By FILADELFO ALEMAN and MARJORIE MILLER
Associated Press
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) – Thousands of Sandinista militants on Tuesday bid goodbye to Tomas Borge Martinez, the last surviving founder of the guerrilla movement that overthrew Nicaragua’s U.S.-backed right-wing dictatorship in 1979 and replaced it with a leftist government also criticized for repression.
FILE - In this July 9, 2004 file photo, ex-guerrilla commander Tomas Borge, then vice secretary of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN, speaks during an interview in Managua, Nicaragua. Borge, the last surviving founder of the Sandinista guerrilla movement that overthrew Nicaragua's U.S.-backed right-wing dictatorship in 1979 died Monday. He was 81. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File
Mourners wearing hats and T-shirts with Sandinista logos waited in snaking lines up marble stairs to the second floor of the National Palace of Culture where Borge’s casket was surrounded with dozens of floral arrangement while revolutionary music blared in the plaza outside.
Most of the mourners came with their neighborhood organizations or unions.
“We wouldn’t have had a revolution without him,” said Glenda Perez, a social science university professor and Sandinista militant.
President Daniel Ortega announced three days of national mourning on state television for his longtime ally Borge, who died Monday night at age 81 after being hospitalized last month for pneumonia and other ailments. Borge joined with Carlos Fonseca Amador and others in 1961 to found the Sandinista National Liberation Front. It was named for Augusto Cesar Sandino, who fought against U.S. military intervention in Nicaragua in the 1930s. Ortega joined the front later and became its leader.
“Like Carlos Fonseca, he (Borge) is one of the dead who never die,” first lady Rosario Murillo said in an emotional announcement, her voice appearing to break at times. “He will always be with us in the Sandinista Front.”
Borge’s body, dressed in a faded olive drab military jacket, lay in state in an open casket at the National Palace of Culture. Ambassadors and government ministers filed by, some tearfully. A few mourners bowed or saluted in front of Borge’s body.
An incendiary speaker, combative personality and avid admirer of the communist governments in Cuba and North Korea, Borge was central to both the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle and the establishment of a junta after the revolution and then the elected Sandinista government. He became the target of the Contra rebels supported by the Reagan administration.
Jailed twice by the Somozas’ brutal dynastic dictatorship, Borge was himself accused of human rights violations as the powerful interior minister during the 1985-90 elected Sandinista administration, until it was voted out of power.
Working from a six-story building that bore the slogan “Guardian of the People’s Happiness,” he controlled the police, immigration agents, jails and even firefighters, often using his nearly unbounded powers to punish the Sandinistas’ enemies in the press, Roman Catholic Church and private business.
Miskito Indians living along Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast alleged Borge orchestrated the displacement and killing of Miskitos suspected of anti-Sandinista activities, said Marcos Carmona, president of Nicaragua’s Standing Commission on Human Rights. Borge was also accused of ordering the killing of 37 opposition members in a jail in the city of Granada during President Daniel Ortega’s first term in office, something Borge always denied.
A staunch defender of the Sandinistas and Ortega, who won back the presidency in 2007 and was re-elected last year, Borge once wrote that “the return of the right is inconceivable” and pledged before the 2011 presidential election that the Sandinistas would stay in power “forever.” Asked that year who he most admired, he responded: “First, Fidel Castro. Second, Fidel Castro. Third, Fidel Castro. Fourth, Fidel Castro. Fifth, Fidel Castro.”
Congressman Jacinto Suarez called Borge “a transcendental figure in Nicaraguan history, not just for his founding of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, but for his fight to free the Nicaraguan people from Somoza’s dictatorship … I knew him for 40 years and we always had a friendly relationship, but due to his strong character it was impossible not to have some kind of rift with him.”
Renowned Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli, a Sandinista who later broke with the movement, found a tragic trajectory in Borge’s life.
“For a good portion of the Nicaraguan revolution, Tomas Borge sought to embody its free-flowing, original character,” Belli said. “Grandiose and unpredictable, he could be tough with one hand and extremely generous with the other. He was a good friend of his friends. After 1990, I have the sense he gave up his revolutionary illusions … He ended up a tragic-comic figure.”
Still, Belli said, Borge’s death “has made me very sad. I feel as if an era of Sandinismo died with him, notwithstanding the fact that he did not end his life as valiantly as he once lived it.”
Born on Aug. 13, 1930, to a poor family in the city of Matagalpa, north of the capital, Borge left university before graduating and dedicated himself to the struggle against the hated Somoza family, which ran Nicaragua almost as an extended plantation from 1937 until it was toppled by the Sandinistas in July 1979.
Economists estimate the Somozas owned about 20 percent of the country’s cultivable land, as well as sugar mills, banks, credit companies, cattle ranches, fishing fleets, construction companies, florists and other businesses.
Borge received military training in Cuba, and in 1956 he was arrested and jailed for three years on charges of involvement in a plot that ended with dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia’s assassination by the poet Rigoberto Lopez Perez. Borge escaped from jail and took refuge in Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica.
After returning to Nicaragua, Borge helped found the Sandinista movement, which began small-scale armed actions against the dictatorship about a decade after its founding.
