An estimated one in five Hondurans live outside of Honduras, and 25% of the Honduran GDP is measured in remittances from migrants living abroad. This means that all Hondurans are implicated in international migration. Utilizing qualitative interviews with Honduran migrants and their families in the context of modern Honduran society, this thesis focuses on the ways in which international immigration structures impact the lives of Hondurans. Over the past two decades, the reasons and mechanisms of migration have changed dramatically and have become increasingly dangerous due to US and Mexican immigration policy. This thesis explores the experience of migrants and their families by focusing on deportees, migrants who are injured in the journey, and those who disappear en route. I conclude that structural violence intersects every aspect of Honduran migration, from the construction of push and pull factors motivating migration to the implications of natural, legal, and structural barriers.

This thesis aims to analyse the effects of the Central America Free Trade Agreement on trade using the gravity model. The principal actors of interest are the United States of America and Central American countries combined with Dominican Republic as the other regional actor. Panel data was used with 153 countries for the period of 1995-2015. The model was specified using the dummy approach and estimated with OLS and PPML estimators to obtain results on effects of trade policy variables on exports. Estimates show mixed results but the general effect of CAFTA on exports is positive and significant. This trade creation effect makes CAFTA an important trade agreement for economic relations between member countries.

The conflicts of the past decade in Central America have produced substantial refugee movements into neighboring nations. Costa Rica has had to cope with an influx of refugees and migrants as large as 10 percent of its population. This work presents a case study of the situation in Costa Rica, focusing on the issue of refugee integration into the host society. It draws on qualitative field research conducted in that country during 1986. The study discusses the evolution of the Costa Rican state's response to the refugee crisis and analyzes the characteristics and impact of policies undertaken by various state bureaucracies. It also describes the assistance efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and private voluntary organizations, along with their interaction with the Costa Rican state. The study concludes that the government's need to maintain firm control of refugee programs has overshadowed its commitment to refugee integration. In so doing, the humanitarian purpose of refugee assistance has been compromised.

This diploma thesis covers topics such as the role that maritime operations in the country of Guatemala in Central America have in the facilitation of international trade, to achieve the goals an analysis of the products that are handled by the ports is made, also the situations of the ports and the areas in which the ports should be focused for their future development are main topics of study in this thesis.

Thesis advisor: Margaret . Lombe / The present study is situated at the intersection of the topics of migration and mothering; it seeks to examine the complexities around mothering in conditions of violence, precariousness, institutional neglect and mobility across borders. In particular, it documents the pre-migration, transit and post-migration experiences of 17 Central American mothers who have crossed the US-Mexico border with their children since 2014, and are resettling in the Boston area while they wait resolution of their asylum claims. By analyzing participants’ narratives, collected through in depth semi-structured interviews, the study explores (a) mothers’ exposure to traumatic events and human rights abuses transnationally; (b) mothers’ practices to survive and support their children under difficult conditions; (c) and the association of maternal experiences and practices with maternal mental health. The study documents how the unjust conditions in which these mothers parent their children—violence, precariousness and institutional neglect— contribute to difficult maternal practices—such as decisions to leave children behind or to risk taking children across borders—and unjust mental health outcomes for mothers. Some mothers in the study reported high levels of anxiety, depression and PTSD, related to contextual experiences and challenging maternal practices. Based on these findings and feminist theories, the study presents a gender sensitive theoretical framework to guide scholarship and practice with asylum-seeking mothers traveling with some of their children across borders. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Health is considered as a sensitive marker of the sustainable development of a population. In Central America and Caribbean (CAC) region, the majority of countries are considered middle-income economies with significant inequalities mainly between the different types of health coverage and health expenditure.The main objective of the dissertation is to identify a possible relationship between universal health coverage and health investment in the main health and some sociodemographic determinants defined by the WHO/PAHO from 2009 to 2018. Additional characterizations of current types of health coverage, investment in health and the main health and socio-demographic indicators of the region were made.

Magister Pharmaceuticae - MPharm / In Central American countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama) and Dominican Republic (DR) the approval timelines for major changes are described ranging from 12 to 18 months, these timelines are considerably extensive. Other countries or regions applying FDA post-approval change and EMA post-approval variation guidelines have timelines of 6 months or less (Hoath et al, 2016, Murray, 2016). The research aims to identify opportunities for alignment of the post-approval changes categories of Central America (CA) and Dominican Republic (DR) National Regulatory Agencies (NRA) with the riskbased categories of FDA and EMA as encouraged by the ICH. The FDA and EMA are considered reference authorities for many countries, as they are Stringent Authorities.

