Marriage equality cases before UK Privy Council (Feb. 26, 2021)

Two historic cases before the UK Privy Council's Judicial Committee could set a precedent for same-sex marriage across the UK’s Crown Dependencies and other Overseas Territories, as well as a host of former territories. The Privy Council the final court of appeal for many Caribbean jurisdictions.

The Council is hearing two historic cases relating to marriage equality from Bermuda and the Cayman Islands -- though the legal challenges are distinct in each case. In CI same-sex marriage is expressly prohibited, and a couple is challenging the prohibition. In Bermuda same-sex marriages were permitted starting in 2017 by a Supreme Court ruling, but were rapidly abolished by Parliament. (Liverpool School of Law and Social Justice, Royal Gazette, Cayman News Service, CMC) 

On Thursday the Privy Council reserved judgment regarding the Bermuda's government appeal against same-sex marriage, will be handed down at a later date. (Bermuda Real) The Privy Council is expected to make a ruling within weeks on the Cayman Islands appeal. (Cayman Marlroad)

Covid-19

• Pfizer has been accused of “bullying” Latin American and Caribbean governments in Covid vaccine negotiations and has asked some countries to put up sovereign assets, such as embassy buildings and military bases, as a guarantee against the cost of any future legal cases, according to a report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. In the case of one country, demands made by the pharmaceutical giant led to a three-month delay in a vaccine deal being agreed. For Argentina and Brazil, no national deals were agreed at all. Pfizer has been in talks with more than 100 countries and supranational organisations, and has supply agreements with nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay. The terms of those deals are unknown.

• Caribbean and Latin American countries, already hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, are now victims of slow inoculation campaigns, reports Bloomberg. Much of the Caribbean and Central America are still weeks away from kicking off their campaigns.

• "Vaccine equity has become Covid-19's defining issue," write Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley and WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in CNN. "To date, richer countries with bigger budgets have struck bilateral deals with vaccine manufacturers, securing hundreds of millions of doses before other countries have had a chance. This has sent a worrying message that the health of those in developed countries is worth more than those in other parts of the world."

• 12.8 percent of Jamaica's population is currently food insecure, equating to some 400,000 people, double the pre-pandemic projection for 2020. Food insecurity in Jamaica was primarily driven by COVID-19 restrictions and economic conditions as opposed to supply-side factors. Households with children in them were hit the hardest. (Forbes)

• A coronavirus vaccine developed by Cuba is about to enter final testing stages, if it is successful the country could be on the path to mass inoculation and vaccine exports by the end of the year, reports the New York Times. The vaccine, dubbed Sovereign 2, could also become a tourist pull, as officials have said the island could offer vaccinations to all foreigners who travel there. 

• Cuban scientists say the government will probably give away some doses to poor countries, in keeping with its longstanding practice of strengthening international relations by donating medicine and sending doctors to address public health crises abroad, reports the New York Times.
• Vaccine opponents in the Caribbean, including some churches and trade unions, risk prolonging the pandemic in the region, argues Sir Ronald Sanders. (Caribbean News Service)

Money

• Saint Lucia was officially removed from the European Union's list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, for tax purposes, earlier this month, after a three year process of reforms aimed at compliance, reports Asberth News Network. Barbados was also removed from the controversial list, while Dominica was added. The Cayman Compass notes the list has been criticized within the EU as being too lax, while other experts have argued it unfairly targets small island nations in the Caribbean and the Pacific which have no relevant financial services sectors. (See Jan. 28's Just Caribbean Updates, also St. Lucia Times)

• Transparency International asked the U.N. General Assembly to set a new global standard for transparency in company ownership. The appeal to end all anonymous shell companies has been endorsed by almost 700 signatories from 120 countries, reports Kaieteur News.
  

Human Rights

• Indigenous communities in some of the world’s most forested tropical countries have faced a wave of human rights abuses during the Covid-19 pandemic as governments prioritize extractive industries in economic recovery plans, according to a new report produced by the NGO, Yale Law School researchers and the School of Law at Middlesex University London. (Guardian)

• Oxfam will no longer be subject to strict supervision by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, following “significant” reforms prompted by allegations that staff working in disaster zones, including Haiti, sexually abused children were not fully disclosed. (Guardian)

• Land tenure insecurity is a widespread problem in Guyana and there is a lack of protection for indigenous peoples' customary tenure systems, according to a study by the Amerindian Peoples Association, based on a participatory research assessment that will help frame policies to better protect land rights.

