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.
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.
- 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)
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