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, ECLAC: At least 2,795 were victims of femicide in 23 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017, Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2017

Stressing the need to create inter-agency agreements, the 2017 Economic Commission for the Latin America and the Caribbean’s report on femicide shows that Brazil topped the list of femicides (with 1,133 victims confirmed in 2017). In 2016, Honduras recorded 5.8 femicides for every 100,000 women. In Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia, high rates were also seen in 2017, equal to or above 2 cases for every 100,000 women. In the region, only Panama, Peru and Venezuela have rates below 1.0. In the Caribbean, four countries accounted for a total of 35 femicide victims in 2017: Belize (9 victims), the British Virgin Islands (1), Saint Lucia (4) and Trinidad and Tobago (21). In the same year, Guyana and Jamaica — which only have data on intimate femicides — reported the deaths of 34 and 15 women, respectively, at the hands of their current or former partners. In 2017, the rates of intimate femicides in Latin America ranged between a maximum of 1.98 for every 100,000 women in the Dominican Republic, to a minimum of 0.47 in Chile.

Arias Calderon, Ricardo, Panama: Disaster or democracy?, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 66, no. Winter 1987/88, 1987, pp. 328-347

The President of the Christian Democratic Party discusses the 1987 National Civic Crusade to coordinate the protest movements and formulate its key demands: for justice, removal of Noriega and democratiization. Explains background to protests, notes the 1,500 arrests and numerous shootings of protesters, and comments on changing attitudes inside the USA.

Buckley, Kevin, Panama: The Whole Story, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1991, pp. 304

Rather sensationalist account by journalist focusing on events from the 1985 coup to the US invasion, but stressing the role of Noriega and the Panama Defence Force. Includes descriptions of popular resistance as well as elite manoeuvres.

Eisenmann, Roberto, The struggle against Noriega, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 1, no. 1 (winter), 1990, pp. 41-46

Editor of La Prensa, Panama’s leading daily, looks at the role of Panama’s people and the organized opposition, in article written before US invasion.

Koster, R.M. ; Sanchez, Guillermo, In the Time of the Tyrants: Panama 1968-1990, New York, W.W. Norton, 1990, pp. 430

The authors, Panamanian journalists, were both forced to leave the country.

Nepstad, Sharon Erickson, Nonviolent Revolutions: Civil Resistance in the Late Twentieth Century, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 178

Compares ‘unsuccessful’ and ‘successful’ movements against Socialist regimes (Tiananmen and East Germany 1989), against military regimes (Panama and Chile in the 1980s) and against personal dictators (Kenyan opposition to Moi and the Philippines struggle against Marcos). Draws some fairly brief general conclusions.

Scranton, Margaret E., The Noriega Years: US-Panama Relations 1981-1990, Boulder CO, Lynne Rienner, 1991, pp. 245

Charts the sharp changes in US policy from collaboration with Noriega 1981-87, and the decisions to oust him, 1987-89, and to invade October-December 1989. Also describes evolving internal politics, including elections and popular strikes and demonstrations.

Weeks, John ; Zimbalist, Andrew, The failure of intervention in Panama: Humiliation in the backyard, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 11, no. 1 (January), 1989, pp. 1-27

Explores from leftist perspective failure of Reagan Administration to overthrow Noriega in spring 1988 and reasons why US turned against Noriega. Argues also that the internal opposition led by isolated upper class elite and 1988 protests indicated limits of its effectiveness. The authors accept that the July-August 1987 demonstrations did mobilize workers and peasants, but suggest that they were responding to the arrest of a popular politician and expressing popular resentment of World Bank-directed economic policies, rather than specifically opposing Noriega.