Elections won't solve Haitian crisis, say gov't critics (March 25, 2021)

The U.N. Security Council issued a unified call for Haitian President Jovenel Moïse to tackle the country’s deepening security and institutional problems while advancing preparations to ensure that free, fair and credible legislative and presidential elections take place this year, reports the Miami Herald. Observers say the U.N. statement shows that the U.S., under the Biden administration, is growing more critical of Moïse. 

For some it also shows that the international community is equating democracy to elections, missing other crucial good governance factors. “People need to realize that elections are not inherently equivalent to democracy,” Jake Johnston, a research associate for the Center for Economic and Policy Research told the  New York Times. Moïse is increasingly unpopular, and critics say elections scheduled for this year under his tight control are not a path to democratic legitimacy. Moïse has scheduled a constitutional referendum in June, and a general election later this year, but opposition leaders and legal experts say the whole process is a farce, reports CNN.

"Time is fast running out to avoid further worsening of the situation in Haiti," warns Sir Ronald Sanders, noting that the window for dialogue between President Jovenel Moïse and opponents is closing. (Caribbean News Global) Haitian democratic instability is closely linked to the international community, writes Pooja Bhatia in the London Review of Books. "The US exercises influence without acknowledging it; subverts genuine democrats and then claims they lacked popular support; props up autocrats and ignores both the letter and the spirit of the law in the name of stability and ‘what’s best for Haitians’; preaches self-reliance while flooding Haitian markets with rice grown in Arkansas; evangelises human rights while denying asylum-seekers a chance to show credible fear; propounds elections instead of democracy."

The Security Council statement also recognizes and encourages CARICOM's engagement with Haiti. (Caricom Today)

Immigration advocates called on the U.S. to end deportations to Haiti and offer a new Temporary Protected Status designation for Haitians living in the U.S., a move that would provide immigration protection for thousands of people, reports the Miami Herald. Since February 1, there have been at least 21 ICE charter flights returning no fewer than 1,200 expelled Haitians to Port-au-Prince. The U.S. Biden administration has so far deported more Haitians in a few weeks than the Trump administration did in a whole year, according to a new report, The Invisible Wall, published by a coalition of immigrant rights groups. The deportations have taken place under Title 42, reports the Guardian.

Indigenous and Afro-Descendent Rights

• The Raizal community on Providencia, a Colombian island in the Caribbean, said Colombia's Navy is using hurricane reconstruction tasks as cover for advancing projects on their territory, reports La Silla Vacía. Local leaders are concerned that reconstruction plans by the Colombian government are out of touch with local realities, and could be a foothold for massive tourist development and detrimental to local communities' territorial rights. (Liga Contra el Silencio)

• Raizal leaders and advocates have warned that the destruction wrought by Hurricane Iota last year on the island could contribute to pushing the Afro-Caribbean community off their traditional lands. (See Just Caribbean Updates for March 18 and Dec. 16.) 

• Experts weigh in on the Colombian government's reconstruction failure, 100 days after Hurricane Iota destroyed most of the Providencia's edifications. (Un Periódico)

Climate Justice and Energy

• The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released a publication that presents a sustainable ocean economy classification for tradable goods and services, applicable to any country at any time. The report emphasizes that classification systems will enable the collection of trade-related and other statistics for the monitoring and analysis of ocean-based sectors at global and national levels, from a supply or a demand perspective, and as a whole or by sector. 

• Oil and gas sectors will play a key role in Guyana's development over the next few years, according to President Irfaan Ali. He projected that there will be at least seven oil producing platforms in Guyana’s waters by the end of 2027 and said foreign capital was crucial to converting the country’s natural resources into wealth. (Stabroek News)

• Flaring at ExxonMobil's Liza Phase One operation in Guyana releases carbon equivalent to the destruction of thousands of acres of the country's forests, reports Kaieteur News.
• Guyana was warned by a host of oil experts and good governance advocates to not rush the approval of Payara, ExxonMobil’s third field development project in the Stabroek Block. The project was approved last September, by the newly installed People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government for its intended 2024 start-up, reports Kaieteur News.

• According to the Environmental Permit for the Payara Project ExxonMobil, has up to September 23, 2021 to submit an updated Environmental and Socioeconomic Monitoring Plan. (Kaieteur News)

• Guyana needs to secure “solid financial assurance” from Stabroek Block operators to ensure the country is protected in the event of an oil spill, argues international lawyer, Melinda Janki. (Kaieteur News)

• Financing could help entrepreneurs in the Caribbean and Pacific battle the ever more dramatic effects of climate change, according to the Investment Climate Reform Facility.

