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)
  

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