The Mexican government will place its consular network in the United States at the disposal of those Central American and Caribbean countries that may make such a request, according to Luis Ernesto Derbez, Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Relations. More

Significant trends for 2006 Political and Economic Risk Map are:
Increased risk in Latin America. The emergence of more left-wing governments in Latin America is causing concern for foreign businesses. Companies doing business in Venezuela and Bolivia are facing higher taxes, revision of contracts and threatened expropriation of assets. In addition to Bolivia, four other Latin American countries, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua, were downgraded on the 2006 map. More

Hurricane experts agree that global warming has not led to an increase in the number of tropical cyclones occurring world-wide, and are currently debating whether or not global warming has affected tropical cyclone intensity (more on this later in January, I've been pulling together a lot of material). Is global warming possibly affecting the length of hurricane season, as well? It seems that an inordinate number of late-season and off-season tropical storms have been forming in the Atlantic the past few years. For example, two December storms formed in 2003, which also had the first-ever April storm, Tropical Storm Ana. Cuba's worst hurricane ever, Hurricane Michelle, hit in November 2001, and the Atlantic's second deadliest hurricane of all time, Hurricane Mitch, lasted into November 1998. More