over the past year strongly point towards a possible unveiling of more sophisticated autonomous vehicles. |
Manufacturers
are racing to introduce a car that will take over
the steering during tedious parts of driving, such as long stretches of
highway or during rush hour traffic. “We actually have autonomous driving where the car will actually steer itself and completely accelerate and break in stop and go traffic," said Paul La Puenta of Mercedes U.S. "So it really improves the quality of life for the driver and it makes the driving experience much more safer.” Other technologies expected to announce new developments are wearable devices, not only smart watches but smart glasses and even smart rings. Undoubtedly there will be new smart phones with all kinds of useful and not-so-useful apps. And of course, there will be lots of robots, from small ones you can put in your pocket to full-size delivery robots. “Instead of getting the delivery by somebody coming up to your door and knocking on your door, you would get it by a robot,” said Ahti Heinla, CEO at Starship Technologies. Experts say 2016 may turn out to be yet another year of interesting and exciting technological innovations. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado
S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica's
Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 3 | |||||||
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| Baltimore to put $700 million into city's slum neighborhoods By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Baltimore is about to embark on a $700 million effort to tear down empty and crumbling buildings in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods and replace them with affordable housing, stores and parks. The first area to be transformed is Sandtown-Winchester, the primarily African-American neighborhood where Freddie Gray grew up. His death from having his spinal cord severed in the back of a police van led to last year's riots in Baltimore and complaints that the city neglects certain parts of town. "Fixing what's broken in Baltimore requires that we address the sea of abandoned, dilapidated buildings infecting entire neighborhoods," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday. "Together, we will transform these neighborhoods from centers for crime and drugs to places our city and our entire state can be proud of." Baltimore is a major international port with a 300-year history of industry, culture and world-renowned colleges. In recent years, however, Baltimore has gained a national reputation as a violent city where its black majority, especially young men, find few job and educational opportunities. The city's 2015 murder total hit 344, its highest ever. Some parts of town have no green space, supermarkets or schools, but do have blocks and blocks of boarded-up houses, abandoned gas stations, trash-filled alleys and liquor stores. Baltimore's past urban renewal projects in the 1960s and '70s were hugely successful. They brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in tourist revenue and revived a moribund downtown nightlife. City officials are hoping once again to turn dreary blight into something bright. Obama sheds tears giving plan to reduce U.S. gun violence By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama Tuesday announced a series of what he called common-sense measures meant to reduce gun violence, bypassing Congress on the controversial issue. Obama rolled out the new policies during a White House address, where he chided lawmakers for failing to enact tighter gun control measures despite a wave of recent mass shootings and called on them and the American people to find the courage to do more. "We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees this kind of mass violence erupt with this kind of frequency," said Obama, who was surrounded by victims of recent gun attacks. “It doesn't happen in other advanced countries. It’s not even close.” "People are dying. And the constant excuses for inaction will no longer suffice," he said. "That's why we're here today, not to discuss the last mass shooting, but to prevent the next one." The executive actions will require more gun sellers to get licenses and more gun buyers to undergo background checks. The plan will also tighten enforcement of existing gun laws, and it asks Congress to invest $500 million to improve access to mental health care. In addition, the Defense, Justice and Homeland Security departments will research smart gun technology in the hope of preventing accidental shootings by children and to help identify lost or stolen guns. "We know we can't stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we can stop one act of evil, one act of violence," said Obama, who at times appeared emotional and allowed a tear to run down his cheek. At one point, the president recalled the 20 young children and six others who were killed in a 2012 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. "First-graders!" he said. Tears ran down his cheek as he added, "Every time I think about those kids, it makes me mad. And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day.” Critics argue that gun control measures will do nothing to reduce violence and are a threat to Americans' right to bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Obama rejected those claims, saying, "This is not a plot to take away everybody's guns." Furthermore, he noted, it was the rights of people killed in recent mass shootings in the U.S. that were violated. Referring to some of those massacres, the president said, “Our right to worship freely and safely, that right was denied to Christians in Charleston, South Carolina. And that was denied Jews in Kansas City. And that was denied Muslims in Chapel Hill, and Sikhs in Oak Creek.” Obama, a