Puerto Rico declares gender violence state of emergency (Jan. 28, 2021)

Puerto Rican governor Pedro Pierluisi signed an executive order Sunday declaring a state of emergency that would allocate resources to deal with gender violence on the island. "For too long, vulnerable victims have suffered the consequences of systematic machismo, inequity, discrimination, lack of education, lack of guidance and above all, lack of action," Pierluisi said in a press release.

The declaration, which also offers protection to gay and transgender people, includes measures like creating a mobile app for victims to ask for help and report attacks. Authorities will create a new program to check in with women who have taken out restraining orders against abusers, and a new committee will be responsible for enforcing policies and proposing other measures.

The move builds on years of advocacy from organizations of civil society, including La Colectiva Feminista, Taller Salud and Proyecto Matria, and will provide much needed resources, coordination and service provision to women and queer people experiencing gender based violence on the archipelago.

But critics caution that success will hinge not just on policy but a larger cultural shift, and are concerned about whether the order will be effectively implemented.

Advocacy groups have demanded concrete government action to address the crisis, as gender-based killings continued to rise. Last year, a total of 60 indirect and direct murders linked to gender violence were reported in the island, according to Puerto Rico's Gender Equality Observatory, a figure that represents an increase of 62% from 2019. That includes six trans femicides and 26 cases still under investigation or lacking information, the organization said.Puerto Rico's police also reported that at least 5,517 women were victims of domestic violence last year.

(ABC News, Al Jazeera, CNN, Miami Herald)

Finance and Transparency

• Members of the European Parliament want to reform the criteria for the E.U.'s list of uncooperative jurisdictions in tax matters, which would add more nations and territories to the blacklist. The resolution which passed by an overwhelming majority included measures calling for the automatic inclusion on the blacklist of countries which use a 0% tax regime, such as the Cayman Islands. The chair of the parliament’s subcommittee on tax matters  also noted, however, that EU countries are responsible for 36% of tax havens, and called for member states to be screened for tax haven characteristics and included in the listing process. (Cayman Compass)

• Several jurisdictions have been taken on and off the list since it was first launched in 2017. Those linked to EU member states have typically avoided inclusion, and the UK had lobbied to protect its territories from such scrutiny. Once Brexit concludes, several UK overseas territories and crown dependencies, including the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey, could be added to the blacklist, reports the Guardian.

• Global Americans notes that pejorative views towards the Caribbean, which associate it with money laundering and financial fraud, remain, despite considerable efforts by the region's governments and professional organizations to enact anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing rules, as well as the establishment of regulations and collaboration with international and regional bodies. 

• One Caribbean economist, Marla Dukharan, argued that the EU was “weaponizing” rules on tax avoidance and money laundering, driven by a defense of “its high-tax, high-public-spending form of government from competition from countries that opt for less of each.” Dukharan also noted that the use of tax and anti-money laundering requirements “effectively discriminate[s] against smaller and mostly nonwhite countries to make it harder for them to compete economically.” (Global Americans)

• One response to this problem was suggested by Dr. Jan Yves Remy and Alicia Nicholls the University of the West Indies: the EU’s “arbitrary” action should be taken to the World Trade Organization where it would be treated as a trade issue seeking dispute settlement between CARICOM and the EU. (Global Americans)

Climate Justice and Energy

• Britain, Egypt, Bangladesh, Malawi, Saint Lucia and the Netherlands are teaming up to help communities around the world that are threatened by climate change to adapt and build resilience. Early warning systems for storms and investments in flood drainage and in drought-resistant crops could form part of the measures promoted by the new Adaptation Action Coalition, reports Reuters.

• Climate change is putting further pressure on already scarce water supplies in some Caribbean countries. Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Kitts and Nevis are all classed as water scarce and drought conditions over the past couple of years have worsened conditions, reports Deutsche Welle.

• Communities on the front lines of global warming impacts must be given a say in policies implemented to protect them, argue members of the ACT Alliance, advocating for a shift to locally-led climate change adaptation. "Investing in locally led adaptation can create more effective, context-specific solutions. Local communities know how COVID-19 and climate change affect their communities. They are often the first responders during crises." (Reuters)

• A growing Covid-19 debt crisis threatens to undermine financing to combat climate change, reports Politico.