Public Security

• Significant safety measures weren't enough to prevent a brazen kidnapping during a movie shoot in Port-au-Prince, in which two Dominicans and a Haitian translator were abducted. A case "that has taken Haiti’s kidnapping epidemic from being a Haitian affair, to an international one," writes Jacqueline Charles in the Miami Herald.
• A total of 212 killings were recorded island-wide in Jamaica so far this year -- a six per cent increase over the comparative period last year, reports the Jamaica Gleaner.
  

Democratic Governance

• "Some coups are obvious, like the recent military takeover in Myanmar. Others are murkier. What constitutes a coup d’état is all too often in the eye of the beholder," writes Farah Stockman in the New York Times, about Haiti's current political crisis. (See Feb. 8's post.)

Anti-Colonialism and Diasporas

• There are five inhabited US territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The Guardian explores the possibilities for Puerto Rican statehood getting approved in the U.S. Congress, where the measure is likely to face opposition from Senate Republicans.

Climate Justice

• The World Bank is working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on ways to factor climate change into the negotiations about reducing the debt burdens of some poor countries, World Bank President David Malpass told Reuters.

• Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne called for an urgent response from the international community regarding climate change impact on small island developing states. As a warming world brings growing threats to lives and stability in vulnerable island states, “what international plan and system would my country have recourse to, in the aftermath of such an attack to our peace and security?” asked Browne at the United Nations Security Council. (Reuters, Caribbean News Service)

• Climate change can further isolate LGBTQI people in the Caribbean, reports Erasing 76 Crimes, looking at the specific case of Sint Maarten after Hurricane Irma in 2017.

LGBTQI and Gender

• Tina Brown --  dubbed A.B. in a petition to the IACHR challenging Jamaica's sodomy law -- writes about how the archaic regulations threatened her life in Jamaica. "Both S.H. and I filed the petition anonymously, because we had to continue living on the island and feared a violent backlash." (Caribbean News Service)

• Feminism in Cuba: a variety of opinions in Afrocubanas La Revista, and here.

Culture

• How Trinidadian activist, writer and editor Claudia Jones invented London's legendary Notting Hill Carnival in January 1959, after a series of protests by Black Brits in areas of England, including Notting Hill, against police violence -- New York Times.

• Jamaica’s ever-resilient creatives are fighting back against Covid-19, writes Emma Lewis at Global Voices. Non-profit Kingston Creative's efforts to keep Jamaica’s artists, dancers, musicians and writers afloat and producing new work received a major boost through a partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

• Dancehall: A Reader on Jamaican Music and Culture contextualizes the emergence of the globally popular dancehall genre, while tracing the complex and often contradictory aspects of its evolution, dispersion and politics. (Repeating Islands)
  

Events

23 February

• Aica Caraïbe du Sud’s series “In the process”, with Caribbean artists Gwladys Gambia, Kelly Sinnapah-Mary, Louisa Marajo, and Tessa Mars, along with independent curators Barbara Prezeau-Stephenson and Matilde dos Santos. (Repeating Islands)

28 February

• Jamaican director Esther Figueroa’s 2019 documentary film “Fly Me to the Moon” will be aired as part of the Honolulu African American Film Festival. (Petchary's Blog)
  

15 April

• Extractivism and Climate in the time of COVID: Views from the Caribbean -- Center for Human Rights and Global Justice

We welcome comments and critiques on the Just Caribbean 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 and sharing.

Vaccine nationalism -- and cooperation (Feb. 17, 2021)

India's government donated 170,000 doses of the Covishield coronavirus vaccine to Barbados and Dominica earlier this month. In turn, the two countries decided to share doses with Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) member states, as well as Guyana and Trinidad, a rare gesture of vaccine international solidarity.

“I hope that Barbados, Dominica and the rest of the Caribbean can be an example to the rest of the world about how you cooperate," said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. "And even when you have a little, you share and you work together, because we know that’s the only thing missing in the world today." (Caribbean National Weekly)

Fourteen independent Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states insisted on the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, in a resolution adopted by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) by acclamation today. The resolution, presented on behalf of CARICOM by Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador Sir Ronald Sanders expressed grave concern about inequitable access and distribution of vaccines. (Barbados Today)

The slow rollout of the United Nations' COVAX Facility has left countries in the Caribbean and Latin America scrambling to obtain much needed doses of coronavirus vaccines. Earlier this month public officials with PanAmerican Health Organization said the 36 countries and territories in the Americas region that are part of the COVAX Facility will likely start obtaining doses in March -- though the initiative will only cover 20% of each country's population. (Miami Herald)

PAHO Director Dr. Carissa Etienne, who is from the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, said equitable access and distribution remain a top priority. “The truth is many smaller countries would not have been able to access any vaccines in the short term, in any serious quantity, without a mechanism like COVAX,” she said.