• CARICOM countries, partnering with the FAO's “Cooperation for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the Caribbean” initiative, are embarking on a drive to help the region adapt to climate change through the application of digital technologies. (Stabroek News)

Economic and Fiscal Justice

• The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the cracks in the existing development pattern, and revealed its limitations, around the world, but particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, in addition to short-term relief, there must be a response to structural problems. The goal cannot be to reinstate the previous development pattern, but to move towards a new one. A new ECLAC report looks at how the pandemic provides an opportunity for a systemic approach to disaster risk for the Caribbean.

• A new Inter-American Development Bank publication, Economic  Institutions  for  a  Resilient  Caribbean, seeks to offer  a  viable  path  for Caribbean  countries  to  improve  their  economic  institutions,  and  thus their economic performance. 

• A new Eurodad report shows that the coronavirus crisis led to a net negative resource transfer on public debt from developing countries of US$ 194 billion in 2020. The public sector transferred resources to their creditors on a net basis in at least 58 countries. "This figure is a damning indictment of the inadequacy of the ongoing multilateral response to the crisis."

Democratic Governance

• "Puerto Ricans — not Congress — should be allowed to chart their political future, whether that’s statehood or independence," write Tom Perriello and Karina Claudio Betancourt in Roll Call. "This is why supporting a process, instead of backing a specific solution, is the right approach. Process is as important as the outcome following years of imperialism and colonial dynamics that have suffocated a real debate on the issue." (See March 5's Just Caribbean Updates on alternative bills in the U.S. Congress regarding Puerto Rico's political status.)

• Puerto Rico has been granted immediate access to $912 million in U.S. federal funds that had not been available to students in public and private schools on the island as a result of restrictions imposed by the previous administration. (NBC News)
  

Corruption

• A company that was blacklisted by the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) for alleged financial malpractices in Guyana has been awarded a $1.6 million contract for the procurement of laboratory and pathology supplies, reports Kaieteur News.
  

Covid-19 Impact

• A growing number of Jamaican prison inmates have tested positive for Covid-19, and, last week, the Department of Correctional Services placed the entire Hilltop Juvenile Correctional Centre under quarantine following the discovery of a COVID-19 cluster there. (Jamaica Observer)

• Covid-19 vaccines are plentiful in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Locals are hesitant to get the jabs, and roughly 3 percent of the 33,000 Covid-19 vaccines administered thus far have gone to tourists. The case is an example of the many ways in which vaccine access across the world is shaped by race, circumstance and privilege, reports the New York Times.

• Puerto Rican authorities are cracking down on tourists flouting coronavirus health measures, reports the Associated Press.

Human Trafficking

• Bahamian Our Sanctuary has joined an international group of anti-human trafficking organizations by being named to the Global Modern Slavery Directory. (Enews)

• The United States Coast Guard law enforcement teams have interdicted several Caribbean nationals in a suspected human smuggling venture off the south coast of Florida. Since October 1, 2020, the US Coast Guard said crews have interdicted 78 Bahamians, eight Jamaicans, 182 Haitians, 194 Dominican Republicans. (St. Lucia Times)

Culture

• The Getty Conservation Institute worked with communities and cultural experts in Barbados and Jamaica in order to highlight the cultural heritage of both islands in ways that give voice to those who have been historically disenfranchised. Getty developed free, open-source, cultural data management software called Arches, allowing for collaboration with local communities to determine which cultural heritage sites are meaningful to them, a shift that is especially meaningful in post-colonialist regions like the Caribbean, writes Janine Mendes-Franco in Global Voices.

• Negra cubana tenía que ser is a selection of texts published in the last 13 years by Sandra Abd’Allah-Álvarez Ramírez. Many of the pieces incorporate reflections, opinion articles on universal themes, such as racism or gender violence, or more local issues such as gentrification and prostitution in Cuba. In the same way, this volume also includes first-person and third-party testimonies that give an account of an alternative, underground and non-normative Cuban society that is usually outside the media focus -- Repeating Islands.

• Puerto Rican journalist and cookbook author Von Diaz writes about the country's "essential dishes" in the New York Times.

• The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Commission, in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and MeCurator Art Gallery, launched a virtual art exhibition entitled “Climate Change: An Eastern Caribbean Journey.”
  