• The climate finance system today is fragmented and cluttered -- an initiative by UNDP, with IRENA, Sustainable Energy for All, and the Green Climate Fund to launch the Climate Investment Platform seeks to provide innovative ways to catalyze finance, channel it where it is most needed, and maximize its impact. (Caribbean News Service)

• Guyana’s fishermen can be the frontline in the monitoring of the country’s inshore waters, especially in reporting the effects of the oil operations on marine life, according to Dr. Janette Bulkan of the University of British Columbia. (Kaieteur News)

• The Bahamas Supreme Court granted permission to begin the judicial review action against oil drilling, in response to efforts by local organizations of civil society and businesses fighting to protect The Bahamas from foreign oil developers. (Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide)

Diplomacy

• Cuba is hopeful U.S. President Joe Biden will swiftly reverse his predecessor’s hardline approach toward the island and resume the policy of detente begun by the Obama administration, a top official in Havana told Reuters last week.

• U.S. sanctions on Cuba have failed, have the effect of consolidating power, harm those least able to cope with their economic and social impact, and require urgent review by the Biden administration, argues David Jessop for the Caribbean Council.

• A December report by WOLA and the Center for Democracy in the Americas outlines the case for a new U.S. policy of engagement with Cuba that serves U.S. interests and those of the Cuban people. A constructive policy towards Cuba would also have relevance for the Venezuelan crisis, and has symbolic relevance for the rest of Latin America, notes the report.
  

Democratic Governance

• The British Virgin Islands have been plunged into a constitutional crisis, after the outgoing British-appointed governor accused the country’s government of overseeing a “plague” of corruption, interfering in the criminal justice system and attempting to silence anyone who raised concerns about the misuse of funds, reports the Guardian. Gus Jaspert claimed that the BVI government had deliberately delayed legal reforms and hindered local inquiries into a string of corruption allegations. The allegations will now be examined in a commission of inquiry, a formal process overseen by a British high court judge.

• Haitian President Jovenel Moïse called on citizens to help police respond to a surge in kidnappings for ransom. Moïse’s plea and rare acknowledgment of the kidnapping epidemic that’s gaining ground in the country came amid protests by schoolchildren and parents in response to the abduction of a 10-year-old boy in front of his school, reports the Miami Herald. Kidnappings for ransom have surged in Haiti, and many observers say that some are politically motivated. (See Jan. 18's briefs, and Jan. 20's)

• Police clashed with anti-government protesters in Port-au-Prince last week -- one woman was shot in the arm and several people were wounded with rubber bullets, reported the Associated Press. Opposition leaders organizing the protests are pushing for Haitian President Jovenel Moïse to step down in early February, in the midst of disagreement over when his term actually ends.

• Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Pierluisi's plan to fund elections for a new group of shadow representatives in Washington requires the elected officials to support statehood — critics say the proposed election is an unconstitutional waste of money amid the coronavirus pandemic, reports the Miami Herald.

• It is important that significant and profound efforts be made to improve relations between Cubans on the island and living abroad, writes Emilio Cueto in On Cuba News. "The more Cubans who have never returned can come into direct contact with their compatriots and, especially, with Cuban art, the easier it will be to appreciate ... the complex reality of Cuba in 2020. If we don’t know each other, we don’t understand each other."

Human Rights

• About 80 percent of Haitian inmates are being held with no trial amid a rise in what activists say are illegal and arbitrary preventive detentions. “These conditions are so unacceptable that they constitute a violation of the prohibition of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment,” the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti said in a statement this week. (Associated Press)
  

Covid-19

• Antigua and Barbuda's Ambassador to the OAS, Sir Ronald Sanders, has called for "urgent and equitable release of Covid-19 vaccines" especially for small states. (Caribbean News Service)

• The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis has largely tamed the spread of COVID-19, according to scientist data-tracking site Endcoronavirus.org. From the Caribbean, Dominica and the Bahamas are mentioned to be doing well in controlling new cases of the virus. (St. Kitts Nevis Observer)

