"Who Polices the Police? The Role of Independent Agencies in Criminal Investigations of State Agents," explores examples of how different countries in the Caribbean, Africa, South and North America, and Eastern and Western Europe are building agencies separate from the police to conduct and prosecute allegations of serious crimes by police or other state agents.
The new report by the Open Society Justice Initiative on independent investigative agencies, includes the cases of Jamaica's Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) and Trinidad and Tobago's Police Complaints Authority (PCA).
Corruption
- Operation Coral, a wide-ranging anti-corruption effort led by the Dominican Republic’s Specialized Office for the Pursuit of Administrative Corruption uncovered a scheme in which millions of dollars in state funds were allegedly laundered through a religious non-profit. Security officials, a pastor and others suspected in the scheme were placed in preventative detention this week, in a case that shows how minimal oversight of these faith groups makes them ideal vehicles for embezzlement, reports InSight Crime. (See April 30's Just Caribbean Updates.)
Climate Justice and Energy
- The term "resilience" is often used to laud survivors of natural disasters, which "suggests that survival and adaptability are dependent upon the efforts of the individual and not the institutions and systems in place that should make survival achievable," writes Barrise N Griffin in Eyewitness News. But Hurricane Dorian shows the limits of personal resilience in the Bahamas, she argues, calling for long-term disaster risk planning.
- Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has received an application from ExxonMobil subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, to drill up to 55 more oil wells in the Stabroek Block and citizens have been given 28 days to consider the environmental impacts from the project. (Kaieteur News)
- Tourist operators profit from "provisioning," luring marine creatures with food for photo ops. But conservation biologists have expressed concern in a number of recent published scientific studies about what this food source means for the physical well-being and natural behavior of these animals. (New York Times)
Democracy
- Very few people in Haiti speak English, but many Haitian protesters are using English to make their demands known, with viral Twitter protest hashtags like #FreeHaiti and protest signs reading “Jovenel is a dictator.” They "are using English not only to draw Western attention to the crisis there, but also to indict the U.S. for its role in creating that crisis," argues Tamanisha John in The Conversation.
- The UK’s Privy Council has rejected Cruise Port Referendum Cayman’s application for leave to challenge the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal’s decision on people-initiated referendums. (Cayman Compass)
Women and LGBTQI Rights
- Two murders in Puerto Rico again highlighted the rise in violence against women on the island -- around 20 women and girls have been killed in suspected femicides so far this year. In January Gov. Pedro Pierluisi declared a state of emergency over gender violence and requested $7 million for the training of 911 dispatchers and other public officials. La Junta, a congressional oversight board for the island’s finances, in April tried to limit the expenditure to $200,000. Last week it recanted and offered full funding, reports Axios.
- Dominique St Vil, an activist promoting the rights of trans people in Haiti, spoke with 76 Crimes about the work of the Organization of Trans People of Haiti (OTRAH).
Migration
- United Nations human rights experts called on The Bahamas to halt planned demolitions of approximately 600 homes in unregulated settlements on Abaco. The experts cited health and humanitarian concerns that “the community of largely Haitian descendants and migrants numbering up to 2,000 people, including many women and children, are at serious risk of becoming homeless as a result of the clearance expected to take place”. (Eyewitness News, Eyewitness News)
- The Dominican Republic has already built 23 kilometers of fence on its border with Haiti. The work has been carried out discreetly by the army, and started before President Luis Abinader’s announcement of plans for a frontier-long barrier aimed at controling illegal immigration, cross-border trafficking, reports EFE. (See March 2's briefs.)
Racial Justice
- In Martinique practitioners of bèlè, an ancestral dance practice, celebrate their African forebears and carve out spaces where they can incite conversations and action around individual and collective identity, expression, and healing through dance -- Repeating Islands.
- The impact of slavery is relevant 150 years after -- for both the decendents of those who profited and victims -- Blood Legacy.
Finance
- The World Bank’s catastrophe bond for Jamaica is expected within the coming two months or so, in advance of the peak of the 2021 hurricane season. It’s expected that Jamaica’s catastrophe bond will provide it with insurance or reinsurance like protection against the wind-related impacts of major tropical storms and hurricanes, explains Artemis. Natural disasters have been driving Jamaica’s need for sovereign debt, so by providing layers of financing, contingent on the occurrence of disasters, it’s hoped this liquidity can reduce the need to borrow so much when a major hurricane strikes the island nation.
- Belize’s bid for its fifth debt restructuring in 15 years is complicated. Holders of the country's so-called ‘Superbond’ want it to agree to an IMF program, which joint unions negotiating over salary cuts, increment freezes, and government policies reject. (Reuters, Breaking Belize News)
Covid-19 Impact
- Cuba started a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 this week with the nationally developed Abadala, one of five Cuban vaccine candidates. Late-phase trials for the Abdala, in more than 48,000 volunteers, have concluded but haven't been published yet. Nonetheless, authorities say the advantages of starting mass vaccination outweigh the risks, reports Reuters.
Diplomacy
- The United States urged nations “to act quickly” in deciding on the composition and date of an Organization of American States mission to Haiti, which is under pressure to hold legislative, local and presidential elections this fall. The U.S.’s plea came during a tension filled meeting in which Haiti’s representative to the hemispheric body accused Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador Sir Ronald Sanders of attempting to destabilize Haiti, reports the Miami Herald.
- CARICOM selected Belizian Carla Barnett to become the organization's next secretary general. She will be the first woman to hold the post. (Jamaica Gleaner)
- Saint Lucia has urged the World Health Organization to allow Taiwan’s participation in the upcoming World Health Assembly. (St. Lucia Times)
Culture
- Adekeye Adebajo’s The Pan-African Pantheon: Prophets, Poets, Philosophers offers readers a fascinating insight into the intellectual thinking and contributions to Pan-Africanism -- Repeating Islands.
- UK brand Clarks has been the shoe of choice for Jamaican men for nearly 70 years. The phenomenon is about a lot more than footwear, according to the Guardian, "it tells the story of the relationship between the island and the UK over 100 years."
Events
24 May
- Jamaican author Kei Miller's THINGS I HAVE WITHHELD launch -- Renaissance One: diversifying literature
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.
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