Events

27 March

• In Search of Mami Wata -- Guyana SPEAKS 

31 March

• Contemporary Archipelagic Thinking: Towards New Comparative Methodologies and Disciplinary Formations launch -- Rutgers’ Center for Cultural Analysis
  

5 April

• Dr. Jorge Duany, in conversation with Dr. Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel -- The Cuban Research Institute at FIU and The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami

29 May

• Navigating the Opportunities and Imperatives in Guyana’s Oil and Gas Economy – Queen’s College of Guyana Alumni Association New York

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

Ponzi Schemes in the Caribbean (March 18, 2021)

Ponzi and pyramid schemes have proliferated across Caribbean countries during the pandemic, and authorities have been unable to keep up, according to a new report by the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network (CIJN). The report estimates that the rash of pyramid and Ponzi schemes has already cost would-be investors in the hundreds of millions of dollars in the six jurisdictions examined – Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). 

"Regulatory responses have been largely deficient, despite a pre-pandemic history of spectacular crashes involving sophisticated cross-border operations spanning recent decades. There has in fact been little regional collaboration on finding a suitable regulatory response, and patchy solutions have straddled everything from consumer law to anti-trust legislation."

These schemes are not new in the Caribbean, notes InSight Crime, but "the economic crisis and job volatility caused by the pandemic may have made such schemes more attractive to people with few resources who suddenly find themselves in need."

Climate Justice and Energy

• For the countries on the frontline in the war against climate change, there is a nasty nexus between climate change and debt, writes Barbadian Avinash Persaud with recommendations on how to break the nexus. (Vox EU/CEPR)

• Antigua and Barbuda will require more international funding to transition to green energy, said Prime Minister Gaston Browne, referencing the country's tourism-reliant economy, climate shocks and the COVID-19 crisis. Antigua and Barbuda's "perilous situation of debt" is mirrored by other countries in the region, whose efforts to transition to clean energy will be hampered by potential debt crises, reports Reuters.

• The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) are collecting data to gain information on what Caribbean people know about the connection between climate change and their health. Countries participating include Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Barbados. (Trinidad and Tobago Newsday)

Economics

• The United Nations adopted a new framework that includes the contributions of nature when measuring economic prosperity and human well-being, a move that could help reshape decision and policy-making towards sustainable development. The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting—Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) — was adopted by the UN Statistical Commission and marks a major step forward that goes beyond the commonly used statistic of gross domestic product (GDP) that has dominated economic reporting since the end of World War II.
  

Public Security

• An audio-documentary by dj afifa looks at the case of a joint police-military team operation in Jamaica, carried out on March 10 with the aim of apprehending members of the Bedward Gardens-based ‘Berry Gang’. 5 men were killed. (H/T Petchary's Blog)

Slavery and Native Genocide Reparations

• CARICOM's reparations campaign will actively reach out to the continent of Africa, and to Africa’s premier multilateral organisation – the African Union (AU), a determination taken at the first meeting of CARICOM’s Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Reparations chaired by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Covid-19 Impact

• The Covid-19 Relief Monitoring Hub brings together leading Caribbean journalists, researchers, and development experts in a project to monitor government expenditure of external financing of pandemic efforts in 14 countries of the region. The project will produce regular reporting on governmental best practice in the areas of procurement processes, and efficiencies, transparency, and accountability in the state sector.

• Puerto Rico used curfews and rigorous sanitary measures, "and the pandemic was never politicized," an approach that saved lives on the island, reports NBC News.

• Low-cost flights to Puerto Rico have enticed many travelers to choose the island as a vacation spot during the pandemic, but relaxed restrictions have led to large gatherings, fights and Covid rule-breaking, reports the Guardian.
  

