G7 to seek global tax (June 18, 2021)

G7 countries agreed to seek a basic 15% global tax on “stateless” multinational corporations, notably those of global big tech, earlier this month. (Guardian) The Economist magazine predicts the start of a process that could eventually render Caribbean and other tax havens obsolete.

But others ask whether the G7 tax initiative is another form of economic colonialism? "This move represents yet another chipping away at the economic sovereignty of small IFCs. What it effectively does is seek to take away a tool which these small IFCs have used for promoting inward foreign direct investment at a time when their COVID-19-crippled economies need those funds the most for propelling sustainable economic recovery," writes Alicia Nicholls of Caribbean Trade Law & Development. (See Jan 28's Just Caribbean Updates.)

ECLAC head Alicia Bárcena recently expressed support for a proposed multilateral agreement that would establish a minimum global rate for corporate income tax -- but emphasized that “the United Nations should be the main space for that discussion, "for a reform of the global tax system to incorporate the needs of developing nations and emerging economies – especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS)."

Economics, Finance and Fiscal Fairness

• The Paris Club of wealthy creditor nations agreed last week to grant Cuba more time to make payments under a 2015 debt agreement. The postponement was based, according to Cuban officials, on the ‘unprecedented penuries’ caused by Covid-19 and its impact on tourism, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s strengthening of the U.S. embargo and 54 hurricanes since 2000. (Miami Herald)

• But experts say Cuba's economy desperately needs the U.S. to relax its current sanctions regime in order to recover from the worst crisis it has suffered in decades. (Latin America Advisor, see last week's Just Caribbean Updates)

• The Inter-American Development Bank agreed to provide Grenada with a soft loan of US $8.95 million for the country to use as a stimulus package for people who have been marginalised by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds will be disbursed through the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank. (Daily Herald, Loop News)

• Trinidad and Tobago's government said it opted to accept a $1.4 billion loan from China as it had fewer conditions attached to it as opposed to one from the IMF. “One loan no structural adjustment, you don’t have to retrench people, you don’t have to devalue your currency etc etc . . . and another loan at one per cent you have to do all kinds of terrible things, punish your population, that a no brainer,” said Finance Minister Colm Imbert. (Trinidad Express, Caribbean Media Corporation)

Human Rights

• Guyana's government honored prominent historian, political activist and academic, Dr. Walter Rodney, 41 years after he was assassinated, and said efforts will be taken to change key details on Rodney’s death certificate and make his gravesite a national monument. (Department of Public Information, Loop News)

Climate Justice and Energy

• Across the Caribbean, one of the world’s most tourism-dependent regions, states are struggling to balance protecting the environment and stoking their economies. A Reuters report looks at how Jamaica is struggling to address twin challenges: how to bring in visitors and boost jobs in the wake of COVID-19 while also keeping its commitment to slowing global warming.

• Whole-island conservation strategies should be among response measures deployed to protect diverse species in the Caribbean at risk for extinction associated with small increases in global temperatures, ecology expert Dr Shobha Maharaj told the Jamaica Gleaner.

• The University of the West Indies (UWI) launched its first Climate Change And Health Fellowship Training, a one-year European Union financed course of study to promote leadership in climate change and health. It is one component of a five-year €7 million project coordinated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). (Caribbean News Service)

• A rescue mission is underway to save Barbados’ coral reefs, which have been impacted by a range of climate-related and other hazards. “There are no areas of very good reef– none,” said Kirk Humphrey, the country’s Minister of Maritime Affairs. (Caribbean Journal)

• Cuba's new wildlife trafficking law shows the country's illegal animal trade has become enough of an issue to warrant a response, reports InSight Crime.

