Major oil find excites southern Caribbean
U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil announced two major oil finds offshore Guyana in the past week, and the discovery has raised the hopes for similar massive oil discoveries in two of its neighbors that incidentally already produce oil and gas.
Caricom upset with OAS for recognizing Venezuela’s interim pres
Staying in an active role in the ongoing situation in neighboring Venezuela, Caribbean Community governments this week chided the Organization of American States in Washington.
CARICOM sends delegation to New York to discuss Venezuela
Current Chairman and Prime Minister of St. Kitts Timothy Harris led the delegation to the talks at U.N. headquarters in the city after a string of worrying developments in the South American nation in recent weeks.
Caribbean reparations fight takes new turn: Swiss were also involved
The fight by Caribbean Community nations to make Britain and other former slave-trading European nations pay for one of the worst genocides in human history has taken an interesting turn, with researchers unearthing evidence that the Swiss were also involved.
Antigua threatens Scotiabank in row over asset sale
The bank has strongly resisted, contending that the sale is a private transaction and that it is free to choose a buyer rather than to be dictated to by any government.
Suriname turns down Chinese mega fishing ships
Without any announcement or warning whatsoever, the mega Chinese mother ships appeared in local ports in the past month.
Trinidad hurries to join others decriminalizing weed
As the year comes to a close, however, there has been a welcome change of heart and attitude toward decriminalization.
Exxon finds more oil in Guyana as Trinidad fades away
Just when Caribbean Community nations are scrambling to find an alternative supplier for oil, the region’s largest nation is preparing to crank up its own petroleum industry as age-old supplier Trinidad fades steadily away.
Caribbean wins reparations payments
In what is being represented as a major victory in the fight to make Europe pay reparations to the Caribbean for the brutal transatlantic slave trade, the umbrella University of the West Indies is reporting that the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom has agreed to begin making reparations payments in the near future after talks with a regional commission.
Caribbean pressing UK to compensate those illegally deported
Caribbean governments, led by Jamaica, are beginning to press the British government to address compensation and general assistance issues to Caribbean nationals who have been inhumanely deported or denied re-entry into the United Kingdom because of drastic changes of immigration polices over the decades.
Court to soon rule in military executions trial in Suriname
Dec. 8, 1982, revolutionary soldiers in Suriname rounded up 15 opponents of the then military government and executed them at a colonial era fort in the capital.
Guyana prepares for oil as Trinidad fades away
An interesting development is taking place in relation to oil and gas prosecution in the 15-nation Caribbean Community. For decades, Trinidad and Tobago had ruled the roost of nations in the region producing oil both to supply its neighbors and to export farther afield.
Trinidad under worst flooding in 50 years
Many citizens of Trinidad and Tobago would be justified in saying that the second half of 2018 was more than a bit unkind to the Caribbean’s most southerly island, as it has been battered by one disaster after another.
Governments complain about US sanctions and Venezuela
Some Caribbean governments are beginning to complain about the effects of American sanctions against neighboring Venezuela, indicating that it is becoming increasingly difficult to do business with the South American nation.
Jamaica moves into marijuana extracts export industry
As is expected with anything to do with progressive and or liberal thought on marijuana, Jamaica is moving ahead of the pack of nations in the Caribbean Community by announcing in the past week its first shipment of marijuana extracted oil to markets in Canada.
Yet another storm threatens the Caribbean
“There is a possibility of heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and high winds,” Craig said of the current trajectory should the storm pass just outside Guyana’s northern regions.
Caribbean sugar producers want protection from white sugar imports
With the region no longer enjoying fixed quotas and guaranteed access to the European raw sugar market, the region’s four remaining sugar producers have asked governments to clamp down on refined, or white, sugar imports, saying they can meet the required average demand for 100,000 metric tons.
More CARICOM countries easing marijuana laws, penalties
In recent weeks, several members of the 15-nation CARICOM have made progressive moves to soften legislation dealing with marijuana use for various purposes in the wake of an edict from leaders for the region to review the regional approach to the issue.
Trinidad closes major refinery
Trinidad’s government is beginning to feel the expected political fallout from this week’s announcement that government will soon close the money-losing, debt-ridden and overstaffed major oil refinery and try to restructure it in the wake of declining daily oil production that has largely rendered the plant useless.