Drug Policy

• Some Barbadians are concerned that the island's new medicinal cannabis industry will exclude locals. There are calls for Barbados' government to give nationals a discounted licence fee as well as financial support to allow them to take part fully in the fast-growing industry. (Barbados Today)

Histories

• Letters from the leader of the 1763 Berbice slave revolt provide a new insight into attempts to resist the brutal regimes of the colonial period. The Dutch national archives are showcasing a unique set of letters from the man known as Cuffy, the leader of the first organised slave revolt on the American continent, directed to a Dutch colonial governor. He proposes sharing the Berbice territory, in what is now Guyana. “The history of the Berbice uprising is important as it shows that our colonial past is laced with histories of revolt and resistance,” writer and historian Karin Amatmoekrim told the Guardian.

Culture

• The Cayman Islands' National Gallery launched ‘2020 Vision: Lockdown Experiences from the Cayman Islands’ – an online photo exhibit. (Cayman Compass)

• Philadelphia public music radio station WXPN launched "Kanaval: Haitian Rhythms and the Music of New Orleans," a year-long project that explores and celebrates Haitian influences on New Orleans' famed music. (Broadway World)

• The Mermaid of Black Conch, by Monique Roffey, won 2020’s Costa book of the year award, “acclaimed by judges as a classic in the making.” (Repeating Islands)

• Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean, a collection of essays edited by Vanessa K. Valdés, examines the cultural impact of Haiti on the surrounding nations of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. (Repeating Islands)
  

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News Updates, which is still a work in progress. You can see the Updates on our website, as well as receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading.

Guyana - Venezuela border controversy heats up (Jan. 21, 2021)

Long standing tensions between Guyana and Venezuela, which claims an area that comprises two-thirds of the smaller English-speaking South American country, flared up again this month. (See last week's Updates.) Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro issued a decree to establish a new “Territory for the development of the Atlantic Facade” in the disputed Essequibo region and said, on Twitter, that he intends to reconquer the area. The Guyana government subsequently rejected the decree.

Guyana's government said that, as of last week, Venezuelan warships were in Guyana’s territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone. (South Florida Caribbean News) Guyana has deployed more army troops along its disputed border with Venezuela and the U.S. has stepped up cooperation with Guyana. Admiral Craig Faller, commander of the US Southern Command, visited Guyana last week in a show of support. (MercoPress)

The border dispute is before the International Court of Justice, but Venezuela rejects the court's authority, reports Reuters. (Guyana Times has more on the legal proceedings before the ICJ and timelines.)

While the area's riches include gold, diamonds and timber, the focus of Venezuela's claim is the massive offshore Liza oil field, reports Global Voices. Maduro also appears to be using the issue as a rallying point in national politics.

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) rejected Venezuela's decree, and voiced support for the “judicial process underway at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which is intended to bring a peaceful and definitive end to the long-standing controversy between the two countries.” (CMC) The issue could test Caricom, pitting the organization's loyalty to a member state against economic interest in relations with Venezuela, reports the Guyana Chronicle. International support for Guyana's position includes the U.S., Canada, and the OAS, as well as the Commonwealth. (Argus Media, Guyana Chronicle) 

More broadly, Venezuela and the Maduro government “present a multidimensional security threat for Guyana, including ‘sindicatos’ and other armed Venezuela-based criminal groups which cross over the border and conduct criminal activities in Guyana,” according to Evan Ellis, a non-resident senior associate with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. (BN Americas)

Briefs

Security and Human Rights

• Kidnappings for ransom have surged in Haiti, from a total of 39 in 2019 to nearly 200 in 2020 -- and experts believe there are political motivations in addition to financial ones, reports Vice News. An unexplained shift to kidnappings in opposition strongholds has led many to believe the government is working with gang members , neglecting official police departments and allowing gangs to serve as de-facto security forces.

• The U.N. Human Rights Office referenced kidnappings and gang attacks in parallel to rising political tensions over when elections should be held, and voiced concern that "that persistent insecurity, poverty and structural inequalities in Haiti coupled with increasing political tensions may lead to a pattern of public discontent followed by violent police repression and other human rights violations." Calls for mass protests raise concern about policing, and human rights violations committed by gang members during months of social unrest in 2018 and 2019, said the UNHCHR.

