Dominican Republic moves to loosen abortion ban (April 30, 2021)

 Dominican Republic lawmakers took the first step in permitting abortion under certain, limited circumstances. In the Dominican Republic abortion is currently forbidden in all circumstances. The Chamber of Deputies voted on a penal code reform on Wednesday that would allow abortion when the woman's life is in danger. Lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected feminist demands that rape, incest and fetal inviability also be circumstances in which abortion would be permitted. (EFE)

The bill will now proceed to a second vote in the Chamber of Deputies and must then pass the Senate, which means it could still be modified along the way.

Abortion activists have been demonstrating for over a month, since lawmakers on the justice commission rejected the proposed modifications to the penal code. (NBC) 

The Dominican Republic is one of six countries in the world that maintains a total abortion ban, along with Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Malta and the Vatican. President Luis Abinader said he supports the modifications, but cannot impose them on lawmakers, reports El País.

In February of last year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights admitted for review the case of “Esperancita”, a 16-year-old girl who died in 2012 after being denied life-saving treatment for leukaemia because she was pregnant, noted Amnesty International in its annual report.

Corruption

• A series of raids by the Dominican Republic prosecutors revealed a wide-ranging corruption network that operated in the country's security forces. Authorities arrested the former head of security of then-president Danilo Medina, Gen. Adam Cáceres, the preacher Rossy Guzmán, her son and two other people for alleged corruption, money laundering and other crimes. The attorney general’s office affirmed they seized millions in assets in what has been dubbed "Operación Corál." The scandal involves the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD), Presidential Security (Cusep), Tourist Security (Cestur), and the National Police. (Dominican Today, Dominican Today, Dominican Today, Diario Libre, Dominican Today)

Climate Justice

• The 44 members of the Alliance of Small Island States, are the least contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, but the most affected by climate change, said Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne at the U.S. hosted Leaders Summit on Climate last week. "The harmful effects of Climate Change are growing, and the cost of mitigation and recovery is being counted in human lives and livelihoods."

• The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) endorsed the use of locally led adaption principles in supporting the most vulnerable communities to address climate change impacts, including in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), along with 50 other organisations globally.

• To date, 12 Caribbean countries including Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Eustatius, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Trinidad and Tobago, have all placed a ban on the use and import of single-use plastics and Styrofoam. (Times Caribbean)
  
  
• Many islands in the Caribbean are transitioning from electricity systems that are traditionally centralized in nature and powered by fossil fuels to a new paradigm incorporating distributed energy resources. Stimulus efforts to recover from impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic should aim to accelerate progress in implementing DER solutions and provide other significant benefits, according to a report by RMI.

• A coalition of conservation organisations bought 950 sq km of the Belize Maya Forest in order to save one of the world’s last pristine rainforests from deforestation. Combined with the adjacent Rio Bravo Reserve, Belize Maya Forest creates a protected area that covers 9% of Belize’s landmass, a critical “puzzle piece” in the Selva Maya forest region, helping secure a vital wildlife corridor across northern Guatemala, southern Mexico and Belize, reports the Guardian.

• Guyanese finches, a songbird, have become a valuable commodity in parts of the U.S., where the caged birds are pitted in competition against one another, often in parks. The fashion has promoted a boom in bird smuggling from Guyana, with finches concealed in hair curlers, reports the New York Times.

Governance

• “The U.S.'s insistence on elections at all costs in Haiti” later this year risks exacerbating the country’s cycle of political instability and violence, warned 69 U.S. House Democrats in a letter to the Secretary of State, calling for “a significant review of U.S. policy in Haiti” by the Biden administration. The U.S. lawmakers said the administration of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who has been ruling without a parliament for over 15 months, not only “lacks the credibility and legitimacy” to administer elections that are free and fair but also a constitutional referendum scheduled for June 27. (Miami Herald)

• The United States will not provide financial support for a constitutional referendum in Haiti, the U.S. State Department told reporters yesterday. (Reuters)

• An epidemic of abductions is compounding Haiti's political and economic crises. Kidnappings last year tripled to 234 cases compared to 2019 -- but real figures are likely much higher because many Haitians don't report abductions, fearing retribution from criminal gangs, reports Reuters.
• The former U.S. Trump administration went "purposely" out of its way not to help Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. According to a report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General, the Trump administration created bureaucratic hurdles that delayed approximately $20 billion in hurricane disaster recovery and mitigation funds to Puerto Rico. "What is clear is that Puerto Rico was treated quite differently from other places — such as Florida or Texas — that had suffered hurricane damage and needed assistance," criticizes the Washington Post editorial board.