Governance

• U.S. President Joe Biden said the Justice Department’s defense of continued discrimination against residents of U.S. territories in federal programs is “inconsistent with my Administration’s policies and values,” but said it’s up to Congress to amend the existing laws. (Virgin Island Daily News)

• The statement came after the DOJ filed a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court defending a provision in the Social Security Act that stops Puerto Rico residents from collecting Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, benefits. Biden urged Congress to amend the Social Security Act to make the benefits available in Puerto Rico, and also called for legislators to eliminate Medicaid funding caps for the U.S. territory. (NBC News)

• U.S. lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that the Puerto Rico self-determination bill she is co-sponsoring “does not oppose statehood” and does not impose independence on the U.S. territory. (NBC)
  

Food Security

• The number of children suffering from “severe acute” childhood malnutrition in Haiti has more than doubled, increasing from 41,000 last year to an estimated 86,000 children this year, according to UNICEF. (Miami Herald)

LGTBQI and Gender

• Guyanese lawmakers are considering a bill that would officially decriminalize the offense of "cross-dressing." The move would give effect to Caribbean Court of Justice ruling from two years ago. (Stabroek News, Guyana Chronicle)

Public Security

• Escalating gang violence has pushed nearly 8,500 women and children from their homes in Haiti’s capital in the past two weeks, according to Unicef. Nearly 14,000 people in Port-au-Prince have been displaced by violence in the past nine months. Bruno Maes, Haiti’s representative for the UN’s children agency that issued the report late on Monday, compared the effect to guerrilla warfare, “with thousands of children and women caught in the crossfire," reports the Associated Press. (See last week's Just Caribbean Updates.)

• Belize Prime Minister John Briceño said that it feels like the gangs in the country and particularly Belize City “have a death wish. They are going after one another and as much as we put the police on the streets and try to monitor them as close as possible, they find ways.” He also stated, “You can’t stop people who want to kill themselves.” (Breaking Belize News)

Education

• The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States has launched the regional teacher survey to explore how education systems have been affected by school closures and the massive shift from face-to-face to distance education. (Caribbean Media Corporation)
  

Culture

• “Axis Mundi,” the new solo exhibition by Puerto Rican artist Rafael Trelles, opens this month at the October Gallery in London, England. -- Repeating Islands

• Francio Guadeloupe's Black Man in the Netherlands: An Afro-Antillean Anthropology charts Guadeloupe’s coming of age and adulthood in a Dutch world and movingly makes a global contribution to the understanding of anti-Black racism. -- Repeating Islands
  

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News 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.

Haiti gangs clash, attack police stations (June 11, 2021)

Deadly clashes between rival gangs in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area seeking to exert control over populous areas have surged in recent weeks, with a significant upsurge since the beginning of the month. Nine police stations have been attacked over the past week, at least 15 weapons stolen and a Haitian police inspector killed. Another seven officers have died in metropolitan Port-au-Prince amid violent clashes between warring gangs that have forced thousands of Haitians to flee from their homes along the southern edge of the capital since the start of this month, reports the Miami Herald.

Preliminary estimates suggest that thousands of people have fled their homes and sought shelter with host families or settled in informal shelters, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Haiti postponed a controversial constitutional referendum schedule for June 27, due to coronavirus concerns. No new date was set, further deepening the country’s political crisis, reports Al Jazeera. Last week CEPR argued the international community's policies have fed into the referendum's viability.

After a long silence on the issue, the U.S. Biden administration has publicly voiced its opposition, saying it should not take place. The U.S. government has been under mounting pressure by members of Congress and Haitian-American voters to drop support for President Jovenel Moïse and change course on Haiti, reports the Miami Herald.

The only explantation for the international community's continued backing of Moïse is fear, argues Amy Wilenz in the Los Angeles Times. "They haven’t had the imagination to envision a Haiti without a despot at the wheel. The belief among those who advise Haiti has often been that, as the saying goes, you pick Haiti up and it explodes in your face."

Covid-19 Impact

• Haiti is grappling with its first serious outbreak of coronavirus -- and has not administered a single Covid-19 vaccine. Last month, infections and fatalities rose more than fivefold following the arrival of new variants, in what the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) called a "cautionary tale in just how quickly things can change with this virus," reports Reuters.

Climate Justice and Energy

• Widespread flooding has inundated Guyana, affecting more than 6,900 households across the country. President Irfaan Ali said it one of the worst disasters the country has ever faced and said Guyana must make investments now to implement an adaptation plan to deal with the adverse effects of climate change. Forecasts suggest that the heavier-than-normal rainy season — which has already been blamed for the severe flooding — could continue into July. (New York Times, Stabroek News, Kaieteur News)

• Caribbean Natural Resources Institute has released a podcast mini-series entitled “Blue-green enterprises: Caribbean journeys” which showcases the inspiring stories of six local community micro-enterprises using ocean resources to develop sustainable livelihoods and provide economic opportunities in their communities.