• Honduras' Garífuna community protested the ongoing disappearance of five community leaders who were detained by armed men in police uniforms last July. The Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH) denounced that Honduras' government has no interest in investigating the crime, which they say forms part of an extermination plan against a community that is defending its territory from land grabbers. (Pasos de Animal Grande)
  

Diplomacy

• Cuba played a strong role in supporting talks with the FARC that ultimately resulted in the 2016 peace deal, according to the lead Colombian peace negotiators.  "We say with total certainty: without Cuba’s commitment and contribution there would have been no peace agreement in Colombia." Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo wrote in response to the U.S. inclusion of Cuba on its list of countries that sponsor terrorism, and emphasized the care Cuban authorities took to ensure that FARC guerrillas in Havana for negotiations stuck to the peace mission. (See last week's Updates.) "...Despite all the differences that we may have with the regime of Cuba, we are obliged to recognize and thank the generous spirit and the professionalism that Cuba deployed in favor of peace in Colombia." (In English.)

• "If a country risks being placed on a terrorism list as a result of facilitating peace efforts, it could set a negative precedent for international peace efforts," noted the Norwegian Foreign Ministry in a response to the U.S. designation. (See last week's Updates.)
  

• The former U.S. Trump administration's push against Cuba has implications for the rest of the Caribbean, warns Sir Ronald Sanders. In a questionnaire the U.S. will use to compile its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, Caribbean countries were asked about workers from Cuba. "The objective appears to be the classification of Cuban medical personnel as ‘trafficked persons’, thereby implicating both Cuba and Caribbean governments in criminal activity." (Kaieteur News)

• The new U.S. Biden administration is expected to extend its sphere of interest in Latin America and Caribbean beyond the limited and conflictive focus of his predecessor, according to experts at the Inter-American Dialogue. "With Biden, it is reasonable to expect greater predictability and deeper US engagement in the region," writes Michael Shifter.

• Caribbean artists, politicians and other luminaries from Antigua to Barbados to Jamaica feted Kamala Harris's historical rise as “America’s first Black Caribbean-American” vice president in a virtual celebration ahead of today's inauguration, reports the Miami Herald.

Democratic Governance

• While Puerto Ricans requested statehood on Nov. 3, 2020, with 52.3% of voters asking to change the island’s status from unincorporated territory to U.S. state, but whether it happens or not is up to U.S. lawmakers. Puerto Rican statehood advocates are hopeful that a Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress, and President Joe Biden, could give the territory its best shot in years. U.S. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer has vowed to pursue Puerto Rican statehood.  (Law and Crime, Conversation)

Climate Justice and Energy

• Guyana's government is reviewing the country's production sharing agreement with oil company Exxon for the Stabroek Block, but Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told Kaieteur News that all provisions have and will remain intact. In 2019 Kaieteur published an investigation that found Guyana’s PSA for the Stabroek Block has some of the world’s worst provisions when compared to 130 other deals. Critics have called for the government to demand more favorable terms from the U.S. oil giant, and say authorities are failing to leverage Guyana's significant off-shore oil findings to the country's advantage. (Kaieteur News) Kaieteur News calls on Guyanese people to stand up to political mismanagement of the country's oil wealth.

• The health of the ocean will ultimately determine the survival of humankind on Earth, according to the UN Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson.

• Global warming is expected to be a cross cutting theme in future US global and hemispheric policy. The Biden Administration is expected to mobilize multilateral institutions to develop post pandemic climate related solutions that address the unresolved issue of high borrowing costs for vulnerable nations, according to David Jessop's analysis. In previous comments, advisors have suggested that in the Caribbean the deployment of Biden’s proposed Clean Energy Export and Climate Investment Initiative will likely be a priority, with an initial focus on providing low-cost financing to small island states ‘ready to demonstrate leadership on climate change’.

• A proposed framework for the Equitable Caribbean Blue Economy by Veta Wade.

