Jamaica's government declared a state of emergency in seven police districts on the island on Sunday, in response to increases in violent crimes, ranging from 16 to 57 per cent. Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the murder rates in these districts far surpasses the national average of 15 per 100,000 inhabitants, reaching as high as 190 per 100,000. (Jamaica Information Service)
Jamaica's homicide rate is among the highest in the world -- in a country with a population of nearly 3 million, more than 1,240 Jamaicans were murdered in the first ten months of the year despite no-movement days and nightly curfews brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, notes the Jamaica Gleaner.
Critics of the government's iron-fist move say the policy has limited reach. "The prime minister is pinning the hopes of the nation on a strategy that has already been tried," argues a Gleaner editorial. "The results then were not spectacular, but even more troubling is the fact that the constitutionality of such measures is still to be determined by a court of law. What happens if the court confirms that SOEs are unconstitutional?"
Human rights lobby group Jamaicans for Justice voiced concern "that knee-jerk reactions to tackle crime and violence often result in the infringement of the human rights of the most vulnerable" and questioned the sustained use of states of emergency "creating a possible de facto military state." (Jamaica Gleaner)
United Independents' Congress of Jamaica called for social policies aimed at loosening gang grip in affected neighborhoods. (Jamaica Observer) And the People's National Party suggested that a balanced approach involving the strengthening of the Peace Management Initiative islandwide could be used instead of states of emergency to eliminate violent crimes.
In response to rising crime rates, the country passed the National Consensus on Crime in mid-2020, a crime reduction plan that is being overseen by a multi-sectoral, non-partisan committee, reported InSight Crime in March. The plan calls for the prioritization of effective social and community programs, reforming Jamaica’s Constabulary Force and the incorporation of the military into targeted crime fighting efforts in areas racked by high numbers of killings and other violent crimes.
The ongoing landmark trial of dozens of members of the Klansman gang in Jamaica -- who of face charges of criminal organization, murder, arson, extortion and illegal possession of firearms -- is shedding light on how criminal groups function on the island, reports InSight Crime. The outcome is also likely to be seen as a bellwether for government efforts to curb escalating violence through Plan Secure Jamaica.
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SIDS, fossil fuels and COP26
Island nations under threat from climate change were incensed by the final wording of the Glasgow Climate Pact last weekend, in which India and China watered down a pledge to “phase out” fossil fuels, replacing the phrase with "phase down." "The very language they are using shows us that they are trying to game the system. For us in the Caribbean, in the Pacific Ocean, this is imperiling our very existence," Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the Washington Post.
Instead some small island developing nations are taking the case to court. Antigua and Barbuda signed a new agreement with Tuvalu, recently joined by Palau, aimed at finding legal levers to compel large emitters to pay a price for the destruction in island states, reports the Washington Post.
The countries announced a commission that would investigate legal ways to hold large emitters responsible for the loss and damage experienced in their home countries and other SIDS. The issue is existencial for island nations, writes Zico Cozier at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. (Global Voices)
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Reconstruction in Providencia, San Andres and Catalina
A year after Hurricane Iota devastated the Caribbean islands of Providencia, San Andres and Catalina, the archipelago's reconstruction is far behind the 100 days promised by Colombian President Iván Duque.
While the Colombian government has rebuilt nearly 900 homes on Providencia, residents still rely on a field-campaign tent hospital, and about 800 more homes are still unfinished, reports El País.
But organizations of civil society say lack of information by official entities in charge of reconstruction on the islands doesn't permit a real balance on the advances over the past year, reports El Espectador.
Climate Justice and Energy
- Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley "is on a mission to make the international financial system deliver for those on the frontline of the climate crisis," reports Climate Change News. "Armed with concrete proposals, Mottley elevated wonky discussions about the global finance system to the highest political level," at COP26.
- Malene Alleyne explores the framework to leverage economic, social, cultural and environmental (ESCE) rights as a tool against climate change, in a guest blog for the “Caribbean Voices for Climate Justice” series. (Canari)
- For the vast majority of countries, and especially in the case of developing countries, without strong and progressive interventions from the public services sector much of the agenda set by the Nationally Determined Contributions to reduce emissions will not be possible, warns Sandra Massiah in another guest blog for the series. (Canari)
- The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and The Nature Conservancy are calling for governments to urgently invest in climate change adaptation measures to tackle the growing climate crisis in the Caribbean.
- Puerto Rico's efforts to privatize its electricity system have become part of an "almost biblical saga," according to the Washington Post.
- Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc denounced the government's negligence in failing to meet the deadline for the audit of over US$9 billion in expenses claimed by ExxonMobil. (Stabroek News)
Public Security
- It has been 30 days since 17 foreign missionaries were kidnapped at gunpoint in the Haitian rural community of Ganthier, the group includes five children, the youngest of which is 8 months old. According to the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince, at least 803 people have been abducted between January and October of this year, reports the Miami Herald.
- The Haitian G9 gang coalition eased a blockade on fuel deliveries that has caused crippling shortages in the country for nearly a month, reports Reuters. But the relief is temporary, reports the Associated Press. Gang federation leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier held a news conference Friday to announce a seven-day reprieve for hospitals, schools and gas stations to send trucks to the Port-au-Prince port refueling station. He warned the blockade would resume if Prime Minister Ariel Henry did not resign.
Debt and Economics
- A New York judge is set to rule soon on largest local government bankruptcy in US history -- the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. "The judge will decide whether to approve a debt restructuring deal that will have major consequences for Puerto Rico’s people and economy over the next several decades. It is a deal reached by holders of Puerto Rican debt and the Financial Oversight and Management Board, a congressionally created fiscal control board with the power to negotiate on behalf of Puerto Rico’s government," explains Cathy Kunkel in Jacobin.
Covid-19
- Puerto Rico is a Covid-19 relative success story. Part of the reason was an early lockdown, followed by widespread vaccination, reports the Economist.
Diplomacy
- China’s Confucius Institutes in Latin America and the Caribbean form a cornerstone of its global public diplomacy efforts – with an increasingly clear emphasis on laying the groundwork for deeper business relations -- Aula Blog.
Indigenous Rights
- The Caribbean Maroons and Merikins are joining global efforts to protect and reclaim Indigenous lands and societies.They are faced with rising stakes, including threats to their land, to their bodies, and criticism from detractors who claim that their Indigeneity is nullified by their Blackness — that they cannot claim a kinship to a land to which their ancestors were brought, reports Teen Vogue.
- Grenada restored the country's Underwater Park, created by the British-Guyanese sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, located off the west coast of the marine protected area of Molinière Beauséjour. (Repeating Islands)
Events
- 19 Nov. “The Haitian Revolution: AnD Island-Wide Affair” -- The Ph.D. Program in History, Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
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