• With ambitious climate goals and initiatives, small island states are leading the way in climate action. The UNDP highlights the example of Jamaican farmers, who are adapting to climate change induced drought with new sustainable farming practices, irrigation and water harvesting systems. Antigua and Barbuda have advanced in the transition to a clean, fossil fuel-free economy and are now scaling up their targets and proposing a move to 100 percent renewable energy in the next two decades.

• Jamaica's government backtracked on plans to allow mining in the Puerto Bueno Mountain, but activists still hope for a Constitutional Court ruling on their challenge to the St. Anne development, reports the Jamaica Gleaner.

• The impacts of this year's Atlantic Hurricane season will be compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and the explosive eruptions of the La Soufrière volcano in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, warned the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. (See June 7's Updates.) 

• Puerto Rico isn’t ready for another hurricane season, let alone the effects of climate change, according to a new study. (Futurity)

• Over one million Puerto Rican homes have suffered energy outages this month, as a private company that took over power transmission and distribution in Puerto Rico has struggled to maintain already flawed service, reports the Associated Press.
  

Public Security

• A lawyer has signaled increasing allegations of police brutality in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, including from members of the Regional Security System team who are in the country helping with security after April’s eruption of La Soufriere. (iWitness News)

• Vibrant, poignant murals have been appearing on the walls of Jamaica's capital as part of Paint the City, a project by the nonprofit Kingston Creative to revive the city's neglected downtown district and support the local arts community. Since the project's launch in 2018, locals say the area feels safer, and the flow of visitors and tourists coming to see the paintings is bringing in both interest and investment, reports Reuters.
  

Economics and Finance

• Suriname requested a 70% nominal haircut on its debt to external commercial creditors and a 30% cut on its debt to official creditors, last week. (Reuters)

• Suriname's debt restructuring proposal could have potentially huge implications for other ongoing processes of debt crisis resolution, argues Eurodad economist Daniel Munevar.
  

Gender and LGTBQI

• Sexual harassment is both extremely common and chronically under reported in the Cayman Islands, according to the findings of a Cayman Compass project.

• Over 900 people signed the petition by Feministas Cubanas on Change.org, requesting the Cuban government to open up a corridor of humanitarian flights from the US. Basic essentials, such as medicine and personal hygiene items, would enter the island via this corridor, without Customs restrictions. (Havana Times)

• Because of Covid-19 regulations, LGBTQ+ organizations in the Caribbean are taking varied approaches to Pride celebrations. (Erasing 76 Crimes)
  

Drug Policy

• Jamaican regulators and policymakers are focusing on quality control as the cannabis industry awaits long-delayed rules for exports, reports Cannabis Wire.

Culture

• Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival was suspended this year, which deprived Trinidadians of one of the most important social events, and a large part of the local cultural industry lost income and livelihood. The devastation wrought on the entire culture value chain will have a long-lasting impact on the creative economy, writes Saadia Sanchez-Vegas, Director and Representative of the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean. (Trinidad Express)

• Rajiv Mohabir’s Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir is described as "an impassioned, genre-blending memoir that navigates the fraught constellations of race, sexuality, and cultural heritage that have shaped his experiences as an Indo-Guyanese queer poet and immigrant to the United States." -- Repeating Islands

• Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s documentary ‘Bakosó: AfroBeats of Cuba’ explores a recent transatlantic musical fusion -- Rolling Stone.

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News 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.

Guyanese citizens challenge Exxon drilling (June 7, 2021)

Two Guyanese citizens are legally challenging ExxonMobil offshore drilling on climate grounds. They claim Guyana’s approval of oil exploration licenses violates the government’s legal duty to protect their right and the right of future generations to a healthy environment. It is the first constitutional climate case in the Caribbean to challenge fossil fuel production on climate and human rights grounds, reports the Guardian.

The case was filed by Quadad de Freitas, a 21-year old Indigenous tourist guide from the Rupununi region -- an area rich in biodiversity, now threatened by climate change -- and Dr. Troy Thomas, a university lecturer and former president of the anti-corruption organization Transparency Institute Guyana.They argue the government is obligated to  refrain from authorizing activities that would contribute significantly to climate change, ocean acidification and/or sea level rise, reports Kaieteur News.