Health

• Stringent, early-implemented controls to limit movement have had an important impact on containing the spread of Covid-19 across much of the Caribbean. Very early controls to limit movement into countries may well be particularly effective for small island developing states, according to an article in Research on Globalization that documents the variety of government measures introduced across the Caribbean and explore their impact on aspects of outbreak control.
  

Finance and Transparency

• Cuba is implementing a deep financial reform that reduces subsidies, eliminates a dual currency that was key to the old system and raises salaries. A key difference? The new system encourages people to work. The goal is to boost productivity and reconfigure a socialist system that will still grant universal benefits such as free health care and education, reports the Associated Press. But critics are concerned the plan will increase inequality without providing solutions for people without work.

• British-appointed British Virgin Islands governor Gus Jaspert established a commission of inquiry to investigate concerns over governance, including specific allegations that point to possible corruption and infiltration by serious organized criminal gangs. He was pushed to take the extraordinary measure by allegations of widespread political corruption, misuse of taxpayer’s money and a climate of fear following a November discovery of a cocaine stash worth more than £190m., reports the Guardian. The decision to set up a commission is an acknowledgement that BVI’s own criminal justice system is not capable of mounting an effective and impartial investigation. It also throws the constitutional relationship between the UK and overseas territories into the spotlight.

Women, Gender and LGBT Rights

• Women in the Dominican Republic go to extreme lengths to self-induce abortions, often in secrecy and without clear medical guidance. The DR is one of four countries in Latin America – along with Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador – where abortion is illegal in all circumstances, reports the Guardian.

• St. Kitts and Nevis is developing a national gender policy, aimed at creating a gender equality and empowerment government framework according to authorities. (Caribbean News Service)

Drug Policy

• St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Timothy Harris approved a governance board for the country's Medicinal Cannabis Authority. (Caribbean News Service)

Anti-Colonialism and Reparations

• While countries around the world struggle to access coronavirus vaccines, several Caribbean islands have discovered a benefit of ongoing colonial ties: jabs. The U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands became the first in the Caribbean to begin deploying the vaccine, last month. The Cayman Islands became the first British overseas territory in the Americas region to receive a vaccine shipment from the United Kingdom, earlier this month. France began vaccinating residents of nursing home and healthcare workers in its overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. While The Netherlands announced it will send vaccines to Aruba. (Miami Herald)

• Social and Economic Studies has a special reparations issue, covering a broad range of perspectives, including: "The Reparation Movement: Greatest Political Tide of the Twenty-First Century," "Women, Slavery and the Reparation Movement in the Caribbean," "Rastafari Reparation as Part of the Caribbean Reparations Movement," "The Psychological Trauma of Slavery: The Jamaican Case Study," and "Can Reparations Buy Growth? The Impact of Reparations Payments on Growth and Sustainable Development."
  

Culture

• The Cutlass is “a progressive podcast and platform dedicated to the Indo-Caribbean community and descendants of indentureship," hosted and produced by Vinay Harrichan. It rapidly became a substantiating hub for fellow descendants of Indian indentureship to gain access to a rich and sacred history, especially through the Caribbean Hindustani posts, according to the Art of Storytelling.
  

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News Updates, which is still a work in progress. You can see the Updates on our website, as well as receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading.

U.S. puts Cuba on terrorism list (Jan. 14, 2021)

The U.S. State Department designated Cuba as a "State Sponsor of Terrorism for repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists," on Monday. The move, coming just a week before U.S. president-elect Joe Biden takes office, caps four years of escalating measures against Cuba by President Donald Trump, reports the Miami Herald. The designation will hamper the incoming administration's plan to re-thaw relations with Cuba. Biden had promised on the campaign trail to return to the normalization carried out by the Obama administration.

The outgoing U.S. Trump administration's designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is "diplomatic vandalism," part of a series of moves aimed at hampering the incoming administration's foreign policy, experts told the Washington Post.

Removing Cuba from the list, which includes only three other nations: Iran, North Korea and Syria, is a bureaucratic process that will take months. (See post for Jan. 4.) Trump administration sanctions against Cuba, the harshest in decades, have contributed to a profound economic crisis in Cuba. The new terrorism label could hinder commercial deals with third countries that Cuba relies on to import essential goods and deter foreign investment in the country's private sector, reports the Washington Post.

