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G-50 Timeline
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The G-50 hosts it’s landmark Twelfth Annual Meeting in China. Major speakers include Cheng Siwei, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s National Congress, and Yi Gang, Assistant Governor of the People’s Bank. Featured experts include Jonathan Anderson, Justin Lin, David Dollar.
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President Lucío Gutierrez was unexpectedly thrown out of office in April, after a week-long popular uprising in Quito and other cities, when he was accused of attempting to cling to power through dictatorial means. He is immediately replaced by his vice-president, left-winger and cardiologist Alfredo Palacio, who is likely to serve in an interim capacity pending new elections. Dr. Palacio is the eighth president to take office in Ecuador in nine years.
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In April, 123 high profile entrepreneurs, bankers, businessmen and members of the Workers' Party of Brazil (PT) were confirmed to have participated in an alleged corruption scandal that centre on a cash-for-votes scheme in the Brazilian Congress. Although President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has was not found to be involved in the scheme, the scandal affected his popularity as well as Brazil’s financial stability.
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President Bush ratifies CAFTA-DR, the largest free trade agreement in over a decade for the US in August. Eighty percent of CAFTA-DR imports already enter the United States duty free under the Caribbean Basin Initiative, Generalized System of Preferences and Most Favored Nation programs; the CAFTA-DR will provide reciprocal access for U.S. products and services.
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Thomas A. Shannon Jr. is confirmed as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs in October of 2005. His appointment was seen as an opportunity to move the region towards greater unity and collective action.
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Category 5 hurricane Wilma, the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basis, causes massive flooding. In October, Wilma made several landfalls, with the most destructive effects felt in the Yucatán Peninsula, Cuba and Florida. Damage is estimated at over $20 billion, ranking Wilma among the top 10 costliest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic and the sixth costliest storm in U.S. history.
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In the midst of protests from the civilian population and after opposition from five countries which maintained that the U.S.-led proposal FTAA would damage their nations' economies, the Fourth Summit of the Americas talks, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina in November, fail to reach an agreement on a regional trade deal.
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Faced with massive protests over usage of Bolivia’s natural gas reserves, President Carlos Mesa resigns in June. The leftist candidate from the Movement for Socialism, Evo Morales, is elected in December. A former cocalero union leader, Morales is the first indigenous Head of State in Bolivia’s history.
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In gestures of economic emancipation, both Argentina and Brazil pay off their outstanding debts in December to the International Monetary Fund in lump sums: $9.8 billion and $15.5 billion, respectively.
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