Trinidad pushing for rules on unhealthy U.S. chicken imports
One of the Caribbean Community’s most influential leaders has raised an important issue regarding the sale of years-old, frozen American chicken to his island nation and to the Caribbean Community in general, saying the region should not be treated as a dumping ground for unwanted U.S. food products.
Major weed summit in Jamaica
Authorities in Jamaica are trying their best to push the other members of the 15 nations in the Caribbean Community to seriously consider the benefits an organized medical marijuana industry could have for the region.
Governments to review money for citizenship scheme amid controversy
Governments in the smaller Eastern Caribbean subgrouping are to discuss major security lapses in a scheme through which several island nations sell national passports and citizenship to foreigners willing to pay specified amounts of cash or invest in property and other development projects.
Trinidad president calls for formal observance of coup attempt
There were no major observances organized for last week’s 28th anniversary of the July 27, 1990, attempted coup in Trinidad that saw heavily armed but apparently misguided Islamic militants storm the island’s parliament while it was in session and attack the state’s television station and other installations in an attempt to dislodge a government that leaders say had become heartless and unrighteous.
Trinidad government softens marijuana stance
Two weeks ago, Caribbean Community leaders meeting in Jamaica held extensive discussions on how the region should deal with the unrelenting pressure from civil society and law enforcement to amend laws that still imprison thousands of people each year for possessing small amounts of marijuana for personal use.
Barbados looks to IMF for economic solace
It’s been almost two full months since the Barbados Labor Party of Prime Minister Mia Mottley destroyed all previous political records by winning all of the island’s 30 parliamentary seats and running the country without an elected opposition, but the cabinet has vowed to help lift the economy from perhaps its worst state since independence in 1966.
CARICOM unhappy with single market and economy system
Leaders, former leaders and top officials from across the Caribbean assembled in Guyana last week to review the state of play, progress and problems associated with the decades-old Caribbean Single Market and Economy system, and most said the slow pace of implementation was frustrating them terribly.
IMF on key mission to Barbados
Less than two weeks after the Barbados Labor Party did the unthinkable and carried away all 30 contested seats in general elections, the daunting task of rebuilding an economy in ruins is about to begin, and it appears that the Caribbean island might have to sign up for an austerity program with the International Monetary Fund.
Historic election results in Barbados
As predicted by regional pundits, electors in the idyllic Caribbean island nation of Barbados voted emphatically to elect a new government in the past week and in doing so created history on several fronts.
Jamaica encouraged by 3D oil and gas surveys
Jamaica is fancying its chances of becoming the latest Caribbean Community nation after Guyana to find commercial quantities of oil and gas in the wake of encouraging indications from the most recent round of offshore surveys.
Caribbean wants formal talks with Trump
The seemingly chaotic nature of American foreign policy and limited engagement between Caribbean officials and people of influence in Washington are among factors pushing regional leaders for a summit with President Donald Trump, sooner rather than later.
Britain backs away from deporting Caribbean nationals
In the past week, Britain was hammered from nearly every section of society for its far-right-type decision to sound deportation warnings to thousands of Caribbean nationals who had, ironically, been invited in the colonial era to settle there to help rebuild the country after World War II.
CARICOM countries urged to help Venezuelans
Several Caribbean Community countries are beginning to sit up and take notice of the increasing numbers of Venezuelan nationals seeking asylum,
Disbelief as Trinidad rejects storm-ravaged Dominica’s request for fee waiver
As everyone knows, Dominica was ravaged by Hurricane Maria in mid-September. Most of its buildings, farmlands, electricity and telephone systems were leveled, roads rendered impassable and schools pulverized by record high winds from that storm.
Bahamas struggles to enact more humane citizenship laws
Of the 15 nations in the Caribbean Community bloc of nations, it is perhaps easier to become a citizen in any of those countries than in the Bahamas, with its maze of very restrictive, parochial immigration laws.
Another woman head of state of Caribbean nation
A female judge who has worked in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean has become the region’s latest woman head of state, adding to the growing number of females at the top echelons of governance in the bloc.