Few U.S, allies believe Cuba remains a sponsor of international terrorism, notes the Associated Press. Many reject the definition based on support for Maduro, or reject claims that Cuban authorities are bankrolling or masterminding international terrorist attacks. Caricom criticized the unilateral declaration by the outgoing United States administration to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism: "Cuba’s international conduct does not in any way warrant that designation."

The U.S. stance also ignores Cuba's key role in ending Colombia's civil war, work applauded by the Obama administration, notes CNN. Indeed, Cuba's refusal to hand over 10 leaders of the Cuban ELN is due to its role as a guarantor in peace talks between the guerrilla group and the Colombian government, which fell apart in the wake of a January 2019 attack on a police training school in Bogotá, reports the Washington Post.

The public designation could further “poison” the atmosphere of bilateral relations, “but it would not significantly delay President Biden from re-engaging with Cuba,” William LeoGrande, a professor of government at American University, told the Miami Herald.

Indeed, while Cuba's government strenuously rejected the U.S. designation of the country as a "state sponsor of terrorism," it has high hopes for a shift in U.S. policy under Biden, reports the New York Times. In addition to campaign promises to restore the normalization process between the U.S. and Cuba, Biden's senior foreign policy transition team were involved in Cuba negotiations in the Obama administration and are well positioned to roll back harsh Trump administration measures that have deepened Cuba's economic crisis.

News Briefs

Democracy

• Haiti's electoral commission -- unilaterally appointed by President Jovenel Moïse -- set an electoral calendar for this year that includes long overdue parliamentary elections in September, as well as a controversial constitutional referendum in April. Presidential elections will be held in September, and the second round will be in November, with local elections. Definitive results for the presidential election are not expected until January of next year based on this schedule, reports the Miami Herald. Moïse has been ruling by decree for a year, after announcing parliament’s partial closure due to delayed elections. He does not intend to step down next month, when some legal scholars and opponents say his legal mandate ends.

Covid-19

• As some countries in the world launch coronavirus vaccination campaigns, and most others struggle to obtain jabs, Caricom expressed deep concern regarding inequitable access to vaccines. "The reality is that small states will find it difficult to compete in the market place to ensure equitable access for vaccines."

• Cuba is partnering with Iran to produce a Covid-19 vaccine developed by scientists on the island, the latest example of how the two U.S.-sanctioned nations are building closer ties, reports the Miami Herald. Cuba announced last week that it will transfer the technology for its most advanced coronavirus vaccine candidate and carry out last-stage clinical trials of the shot in Iran, reports Reuters.

• Cuba has two drugs – Sovereign 01 and 02 – among the 47 candidates registered with the World Health Organization to fight the pandemic, reports the Jamaica Gleaner. The Cuban vaccines do not require storage at extremely low temperatures. 

• Cuba started using nationally developed nasal drops -- Nasalferón -- to block replication of SARS-CoV-2 in patients. They are currently being administered to Cubans returning from abroad and their cohabitants, but the government plans to ramp up use for Havana's population. (Página 12)

Climate Justice and Resilience

• Volcanoes that have been quiet for decades are rumbling to life in the eastern Caribbean -- officials have issued alerts in Martinique and St Vincent and the Grenadines. (Associated Press) St Lucia is prepared to take in residents of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the event that the current activity at the La Soufriere Volcano intensifies, according to Prime Minister Allen Chastanet. (Repeating Islands) 

• A Dutch-financed research program, entitled Islanders at the Helm, will bring together researchers and societal partners to combine technical, traditional, and contemporary knowledge practices to co-create sustainable and inclusive strategies for social adaptation to climatic challenges. The program will be chaired by former University of St. Martin (USM) president Dr. Francio Guadeloupe and will foster climate resiliency research in the humanities, social and natural sciences. (Saint Martin News Network)

• Litigation has emerged as a policy tool for seeking redress for past and prospective harm resulting from climate change. A review in Climate Policy by Caribbean academic Stacy-Ann Robinson and others found it has potential to force greater national and sub-national government action on climate change.