Democratic Governance

• Haiti's volatile social, economic and political crisis means elections organized under Haitian President Jovenel Moïse will not work and will not be seen as legitimate by the people, three Haiti-born civic leaders and a former U.S. ambassador to the country told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Friday. (Miami Herald) 
• Several members of the Haiti National Police were killed or injured in a police operation turned deadly in a Port-au-Prince slum known for harboring kidnapped victims and a notorious gang. Acting Haiti National Police General Director Léon Charles said Saturday that four officers had been killed and eight wounded, on Friday. Five officers have been discharged from the hospital, while three are in stable condition, he said. Haiti police also have been unable to locate another officer. The United Nations called on Haitian authorities to clarify the circumstances surrounding the failed operative, reports the Miami Herald.
• The botched raid has spurred a wave of anger and the social media hashtag #FreeHaiti. Videos showing gang members dragging the bodies of two slain cops is the latest in Haiti's worsening crisis. The anti-corruption grassroots activist group Nou Pap Dòmi sought to explain #FreeHaiti?: "There is no parliament, no elected local officials, the judiciary system is under attack, the president wants to change the constitution and hold elections while gangs control many parts of the territory. There is a surge in kidnappings at a scale never seen before." (Miami Herald)
• Haitian gang leader Arnel Joseph, who was killed after a deadly Haiti prison break last month, may have been sprung intentionally — raising further concerns about toxic relationships between gangs and political elites in the run-up to new elections, reports InSight Crime.
• The two bills in U.S. Congress on how to resolve Puerto Rico's status, in very different ways, are likely to break down along some unusual ideological lines, reports Slate in an in-depth piece on the issue. (See also March 5's Updates.) A competing bill, the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act would set up a “status convention,” with delegates elected by Puerto Rican voters, that would develop a long-term solution for Puerto Rico’s status. These could include statehood, full independence, a “free association” status, or an “enhanced commonwealth” status.
• Second-class treatment of people living in U.S. territories "is not just unfair; it is un-American" writes Stacey Plaskett, U.S. Virgin Islands Congressional Delegate in The Atlantic. More than 3.5 million Americans are denied the right to vote in presidential elections, because they live in one of five U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than 98 percent of these territorial residents are racial or ethnic minorities, "a fact that cannot be a mere coincidence as our continuing disenfranchisement extends well past the century mark," she argues.
• The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) dismissed an appeal filed by Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and other Dominica Labour Party (DLP) candidates who were successful in the 2014 general elections, reinstating complaints filed against them for the charge of treating. Treating refers to directly or indirectly providing food, drink or entertainment to a person, during or after an election, with the aim of corruptly influencing that person’s vote. (Loop News)
  

Migration

• Cuba accused Washington of stoking illegal migration by not processing visas in Havana and making it relatively easy for Cubans to claim asylum. (Reuters)
  

Anti-colonialism

• The Netherlands has shelled out millions of dollars' worth of emergency aid to former colonies in the Caribbean -- Sint Maarten, Aruba and Curaçao -- as the coronavirus pandemic destroyed the countries' economies. But critics say the Dutch government is using the pandemic to turn back the clock on colonial rule, with broad demands in exchange for the aid. Last week, Sint Maarten lawmakers filed a petition with a U.N. special rapporteur on racism accusing the Netherlands of “racial discrimination” and “violations of international rights.” Dutch officials say the pandemic has pulled back the curtain on years of mounting problems since autonomy was granted. (Washington Post)
• Colombia's government has ignored local leaders on San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina islands, and has brought "neocolonial" attitudes to post-hurricane Iota reconstruction, according to Pastor Alberto Gordon May, president of Autoridad Raizal. (El Espectador)

• The situation on the ground in Providencia, where Iota destroyed 98 percent of the island's buildings, remains precarious, and the next hurricane season will begin in two months, reports El Tiempo. (See Dec. 16's Updates.)

• Meghan Markle's allegations about the British monarchy are unsurprising for viewers from former British colonies who "were quite familiar with the British monarchy’s systemic passive-aggression. As former subjects of the crown, we know all too well the damage they’ve done," writes Schuyler Esprit in the Guardian.
  

Gender and LGBTQI

• Trinidad and Tobago NGO Womantra launched the Elma Francois Legal Clinic, which will provide free and low-cost legal services to survivors of gender-based violence. (Newsday)

• Trinidadian writer and staunch advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, Colin Robinson, passed away on March 4 after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 58 years old. Robinson was one of the founders of the Coalition Advocating for the Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO), a civil society organisation that champions human rights issues for Trinidad and Tobago’s LGBTI communities and has built partnerships with feminist and other activist organisations. (Global Voices, Stabroek News)

History

• Cuban spy Emilio Sánchez helped the British government to fight the slave from 1859 to 1862 as American authorities looked the other way -- Smithsonian Magazine, via Repeating Islands.