Regional Relations

• David Jessop hopes the new U.S. administration heralds a new era of cooperation with the Caribbean, and notes that "inclusion" was emphasized in a recent two-hour meeting last week between U.S.  Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and his Caricom counterparts. (Jamaica Gleaner)

• News Americas analyzing the same meeting criticized that Blinken "brought words and a 'commitment to working with all countries,' but little else."

Covid-19 impact

• The U.S. announced it will share millions of doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine -- Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley, who is also Caricom chairman, said he is in conversations with the Biden administration regarding the need for equitable distribution of vaccine supplies. (Caribbean Media Corporation)

• Asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants living in Belize can receive the COVID-19 vaccine. (Breaking Belize News)
  

Human Rights

• The 2021 Freedom Report downgraded both the United States and El Salvador by three points while Venezuela lost two. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and St. Lucia all slipped a point. Only six countries in the Americas registered improvements in 2021: Suriname, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Jamaica and Belize. Fourteen others held steady (Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guatemala, Paraguay, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay). (Americas Quarterly)

• Jamaica has been described as “almost flawless” in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Jamaica is seventh out of 180 countries ranked, second only to Costa Rica in the Americas. According to the report, Jamaica generally enjoys widespread respect for freedom of information and continues to rank among the safest countries in the world for journalists. (Jamaica Observer)

Gender

• Activists are calling for Jamaican Member of Parliament George Wright to resign, after an incident of domestic violence in which he is believed to have physically assaulted his common-law wife. The video of the alleged event went viral, and has spurred criticism in a country where gender-based violence is increasingly under the spotlight. (Loop, Global Voices, Petchary's Blog, see April 16's Just Caribbean Updates)

Food Security

• Volcanic eruptions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines left the country in a state of emergency that is affecting the availability and affordability of food, reports IICA.
  

Migration

• A boat carrying 24 Venezuelans capsized en route to Trinidad and Tobago, last week. At least two people died, and 15 are still unaccounted for. The tragedy is the latest of several incidents involving the capsizing of boats carrying Venezuelan refugees and migrants towards Caribbean islands. (United Nations)

• A report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) using the Displacement Tracking Matrix on Venezuelan migrants living in Guyana's Mahdia region.

• Title 42 allows US authorities to rapidly expel most migrants who arrive at the US border on the pretext of public health. But the policy exposes migrants and asylum seekers to serious danger, according to a new report by Al Otro Lado, Human Rights First and the Haitian Bridge Alliance. (Al Jazeera)
  

Economics and Finance

• Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said many middle income countries “will be pauperised” if they do not have access to concessional funding. She spoke at a virtual interactive Fireside Chat on the challenges faced by small island developing states (SIDS), hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. She expressed the view that there must be a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) for all countries. (Nation News)

• Jamaican Finance Minister Nigel Clarke is calling for more public-private partnerships to help Jamaica navigate away from what he calls the black hole of a looming regional debt crisis. (Jamaica Gleaner)
  

Culture

• Judas and the Black Messiah won two Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards from an all-black producing team whose director, producer and co-writer’s roots run straight to the Caribbean and Panama -- News Americas.

• Five Caribbean writers are among the 25 shortlisted in the Commonwealth Short Story Prize competition. (The Grenadian Voice)

Events

5 May

• Inaugural Lecture and Conference -- Ameena Gafoor Institute for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies

 We welcome comments and critiques on the Just Caribbean Updates, which is a work in progress. You can see the Updates on our website, and also sign up there to receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading and sharing. 

Cuba's generational changeover (April 22, 2021)

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel was named Communist Party head this week, cementing the generational changeover of Cuba's leadership, as the country battles an intense economic crisis, reports the Miami Herald.  The move does not signal immediate political change, in fact, the theme of this year's meeting of the party was "continuity." But Castro's stepping down has strong symbolic significance: it will be the first time in 60 years that there isn't a Castro leading the country.

"The founding generation had a kind of iconic status," said William LeoGrande, professor of government at American University and an expert on Latin America. "Now, you have a new generation who were not the heroes of the triumph of the revolution. They’ve got to sort of prove their legitimacy by performance. And in Cuba, the performance is making the economy better." (Miami Herald)

The transition comes at what may be a tipping point for the island, according to the New York Times.