Their research found that the projected emissions of Exxon's three projects in Guyana -- Liza Phase 1 Development Project, Liza Phase 2 Development Project, and the Payara Development project would make the environment more harmful to the health and wellbeing of citizens and future generations. They also argue the government is obligated to carry out or obtain independent verification of the types and amounts of greenhouse gases actually emitted by the projects.

The lawsuit centers on the duty of the state to protect the environment for present and future generations, lead lawyer Melinda Janki told Reuters. Much of Guyana’s coast sits below sea level, making its population particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as flooding, hurricanes, and rising seas. For that reason alone, further investment in oil and gas production by Guyana doesn’t make sense, environmentalists argue. (Grist)

The case forms part of an international trend: The number of legal cases seeking stronger climate action or compensation has nearly doubled over the last three years. New legal techniques and landmark wins are setting precedents, reports Reuters. 

Last week, in a landmark ruling, a Dutch court ordered the oil giant Shell to cut its emissions by 45 percent this decade. The ruling marks the first time a court has mandated such a policy on a major energy company and, crucially, establishes Shell's responsibility for the environmental damage caused by its products and a failure to adequately plan to reduce its emissions, reports Politico.

“The Shell case is extremely relevant for Guyana,” Carroll Muffett, chief executive of the Center for International Environmental Law, told the Wall Street Journal. He said both cases center on using the U.N.’s climate-change framework to hold entities accountable for human rights.

Melinda Janki, the lead lawyer in the Guayana case,  said she was encouraged because the Dutch case prevailed using similar arguments to her strategy. The litigation is “about stopping a massive increase in carbon emission, a carbon bomb,” she said to the WSJ.

Climate Justice and Energy

• Conservationists hope to create the Maya Forest Corridor, connecting the massive Belize Maya Forest in the country’s northwest with the Maya Mountains Massif network of protected areas in southern Belize. It would also connect these areas of Belize with adjacent protected areas of La Selva Maya in Guatemala and Mexico, and become the largest rainforest preserve north of the Amazon. But pandemic economic hardship could push the Belizean government to consider unsustainable land use alternatives that come with a guaranteed tax revenue stream, writes Jut Wynne at Mongabay.

• The Atlantic Hurricane season has started, and experts predict up to 18 named storms and at least three major hurricanes this year. The Barbados-based Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology has divided the hurricane season into three parts: the first and second halves and the peak season, which spans sections of the halves. (iWitness News)

• In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the hurricane season could add to "a year of cascading hazards from COVID19 pandemic to the current response and impacts from the recent volcanic eruptions," warned Acting Prime Minister Montgomery Daniel. (iWitness News)

• The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) has launched an online interactive story map about a collective advocacy campaign that called on Caribbean governments to join and implement the Escazú Agreement.

• Jamaica's government established an electric vehicle council to oversee a consultative process on the introduction of electromobility, reports the Jamaica Observer.

Food Security

• Severe acute childhood malnutrition is set to more than double this year in Haiti, warns UNICEF. More than 86,000 children under the age of 5 could be affected, compared with 41,000 reported last year, reports the Associated Press.

Covid-19 Impact

• The COVID-19 response in Haiti must be scaled up dramatically to cope with sharply escalating cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks, warned Director Carissa Etienne this week. She explained that the increased transmission is likely fueled by two variants of concern, B 1.1.7 and P1, and because public health measures are “being largely ignored by the general population, the situation we’re seeing in Haiti is a cautionary tale in just how quickly things can change with this virus”. (Eyewitness News)

• Covid-19 has impacted the Caribbean unequally: Some islands were walloped by staggering caseloads, while infections on others sometimes dwindled to single digits, reports the New York Times. And now disparate travel restrictions, often dependent on island's colonial history, are causing further divergence in the economic recovery of countries in world’s most tourism-reliant region. 