Democrat, for months has said he was looking into ways to reduce gun violence unilaterally without having to go through a Congress led by his Republican rivals who defeated his earlier, more ambitious gun control proposals. Obama said the new rules fall well within his legal authority as president. Republicans, who generally oppose gun control measures, reacted angrily to the president's proposals. Many Republican presidential candidates said they would reverse the rules if elected. GOP front-runner Donald Trump told CNN Monday that Obama's proposals were the first step toward tighter restrictions on gun owners, saying: "Pretty soon you won't be able to get guns. It's another step in the way of not getting guns." House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, called the proposals a dangerous level of executive overreach and said the president was at minimum subverting the legislative branch, and potentially overturning its will. Ryan also contended that Obama's plan goes after the most law-abiding of citizens, rather than after criminals and terrorists. “No matter what President Obama says, his word does not trump the Second Amendment,” Ryan said. “We will conduct vigilant oversight.” Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia said he worried that the president’s actions could encroach on due process by giving the government the power to deny gun ownership to those it considered mentally incompetent. In a statement, Goodlatte said, “The House Judiciary Committee will closely monitor the administration’s actions and consider whether legislation is needed to further protect Americans’ constitutional rights.” In the Senate, the lead Republican sponsor of legislation that would expand background checks for gun sales criticized Obama for taking action on the issue without Congress. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said, “The president has abused these actions in the past and exceeded the boundaries of the law. This should not be allowed under our constitutional framework.” Toomey worked with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia in 2013 on a bill that would have expanded background checks for all gun purchases, but it was unable to get the 60 votes needed to advance. Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, embraced the president’s gun safety measures. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said, “The vast majority of Americans support common sense action to reduce gun violence.” She and many other Democratic members of Congress said it was past time for Congress to act to curb what they called an epidemic of gun violence. The National Rifle Association, a powerful gun rights lobbying group, also vowed to look into the new rules to see whether it would challenge them in court. However, an NRA spokeswoman quoted in The New York Times appeared to downplay the significance of the measures. "This is it, really?" said NRA official Jennifer Baker, according to The Times. "This is what they've been hyping for how long now? This is the proposal they've spent seven years putting together? They're not really doing anything." One key element of Obama's plan is a measure that will widen the definition of a gun dealer. The White House hopes this will require more businesses selling firearms, including those at gun shows, to get licenses and therefore be required to conduct background checks. "We intend to make this system more efficient and make it more comprehensive," said Attorney General Loretta Lynch. "The goal is keeping bad actors away from firearms and also to make it easier for authorities to make sure that the gun laws are properly followed and enforced." Part of the effort also includes increasing by 50 percent the number of FBI personnel who staff the national background check system, said Ms. Lynch. Recent polls show an increase in the number of Americans who support background checks on those seeking to purchase firearms. A new survey by Webster's research center found that 85 percent of gun owners believe there should be background checks for every individual seeking to buy a gun. Each year, firearms claim the lives of more than 30,000 Americans in mass killings, suicides, domestic violence and other incidents, according to the White House. Political races are more intense as first primaries come closer By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The pace of the 2016 presidential election campaign is quickening as White House contenders from both major political parties hone their closing arguments less than a month before the first votes are cast in Iowa. President Barack Obama injected a new issue into the campaign Tuesday with new executive actions aimed at tightening criminal background checks for gun buyers. An unusually emotional Obama, tears streaming down his cheeks, said he still gets mad when he thinks about the 20 first-graders killed during a shooting spree at a Connecticut elementary school in 2012. The gun control moves got immediate pushback from several Republican presidential contenders including real estate mogul Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who vowed that the Obama orders would be gone on his first day in office. The elevation of gun control as a major issue in the campaign comes less than a month before the Iowa party caucuses. With much of the attention is focused on the crowded Republican field in Iowa, Trump continues to lead in national polls. The latest NBC News/Survey Monkey poll had Trump with 35 percent support from Republican and Republican-leaning voters, Cruz in second place with 18 percent. Rubio followed with 13 percent, then Ben Carson with 9 percent, former Florida governor Jeb Bush at 6 percent and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 4 percent. Trump has launched his first