The issues discussed in the closed-door meeting also show some of the challenges to "continuity": The Congress passed a resolution yesterday that, among other things, denounced the effects of social media, which it claims is part of a “program of ideological and cultural influence deployed by the enemy” — the United States, reports the Miami Herald. During a speech opening the congress on Friday, Castro warned the "counterrevolution" lacked popular support or leadership but was adept at manipulating the web. (Reuters)

Díaz-Canel allowed Cubans to access the internet from their phones in 2018, and in their homes the following year — changes many feel helped fuel protests and demands for greater political freedom.

Social media has become a crucial space for protests against the government, for everything from gay rights to animal protection and the expansion of civil rights. Cuban dissidents accused authorities of keeping them offline and preventing them from leaving their homes during the party meeting. (Reuters and Miami Herald)

Human Trafficking

• Over 21,000 Venezuelan women and girls have been victims of human trafficking in the last six years in Trinidad and Tobago, according to official Caricom figures. Once recruited by criminal gangs―often through deceit to get them to accept their transfer to the island―, they are then subjected to conditions of slavery through physical and psychological violence. This journey of horror leads the victims to prolonged sexual exploitation, report Connectas and Armando Info.

Migration

• Cubans are the third-largest group of migrants waiting in Mexico to obtain asylum in the U.S., just ahead of Salvadorans, and after Guatemalans and Hondurans. Most are economic refugees. The dual shocks of renewed U.S. economic sanctions during the Trump administration and the Covid-19 pandemic have only worsened the crisis, writes William LeoGrande in the Conversation.

Covid-19 Impact

• Evidence suggests the pandemic has further widened inequalities and access to social goods in the Caribbean, according to a study by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute that analyzed Covid-19 impacts in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

• In the Caribbean, "governments have sought the assistance of partners such as the United States, China, India, Russia, and the African Union for help in acquiring vaccines, and all but Washington have responded with donations or agreements for vaccine purchase," notes Wazim Mowla in Real Clear World.

• As Cuba advances with its own vaccine developments, the jabs could form part of the country's strong tradition of medical diplomacy in the region and further afield, Javier Corrales said on the Americas Quarterly podcast.

Economics and Finance

• Covid-19 economic downturns will force several Caribbean countries to borrow from the IMF, as a last resort -- "for its part, the IMF policymakers should appreciate that small Caribbean states cannot be measured by the same yardstick as richer and larger nations," writes Sir Ronald Sanders.

• Guyana's government seeks to capitalize the country's newfound oil wealth to shift the country's foreign policy objectives to a more business friendly approach, according to Wazim Mowla in Oil Now. For instance, in February 2021, Guyana announced that it will establish two new embassies in the Middle East.

Regional Relations

• Dominican President Luis Abinader urged the international community not to leave the Dominican Republic alone in the face of insecurity and political instability in Haiti, immersed in a “Somalization” spiral, reports EFE.

Democratic Governance

• Haiti’s cash-strapped government is paying expensive lobbyists to help burnish President Jovenel Moïse's tarnished reputation in the U.S., where members of Congress are increasingly critical as Haitians call for the president to resign, reports the Miami Herald.

• Haiti's Catholic Church has waded into the country's political crisis, speaking out against violence after a high profile kidnapping at a Church captured seven Catholic clergy. A Mass held last week to protest violence and kidnappings ended with police teargassing participants (see last Friday's Latin America Daily Briefing), but some opposition politicians are hopeful the Church could play an influential role, reports AFP.

Climate Justice and Energy

• A new regional pact, the Escazú agreement, comes into force today for Latin America and the Caribbean. It is the first to require member nations to provide legal protections to environmental defenders, in one of the most dangerous places on earth for conservationists.The agreement also aims to make environmental regulation more responsive to communities facing harm. The accord has been signed by 24 of the region's 33 countries, so far, and formally ratified by 12. Nicaragua is among the dozen nations that have agreed to make it legally binding. (Reuters)
• In countries that have ratified, "the real work begins this week, when local environmental justice movements will start pushing for effective implementation," writes Vivek Maru in the Los Angeles Times.

• Rights advocates say the pact's success will depend on the commitment of governments and big business, reports Reuters.

• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development removed restrictions unique to Puerto Rico that had been limiting the island's ability to access certain recovery funds following the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017. The agency also unlocked access to $8.2 billion in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation funds, approved by Congress in 2018 to help the island build resiliency against future disasters, reports NBC.

• Environmental disasters are inherently social and political phenomena. The magnitude and severity of the damage from a disaster depend on the vulnerability that some social groups are exposed to, explains a report by Los Chavos de María on information management for social-environmental risks in Puerto Rico.

• Police have positively identified 11 out of 47 DNA samples of victims who were killed during the deadly Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, reports Eyewitness News.