• The pandemic has proved conclusively that without tourism much of the Caribbean economy is unviable. Echoing a recent IDB report, David Jessop asks whether the basic product of sun, sea and sand is sustainable? -- The Caribbean Council

• Cuba’s bet on vaccine sovereignty may be coming at a lethal price as coronavirus deaths on the island mount, reports the Miami Herald. Cuba is rushing to get ahead of the virus, as it needs to jump-start its economy and revive tourism, a key source of revenue for the embattled island that’s struggling during its worst crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Regional Relations

• U.S. President Joe Biden's inaction towards Cuba is aggravating the island's food crisis, argues William LeoGrande in Common Dreams. U.S. support for human rights in Cuba should include alleviating the food crisis by ending Trump's prohibition on remittances and restoring the right of U.S. residents to travel, he writes.

• U.S. sanctions impact the daily lives of all Cubans, but especially women. The sixty-year embargo affects families and their livelihoods, and limits progress toward a more fair and inclusive society, according to a new Oxfam report.
  

• U.S. hand wringing over Caribbean relations with China lacks a nuanced understanding of what the region has gained and hopes to gain from its engagement with China, Rasheed Griffith told the U.S. Congress' U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. "The fundamental question should not be why is China engaging in the Caribbean. Rather, it should be why do Caribbean countries so readily seek deals with Chinese firms?" 

• The international community has remained largely silent on the question of Haiti's controversial upcoming constitutional referendum, but its policies are going a long way toward ensuring the controversial referendum takes place as scheduled, writes Jake Johnston at CEPR. 

Public Security

• Barbados' homicide increases in recent years risk bely the country's risk factor advantages over other Caribbean countries, including low international crime organization presence and limited corruption. The country is at a violence crossroads, reports InSight Crime.

LGBTQI and Gender Rights

• Trinidad and Tobago is edging closer to amending its Equal Opportunity Act to include sexual orientation -- Global Voices

• A  court in Martinique granted a twenty-three year old person permission to legally change their gender. (St. Lucia Times)
  

Culture

• The guiding theme of this year's Cayman Islands Biennial is intended to recast the long months of lockdown as an extended interlude – an opportunity for everyone to pause and reflect on their collective future. (Repeating Islands)

• Jamaican poet and novelist Kei Miller’s forthcoming book, a linked collection of essays, blends memoir and literary commentary to explore the silences that exist in our conversations about race, sex, and gender. (Repeating Islands)

The Just Caribbean Updates covers an extended time period this time because of a break, but will be back to a regular schedule this week. Thank you for reading and we welcome comments and critiques.

Guyana developer cut protected mangroves (May 21, 2021)

 The developer of a Guyana oil and gas shore base cut a large swathe of protected mangroves in preparation for construction. But the clearing by Tristar Incorporated at Malgre Tout/Versailles, West Bank Demerara, has exceeded the terms under which it was granted permission to begin work to construct a shore base facility, reports Stabroek News.

Mangroves are a protected species here and concerns have been expressed previously that the oil and gas industry will pose a threat to large acreages. Conservation groups have emphasized that mangroves protect the coastline and riverbanks in Guyana, connecting saltwater from the  ocean to the freshwater produced by rivers.  Further, mangroves play an important role in supporting Guyana’s rich biodiversity, as they feature complex ecosystems where aquatic wildlife, coastal birds and  other animals thrive.

It is still unclear what measures should be taken if mangroves are on private land and what commitments the owners of those lands are tied to. (Stabroek News)

The company appears to have violated regulations that grant the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the right to conduct an environmental impact assessment and grant an environmental permit, reports Stabroek News.

Government has since stated that more mangroves would be removed from the West Bank of the Demerara River for oil and gas-related infrastructure because there is no more land space available on the East Bank of that waterway. 

In light of the controversy, WWF-Guianas called for a full environmental and social assessment of the growing oil and gas sector, granted that the strategic decision has been made regarding its development. “We call for such an assessment at a time when some developers in the oil and gas industry are  demonstrating low interest in keeping to their promises and acting in good faith at the very least,  and at times, even flouting the nation’s laws,” the organisation said. (Demerara Waves)

Climate Justice and Energy

• Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency recently revised the Liza Phase One Environmental Permit to include a provision by which  ExxonMobil could be required to pay for unauthorized flaring. The agency said the measure is being implemented in accordance with the Polluter Pays Principle. But the interpretation is incorrect, according to international Lawyer Melinda Janki, who said the principle requires the company to pay "to remove the greenhouse gases and other pollutants emitted by unauthorised flaring.” (Kaieteur News)

• U.S. lawmaker Jim McGovern criticized Colombia's crisis management in San Andrés, which was largely destroyed by Hurricane Iota last year, and called on the U.S. government to review aid allocated to the island's reconstruction. (Infobae)

Democracy

• Non-sovereign island territories in the Caribbean receive significant benefits from former colonial powers -- including passports, geopolitical clout, and financial aid. But to many, these arrangements feel paternalistic, and there is mounting frustration on some islands with the strings that come attached to funding, reports the Economist.