Some experts have advised Caribbean countries to band together to buy 20 million doses of vaccines in order to be able to obtain enough supplies for regional herd immunity. (Caribbean News Service)

Grenada's struggles for renewables

In December Grenada's government was forced to purchase, for $63 million, a majority of shares in the national energy company, Grenlec, owned by WRB Enterprises. The case could become a cautionary tale for countries seeking to transition to renewables: the World Bank arbitration institution found a 2016 law, which aimed to “facilitate the participation of independent power producers in the local energy market and renewable energy developments” -- developed in consultation with the World Bank -- violated a 1994 privatization agreement that guaranteed WRB an 80 year monopoly.  (International Institute for Sustainable Development, Now Grenada, Jamaica Gleaner, Loop News)

The 1994 agreement -- which was taken on following World Bank advice -- stymied efforts to adopt renewable electricity sources in Granada, according to the government. The Inter-American Development Bank agreed, and said the deal “enabled a monopolistic, fossil fuel biased development of the electricity sector, severely hampering the development of renewable energy technologies”. According to Climate Home News, private home owners seeking to use solar panels had to obtain licences (which were limited) from Grenlec. 

With control of energy policy, the government is aiming for at least 30% (and up to 100%) of electricity to be generated renewably by 2030.

Climate Justice and Energy

• According to the IDB, if the Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries invest optimally in renewable electricity generation they could save US$5.7 billion in generation costs from 2020 to 2040. As a result, the share of renewable generation will increase by a factor of almost four, while reducing electricity costs, oil imports, and CO2 emissions. (Jamaica Observer)

• The economies of many small island developing states (SIDS) have been particularly impacted by the global pandemic. But the COVID-19 crisis presents an opportunity for SIDS to look beyond their vulnerabilities and identify opportunities to transition to “blue economies,” writes Catherine Cheney at Devex.

• The former head of Guyana's environmental agency, Vincent Adams, insists that ExxonMobil’s flaring of gas amid a compressor problem on its oil platform is in breach of its production permit and that the government has to be better informed so it can enforce the law, reports Stabroek News. (See last week's Just Caribbean Updates.)

• Suriname's national oil company, Staatsolie, ensures that the parent companies in the oil and gas sector take full responsibility for any oil spill that may occur in the country's waters, reports Kaieteur News.

• Weather forecasters predict 12-to-15 named storms, six-to-eight hurricanes, and two-to-three major hurricanes in this year's Atlantic basin hurricane seasons. (Cayman Compass)

Migration

• "An often overlooked aspect of climate change is the way it exacerbates the suffering of existing migrant and refugee communities," reports the New Yorker. "One danger is that migrants and refugees often settle in locations that are highly exposed to the elements, often because they are pushed there by their host governments." Another danger is that migrants are increasingly afraid to seek help from authorities, in the midst of growing nationalist rhetoric around the world. The piece focuses on how Haitian migrants in the Bahamas were affected by 2019's Hurricane Doria. After the storm, though it had promised that migrants would be safe, the government pursued a program of mass deportation.

• New York Attorney General Letitia James says she has led a coalition of 16 attorneys general from across the United States in fighting alongside US President Joe Biden to protect the undocumented Caribbean and other immigrants from deportation. (Caribbean Media Corporation)
  

Democratic Governance

• There "are worrying signs that President Jovenel Moïse is becoming Latin America and the Caribbean’s newest strongman," writes Jacqueline Charles in the Miami Herald. "Many in Haiti still vividly recall the years of the father-son Duvalier dynasty, whose brutal repression resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and forced many more to flee. And they have watched with concern, and fear a return to dictatorship, as Moïse modifies decrees on life in Haiti and weakens state institutions."
• One of Moïse's strategies for repression is what can be termed the "gangsterization" of Haiti, Nixon Boumba told Open Democracy: The government supports criminal gangs to terrorize people and limit participation in protests.

• The United Nations voiced concern over aggressions towards journalists covering anti-government protests in Haiti. (See Monday's Latin America Daily Briefing.)