• Guyana's government said it is exploring whether ExxonMobil is liable for its fourth and latest flash gas compressor malfunction. “If there are issues of non-performance that result in a loss of revenue and income to the State of Guyana and to the shareholders, then the appropriate penalty must be introduced," said Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.
  

Drug Policy

• Marijuana is a complex and many-layered issue in Jamaica -- and a real social issue, writes Emma Lewis at Petchary's Blog.

Gender

• Masculinity and Fathering in Jamaica is a groundbreaking study by Patricia Anderson, that departs from the tradition of Caribbean family research in which the focus has usually been placed on women and on households and instead gives men the opportunity to speak for themselves -- Repeating Islands.
  

Histories

• In the earliest known CIA assassination plot against leaders of the Cuban revolution, high agency officials offered the pilot of a plane carrying Raul Castro from Prague to Havana “payment after successful completion of ten thousand dollars” to “incur risks in arranging accident” during the flight, according to formally TOP SECRET documents posted last week by the National Security Archive.

• In George Padmore’s Black Internationalism, Rodney Worrell explores Padmore’s use of the ideologies of Marxism and pan-Africanism as vehicles to liberate Africa and the Caribbean from the grip of European imperialism -- Repeating Islands.
  

Events

23 April

• Cereus Blooms at Night at 25 - Bocas Lit Fest
  

25 April

• The Big Idea: The Way Ahead - Bocas Lit Fest
  

-- We welcome comments and critiques on the Just Caribbean Updates, which is a work in progress. You can see the Updates on our website, and also sign up there to receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading and sharing. 

La Soufrière volcano eruptions displaced 20 percent of St. Vincent (April 16, 2021)

Volcanic eruptions on St. Vincent since last week have displaced about 20 percent of the Caribbean island’s population, and ash from La Soufrière volcano has coated St. Vincent and neighboring islands, including Barbados.  

A UN official warned of a growing humanitarian crisis, and that 20,000 people are “estimated at risk of food insecurity, given the loss of the assets in terms of livelihood like fisheries, or agriculture." (Associated Press)

The ash is contaminating crops and drinking water in the area. The PAHO voiced concern over its impact on human health. (Caribbean News Service)

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in a news conference Tuesday that he estimated the eruptions have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. (Washington Post)

While the volcano's explosions have been getting weaker and less frequent, this does not mean that the eruption has ended, according to volcanologist, Professor Richard Robertson. (iWitness News)

And the longer La Soufrière's activity lasts, the more dire St. Vincent's situation becomes, warns Janine Mendes-Francoin Global Voices.

St. Vincent officials are concerned that the ongoing volcanic eruption on the island will drive up Covid-19 cases. Lack of clean water and overcrowding among evacuees are hampering prevention efforts, reports the Associated Press.

The U.N. is set to launch a funding appeal to support Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. (List of places to donate -- Loop)

More La Soufrière

• The LatAm Review looks at how journalists in St. Vincent cover historic eruption of volcano in middle of pandemic, despite ash and limited resources.

Migration

• The Dominican Republic launched a plan to legalize Venezuelan migrants who arrived in the country between 2014 and 2020. Government officials said 17,000 Venezuelan's applied normalize their immigration status within the plan's first 48 hours. (Hoy Digital, NTN24)

Climate Justice and Energy

• With dozens of countries struggling to manage both staggering debt and mounting climate disasters, some financial leaders are calling for green debt relief, reports the New York Times.

• An active Atlantic hurricane season is looming just a few weeks away. Experts predict some 17 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes (category 3 or above). The annual average is 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes. (Barbados Today)

• A coroner’s inquest into victims lost during the 2019 Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas features difficult testimony. Given the intensity of the storm, it would have been difficult for anyone to survive outdoors or indoors, Deputy Director of the Department of Meteorology Michael Stubbs testified. (Eyewitness News, Eyewitness News)

• The design flaws, which have plagued the Liza Destiny’s gas compressor system, make it an unacceptable danger to not only Guyana but the Caribbean as well, international lawyer Melinda Janki told Kaieteur News. It is therefore required of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fulfill its role as an effective regulator and shut down the operations now, she argues.

Democratic Governance

• A rare congressional hearing has brought a new sense of urgency among U.S. lawmakers debating whether to support statehood for Puerto Rico or a different pathway towards determining the U.S. territory's relationship to the federal government, reports NBC News. Bills for both options are currently before Congress.
  
• Haitian Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe resigned early Wednesday, in the wake of a crime surge that has pushed the country deeper into a political quagmire that has become a constitutional crisis, reports the Miami Herald. President Jovenel Moïse appointed Foreign Minister Claude Joseph as acting interim prime minister -- the sixth since 2017. Moïse has been ruling by executive fiat since January 2020, after the terms of most members of Parliament expired.