• Former Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló appears poised to return to public life as an elected lobbyist for Puerto Rican statehood in Washington, D.C., just two years after massive protests forced him to resign from office. Last Sunday's vote to elect six special delegates to push for Puerto Rican statehood in Congress has drawn widespread criticism from advocates who oppose making the island a state, reports the Miami Herald. Two of the elected lobbyists will operate at the Senate level, while the other four will advocate for the island’s annexation in the House of Representatives.

• Haiti's long-running political crisis is hitting a boiling point: The latest concern is President Jovenel Moïse’s call for a controversial constitutional referendum, scheduled for June 27. Haitian legal experts and critics call it illegal and few have confidence the vote can be pulled off democratically, writes Monique Clesca in Americas Quarterly.

• A growing chorus of Guyanese civil society groups, many representing the Afro-Guyanese community, have condemned an announced electoral reform project to be spearheaded by the International Republican Institute (IRI). The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has come out strongly against the reform. (Stabroek News, Stabroek News, Stabroek News)

Diplomacy

• The combined effects of a new government, the COVID-19 pandemic, and various other obstacles have thus far largely prevented China from realizing the majority of the commitments that it made in exchange for the Dominican Republic’s diplomatic recognition of the PRC in May 2018. But China’s vaccine diplomacy, and the government’s ambiguity regarding Huawei’s role in the Dominican 5G system, highlights the vulnerability of the Dominican government to Chinese pressure, according to Evan Ellis in Global Americans.

Regional

• The Persaud Commission's dual track regional integration proposal "offers a way out of the present implementation impasse," argues David Jessop. (Caribbean Council, and see April 2's Updates.)

Public Security

• Haiti’s ambassador to the US Brochit Edmond claimed Haitians deported to Haiti because of criminal convictions in the U.S. have become a big part of Haiti’s rampant violent crime problem. (St. Kitts Nevis Observer)

• The anti-kidnapping unit of Colombia's national police hopes to help Haiti tackle its epidemic of abductions for ransom, reports Reuters.

• Street lamps are being pilfered rapidly in Jamaica, hampering government efforts to illuminate crime-ridden areas, reports InSight Crime. Officials speculate that criminals are seeking to destroy the street lights – which have been shown to reduce violence in other countries.
  

Corruption

• A high-level investigation has been launched into claims of corruption and fraud in Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank, reports Barbados Today.

• United Kingdom government listed Barbados as a high-risk third country with respect to money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Barbados was placed on the list, even as UK officials acknowledged that the country's authoritieshave made efforts over the past few years to strengthen anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regimes. (Loop, see Jan. 28's Updates for critiques of tax haven blacklists.)

Covid-19

• The Trinidad and Tobago government declared a State of Emergency and an eight hour curfew to deal with a rising number of deaths and infections from the coronavirus pandemic. (CMC)

• Haiti has authorized the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as COVID-19 cases surge following months of delays in getting jabs, reports the Miami Herald.
  

Culture

• Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann’s Writing the Caribbean in Magazine Time examines literary magazines generated during the 1940s that catapulted Caribbean literature into greater international circulation and contributed significantly to social, political, and aesthetic frameworks for decolonization, including Pan-Caribbean discourse -- Repeating Islands.

• Is Caribbean history the key to understanding the modern world? -- History Today

• Esendom interviews  Repeating Islands blog editors Lisa Paravisini-Gebert and Ivette Romero: "As scholars, curators, editors, journalists, translators, bloggers and digital archivists, Paravisini-Gebert and Romero bring an interdisciplinary approach to their ongoing work at Repeating Islands where they capture the wide array of sounds, smells and colors that make the Americas."

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News 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.

"Who Polices the Police? The Role of Independent Agencies in Criminal Investigations of State Agents." (May 13, 2021)

"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. 

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