The tone of European-Latin American relations in recent years has been strongly influenced by the issue of bananas. At stake has been the future of the banana trade between the European Union (EU) and Latin America, which, even if small in relative size (constituting less than 5% of Latin America’s exports to the EU), has loomed large in international political calculations. This article seeks to make sense of a very complex, and still developing, situation by identifying the interests of the various parties directly concerned. The first part examines the background, the problem, and the solution to this issue as set out in the adoption of a new banana regime (NBR) in the EU.

Violence, in its criminal and political aspects, largely reflects the contradictory impulses set in motion by modernization and serves as an expression of the various dislocations — social, economic, psychological and cultural — which accompany that process. Violence increases when the prevailing institutions fail to mediate among the various antagonistic forces unleashed by socio-economic and political change. Colombia represents a country where violence has risen overwhelmingly in recent years, reaching extremes of both extent and duration. A phenomenon well worth scholarly attention, the subject of violence has given rise to an impressive body of literature concerned with exploring its many aspects: its causes, trajectory, and variety of manifestations (see Sánchez, 1991).

In April 1991, the Argentine government initiated the central component of yet another program to stabilize an economy still suffering from continuing bouts of rampant inflation. This effort, unlike its numerous predecessors, which had cut, but not defeated, high inflation, proved a rapid and stunning success. Designed and implemented under the guidance of the new Minister of Economy Domingo Cavallo, the “Cavallo Plan” cut the monthly rate of inflation from 11% (in March 1991) to only 1.3% in August and then to just 0.6% by December of that year. While consumer prices rose 172% in 1991, they increased only 4% in 1994 (see Table 1).

The late Professor Carl Stone was perhaps best known in the academic community as a political behavioralist who pioneered the systematic study of voting behavior in Jamaica, using the Michigan model of opinion research. In the Caribbean, he was famous for his "hitting the nail on the head" election predictions, correctly predicting, in terms of the victorious party, the outcome of all national elections held in Jamaica between 1976 and 1993 and, in several instances, in terms of constituency seats and percentage of votes received.