• Global Witness retracted a report from last year, "Signed Away," which focused on how much revenue Guyana could obtain from oil if the government negotiated a fairer deal with the Exxon oil company. The group maintains its criticism of the previous Guyanese administration's deal with Exxon, but said its calculations were based on non-implementation of theParis Agreement climate commitments, leading to an overestimation of the amount of oil Guyana would likely produce and the value of that oil. Critics have noted that the original report was a political bombshell in the midst of last year's heated presidential election campaign, and questioned Global Witness' approach. (Kaieteur News)

•  vice president Ronnie Brunswijk has a turbulent past: he's been an elite paratrooper, a soccer player, a wanted bank robber, a guerrilla leader, a gold baron and a father to at least 50 children. Now he wants to be known as the man who will spread the country’s newfound oil wealth equitably -- New York Times Saturday Profile.

• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) cannot be relied on to deliver global 2030 emissions reductions, whilst the majority of CCS that exists is being used to extract more oil, according to a new assessment commissioned by Global Witness and Friends of the Earth Scotland. 

Diplomacy

• "The current U.S. approach to China’s interest in the Caribbean has relied too heavily on a Cold War mentality in which Caribbean nations are viewed either as part of the United States’ backyard or proxies of China. This has led to the unfortunate habit of U.S. officials lecturing and threatening Caribbean leaders and their governments about the consequences of engaging with China," argues Wazim Mowla in Global Americans.
  
• The presidents of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, and of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, signed nine agreements in which they commit to confronting the irregular migratory flow and the issues of trade, maritime borders, sovereignty, health, and others common to both nations that share the island of Hispaniola. (Dominican Today)
  
• Venezuela criticized joint naval exercises by the United States and Guyana. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez told a news conference that the maneuvers were an attempt by the outgoing Trump administration to “create provocations, threats," reports Reuters. (

Finance and Transparency

• Bermuda Premier David Burt plans to reform the country's tax system. He noted that the existing system taxes labour, through a payroll tax, but no other sources of income, which Burt described as fundamentally unfair. (Cayman Compass)

• Danish prosecutors have formally charged the suspected organisers of a billion-dollar tax fraud scheme, four weeks after the Cayman Islands Grand Court allowed local corporate service providers to offer foreign judicial assistance by disclosing documents of certain Cayman entities in a related US civil lawsuit brought by Denmark’s tax authority. (Cayman Compass)

Human Rights

• Eleven years after Haiti's crushing 7.0 earthquake in 2010, thousands of Haitians who fled the country remain in precarious conditions across the region, with many stuck at the Mexico-U.S. border, reports the Miami Herald.
• The earthquake was by far the largest natural disaster in a country that has had more than its share of such calamities. The world reacted to the earthquake by sending in literally armies of soldiers and aid workers to help. But the first responders were Haitians themselves who used everything they had, including their bare hands, to pry loose people who were buried under the rubbles, writes Garry Pierre-Pierre in a Haitian Times retrospective.
  

Gender

• Caribbean author, Patricia Powell will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming “Writing about Caribbean Gender and Social Justice Virtual Conference." (Repeating Islands)
  

Anti-Colonialism and Reparations

• Hilary Beckles, vice-chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI), is one of the recipients of this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Award, in recognition for his global advocacy, academic scholarship and intellectual leadership in support of social justice, institutional equity, and economic development for marginalised and oppressed ethnicities and nations. (Jamaica Observer)

Celebrating Culture

• The pandemic killed Trinidad & Tobago's 2021 Carnival, but soca music keeps the spirit alive, writes Janine Mendes-Franco at Global Voices.

• Leonardo Padura’s La transparencia del tiempo -- the basis of Netflix’s Four Seasons in Havana -- will be out in English later this year. (Repeating Islands)

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News Updates, which is still a work in progress. You can see the Updates on our website, as well as receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading.

Genetic Caribbean History (Jan. 7, 2021)

The DNA of pre-Colombian inhabitants remains present throughout the Caribbean, along with traces of their traditions and languages. A new study shows that, on average, about 14 percent of people’s ancestry in Puerto Rico can be traced back to the Taino. In Cuba it is about four percent while in the Dominican Republic it is more like six percent.