television campaign ad that vows to “cut the head off of ISIS” and stop illegal immigration by building a wall along the U.S. southern border. The ad also defends Trump’s call for a temporary ban on non-American Muslims entering the U.S. until, as the ad says, “we can figure out what is going on.” Trump insists he is ready for the challenge of turning his poll support into votes, and is already looking ahead to facing Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. “And just in case you have any question, the last person that Hillary Clinton wants to run against is me, believe me, believe me,” Trump told another large crowd at a rally recently in Biloxi, Mississippi. Analysts say Trump’s success so far is partly a result of the anger and frustration being vented by conservative Republicans. But it’s also a desire to make a break with what many voters see as a broken political system. “I think the perception that Donald Trump, whatever his other failings, would be able to do that, just blast through the walls of partisanship and polarization that have prevented the government from acting, is a major piece of his appeal,” said William Galston, a scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Cruz has emerged as Trump’s main challenger. He leads in polls of Iowa Republicans, thanks in large part to growing support from evangelical Christians and conservatives most concerned with social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. Cruz believes that his reputation as a Washington outsider willing to buck even his own party leaders will play well with conservative activists looking for a presidential candidate to shake up Washington. “And the single biggest difference between me and the other very fine men and women standing on that debate stage is that with me, when I tell you I am going to do something, I’m going to do exactly what I said I would do!” Cruz told a rally recently in Trussville, Alabama. But Cruz is feeling the heat from rivals Marco Rubio and Chris Christie who question his commitment to taking on the Islamic State group. Rubio has been critical of Cruz for proposing to use air power as the primary weapon against Islamic State fighters. Rubio believes an Arab coalition ground force must be deployed, and he told New Hampshire voters this week that isolationist candidates would make the U.S. less safe, an apparent reference to Cruz. Christie also spoke in New Hampshire and seemed to have Trump in mind when he said Republicans should nominate someone with executive experience instead of turning to “D.C. insiders, the politicians of yesterday and the carnival barkers of today.” He added, “It’s not enough to express anger. We must elect someone who actually knows how to get things done.” Trump leads in recent New Hampshire polls, but Christie has been gaining. Christie, Rubio, Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have all focused on New Hampshire, and the top finisher among them could claim the mantle of the mainstream Republican contender to take on Trump, Cruz and the other more conservative candidates. For months now opinion polls have shown that about 60 percent of Republican voters seem to prefer Trump, Cruz or Carson, all of whom are political outsiders. “This isn’t a good year for the Republican establishment,” said American University presidential historian Allan Lichtman. “The Republican establishment doesn’t seem to be offering anything that’s appealing to the Republican electorate.” The big development in the Democratic race is the emergence of former President Bill Clinton as a lead campaigner for his wife and current frontrunner, Hillary Clinton. Clinton seemed right at home as he took to the campaign trail in New Hampshire, greeting voters in Nashua and Exeter. “In my adult lifetime there has never been anyone better prepared for the job that awaits the next president than Hillary. Never!” Hillary Clinton has a sizable lead over main challenger Bernie Sanders in national opinion polls, but the margin is close in Iowa, and Sanders is actually ahead in New Hampshire. But Mrs. Clinton has also focused on Donald Trump of late, and his efforts to invoke the Clinton impeachment scandal of the late 1990s. “That’s why it is important to stand up to bullies wherever they are, and why we shouldn’t let anybody bully his way into the presidency because that is not who we are as Americans,” Mrs. Clinton said to applause at a recent town hall event in Keota, Iowa. Sanders has raised nearly as much money as Clinton and continues to draw enthusiastic crowds with his laser-like focus on the economic struggles of middle-class Americans. Iowa holds its presidential caucuses Feb. 1 followed by the New Hampshire primary eight days later. U.S. files brief in Texas case restricting abortions at clinics By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Obama administration is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a recently passed abortion law in the southern state of Texas that has resulted in the closing of nearly half the clinics in the state. In a brief submitted to the court Monday, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said "hundreds of thousands of Texas women would be forced to travel great distances" in order to access the nearest abortion facility. A district court, which granted an injunction of the law that was later overturned, found that under the new guidelines, just seven facilities in the state would be eligible to provide abortion services to Texas women. Under the Texas requirements, abortions can only be provided in facilities that meet the standards of ambulatory care centers. Abortion doctors also must have admitting privileges at hospitals no more than 48 kilometers away from their clinics. "The closure of abortion facilities that occurred in light of the admitting