Should Jamaica remain in Caribbean single market?
The issue was not a major discussion item at the just concluded Caribbean Community leaders summit in Haiti, but a proposal by a review commission for Jamaica to leave the regional single trading market is still making the rounds and drawing spirited reactions from various quarters in the bloc.
Police disrupt alleged terror plot in Trinidad
Trinidad’s world-class annual Carnival celebrations took place in the oil and gas-rich republic under the cloud of a major terrorist threat this week, but authorities say they are ready to crush any form of criminal misbehavior that could upset one of the country’s major foreign exchange earnings and national showcase events.
Elections in three CARICOM countries this year
General elections are scheduled to be held in three Caribbean Community countries before midyear and experts are predicting that the Freundel Stuart administration in Barbados will likely be the only one that could head to the opposition benches, largely because of tough economic conditions at home and general sloth in attending to major problems on the Eastern Caribbean island.
UN delays decision on Guyana-Venezuela border dispute
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres had agreed to make a decision to send the decades-old Guyana-Venezuela border dispute to the World Court in the Netherlands for a once and for all settlement by the end of December, but more than a month after that deadline has passed, no decision has been made.
CARICOM leaders flay Trump
Calling President Donald Trump’s remarks about Haiti and African immigrants repulsive, the 15-nation Caribbean single trading bloc flayed Trump for his outburst, calling them unenlightened views.
Guyana's largest single oil find so far
Guyana’s government on the weekend hailed the latest offshore oil and gas find as the largest to date and suggested that life in that country, which hosts the 15-nation Caribbean trade bloc’s secretariat, will certainly see a major transformation after the first barrel is pumped from the seabed in the first quarter of 2020.
Caribbean remembers storm-hit 2017
The start of the 2018 hurricane season is a mere six months away, but Caribbean leaders are hoping that the region would win a respite in the new year from the power and ravages of nature after living through the horrors and devastation of 2017.
Suriname’s mass murder trial inching to a close
The 15 victims were rounded up from their homes by heavily armed soldiers, taken to a fort just next door to today’s presidential complex and parliament and shot for allegedly hatching plans to topple the military regime.
Barbuda left in lurch despite $2 billion in aid for hurricane-hit Caribbean
For most who attended last week’s high level conference in New York to raise funds to rebuild hurricane-battered nations, the effort was a resounding success, with more than $2 billion in loans and grants pledged by Western donor nations and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, but it has now become clear that one of the hardest hit islands will receive much less than expected to help it begin to pick up the pieces.
Leaders, officials in New York for hurricane pledging conference
Caribbean leaders and officials were in New York this week for a major international pledging conference aimed at raising more than $3 billion to help rebuild several islands nations that were pulverized by back-to-back Category 5 hurricanes this season the 15-nation bloc said Monday.
CARICOM gets UN support for hurricane donors conference
Caribbean leaders and high officials from countries that were pulverized by the stronger than usual 2017 hurricane season are headed to New York for a major international donor’s conference in November, where they hope to raise well in excess of $2 billion, mostly in grant aid, to help affected countries rebuild better, stronger and smarter ahead of next year’s storm season.
Rough storm season will slow tourist arrivals
With the infrastructure of so many countries devastated by the record-setting 2017 hurricane season, tourist arrivals to Caribbean destinations are expected to plunge significantly this year.
Dominica slowly picking itself up after Maria
Coverage of the 2017 hurricane season is slowly disappearing from the major newspapers and from the daily lineup of media houses in the Caribbean less than a month after two of the worst storms ever to have passed through the region caused extensive damage to more than a dozen countries or cities stretching from Dominica to Florida in the U.S.
Prime ministers appeal: Help hurricane-battered Caribbean
It is becoming increasingly likely that Caribbean leaders will have to meet in emergency session in the coming weeks to address what is clearly the worst natural and humanitarian disaster in living memory after unprecedented destruction from hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Guyana goes after stolen ancestral Afro land
Guyana’s government has established a commission of inquiry to resolve issues pertaining to land ownership in the home country of the Caribbean single trading bloc of nations, particularly those related to large tracts of land freed African slaves would have bought after emancipation but were taken away by the previous Indo-led administration for private and state projects.
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