Haiti's state-sanctioned massacres (May 7, 2021)

Haitian state officials and police assisted in gang attacks that left hundreds of people dead, according to a report published by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and the Observatoire Haïtien des Crimes contre l’humanité. The report describes the acts of state-sponsored violence under President Jovenel Moïse as probable “crimes against humanity” when considering their “scale, pattern, and context. (Harvard Crimson)

The researchers lay out Moïse's government allegedly took part in massacres that occurred between 2018-2020 by providing gangs with money, weapons, police uniforms, and government vehicles. These were used in attacks on Port-au-Prince neighborhoods where opposition to Moïse was particularly strong. Former government officials also planned the attacks and off-duty police officers helped carry them out, according to the report’s authors.

The findings that crimes against humanity have likely taken place in Haiti, and that state actors may be liable for the crimes, have important ramifications for accountability, according to the report's authors. The allegations of crimes against humanity could provide justification for international action to address Haiti’s political and human rights crisis, William O’Neill, a human rights lawyer and former UN human rights adviser, told the Haitian Times.

The report’s findings that the killings were orchestrated by state officials underscores how the government’s desire to repress political dissent has bred longstanding ties among police, state officials and criminal leaders in Haiti, according to InSight Crime.

Climate Justice and Energy

• Meteorologists are predicting 17 to 18 named storms during this Atlantic hurricane season, eight hurricanes and three to four major hurricanes. The season runs from June 1 to November 30, but some meteorologists have been lobbying for the season’s start date to be moved up to May 15, reports EyeWitness News.

• The U.N. has voiced concern over the environmental impacts of the ‘La Soufrière’ volcano's eruption in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; issues include air quality, ash management and related water and soil contamination as well as the excessive use of plastics in shelters and the large amount of waste generated by ongoing relief efforts. (News Americas)

• The COP 26 theme of "Adaptation and Resilience" marginalizes "Loss and Damage," which is problematic on several fronts, according to the International Centre for Climate Change and Development.

• The Annual Report on Global Islands 2020 outlines challenges and creative solutions for islands to “build back better” as they recover from Covid-19. The ongoing pandemic provides islands with an opportunity to take stock, recognize policies that may have contributed to vulnerability, and begin a process to become more resilient and sustainable in the face of present and future crises.

• The U.S. embargo against Cuba has, among other things, hindered the country's adaptation to climate change. (Juventud Técnica)

• A group of 36 organizations focused on agrifood sustainability and climate justice called on the U.S. to reverse U.S. sanctions towards Cuba, which severely limit the rights of Cuban citizens to food security, climate justice and dignity.

• Structural machismo in food production elides women's roles in agriculture, reports Juventud Rebelde.

• The construction of a shore base facility in Guyana's West Demerara, has seen a substantial amount of mangroves being cleared along the shoreline earmarked for the project and residents are now worried that it could leave them vulnerable to flooding. (Stabroek News)

• The sargassum plaguing Tobago's beaches could be an economic opportunity -- Global Voices
  

Governance

• The issue of Puerto Rico's status with the U.S. is a complicated question, that defies easy definitions, reports The New Republic.

Diplomacy

• The United States has too often viewed its neighbors – Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean islands – as problems to be managed rather than as diplomatic and economic opportunities to embrace, argues Richard Feinberg in Americas Quarterly. An "ambitious and creative [aid] program could offer an historic opportunity to turn the Greater Caribbean Basin into a significant geographic asset for the United States."

• The Caribbean’s fractured diaspora in the U.S. reinforces a compartmentalized U.S. policy toward the region; while, for the Caribbean, the collective weight of its diaspora has not been sufficiently leveraged to promote the region’s interests both locally and within the U.S., write Georges Fauriol and Wazim Mowla in Global Americans.

• The New York Times delves into the tangled espionage-love story of dual Cuban and U.S. citizen Alina López Miyares, who is serving a 13-year sentence in a Cuban prison. Supporters hope the U.S. Biden administration will usher in a new detente with Cuba that will permit an opportunity to revisit the case.

Corruption

• A former Barbadian Minister of Industry and elected member Barbados' Parliament was sentenced in a U.S. federal court  to two years in prison for his role in a scheme to launder bribe payments from a Barbadian insurance company through bank accounts in New York. (Caribbean Life)

• Former Bahamas Supreme Court Justice Keith Thompson has been appointed the country's first Freedom of Information Commissioner. (The Tribune)

Financial

• Bequia is primed to become the world’s first fully Bitcoin-enabled community, though the adoption of cryptocurrencies is more of a necessity for small island communities rather than idle curiosity, reports Cryptoslate.
  

Covid-19 Impact

• Of the 27 coronavirus vaccines in final stage testing around the world, two are Cuban. The island could become the smallest country in the world to develop its own jab, a testament to the island's top scientists, many trained in the Soviet Union, reports the Guardian.
  
• Cuba's advances in developing five separate coronavirus vaccines -- two of which are in advanced trials -- build on a long history of biotechnology investments, reports Al Jazeera. Since the 1980s, Cuban scientists have developed vaccines for a whole range of ailments, including hepatitis, tetanus and the meningococcal meningitis.
• Haiti still has not completed the necessary steps to receive a single shot, the Pan American Health Organization said this week. PAHO did not provide further details on the holdup. Prior to receiving vaccines, Haiti’s health ministry needs to ensure that all measures are in place, like the training of personnel and logistics including storage and surveillance, as well as authorizing the import of the AstraZeneca vaccine, reports the Miami Herald.
• A great number of Latin America and the Caribbean countries have included refugees and other displaced people in their vaccination rollouts, but challenges remain in some countries for asylum seekers and those without regular migratory status. -- UNHCR

• Deeper south-south cooperation, and in particular closer Africa-Caribbean cooperation, appears to be one potential COVID-19 ‘legacy good’, argues Alicia Nicholls in Caribbean Trade Law.

• "...we don’t know how much time is left. That has always been true. The pandemic didn’t make it truer, so much as it underlined how few choices the poor, the at-risk, and the so called Global South have when confronted with disaster capitalism. The time isn’t now because we’re running out of it." -- Trinidadian poet Shivanee Ramlochan (Global Voices)

Gender

• Covid-19 economic fallout has resulted in an increase in transactional sex in Jamaica, including numerous startling cases between older men and underage girls, according to a new study out by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute. The Stress Test: The Impact of the Pandemic on Domestic and Community Violence’ is based on research in 47 of the poorest and most violent communities in Jamaica. (Loop News)

• SiliconCaribe released its First Annual Caribbean Women in Tech Top 50 List.
  

Culture

• The British Guiana One-Cent Magenta was created in 1856 and is the most famous and valuable stamp in the world. When it goes to auction in June it is expected to sell for between $10m and $15 million. (Guardian)
  

Events

11 May

• Success Stories and Opportunities for a Sustainable Economic Recovery -- Inter-American Development Bank

• Dominican, Haitian, island historical futures: a discussion of emerging, and upcoming research -- University of Oxford

Opportunities

• FRIDA is looking for passionate and committed young feminist activists to join its Caribbean Advisory Committee  in 2021.

• Independent Expert on Foreign Debt - OHCHR

• Call for inputs- reform of international debt architecture - UN Independent Expert on debt and human rights