• Journalism in a Small Place traces the history of media in the English speaking Caribbean, and provides insight into the development of these industries from their inception under British imperial rule to their current focus on advancing national development in the post-independence period. University of Calgary Press
  

Events

18 March

• The Pink Line: The World’s Queer Frontiers -- Commonwealth Writers Conversations
  

25 March

• Caribbean urbanism: Re-imagining resilience -- Atlantic Council
  

27 March

• Celebrating 30 Years of “Out of the Kumbla” -- Cornell
  

8 April

• Jamaica's ambassador to the U.S. holds monthly zoom sessions to connect with the Diaspora -- Jamaica Connect

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.--

Latin America Daily Briefing

Women in the Caribbean (March 10, 2021)

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Women's Rights activists mark International Women's Day in Puerto Rico

Women and Covid

• Women are "on the frontlines" of the fight against Covid-19, but underrepresented in global and national health leadership, said Pan American Health Organization director Carissa Etienne on International Women's Day. "Women make up the great majority of healthcare workers. They head households and are the main providers for many of those households -- much of this is unpaid work and in the informal labor workforce," she noted. (Caribbean News Service)

• The pandemic is worsening gender inequalities in the Caribbean labor market, according to an IDB report. More single-headed female households reported going to bed hungry or eating less healthy than men. There was also a reported rise in domestic violence towards women, particularly amongst lower-income households and especially in Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

Women and Reparations

• Understanding the gendered political economy of slavery is crucial to present-day discussions around reparation, argues Verene Shepherd, director of the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies. Women represented approximately 30 percent of the estimated 15 million Africans forcefully transported to the Caribbean from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Added to the abuse of their bodies through an arduous field régime and severe punishment for perceived infractions of the “slave codes," enslaved women experienced sexploitation. Colonial statutes and codes invested them with no rights over their own bodies.

Women and Political Representation

• “On average, 22% of ministerial portfolios/cabinet positions in the Anglophone Caribbean are held by women," according to the United Nations. "Across the region, women generally do not hold more than 30% of elected positions with the exception of Guyana (which has a legislated quota of one-third of the number of political nominees must be women) and Trinidad and Tobago.” Loop News highlights women in leadership positions in the Caribbean, including Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

Gender and LGBTQI

• Black Island Girl is a new platform launched to explore issues that affect Caribbean women of African descent by Dominican-Canadian Jael Joseph, a media personality, influencer, content creator and journalism student. (Loop)

• LGBTQI activist Maurice Tomlinson's judicial challenge to Jamaica's anti-sodomy law restarted on Monday. His case will rely on two scathing Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reports, which found, the law contributes to almost daily abuse, harassment and often murder of LGBT Jamaicans and is also a reason that the island has the highest HIV prevalence rate among men who have sex with men in the Western Hemisphere, 33%. (Erasing 76 Crimes, see last week's Just Caribbean Updates)

• Religious homophobia is a major reason Jamaica lags other countries in recognizing LGBT human rights, argues Tomlinson in Erasing 76 Crimes.

Public Security

• Haitian gang leader Arnel Joseph, who was killed after a deadly Haiti prison break last month, may have been sprung intentionally — raising further concerns about toxic relationships between gangs and political elites in the run-up to new elections, reports InSight Crime.

Climate Justice and Energy

• The climate crisis is pushing the planet’s tropical regions towards the limits of human livability, with rising heat and humidity threatening to plunge much of the world’s population into potentially lethal conditions, reports the Guardian.

• The recently launched Barbados Sustainable Energy Investment Programme, also known as Smart Fund II, is a $90 million investment fund that aims to kick-start carbon-neutral energy projects. It is being financed with a $30 million investment loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and a $15 million investment grant provided by the European Union. Barbados aims for total reliance on green energy by 2030. (Barbados Today)
  

• Racial division is a long-standing problem in Guyana, but has been fuelled in recent years by the discovery of major offshore oil deposits which have raised the stakes of racialized domestic political competition. In Current History, historians Arif Bulkan and Alissa Trotz situate Guyana’s recent election standoff in a longer, relatively unbroken trajectory of racially divisive politics. They explore how historically oppressed peoples have directed their hostility at each other while governments have worked with extractive industries to perpetuate a neo-imperial economic dependence structure.

• The former chairman of Petrojam, Perceval Bahado-Singh, has been slapped with multiple fraud charges related to the time he led Jamaica's sole petroleum refinery, announced the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA). (Barbados Today)
  

• French oil company Total plans to begin developing oil fields at Suriname’s Block 58 as early as 2025, around five years after the first major discovery was made at Maka Central-1. (Oil Now)

• ExxonMobil is forging ahead with plans for its fourth development in the Guyana Stabroek block, Yellowtail. Though it is not planning to submit the field development plan (FDP) for government review until the end of the year, the company has already started putting out tenders, reports Kaieteur News.