• "Questions over Moïse’s mandate stem from the 2015/2016 electoral process, but the OAS’ role in that process, and its previous intervention in the 2010 election, is now undermining the institution’s ability to play a helpful role in the current political crisis," argued CEPR's Jake Johnston last year.

• While the U.S. has backed Moïse's remaining in office, a massive protest calling for his ouster this weekend (see Monday's Latin America Daily Briefing) could turn the international tide against Moïse, according to Haïti Liberté.

• The Cayman Islands is revising its Penal Code, which contains archaic provisions, including some outlawing "witchcraft." The main focus is to address any sections or wordings in the law that have human rights implications or may run contrary to the Bill of Rights. (Cayman Compass)

Security and Human Rights

• The family of Sherwin Filley, who was shot by Guyana police on Jan, 29, while allegedly resisting arrest, placed a casket with a corpse in front of the Sparendaam Police Station located on the East Coast of Demerara. Police said actions would be taken in response. (Kaieteur News)

Anti-colonialism, Racial Justice, and Reparations

• A new study by Harvard Medical School suggests monetary reparations for Black descendants of people enslaved in the United States could have cut SARS-CoV-2 transmission and COVID-19 rates both among Black individuals and the population at large.
  

Finance 

• Relief offered by the Debt Service Suspension Initiative adopted by the G20 in April 2020, has missed those countries which would have needed it the most urgently in the Eastern Caribbean and favored those which, over a regional comparison, were the least in need, according to a focus paper by Entwicklung braucht Entschuldung.

• Caribbean private sector leaders need an institution to promote their interests internationally, argues David Jessop of the Caribbean Council.

Gender and LGBTQI rights

• High rates of gender based violence in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the rest of the Caribbean, are partially related to socio-economic circumstances, write Renuka Anandjit and Angelique V. Nixon in Stabroek News. These have gotten worse during the pandemic, but regional governments have failed to prioritise gender violence in their response, with the exception of Puerto Rico, whose Governor recently declared a state of emergency over gender based violence in response to demands by activists. (See Jan. 28's Just Caribbean Updates)

Culture

• Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez’s Decolonizing Diasporas: Radical Mappings of Afro-Atlantic Literature argues that the works of diasporic writers and artists from Equatorial Guinea, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba offer new worldviews that unsettle and dismantle the logics of colonial modernity. (Repeating Islands)
  

Events

• February 18: A late 30th birthday celebration of the publication of Her True-True Name, a landmark collection of writings by Caribbean women.

• March 4: University of the West Indies -- Mona Law Master Class -- Advanced International Human Rights Law
  

We welcome comments and critiques on the Just Caribbean 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 and sharing.

Bahamas environmentalists call for oil drilling moratorium (Feb. 12, 2021)

Bahamas environmentalists called for a full national moratorium on oil drilling after Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) revealed that it has abandoned its exploratory drilling after having not found any commercial quantities. 

Environmental groups had sought a judicial stay on drilling operations with the Bahamian Supreme Court in December, arguing the government unlawfully granted permits to drill. Environmental activists pointed to potential impacts on nearby marine protected areas, fish stocks, and the effect of spills in Bahamian and U.S. waters. BPC countered that the country's economy could rebound on the back of oil revenues and much-needed jobs from drilling. (Mongabay, CNN)

Casuarina McKinney-Lambert, the Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation executive director said that BPC’s failure to strike commercial oil quantities with its Perseverance One well had given this nation a chance “to choose sustainability over drilling”.

BPC had been working towards exploratory oil drilling in The Bahamas for several years, spanning successive administrations, and most recently faced off with local environmental groups over government approvals for the exploratory well it began drilling on December 20.

While the data collected from its exploratory drilling has yet to be reviewed and presented to the Bahamian government, as required by its licence terms, BPC indicated that there was sufficient justification to consider drilling further exploratory wells in addition to continuing the search for a joint venture partner.

(EyeWitness News, Radio Jamaica News, Tribune 242)

Democratic Governance

• Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Port-au-Prince Wednesday, chanting “Down with kidnapping! Down with dictatorship!” – and bolstering opposition demands for Haitian President Jovenel Moïse to step down. Police fired teargas and shot in the air in an attempt to disperse protesters, who pelted the security officials with rocks, reports the Guardian. Police attacked journalists covering the demonstration, reports Al Jazeera.

