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In December an agreement was reached that will see the EU further reduce tariffs on imported Latin American bananas. The eastern Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia is now facing a widespread economic and social breakdown—including a crisis in the government’s ability to provide basic social services—that threatens to reverse 40 years of genuine development achieved through protected trade.

After years of criticism and months of campaigning by media activists, Lou Dobbs finally made his exit from CNN. On the November 11 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight, the virulently anti-immigrant primetime host announced his abrupt departure from the network, well before his contract was up. Although CNN president Jonathan Klein described the split as “extremely amicable,” it capped months of intense pressure on the network to oust Dobbs; word later leaked out that he was paid an $8 million severance to leave early. Two coalitions had launched efforts to get the host removed because of his xenophobic rhetoric: Basta Dobbs, which targeted CNN, and Drop Dobbs, which aimed at advertisers. Celebrating Dobbs’s departure, Roberto Lovato of Basta Dobbs declared: “We are thrilled that Dobbs no longer has this legitimate platform from which to incite fear and hate.”¹

Beginning his fourth year as president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa confronts a major challenge from some of the very social actors that propelled him into office. In an address to the country in early January, Correa expressed his ire with a "coming series of conflicts this month, including indigenous mobilizations, workers, media communications, and even a level of the armed forces."

Following the modern recipe for corporate enterprise, the directors of Mexico's increasingly powerful murder-for-hire firm, the Zetas, have begun to diversify from the company's principal activity of providing armed enforcement for the drug-trafficking Gulf Cartel. According to U.S. and Mexican officials, the group has gone into the lucrative business of stealing and selling contraband gasoline. It steals from Mexico's nationalized petroleum company PEMEX, and resells to Texas oil companies, including one run by a former Bush administration insider.