• Guyana government officials said a 14 billion cubic feet flaring quota for ExxonMobil’s Liza-1 project, recently cited by vice president Bharrat Jagdeo, is, in fact, not in its environmental permit. The company maintained that it never used the figure to justify its flaring, reports Stabroek News. (See last week's Just Caribbean Updates.)

• This week the United Nations launched Regional Climate Weeks, its latest initiative to further discussions about climate change and the steps necessary to mitigate its global impact. (Breaking Belize News)
  

Indigenous Peoples

• Water is a major challenge for the new Accompong Maroons' Chief Richard Currie in Jamaica. The group lives in Cockpit Country— the largest remaining natural forest in Jamaica -- which supplies the country 40 percent of its fresh water, but lacks running water, reports Forbes. Among the crops that Currie says could be easily brought under the umbrella of sustainable development are ginger, breadfruit, yams, castor oil, sorrel, potatoes, peppers, bananas, plantains and turmeric.

Human Trafficking

• Trafficking of children and adolescents along the Haiti-Dominican Republic border has increased, according to activists. (Caribbean News Service)

Economic and Fiscal Justice

• OECD countries and their dependencies are responsible for 68 per cent of the world’s corporate tax abuse, according to this year's Corporate Tax Haven Index. The index documents the ways in which global corporate tax rules set by the OECD failed to detect and prevent corporate tax abuse enabled by the OECD’s own member countries – and in some cases, pushed countries to roll back their tax transparency. (Tax Justice Network, h/t Primera Mañana)
• Countries graded by the OECD as “not harmful” are responsible for 98% of the world’s corporate tax abuses risks, the report said, adding that the UN should take over the role of fostering global tax rules. (Guardian)
• See January 28's Just Caribbean Updates for Caribbean critiques of the European Union's tax haven blacklist. Caribbean Economist Marla Dukharan has 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.”
• Puerto Rico filed a debt-restructuring plan that includes a proposed cut of up to 8.5% to monthly pensions of at least $1,500. (NBC)

Human Rights

• Guyanan Arif Bulkan, a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, has been elected as one of three vice chairs of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. (News Room)

Covid-19 Impact

• The IDB Jamaica Civil Society Consulting Group is calling on the Government to establish a National Commission on COVID-19 that would help to drive a more strategic, proactive, and enhanced response to the raging pandemic. (Petchary's Blog)

• The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers Union says it is concerned that the country could lose a generation of students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. (iWitness News)

• The pandemic has pointed to the absence of a region-wide integrated approach to food security and CARICOM member states’ continuing failure to address the logistical and infrastructural challenge of having efficient intra-Caribbean shipping and air transport links, among other things, writes David Jessop for the Caribbean Council.

Diaspora

• Allegations by former British royals, Prince Harry and Meghan, that an unnamed member of the royal family had “concerns” over the colour of their unborn baby’s skin have raised a thorny question for many countries with historic ties to Britain, according to the Jamaica Gleaner: Do those nations really want to be so closely connected to Britain and its royal family anymore?

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.

Jamaica responsible for violating gay rights -- IACHR (March 5, 2021)

 Jamaica's government is responsible for violating the rights of two gay people and the country’s homophobic laws should be repealed immediately, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The report, which is from 2019 but could not be reported on before, sets a precedent for LGBT rights across the Caribbean, reports the Guardian. It is the commission’s first finding that laws that criminalize LGBT people violate international law.

The two Jamaicans who brought the case — Gareth Henry and Simone Edwards — convinced the IACHR that Jamaica's laws against buggery and gross indecency violates their rights and legitimises violence towards the LGBT community in Jamaica. These laws were originally imposed by the British colonial administration in Jamaica and still remain on the law books even though Britain has since abandoned those provisions, reports the Jamaica Observer.

Jamaica is one of the nine countries across the Caribbean that still criminalizes homosexuality and has the worst reputation. Time magazine labeled Jamaica the "most homophobic place on earth" due to the atrocious attacks and brutal murders of LGBTQ people, reports the Bay Area Reporter.

The IACHR decision reflects a "positive wave within local and regional judicial bodies as noted in Belize, Trinidad and Guyana to affirm and protect the human rights" of LGBT people in the Caribbean, said J-FLAG (Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays).

The decision is a watershed moment, writes Henry. "Unlike my numerous appeals to the police for justice, such a well-reasoned and categorical judgment from an authority of this kind cannot be easily dismissed." (Guardian, see last Thursday's briefs)

IACHR's recommendations are non-binding, but Jamaica's Supreme Court decide in a case decriminalize homosexuality this month.