• A Catholic Mass led by Haiti’s leading bishops to bring attention to the country’s surging violence ended yesterday in tear gas, gunshots and chaos in Port-au-Prince, reports the Miami Herald. Dubbed the “Mass for the freedom of Haiti,” the service was packed with crowds spilling onto the sidewalk and into the streets, protesting a rash of violent kidnappings that has the country under siege.

Public Security

• Armed men broke into a Haitian orphanage, killing a guard and sexually assaulting two children, reports the Miami Herald. The orphanage attack has triggered a new level of anger and disgust with Haiti’s growing insecurity and the government’s inability to tackle the problem.
  

Women's Rights

• Jamaican police insist that according to their statistics, femicides are not on the rise, but a string of murders and attacks on women this year has set society on edge and sparked an emotional response among Jamaican netizens, writes Emma Lewis at Global Voices.
  

Workers' Rights

• Several Bahamas businesses have reportedly attempted to implement mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policies for their workers, a move that the country's labour director warned was illegal. (Eyewitness News)

Justice

• The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is the institutional crystallisation of two long-enduring movements within the Caribbean legal field, argues Salvatore Caserta in a "The Extended Foundation of the Caribbean Court of Justice between Decolonisation and Globalisation."
  

Health

• Organizers of the United Nations Food Systems Summit in September are trying to ensure that the voices and opinions of those who are usually not listened to— women, youth, smallholder farmers, indigenous peoples— are at the heart of the event's action-driven agenda. (Forbes)

• Most Caricom countries are net food importers, and at least seven countries import more than 80 percent of the food they consume. Unhealthy imported foods are a scourge to the region's health, and climate change is affecting the region's already limited agricultural production, warns Julio Berdegué in Caribbean News Network.

Culture

• Jamaican writer Diana McCaulay's dystopian future novel features a fictional Caribbean island suffering the impact of climate change. The sun is so hot that people must sleep in the day and live and work at night. In a world of desperate scarcity, people who reach forty are expendable. (Dragonfly.eco)

• New Caribbean literature -- just out or on its way -- Kei Miller

Events

17 April

• Astronomy in the Caribbean -- Moray House

30 April

• Registration for Resources Mobilisation Digithon -- an opportunity for artist a and cultural professionals to come "face to face" online with stakeholders, investors, and funders in the creative and cultural industry sector. 

-- We welcome comments and critiques on the Just Caribbean Updates, which is a work in progress. You can see the Updates on our website, and also sign up there to receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading and sharing.

Caribbean Vaccine Inequality (April 9, 2021)

Covid-19 Impact

• COVAX facility vaccines have so far been delivered to Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, the Dominican Republic and Belize. Shipments to St. Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada and Saint Kitts & Nevis, are in transit. But the 350,000 vaccines received thus far are a drop in the bucket for the region's needs: the Caribbean region is home to over 44 million people. Several Caribbean island nations have issued a plea to the United States to share its stockpile of COVID-19 vaccine but the Biden administration has not done so to date. (News Americas Now)

• Haiti does not have a single coronavirus vaccine to offer its more than 11 million people over a year after the Covid-10 pandemic began, reports the Associated Press. So far, Haiti is slated to receive only 756,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX, but delays are expected because Haiti missed a paperwork deadline.
  


• Equitable access to health care across all territories is the only way for countries to better combat both the short and long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and other health care crises, argued Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley as she addressed a World Health Organization virtual press conference this week. She said the current pandemic has played havoc on predominantly smaller and poorer nations, and regions such as the Caribbean have been left on the sidelines in terms of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and other necessary medications, when compared to larger nations. (Barbados Today)

• Mottley also pointed out that many of the challenges and vulnerabilities facing the region are not captured by the country’s per capita income or infant mortality rates. The CARICOM chair said where there is a global market failure as is happening now, small middle income states are at risk of not being seen or heard or not even accessing critical goods and supplies. (Barbados Advocate)

• The IMF and the World Bank's overly rosy assessment of Covid-19 impact in the Caribbean has resulted in inadequate instruments to help the region's economies, argues Sir Ronald Sanders.

• To further support reconstruction, and over the coming months, the United Nations will work with its partners across the Caribbean to facilitate the development of a build-back-better road map -- United Nations Sustainable Development Group.