privileges requirement had, the court found, already increased the number of Texas women of reproductive age living more than 200 miles [320 kilometers] away from a Texas clinic from 10,000 to 290,000, and the additional closures that would be caused by the ambulatory surgical centers requirement would increase that number to 750,000," Verrilli said in the brief. "The challenged requirements do not produce actual health benefits," he said. The Texas law also makes mandatory a 24-hour waiting period between the time of the initial appointment and when the procedure can be done. Doctors also are required to perform ultrasounds, as well as display and describe the images to the patient. "Those requirements are unnecessary to protect , indeed, would harm, women's health," Verrilli said. Texas officials argue that their restrictions are in the interest of protecting women's health. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 3 | |||||||||
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Seaweed is new
factor in coral health
By the University of Delaware news staff
A new study has shown that butterflyfishes avoid coral that has come in contact with seaweed. The paper, which appeared this week in the Nature publication Scientific Reports, is the first to critically evaluate the impact coral-seaweed interactions will have on coral associated reef fishes, a key component of coral reef resilience. The work wassss done by by the University of Delaware’s Danielle Dixson and Rohan Brooker. In experiments in Fiji, the researchers found that coral-feeding and coral-associated butterflyfishes overwhelmingly avoided corals that had contact with seaweeds. This was true regardless of whether the seaweed itself was present, leading the researchers to conclude that the coral-seaweed interaction produced chemical clues that were left behind even after the seaweed was removed. “Butterflyfish are kind of like the canary in the coal mine,” said Ms. Dixson, an assistant professor. “When problems start to happen, they will be hit first because of their strong reliance on coral for food and shelter, so understanding their ecology is important before reefs become too degraded or just aren’t there.” Since the 1980s, coral reef cover has decreased by 80 to 90 percent in the Caribbean and by 50 percent in the tropical Pacific. The dramatic changes are a result of the impacts of climate change, overfishing, eutrophication and pollution. Formerly healthy reefs with many species and complex coral-dominated communities are being converted at an alarming rate to wastelands dominated by seaweeds, the researchers said. This shift is compromising delicate coral reef ecosystems, reducing reef productivity and resilience and also local food and tourism opportunities, and decreasing habitat for marine organisms. Yet, little is known about how this shift affects coral reef fishes and organisms. While micro-algae have a symbiotic relationship with coral, larger algae such as seaweed compete with coral for space on the reef. Seaweed grows faster than coral, but plant-eating fish typically keep the reef ecosystem in check. As more reefs degrade, however, scientists continue to struggle to understand why. Top-down theories suggest overfishing of predator fish leaves fewer herbivores to eat the seaweed. Bottom-up viewpoints contend that rising temperatures and runoff from fertilizers on land cause the seaweed to over grow, throwing the ecosystem out of whack. “Realistically, both things are happening,” Ms. Dixson said. She said she believes other things are happening, too. Her research team’s study findings suggest that seaweeds alter the coral’s biochemistry, and that increased seaweed cover may cause further coral declines by changing the ways organisms forage or interact there. |
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| From Page 7: More involvement with China encouraged By the Organization for Economic
Cooperation
and Development news staff Latin America’s growth slowdown deepened and is expected to be negative for 2015 when it is computed. For a second consecutive year, Latin America fell behind the average growth of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries after a full decade of convergence with advanced economies, according to the "Latin American Economic Outlook 2016." Weaker global growth, lower commodity prices and a loss of investment momentum are having an impact on the region’s growth. However, Latin American and Caribbean economies are not homogeneous. Manufacture exporters in Mexico and Central America are recovering, whereas Andean countries struggle to maintain growth and two key economies, Brazil and Venezuela, are now in recession, the report said. In their annual jointly produced report, the Organisation's Development Centre, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Development Bank of Latin America call for an enhanced Latin America-China partnership. As the China-led shifting wealth phenomenon where the global economy’s centre of gravity is shifting more towards emerging economies enters a new phase, affecting the global economy, Latin America should try to face the challenges of addressing its inclusive growth agenda, say the Outlook’s authors. “The middle-income trap is a persistent challenge for Latin America, which needs to pursue a greater degree of productive diversification, upgrading and integration. China’s new normal is a wake-up call and an opportunity for the region’s development strategy towards these goals,” Development Centre Director Mario Pezzini said while launching the report in Cartagena de Indias. Since 2000, the trade relationship between Latin America and China has experienced an exceptional expansion, multiplying 22 fold, compared to a threefold increase with the world at large, says the report. |