• It was the biggest protest yet this year, on the heels of a deepening constitutional crisis stemming over when Moïse's term ends. The political opposition argues his mandate ended on Sunday, and named a Supreme Court judge to lead a transition government. Moïse denounced an attempted coup, and authorities detained 23 people, including a different Supreme Court judge. (See Monday's Latin America Daily Briefing and Tuesday's.)

• Haiti's National Human Rights Defense Network has characterized the situation as a "state of siege" and denounced as political the detention of 18 people accused of plotting a coup against Moïse, including Supreme Court justice Yvickel Dabresil.

• In the midst of Haiti's constitutional crisis -- over whether President Jovenel Moïse's term in office has ended -- the president's constitutional commission presented a draft of a new constitution citizens will vote on in an April referendum.  "Among the proposed changes, the new magna carta eliminates the Senate, strengthens the presidency, mandates military service and programs all elections for every five years," notes the Miami Herald. Because Moïse unilaterally appointed members to an elections council and drafted a new constitution without any political consensus, experts say it would be a shaky foundation for future governments. 

Migration

• Natalie Dietrich Jones's chapter "Against the tide? A socio-legal review of Caribbean SIDS’ (non)-compliance with international agreements on migrants and refugees and the protection of vulnerable migrants" appears in the new book, Routlege International Handbook of Governance in Small States, which covers a wide spectrum of governance issues relating to small states in a global context. 

Climate Justice and Energy

• More than two-thirds of the world’s population believe climate change is an emergency, according to according to the results of the Peoples’ Climate Vote, a UN survey of 1.2 million people in 50 countries and 17 languages. The most significant proportion of people who felt climate change is an emergency (74 percent) came from Belize, Fiji, and Trinidad and Tobago — countries the report identifies as “Small Island Developing Nations,” or SIDS, that are particularly vulnerable to climate-change impacts like sea-level rise and drought. (Vox)

• Climate change interacts with other drivers of fragility and insecurity in the Caribbean region through three separate pathways, according to a study by the Climate Security Expert Network: Climate-induced disasters can cause political instability through their impacts on key economic sectors; Climate impacts could lead to social unrest by compounding livelihood and food insecurity; Climate-induced loss of livelihoods could increase opportunities for criminal activity and increase urbanization challenges

• In a world dominated by money, consultation is vulnerable to being undermined by ‘State capture’, a situation in which laws and policies are effectively shaped by powerful groups and individuals to their own advantage. Guyana’s woefully flawed political system, already deficient in accountability to voters, is particularly vulnerable to capture of this nature, according to the Guyana Human Rights Association, which makes the case for "the right to inclusive decision making."

• Exxon has indicated that it was forced to increase its flaring level in Guyana when a compressor on the Liza Destiny production vessel got damaged just over a week ago. Flaring offshore estimated to reach 14 billion cubic feet of gas by the time ExxonMobil expects the problem with its compressor is likely to be resolved by April. And Guyana's government said that it is “hamstrung” in instituting penalties since the company has argued that it is within the limit allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (Stabroek News)

• But the Liza-1 Environmental Permit does not include the 14 billion cubic feet flaring allowance that government says ExxonMobil has used to  justify its emissions, according to Stabroek News.

• Melinda Janki called on the Environmental Protection Agency to shut operations at Exxon’s Liza Destiny oil vessel and “make them pay” for the damage to the health and wellbeing of Guyanese as well as the environment. (Kaieteur News) She had already raised alarm bells about flaring last year, when she said ExxonMobil’s flaring of associated gas at the Liza Phase One operation, appears to amount to a breach of contract. (Kaieteur News)
  

• Guyana has a narrow window within which to develop its resources, argues Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, pointing to possibly global carbon taxes. (Oil Now) But, Guyana still remains unprotected and without comprehensive insurance in the event of an oil spill at any of the US oil company's approved developments, countrers international environmental lawyer Melinda Janki. (Kaieteur News)

• Guyanese President Irfaan Ali made no mention securing better terms in the deal with Exxon in his National Assembly inaugural address, yesterday. Ali stated that companies operating in the sector are entitled to a “fair return on their investment”; therefore, any relationship with those companies should be based on “fairness, on equity and on mutual interest.” However, the Stabroek Block deal is anything but fair, say critics. Industry experts referred to it as one of the worst contracts in the world, according to Kaieteur News. 