When it comes to" hotly contested issues such as LGBTQ rights and abortion, the Inter-American system is the wrong venue for change," argues Robert Carlson in Global Americans. "Instead, advocates should embrace a two-pronged approach, pushing the envelope at the domestic level while reinforcing well-established rights through international institutions."

In fact, Jamaican activists have carried out a multipronged approach, wrote Maurice Tomlinson last year at Erasing 76 Crimes "including delivering police LGBT sensitivity trainings, working with and amplifying the voices of progressive faith leaders, encouraging foreign leaders to engage our politicians on constructive ways to end homophobia, and also hosting Pride events to increase visibility of the queer population." Activists have combined suits in international forums with challenges before the region's senior tribunals.

Democratic Governance

• A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week would enable Puerto Rico to be admitted into the United States as a full-fledged state — a proposal that faces an uphill battle, despite optimism from proponents that a Democratic-majority legislature might push the initiative forward, reports the Miami Herald. Island residents would participate in a federally binding election called by the governor to choose whether or not Puerto Rico should immediately be granted statehood.
  
• But a group of 80 progressive organizations are pushing for passage of an alternate bill, the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2020, presented by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velázquez. Advocates say this proposal would ensure that Puerto Ricans have access to "a legitimate, accountable and inclusive process for decolonization and self-determination." (NBC News) The bill calls for self-determination, but doesn't advocate for one solution, like statehood. Instead, a group of delegates — elected by Puerto Rican voters — would study the issue and come up with a plan for the island’s territorial status, which includes such solutions as statehood, independence or a free association. (Axios)
• The two bills reflect a growing divide within the Democratic Party about whether statehood is actually the best solution for Puerto Rico, reports Axios. "Statehood advocates lack urgency, grass-roots organization, a clear narrative and a united front," argues Julio Ricardo Varela in the Washington Post. "Only the power of a true popular movement will send the message to Congress to act with moral obligation, as opposed to doing what it has always done."
• Thousands of Haitians protested a growing wave of for-ransom kidnappings, and again called for the departure of President Jovenel Moïse, last Sunday in cities around the country. It was deemed the largest demonstration since anti-government protests resumed earlier this year, and was organized by some of the country’s most prominent Protestant pastors and supported by various civic groups, political organizations and unions, reports the Miami Herald.
• Haiti's constitutional crisis has brought much of Haitian society to a standstill: the education system has been paralysed and businesses are running at half-speed. Associations representing the country’s judges have called for a work stoppage, writes Ralph Thomassaint Joseph at Al Jazeera.

• Haitians have had enough of the government, but President Jovenel Moïse won't leave as long as he has U.S. support, writes Amy Wilentz in The Nation.

• The Cayman Islands' Human Rights Commission has raised objections to coronavirus quarantining voters missing out on casting their ballot during the 14 April general election. (Cayman Compass)

Migration

• The Dominican Republic plans to construct a fence along its 376-kilometer border with Haiti, a move aimed at curbing unauthorized migration and illicit trade, DR President Luis Abinader announced Sunday. He specifically said it would limit drug trafficking and movement of stolen vehicles. The barrier will include a double-fence in the “most conflictive” sections, along with motion sensors, facial recognition cameras and infrared systems, he said in an address to Congress. (Reuters, BBC)
• Experts say the Dominican Republic government's plan to build a wall (or fence, rather) along the Haitian border won't work to reduce illegal migration unless it is accompanied by development projects in the border area, reports AFP.
  
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials acknowledged internally that deported Haitian immigrants “may face harm” upon returning to their home country due to violent crime and the political instability that has rocked the country in recent months, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.
  

Covid-19

• Two of Cuba's four nationally-developed vaccine candidates will begin their third and final trials this month, reports CNN. Soberana 2 will now be tested on 44,000 Cubans, as well as thousands of people in Iran and Venezuela. Mexico could potentially also take part, reports the Financial Times. 

• Officials say Cuba will export its Covid-19 vaccines at cost price plus a small margin to support its free universal healthcare system. Patents may be licensed abroad for production and vaccines donated to the poorest countries. Cuban scientists say they expect their vaccines to be a game changer -- not just against the rising Covid numbers but also for the disastrous impacts of the pandemic on their economy. 
• More than 168 million school children globally missed out on learning in class, as schools in some 14 countries remained largely shut for almost an entire year due to coronavirus-related lockdowns, according to a new UNICEF report. Nine of the 14 countries, where schools remained mostly closed between March 2020 to February 2021, are in the Caribbean and Latin American region, affecting nearly 100 million students.
  