This study of the market for apples produced in Massachusetts for markets in Central America was implemented in order to identify and quantify business possibilities in that region. Apple consumption in Central America is very high and growing, with an increase of more than 100% from 2005 to 2009, from $14 million worth of apples in 2005 to $31 million in 2009. There are increased opportunities for apples from the United States to gain access to this market due to the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), enacted in 2005. This trade agreement lowers barriers and tariffs of products between the US and these countries. Apples are a very important commodity in Central America. For example, apples available for sale in El Salvador are imported from Chile, USA, Guatemala, and sometimes from Canada. In 2009, 52% of the apples imported by El Salvador were from the United States, 43% from Chile, and 4.8% from Guatemala. The majority of apples that are exported to El Salvador from the United States come from Washington State, followed by California and Oregon. During the summer of 2010, 165 consumers were surveyed and several supermarkets chains, wholesalers and local markets in El Salvador were canvassed in order to obtain information on the current apple market in El Salvador, with the goal to assess opportunities for apples from Massachusetts to enter this market. The most important attributes used by those surveyed in El Salvador when purchasing apples were quality (including taste, firmness, and size) and price. Medium and small sized apples are preferred as they are more economical for families, providing an opportunity for US growers to sell their smaller fruit that US consumer do not prefer. Delicious and gala are the varieties sold mostly. Apples are usually bought in supermarkets, fruits stalls in municipal markets, and from fruit peddlers on the street and on buses. During the Christmas holidays of 2010, another marketing survey was conducted to determine the acceptance in Central America of McIntosh apples from Massachusetts. Nearly 800 consumers were surveyed at five Wal-Mart stores in El Salvador after being given samples of McIntosh apples produced in Massachusetts. Consumers particularly liked the sweet-tart flavor, juiciness, and firmness. Due the results of these surveys, Wal-Mart Centro America Mexico expressed interest in developing a relationship with apple growers in the Northeastern United States.

The biogeography of Central America is considered a classical case study in understanding the impact of vicariant events on patterns of biotic dispersal. While many biogeographers have focused on community composition and geographic limits of species at broad scales across Central America, much less work has focused on post-colonization diversification patterns at finer scales. The livebearing freshwater fish Xenophallus umbratilis presents an ideal system for determining the impact of recent earth history events on biodiversity in northern Costa Rica. Here, we test the hypothesis that marine inundation of the San Carlos and Northern Limón basins during the Miocene has caused genetic fragmentation among X. umbratilis populations, despite contemporary freshwater connections across this region. To test this idea, we collected mitochondrial (cytb) and nuclear (Xmrk-2) DNA sequence data from up to 162 individuals taken from 27 localities across northern Costa Rica. We employed a variety of analytical approaches, including: maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML), analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), nested clade phylogeographic analysis (NCPA), and demographic analysis of population size through time. We found four major clades within X. umbratilis, each geographically isolated with no shared haplotypes across drainages. Oddly, clades that occupy adjacent drainages are not always sister taxa in the phylogeny, suggesting that colonization in this species is more complex than a simple model of isolation by distance. All our results are consistent with the hypothesis that changes in sea level associated with glacial eustatic cycles have had an important effect in shaping diversification patterns in this species.

Countries holding competitive elections vary in the extent to which the administrative practices surrounding the voting process facilitate or impede voter participation. Differences in the requirements for voter registration, the distances voters must travel to reach a polling place, the mechanics of casting a ballot, and the provision of voter education, among other factors, pose varying obstacles to participation. This variation poses a puzzle that this dissertation addresses: Why do some democracies adopt election administration practices that lower barriers to voter participation, while others adopt practices that raise prohibitive obstacles to the participation of at least some citizens? More simply, why is it easier to vote in some democracies than in others? This dissertation develops the concept of election administration inclusiveness, consisting of numerous administrative and procedural factors that affect voter access to the ballot. To develop a theory of why election administration inclusiveness varies across countries and over time, the project undertakes an in-depth comparison of three country cases: Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The case studies document and explain the origins of striking differences in election administration inclusiveness across the three countries in their early years of democratic transition, as well as variation in inclusiveness within each case over time. The case studies draw on elite interviews and archival research carried out by the author in each country. The study identifies a number of factors that influence the choice of election administration practices that bear on voter access to the ballot box. Of particular significance are historical legacies of election fraud, patterns of partisan identification among voters, the composition of electoral commissions that conduct elections, and international political pressures.