• Sweet potatoes have immense potential to fuel Caribbean development, not only in the alleviation of food insecurity and as a nutrition crop but also from the perspective of climate adaptation and mitigation, and as a driver of economic development. (Forbes)

Regional Relations

• Cuba has warned that rebels from Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) may be planning an attack in Bogotá, the Colombian defense minister said on Monday. (Reuters)
• Guyana abruptly terminated an agreement with Taiwan to open an office in the South American country, hours after China urged Georgetown to “correct their mistake," reports Reuters.

Women's and LGBTQI Rights

• Saint Lucia and Saint Kitts and Nevis should decriminalize same-sex relations and adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, according to Human Rights Watch.

• Abortion is illegal in Jamaica. It is, however, easily obtainable, albeit with varying degrees of safety. In Jamaica, complications from abortion is the third leading cause of maternal death. Complications from unsafe abortions burden the public health system and exact economic, societal, familial, and individual costs. The familial and individual costs are disproportionately borne by poor, vulnerable women and their dependents, according to a report by Caribbean Policy Research Institute.
  

Security and Human Rights

• Authorities have carried out operations to fight organized crime along the border of French Guiana and Brazil, in recent months. In efforts against illegal gold mining camps in French Guiana, authorities have seized high-caliber weapons, ammunition, satellite phones, radio transmitters and thousands of liters of fuel. Authorities have also arrested people engaged in illegal gold mining who have threatened area residents and illegally cut down trees and polluted waterways in pursuit of the precious metal. Are authorities winning the fight against organized crime in French Guiana? asks the Latin America Advisor.

• Heavy rains followed by an extended drought, an increase in local consumption and a drop in the number of marijuana farmers have caused a shortage in Jamaica’s famed but largely illegal cannabis market that experts say is the worst they’ve seen. (Associated Press)
  

Finance and Debt

• Caribbean countries are in the eye of the hurricane of debt, climate and the Covid-19 crisis. The confluence of high debt levels, climate vulnerabilities and the substantial impact of the pandemic on tourism-dependent countries represents an existential threat to the region. Grenada is a perfect illustration of these dynamics, according to the European Network on Debt and and Development. 

• New York lawmakers are planning legislation designed to blunt hedge funds’ ability to resist sovereign-debt restructurings, while easing financial settlements for government borrowers in distress. Since roughly half the world’s sovereign debt is governed by New York law, the legislation could provide an international framework for struggling countries and territories to more easily restructure their debts and obtain financial relief, according to an activist group that supports the legislation, which includes Center for Popular Democracy and New York Communities for Change. (Wall Street Journal)

• Cuba's government announced that Cubans will soon be able to seek employment or start businesses in most fields of work. It is a long-awaited and likely irreversible step towards massively expanding the island's private sector, according to CNN.

• Barbados' government is proposing a national minimum wage. (Barbados Today)
  

Reparations

• The Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS) at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras presents: “Reparatory Justice: The Greatest Political Movement of the 21st Century” by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor if the University of the West Indies. The commentators for this event are Verene A. Shepherd (University of the West Indies) and Mayra Santos-Febres (UPR-RP). (Repeating Islands)
  

Anti-colonialism and anti-racism

• The University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras campus announced that it will create a new program of Afro-Diasporic and Racial Studies. (Repeating Islands)

• Dominican historian and translator Amaury Rodríguez offers “Microsyllabus: History from Below in the Dominican Republic,” a compelling, partial introduction to radical perspectives in Dominican historiography. (Repeating Islands)

• Alejandro de la Fuente has a groundbreaking and timely new book with Ariela Gross about citizenship and race. Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom and Law in Cuba, Lousiana and Virginia, which traces how colonial-era laws used to subjugate people of color still impact the U.S. justice system.
  

Culture

• The “7 best Caribbean books for your 2021 reading list, according to Rebel Women Lit’s Readers’ Awards.” -- Oprah Magazine.

• The Caribbean Studies Network (CSN) presents “In Conversation: V.S. Naipaul, Caribbean Writing, and Caribbean Thought,” sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, on March 16, 2021. (Repeating Islands)

• Bomba is an ancient genre of resistance from Puerto Rico created by enslaved people on the island over 400 years ago. Recently, bomba music has been a staple of Black Lives Matter protests calling back to its roots as a music of resilience. Linda Diaz & LA Buckner break down bomba’s musical and cultural elements at WBGH.

