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

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
  

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