The study found that most of the Caribbean’s original inhabitants may have been wiped out by South American newcomers a thousand years before the Spanish invasion that began in 1492. Also, that indigenous populations of islands like Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were likely far smaller at the time of the Spanish arrival than previously believed, reports National Geographic.

The same research also found surprisingly close familial ties across the Caribbean during the Ceramic Age. They found 19 pairs of people on different islands who shared identical segments of DNA — a sign that they were fairly close relatives. In one case, they found long-distance cousins from the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, separated by over 800 miles, reports the New York Times.

"Colonization resulted in such immense destruction that the rich cultures of the pre-contact Caribbean can be reconstructed only through a blend of oral traditions and scientific study, including the new insights provided by ancient DNA analysis," write David Reich and Orlando Patterson in a New York Times op-ed on the study.

News Briefs

Tourism and Covid-19

• Jamaican entrepreneur Gordon "Butch" Stewart, founder of the popular Sandals and Beaches holiday resorts throughout the Caribbean, died at 79. (Washington Post) He had a passion for "the people and possibility of the Caribbean," writes Emma Lewis at Global Voices.

• "Even as Caribbean authorities wrestle with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, legislators have been scrambling to formulate appropriate responses to an accompanying growth in unlawful pyramid and Ponzi schemes marketed as financial solutions to the impact of restrictive pandemic measures," reports the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network.

• Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the country could not handle the economic pressure of another coronavirus shutdown, even as Covid-19 cases rise. (Loop) She also criticized the practice of deducting sick days from workers who take time off to get tested for Covid-19, and hinted at the possibility of tax relief to compensate employers. (Barbados Today)

• Covid-19 shutdowns have hit the British Virgin Islands' Filipino expat community particularly hard, reports the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network.

• Tourism-related changes to fishing in the Bahamas' Andros island helped fuel environmental degradation and changed the culture in line with a theory called the "treadmill of production," wherein faster and faster environmental exploitation is required to fuel economic growth, according to a new study on fishing practices. (Phys.org)

Migration and Human Rights

• Venezuelans are risking their lives to flee to Trinidad and Tobago, or just to buy food, reports AFP.

• The Dominican Republic outlawed child marriage. (Dominican Today)

• Sixteen British parliamentarians have nominated Cuba's Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. (Loop News)

Climate Justice

• Coral reefs will soon disappear if current levels of inaction persist, according to a recent report by the United Nations Environment Program. (Caribbean News Service)

• British-owned Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) began drilling an exploratory offshore well -- a big mistake according to ocean conservation advocate Alexandra Cousteau. "Oil is toxic to ocean wildlife, and a spill in Bahamian waters could destroy its pristine coral reefs and fisheries. These natural resources are the foundation of the Bahamian economy." (CNN)

Economics

• Madan Sara, a documentary in Kreyol with English subtitles, highlights women at “the forefront of a battle for a more robust and inclusive economy in Haiti" who buy, distribute, and sell food and other essentials in markets throughout the country. (Repeating Islands)

• The Bahamas central bank issued a new digital currency, the Sand Dollar, an experiment eyed by major central banks around the world, reports Reuters.

Anti-Colonialism and Reparations

• The Dominican Republic has a long, but hidden, Black history. The DR was home to the first Black people in the Americas, it is where the Atlantic slave trade started, and it was the second nation to abolish African slavery in 1801 (after Haiti) -- but Black legacies have been written out of mainstream history. (BBC)

• And a new documentary on the exile experience of Marie-Louise Christophe, first Queen of Haiti, who immigrated to Britain in 1821 with her two daughters. (Repeating Islands)

Culture Corner

• In "Becoming Kwame Ture" Journalist Amandla Thomas Johnson follows the changing shape of Kwame Ture’s Pan-African politics in the years after he had left the US for Guinea and had, amongst other things,  co-founded the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party alongside Kwame Nkrumah. (Decolonizing the Archive)

• "100 Caribbean Books that Made Us" -- crowdsourced by Trinidad and Tobago's  Bocas Lit Fest. (Global Voices)