• Education budgets declined after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 65 percent of low- and lower middle- income countries, according to a World Bank and UNESCO study. Lower-income countries are more likely to continue a
  decreasing trend in their education budgets or to shift from a positive to a negative trend after Covid. 
  

Climate Justice and Energy

• Oil extraction contracts signed between governments and companies organize the sharing of this economic wealth between populations and companies. The case of Guyana's contract with ExxonMobil demonstrates the importance of such contracts being public, writes François Valérian at the Transparency International blog. Investigative reporting found that Guyana might have been deprived of at least several tens of billions as a result of its contract with Exxon, he writes.

• Caribbean leaders warned the region is facing the twin threats of climate change and COVID-19 during the Green Climate Fund’s Regional Dialogue with CARICOM. The Fund stressed its commitment to bolster Small Island Developing States within the Caribbean region, particularly with increased support for adaptation and resilience measures. 

• Professor Mimi Sheller, a key theorist in critical mobilities research and in Caribbean studies, discussed her book "Island Futures: Caribbean Survival in the Anthropocene" at the Caribbean Studies Network. 

• A Kaieteur News investigation questioned Guyanese government assertions that the country cannot take action against oil major ExxonMobil for flaring at the Liza Phase One extraction site. Guyana vice president Bharrat Jagdeo said the company's contract permits it to flare up to 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas at the Liza One extraction site. However the number is not in the approved Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), according to Kaieteur.

• Mangrove forests with greater species diversity can store more carbon, according to new research published in the British Ecological Society journal Functional Ecology.

Debt Relief and Just Recovery

• Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley called for a "refinancing of COVID-related debt and the postponement of debt servicing payments; comprehensive debt relief; and appropriately priced funding to build economic and climate resilience," at the the launch of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center’s new Caribbean Initiative.

Gender and LGTBQI

• Recent cases of horrific femicides in Trinidad and Tobago have cast a spotlight on culture of misogyny and gender violence in the country, but also on the country's inept criminal justice system, write Jada Steuart and Janine Mendes-Franco in Global Voices.

• Barbados' Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations and UN Women launched a Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace Project. The new effort comes after a year in which gender violence increased dramatically during lockdowns  in Barbados, and in the Eastern Caribbean. U.N. Women representative Tonni Brodber  the partnership was relevant because using the workplace as a site of control by perpetrators of intimate partner violence has been practiced in the Caribbean. (Barbados Today)

• Bahamas' cabinet is all male, after the resignation of former Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Lanisha Rolle, who was the only woman in Cabinet. (Eyewitness News)

Public Security

• More than 400 inmates have escaped and 25 people have died in a Haitian prison breakout, the country’s largest and deadliest one in a decade, reports the Associated Press. The breakout a week ago was believed to be an attempt to free gang leader Arnel Joseph. He escaped, but died Friday in an exchange of gunfire with police, after being spotted at a checkpoint in the town of L’Estere, reportedly still wearing prison chains on his ankles.
  


• Illegal fishing off the coast of French Guiana surged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as French maritime patrols struggled to mobilize resources, luring illegal fishing crews to the country’s pristine waters, reports InSight Crime.

Drug Policy

• A bill to legalize cannabis for adult use is advancing in Bermuda, but the UK is likely to withhold support. (Cannabis Wire)

Culture

• Bunny Wailer, the co-founder and last living member of Jamaican reggae group the Wailers, who took Bob Marley to global stardom, has died aged 73 -- Guardian. (See also Washington Post.)

• Part II of Caribbean National Weekly’s “Evolution of Jamaican Music: From Revivalism to Reggae" looks at Rocksteady: the Jamaican musical genre that succeeded ska, growing in popularity in the late 1960s.

• The documentary Madan Sara focuses on the lives of Haitian women who are simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary. Filmmaker Etant Dupain told Ms. Magazine that he saw Madan Sara as a “different way to introduce people to Haiti.”

• The 11th annual Caribbean Fine Arts (CaFA) Fair, which starts March 10, is taking virtual format. Countries represented in the fair include Barbados, the Bahamas, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Repeating Islands)
  
  

Events

5 March

• The Impact of Venezuelan Migration on T&T: A Geopolitical Analysis -- Venezuelan Migration Zoom Event
  

22 March

• Ameena Gafoor Institute for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies -- inaugural seminar on ‘Slavery and Indentureship: the Concept of Coolitude’

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.