• Musician Chantal Esdelle discusses how Trinidad and Tobago's cancelled Carnival is an opportunity for people to reconnect with the holiday tradition in much more meaningful ways now that the pandemic has upended the status quo. (Global Voices)
  
  

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News Updates, which is 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.

Haiti's looming political crisis (Feb. 4, 2021)

 Haiti's protracted political crisis is likely to deepen this weekend. Government opponents say Feb. 7 is the last day of President Jovenel Moïse's term, while Moïse maintains that his mandate ends in February 2022.

The crisis comes amid rising unrest over an alarming rise in kidnappings and gang violence. This week unions staged a two day strike that shut down schools, businesses and markets. Protesters have filled the streets demanding Moïse's departure and an end to gang violence, reports the Miami Herald.

The disagreement over when Moïse's term stems over when it effectively began. The opposition argues the term started when that of former President Michel Martelly expired in February 2016, while Moïse said it started when he was sworn in, a year later due to a chaotic electoral process. The Federation of Bars of Haiti is backing up the opposition’s claim, noting in a recent six-page declaration that the president himself utilized the same narrow interpretation of the constitution in dismissing two thirds of the Senate last year. (Miami Herald)

Opposition party leaders plan to name a new head of state on Sunday, and agreed to create a commission tasked with choosing a president to lead the transitional government from members of Haiti's Supreme Court. Under their plan, The prime minister would be chosen among the opposition politicians, and the heads of government ministries would be selected by the new government. (Voice of America)

Moïse, who has been governing by decree for a year, said he will hand power over to the winner of a presidential election scheduled for September. Speaking on Monday, Moïse urged Haitians to support his constitutional reform proposal, reports the Associated Press. Haiti's government unveiled multiple proposed changes to overhaul the country’s Constitution, yesterday. Public meetings are scheduled to be held across Haiti for the next three weeks, ahead of the April 25 constitutional referendum, which would be the first one held in more than 30 years. (Associated Press)

Democratic Governance

• Haiti is among the worst performers in Latin America and the Caribbean in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2020. Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic all showed little improvement over their scores in previous years, while Guyana has improved 13 points since 2012.
• A new collection of essays edited by Global Americans seeks to "identify the causes of corruption in the Caribbean, while determining how it influences the region’s socioeconomic environment and pointing to what is needed to foster better governance going forward." The chapters look specifically at Suriname, Haiti, the Caribbean, and comparative perspectives.

Security and Rights

• Jamaica had the highest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean last year, at 46.5 per 100,000 people, according to the 2020 Homicide Roundup by Insight Crime. Breaking from an overall decrease in “serious” crimes last year, shootings across the nation rose. Gangs in Jamaica and Haiti have reportedly been engaged in a deadly trade where marijuana is exchanged for guns.

• Trinidad and Tobago recorded a significant fall in homicides last year, a rate of 28.2 per 100,000, also according to InSight Crime's roundup.

• Puerto Rico closed 2020 with 529 killings and a homicide rate of 16.5 per 100,000 people. This marked a slight decline from last year’s total of 614 and meant the territory was able to welcome its lowest number of homicides in over 30 years. (InSight Crime)

• Arnel Joseph, a Haitian gang leader arrested in July 2019, testified to court he was working for both government officials and people in the opposition who frequently paid him in American currency. (Haitian Times)

• A recent documentary about mogul Peter Nygard's alleged sex crimes in the Bahamas, airs claims that the Canadian fashion mogul paid off senior Royal Bahamas Police Force officers to cover up his crimes. Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle defended the force and said there were no complaints against the officers. (Eyewitness News)

• The Bahamas government will immediately cease all forms of corporal punishment at children’s homes across the country, following an investigation into allegations of child abuse at the Children’s Emergency Hostel. (Eyewitness News)

• A court backlog in the Cayman Islands has led to dozens of people stuck in pretrial detention for years. (Cayman Compass)

Migration

• Trinidad and Tobago's treatment of Venezuelan migrants and refugees and its deportations of Venezuelans, including children and asylum seekers, are not only egregious rights violations but also a sad reminder of its unswerving allegiance to the Nicolás Maduro government, argue Human Rights Watch's Tamara Taraciuk Broner and Martina Rapido Ragozzino in Americas Quarterly.

Finance and Debt

• Suriname became the second country to default on its sovereign debt in the aftermath of Covid-19, last November. The country is yet another example of the failings of the international sovereign debt architecture, according to the European Network on Debt and Development, which says developing countries are being left to challenge powerful creditors in a playing field tilted against their development needs.

