In their late forties, Eloise and Chuck Hanner decided they wanted to do something new and challenging for the second half of their lives. To the amazement of their friends and family, they walked away from their stock-brokerage careers and joined the Peace Corps--again. Twenty-five years before, they had gone to Afghanistan as volunteers and had loved it. They had thought it would be fun to do it again when they were older. But, Eloise and Chuck discover that it's one thing to join the Peace Corps as carefree college graduates and quite another to go as middle-aged business professions, obligated to family and accustomed to stateside amenities. Hanner's humorous and insightful tale will take you on a tropical journey to the middle of South America--to a small village called General Artigas, where life delivers unexpected adventures, adversities and friendships.

A historical epic that tells an unusual love story, "The News from Paraguay" offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of 19th-century Paraguay, a largely untouched wilderness where Europeans and North Americans intermingle with both the old Spanish aristocracy and native Guaran' Indians.

I the Supreme imagines a dialogue between the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator known as Dr. Francia and Policarpo Patiño, his secretary and only companion. The opening pages present a sign that they had found nailed to the wall of a cathedral, purportedly written by Dr. Francia himself and ordering the execution of all of his servants upon his death. This sign is quickly revealed to be a forgery, which takes leader and secretary into a larger discussion about the nature of truth: “In the light of what Your Eminence says, even the truth appears to be a lie.” Their conversation broadens into an epic journey of the mind, stretching across the colonial history of their nation, filled with surrealist imagery, labyrinthine turns, and footnotes supplied by a mysterious “compiler.” A towering achievement from a foundational author of modern Latin American literature, I the Supreme is a darkly comic, deeply moving meditation on power and its abuse—and on the role of language in making and unmaking whole worlds.

"A transnational approach to the history of a key Latin American border region"--Provided by publisher.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC)—Data Module provides an update of the assessment conducted in February 2006, which was based on the July 2003 version of the IMF’s Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF). This ROSC Data Module is the first complete report based on the May 2012 vintage of the DQAF that covers six datasets, namely, national accounts (NA), consumer price index (CPI), producer price index (PPI), government finance statistics (GFS) and public sector debt statistics, monetary statistics, and balance of payments (BOP) and international investment position (IIP) statistics. The agencies that compile and disseminate these statistics are the Central Bank of Paraguay (CBP) for all datasets but GFS, which are compiled and disseminated by the Ministry of Finance (MOF). Following the 2006 ROSC Data Module mission, Paraguay made significant improvements in the compilation and dissemination of macroeconomic statistics, including (i) adequate methodological treatment of the two large binational hydroelectrical enterprises to properly reflect their contribution to Paraguay’s GDP, BOP, and other international accounts; (ii) compilation and dissemination of quarterly national accounts and integrated economic accounts for the total economy up to net lending; (iii) new CPI series (December 2007=100) and PPI series (June 2011=100), with several methodological improvements (introduction of an adequate treatment of seasonal products and use of improved estimation techniques for missing prices), among others. Paraguay participates in the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) since September 2001, and the metadata for its macroeconomic statistics are posted on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB). Paraguay meets GDDS recommendations for the coverage, periodicity, and timeliness of data, with the following two exceptions: (i) in the financial sector, the depository corporations (DC) survey is compiled on a monthly basis with a one-month lag but is not disseminated; and (ii) in the external sector, the debt service payment schedules for both public and private external debt are not disseminated. Appendix I provides an overview of Paraguay's dissemination practices compared to the GDDS. At the request of the authorities, Paraguay’s current data dissemination practices were also reviewed against the requirements of the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). A detailed description of Paraguay current practices against the SDDS is presented in Appendix IV of the accompanying detailed assessment document (Volume III).

Hemmed in by the vast, arid Chaco to the west and, for most of its history, impenetrable jungles to the east, Paraguay has been defined largely by its isolation. Partly as a result, there has been a dearth of serious scholarship or journalism about the country. Going a long way toward redressing this lack of information and analysis, The Paraguay Reader is a lively compilation of testimonies, journalism, scholarship, political tracts, literature, and illustrations, including maps, photographs, paintings, drawings, and advertisements. Taken together, the anthology's many selections convey the country's extraordinarily rich history and cultural heritage, as well as the realities of its struggles against underdevelopment, foreign intervention, poverty, inequality, and authoritarianism. Most of the Reader is arranged chronologically. Weighted toward the twentieth century and early twenty-first, it nevertheless gives due attention to major events in Paraguay's history, such as the Triple Alliance War (1864–70) and the Chaco War (1932–35). The Reader's final section, focused on national identity and culture, addresses matters including ethnicity, language, and gender. Most of the selections are by Paraguayans, and many of the pieces appear in English for the first time. Helpful introductions by the editors precede each of the book's sections and all of the selected texts.

Ranging from the 1840s through the early twenty-first century, this study of shared political, economic, and cultural histories fills significant gaps in our understanding of Paraguayan-U.S. relations. Frank O. Mora and Jerry W. Cooney tell how an initially rocky beginning between the two countries, marked by diplomatic posturing, shows of military force, and failed business schemes, gave way to a calmer period during which the United States backed Paraguay's territorial claims against its neighbors, prospects grew brighter for American entrepreneurs, and Paraguay embraced Pan-Americanism. It was not until the 1930s that the two countries engaged in earnest as the United States attempted to mediate the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia. Then, as the authors write, "hemispheric solidarity in World War II, the cold war in Latin America, the 'balance of power' among states in the Río de la Plata, and the question of U.S. support for, or aid to, Latin American dictators" became matters of mutual interest. The dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-89) spanned much of this era, and a shared attitude of realpolitik typified U.S.-Paraguayan relations during his rule. Post-Stroessner, the United States has stood by Paraguay during its transition to democracy, despite lingering concerns about such issues as drug trafficking and intellectual piracy. The countries should grow closer with time, the authors conclude, if Paraguay resists the continent's leftward political shift and remains a solid partner in U.S. antiterror initiatives in South America.