• St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said teachers must either test negative for Covid or get a vaccine before schools start Monday. (Caribbean News Service) The Public Service Union and its lawyer say that the government is perched on “a slippery slope” in asking public sector workers to submit to their heads of department the results of their Covid-19 tests. (iWitness News)

• Total and partial school closures in Latin America and the Caribbean currently leave about 114 million students without face-to-face schooling according to UNICEF’s latest estimates. But national policies often elide disparities within countries, both in access to in-person learning, and remote options.
• ECLAC head Alicia Bárcena welcomed a recent call by the U.S. for a new issue of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and the re-allocation of excess SDRs to low-income countries (LICs), such as those in the Caribbean. (Caribbean Media Corporation)

Regional Relations

• A new U.N. geopolitical grouping, known as AfCAR (Africa Group-Caricom), gathers two regions, 68 member states, over one-third of the United Nations’ 193 members. It debuted with a joint statement by Caricom and the African Group to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. (Now Grenada)

• CARICOM finance ministers met virtually to prepare the group's agenda ahead of a scheduled upcoming meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, reports Kaieteur News.

Public Security

• The 24-year-old cousin of two Black teens murdered last year in Guyana was charged with the subsequent murder of Surojdeo Deochand called "Sarjie," an Indo-Guyanese man. (Kaieteur News) The gruesome killings ignited simmering racial tensions in the country, last September. (See Sept. 11's Latin America Daily Briefing)

• The recent killing of a young Jamaican woman came against the backdrop of a record number of murders on the island which, by some counts, had the region's highest homicide rate last year. Even as more women go missing, many Jamaicans are publicly expressing their dismay at the crime situation, writes Emma Lewis at Global Voices.

Gender Rights

• Domestic violence, femicides and attacks against trans women have haunted Puerto Rico for decades In January, the governor declared a state of emergency over gender-based violence, but activists worry that real progress will require deeper, cultural changes, reports Vice News.
  
  

Climate Justice and Energy

• Forecasters suggest an “above-average” Atlantic hurricane season this year, though not as busy as the historic 2020 season which saw 30 named storms, 13 hurricanes, and six major hurricanes strike all around the region, reports Accuweather.

• Climate change will deepen the rich-poor global divide, top economists warn. (Reuters)

• Energy is one of the most scarce resources in the Caribbean. A new study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provides an analysis of the evolution of energy consumption and expenditures in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), composition by energy source. (St. Kitts Nevis Observer)

• St. Vincent and the Grenadines' La Soufriere volcano, which has been erupting effusively since December, can erupt explosively in hours or days. (iWitness News) Residents near La Soufrière began evacuating the island’s “red zone” on today by traveling to nearby islands, boarding cruise ships or moving into emergency shelters on other parts of St. Vincent. (Washington Post)

• Jamaica's burgeoning bamboo industry is a sustainable economic boon, reports Forbes.

Democratic Governance

• The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) will convene its Eighth Congress on April 16‑19 to choose new leadership and assess policies intended to address long standing economic and political challenges – with no indication of bold new departures, writes William Leogrande at the AULA Blog.

• "Haiti has never truly been able to achieve the institutionalization of state powers prescribed by its 1987 Constitution.  All the avenues of access to power have been attempted — elections, uprisings, coups d’état and dictates of the international community, negotiations, agreements, compromises, and expedients — without bringing us to a state of democratic normalization, let alone a political stabilization of the country," writes Haitian constitutional scholar Claude Moïse in an article in Le Nouvelliste and translated to English in Law and History Review. 

• "There has never been a satisfying political solution nor an adequate institutional response to the country’s recurring political crisis. ... The country’s exposure to institutional instability and flagrantly unconstitutional rule is such that Haiti is now toppling on the precipice of arbitrary dictatorship and anarchy," he writes.

• Aruba's prime minister resigned this week after prosecutors announced an investigation for suspected embezzlement of funds by one of the parties in her coalition. (Caribbean News Service)

Labour

• The Dominican Republic's Alta Gracia garment factory is famed for paying a living wage, but nine months into the coronavirus pandemic, workers were furloughed without pay and the US-based company is struggling to stay afloat. The case raises questions over whether a clothing business can pay a decent wage and still be profitable, reports the Guardian.