• The FinCEN leaks demonstrate how powerful onshore jurisdictions frequently turn a blind eye to wrongdoing by banks in their own backyards, while castigating offshore International Financial Centers which are often more tightly regulated than their onshore counterparts, argues Alicia Nicholls in IFC Review. As several Caribbean countries prepare for their inclusion on the EU tax haven "blacklist," "the FinCEN leaks have proven yet again why such heavy-handed actions against offshore IFCs are misplaced." (See last week's Just Caribbean Updates for more on the blacklist.)

• The U.S. Biden administration approved releasing $1.3 billion in funding for Puerto Rico as part of a Hurricane Maria disaster relief package, reports the Miami Herald.
  

• A month into Cuba's economic reform, the innovations have largely caused more social pain than anything else. And they come as Cuba faces the economic pain of harsh U.S. financial restrictions enacted by Trump and the mounting pressure of Covid-19, writes Abraham Jiménez Enoa in the Post Opinión. Periodismo de Barrio unpacks the specific economic reforms.

Gender and LGBTQ Rights

• Imminent decisions by the ancient Privy Council court in London will help determine whether marriages of same-sex couples will be permitted in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and more than a dozen other former British colonies. (Erasing 76 Crimes)

• Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Pierluisi’s declaration of astate of emergency on gender-based violence "is a long-awaited, hard-fought victory," writes Lizette Alvarez in the Washington Post. Last year, Puerto Rico saw at least 60 femicides — the murder of women because they are women — according to a local watchdog organization, the Gender Equity Observatory. This represents a frightening 62 percent increase over 2019. (See last week's Just Caribbean Updates.)

Climate Justice and Energy

• The UNEP launched the Regional Coalition on Circular Economy to support Latin America and the Caribbean in the transition to a circular economy as part of the COVID-19 recovery. The Coalition will support access to financing by governments and the private sector, with special emphasis on small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

• Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley stressed the need for collaboration among CARICOM members states and Latin America, which she described as “at-risk’ nations, to combat climate change and its adverse effects. (Barbados Today)

• ExxonMobil paid US$5.6 billion in income taxes last year, accounting for its global operations -- nearly four times Guyana’s 2020 budget. Kaieteur News makes the point that Guyana received nothing of this because ExxonMobil's contract for Stabroek block operation granted them a permanent tax waiver.

• The Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries lifted a two-year ban on the fishing of an endangered species, Queen Conch, but Emma Lewis at the Petchary blog questions how the allowable catch of 250-300 metric tons will be monitored. 

Covid-19

• CARICOM nations are mostly unable to procure Covid-19 vaccine supplies independently, and await arrangements with the World Health Organization (WHO) and PAHO to deliver a vaccine they probably won’t see before April, "while waiting-in-line outside the locked gate," writes Earl Bousquet in the St. Lucia Times, advocating for quick approval of Cuban, Russian and Chinese vaccines for the region.
  

Diplomacy

• The 12 Guyanese fishermen who were detained by the Venezuelan military on January 21, along with their respective fishing vessels, Sea Wolf and Lady Nayera, were released earlier this week and were expected back in Guyana Friday. (Kaieteur News) President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, today, expressed gratitude to Guyana’s regional and international partners for their support in the episode with Venezuela. (See last week's Just Caribbean Updates.)

• Relations between Cuba and the U.S. don't go exclusively through government channels, but also through a multiplicity of parallel paths that include educational and cultural exchange, writes Rafael Hernández in Cuba Debate.

Culture

• Author Édouard Glissant identifies both the malaise of and the potential within Martinican society through a powerful collective narrative of geographic identity explored through multiple narrators in "Mahagony: A Novel" -- Repeating Islands.

• Leonardo Padura on Cuba's U.S. dependence and belonging. (Infobae)
• The African Caribbean Institute is presenting a series of lectures on storytelling for Black History Month -- or  Reggae Month in Jamaica, which inherited a legacy of oral tradition from West Africa, writes Emma Lewis at Petchary.
  

Upcoming Events

• Feb. 10 - The Caribbean Centre For Human Rights -- Virtual dialogue "Human Rights and National Security: Immigration Detention"

• Feb. 18 - Online streaming of LANDFALL – a documentary by Cecilia Aldarondo that examines the kinship of two storms – one environmental, the other economic – and juxtaposes competing utopian visions of recovery.
  

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News Updates, which is 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.