Education

• The University of West Indies secured a $25 million international grant -- the largest in the institution's history -- a partnership with Silicon Valley digital tech giant Eon Reality. (Caribbean News Service)

Reparations and Anti-Colonialism

• Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne asked Oxford University's All Souls College for reparations for profit obtained from slave labor of enslaved people on Antigua and Barbuda. (Caribbean News Service)

• France’s plan for a national memorial to the victims of slavery has been suspended after a disagreement over its concept. (The Art Newspaper)
  

Culture

• Trinidad and Tobago nonprofit organisation Dada and Projects wants social art design to be part of Port of Spain revitalisation plans. (Newsday)

• Guadeloupe artist Minia Biabiany examines the colonial dynamics between France and its overseas territories in her work. (Repeating Islands)
  

Events

9 April

• Venezuelan Immigration to Trinidad and Tobago: A comparison of the Displacement Tracking Matrix Reports for 2019 and 2020 -- TEDU

13 April

• Debt-for-Climate Swaps for Small Island Developing States: An Innovative Approach to Preventing a SIDS Debt Crisis -- AOSIS
  

14 April

• Institute of International Relations Panel Discussion: Achieving the SDG’s on Health and Climate Change in the Caribbean: Challenges and Opportunities -- University of West Indies
  

22 April

• Championing Change: How Caribbean Women and Youth are Facing the Crisis -- Jhannel Tomlinson at Brooklyn College

Cuba's vaccine candidates (April 2, 2021)

 Last week, Cuba started vaccinating 150,000 health care workers with its Soberana 2 vaccine that is still in the third phase of clinical trials. And, yesterday, the island nation started giving its Abdala vaccine to 124,000 health care workers—Abdala is likewise still in phase 3 of vaccine trials, reports AFP. 

Cuba has four vaccines currently at various stages of clinical trials, including two in the final phase three: Soberana 2 and Abdala. On the basis of as-yet-unpublished results from early-stage clinical trials, Vicente Verez-Bencomo, director-general of the Finlay Institute, expects the Soberana 2 to show an efficacy in the region of 80–95%, reports The Lancet.

Success would have significant repercussions for Cuba, which has paid a significant economic cost for pandemic shutdowns, and for the region. There have been reports that vaccine tourism could be encouraged, in order to give the country an economic boost. (NPR) And Cuban officials have said the country 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. (See March 5's post.) Cuba's national identity and diplomatic efforts have long been focused on health, and the Henry Reeve Brigade has dispatched cadres of health-care professionals all over the world. If the new vaccines are successful, they could be an opportunity for poorer countries left out of the international vaccine scrum, reports the Washington Post. Cuba's vaccines don't require ultra-cold storage, and are able to last at room temperature for weeks, potentially making them a viable option for low-income, tropical countries

Cuba's long-standing commitment to health has led to a successful COVID-19 pandemic response, but it is threatened by financial and supplier issues, according to The Lancet. (See the Conversation for more on Cuba's strategies against Covid-19.) Cuba's biotechnology industry sprang up in response to the U.S. embargo, but obtaining raw materials is a constant struggle, especially in the aftermath of the hardening of the American sanctions during Donald Trump's presidency.

Regional Integration

• The Persaud Commission proposed to put Caricom on a dual-track system -- permitting countries that wish to form part of a single market and economy (CSME) to advance in that direction, while permitting others to join at a later date, as a way around its implementation paralysis. “Enhanced cooperation is mostly ‘second best’, not as good as everyone starting off together at the beginning, but it is better than not starting at all,” the commissioners say in their report. (Jamaica Gleaner and Jamaica Gleaner)

• The debate comes in the midst of a diplomatic schism within Caricom, over a December OAS vote condemning Trinidad and Tobago's approach to Venezuelan migrants, which was supported by the Bahamas, Jamaica and Haiti. Underlying the division is an issue of dependency, according to Sir Ronald Sanders, with some countries relying on Caracas for oil while others look to the US and Canada for aid, markets, and help with borrowing. "When CARICOM countries recognize that they could be less dependent on external forces and less obliged if they pool their resources and their sovereignty, they will be more independent in their decisions and action."  (Kaieteur News, Jamaica Gleaner)

Covid-19 Impact

• Desperate to create safe conditions for tourism, many countries in the Caribbean are turning to India and China for vaccines at a time when global supplies are strained and richer nations are ahead of them in line for shots from other sources, reports the Associated Press.

• Vaccination is advancing slowly in the Caribbean, due to difficulties procuring jabs, even as caseloads increase and countries seek to reactivate their economies, reports EFE.

• As the Caribbean rolls out COVID-19 vaccines, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is running a survey to obtain views on the COVID19 vaccines of people living in the region and to determine their willingness to be vaccinated.

• The Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC) announced the launch of its COVID Hub series of country reports on transparent and accountable expenditure of externally financed pandemic support measures in 14 Caribbean states. The countries being covered are Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

•  As part of the CoronavirusFacts project implemented by UNESCO, more than a hundred journalists in Haiti have learned to use the tools of new information technologies (NICT), to analyze data, to produce maps, to master social networks, but also to verify the facts under the principles of ethics and professional conduct of the journalistic profession.

• The Canadian Government has announced it will inject CAN$1.2 million to support the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) in its response against COVID-19 in six Caribbean countries: the Bahamas, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. (Guyana Times)

• A Saint Lucia attorney has called for an agency to monitor abuses by law enforcement officers, as they enforce Covid-19 laws. (St. Lucia Times)

• Cayman Islands-based journalist Daphne Ewing-Chow, who wrote an article examining  the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of teenagers, won the PAHO/CDB/CBU Award “Celebrating Responsible Coverage of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support During COVID-19”.

Climate Justice and Energy

• Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness are the only two Caribbean leaders invited to the U.S.-organized Summit Meeting on Climate. U.S. President Joe Biden said invitations were extended to leaders of major economies and "heads of other countries that are demonstrating strong climate leadership and are especially vulnerable to climate impacts." (Caribbean News Service)

• Fiji in partnership with WHO launched its national Guidelines for Climate Resilient and Environmentally Sustainable Health Care Facilities.

• The reopening of the massive Limetree Bay oil refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands is a prime example of what environmentalists see as the former U.S. Trump administration’s unfettered and irresponsible deregulatory agenda, reports Inside Climate News.

• Three cruise companies' plans to make Nassau their home port could be environmentally disastrous for the Bahamas, despite business hopes for economic benefits, reports Eyewitness News.

• Women farmers in the Maroon nation of Accompong in Jamaica thrive on their tightly knit community's communal land ownership system, but the lack of water infrastructure and absence of running water is an ever-looming threat that impacts yields and income earning potential, reports Forbes.

• The regional non-governmental organization BirdsCaribbean is at the forefront of ongoing efforts to protect the region's birds. It has now launched a new bird monitoring initiative — the Caribbean Motus Collaboration -- using a system of nanotags and receiver stations to monitor bird movements, reports Petchary's Blog.

Racial Justice

• Alejandro de la Fuente and Stanley R. Bailey delve into contrasting perspectives on racism and racial inequality in contemporary Cuba: "Our analyses of census data suggest that racial stratification has a limited impact on areas such as education, health care, occupation, and positions of leadership. We find, nonetheless, that an expanding and strikingly racialized private sector is fueling dramatic income inequality by skin color beyond the reach of official census data." -- Du Bois Review

Democratic Governance

• The Self-Determination Act before the U.S. Congress could finally end colonization of Puerto Rico, argues Natalia Renta in Jacobin Magazine.

• Historical voting data in Puerto Rico shows the country's electorate is changing the way it votes. Years of corruption scandals, financial mismanagement, inadequate response to natural events, and the ousting of Ricardo Roselló have caused many to evaluate candidates individually. An analysis of the election results by 9 Millones shows that the vote by candidacy in the Legislative ballot increased by 3.77% from 2016. At the same time, the straight-party voting decreased by 4.48%. 

• The Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) won all five seats on the Barbuda Council, displacing the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party. (St. Kitts and Nevis Observer)

• The Guyana Press Association (GPA) has again condemned reports of attacks – physical, virtual and otherwise – on members of the media and outlets, after journalist Gordon Moseley and NewsSource were excluded from a scheduled press conference. (Jamaica Gleaner)

LGBTQI Rights

• Six known trans murders occurred in Puerto Rico in 2020 — five trans women and one trans man—the majority of whom were Black, Indigenous, and poor, experiencing housing instability and supporting themselves through sex work. Activists have called for trans people to be explicitly included in the governor's recent declaration of a state of emergency over gender-based violence. (Autostraddle)
  

Human Trafficking

• Barbados' cabinet approved a national action plan on human trafficking. (Caribbean News Service)

Public Security

•  A string of police-involved shootings and reports of police using excessive force in the Bahamas has undermined trust in the Royal Bahamas Police Force, reports Eyewitness News.

Workers Rights

• Grenada teachers marched to demand a 4 percent increase in salary granted by the 2018 collective bargaining agreement. (Now Grenada)

Drug Policy

• Proposed legislation to decriminalize marijuana in Grenada is presently before the country's cabinet for discussion and will be presented for public consultation next. (Now Grenada)

Culture

• In sculptures made of sugar, salt, and glass, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman explores the colonial undertones of monster movie imagery -- Hyperallergic

Events

4 April

• David Commissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to CARICOM, on reparations, and current issues affecting the University of the West Indies (UWI) -- Caribbean Solidarity Labour

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