Imprisoned for subversive activities at the time of Chamorro’s killing, Borge was liberated in August 1978 after a Sandinista commando force attacked the National Palace, took legislators hostage and traded them for a group of Sandinista guerrillas who then escaped to Cuba.
Borge became minister of the interior after the Sandinista victory in July 1979 that toppled Somoza Debayle, who was the son of the slain Somoza Garcia.
As interior minister, Borge was accused of expelling and harassing clergymen during the war against the Contras, imposing strict censorship of the press and closing media outlets.
In August 1982, the Rev. Bismark Carballo, director of Catholic Radio, was arrested by Sandinista police, stripped naked and taken to a police station. The official press at the time said he had been attacked by a jealous husband who found the priest with his wife.
At about the same time, Bishop Pablo Antonio Vega and four priests were expelled from Nicaragua, accused by the government of helping the U.S.-backed Contras.
A businessman allied with the opposition, Jose Castillo Osejo, charged that he was taken to Borge’s office and was beaten by the minister.
Borge also imposed strict censorship on La Prensa, whose director, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, ended Sandinista rule by being elected president in 1990.
During Borge’s time in power, the government created Sandinista Defense Councils known as “the eyes and ears of the revolution” which exist today as Citizen Empowerment Councils run by Murillo, the wife of Daniel Ortega who is secretary of communication and citizenship.
In 2011, Borge’s former assistant minister, Luis Carrion, said the interior ministry was behind a 1984 bomb attack that killed three journalists and four rebels at a news conference in neighboring Costa Rica.
While the bombing was once blamed on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Carrion said that it had been part of a plot by the Sandinista government to kill Contra rebel leader Eden Pastora, who was giving the conference. Pastora survived.
Borge denied involvement in the attack, which killed two Costa Ricans, four Nicaraguan rebels and U.S. journalist Linda Frazier and wounded more than 20 other people at the village of La Penca, near the Nicaraguan border.
Pastora lauded Borge on national television Tuesday, saying he had become godfather to Borge’s daughter and considered the former interior minister to be “immortal, incorruptible, a man who didn’t lie.”
“He was tough and tender, the new man that we were trying to build,” Pastora said. “A lover of reality and truth.”
The reputations of Borge and other Sandinista officials were also hurt by what Nicaraguans called the “pinata” – the hurried distribution of confiscated properties to Sandinista officials in the weeks before they left office after losing the 1990 election. A former comrade, poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal, wrote a book alleging that Borge was a millionaire, something he vigorously denied.
After Barrios de Chamorro’s 1990 election victory, Borge became a congressman for the Sandinista National Liberation Front and was serving as ambassador to Peru when he fell ill.
Borge is survived by his second wife and four children.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Date: April 25, 2012 Place: Washington, DC Credit: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS
April 26, 2012 – The Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) today presented a report to the Permanent Council on the national and municipal elections held on March 7, 2012 in Belize, highlighting the massive turnout on a day in which more than 73% of registered voters took part, as well as the peaceful environment in which it took place.
“The OAS Electoral Observation Mission congratulates the people of Belize for their high voter turnout and for the peaceful manner in which they carried out one of the principal responsibilities of citizens in all democracies,” said the Head of Mission, Ambassador Frank Almaguer, who introduced the report that also highlighted as a positive element the “ethnic diversity” of the national and municipal candidates.
Ambassador Almaguer said that this was the first mission of the OAS observation in Belize, which included 22 observers from 12 countries. “On Election Day, these observers were able to visit all six of the country’s political districts, all municipalities and more than 85% of the country’s 139 voting centers,” he added.
The report of the MOE said that “final results in the General Elections gave 17 seats in the national parliament to the incumbent United Democratic Party (UDP) and the remaining 14 seats to the People’s United Party (PUP).”
Among its observations, the MOE said that “women play a significant role in the Belizean political process,” but “only 4% of candidates in the general election were women.” In this regard, the Mission said, with concern, “this gender imbalance in the electoral process” is “unfortunately common in the hemisphere.”
The Ambassador of Belize to the OAS Nestor Mendez, meanwhile, thanked the MOE and the governments of Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland for their funding contributions to the visit of the election observers. The diplomat referred to the mention of the low participation of women, noting that many candidates were women and some were elected.
The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, praised the “full report” of the mission led by Ambassador Almaguer, thanked the Government of Belize for the facilities it offered the MOE, and regarding the issue of female participation, said that “such recommendations are made to all countries in the
region.” “Our job is to help countries in the region in strengthening their electoral systems,” said Insulza.
For their part, the representatives of Mexico, Panama and St. Kitts and Nevis congratulated Belize for the successful electoral process.
IICA REPORT
In a separate agenda item, the Permanent Council heard a report by the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) Victor Villalobos, who stressed the importance that the upcoming OAS General Assembly, to be held in Bolivia from June 3rd to 5th, will take food security as its central theme. “To recognize the importance of this issue is the first step toward resolving the pending issues in the hemisphere has in this respect,” said Director Villalobos.
“According to data from the World Food Programme in the entire world there are more than 300 million people who suffer from hunger, 53 million of them are in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said the IICA Director, who added, “this is an image that contrasts with the potential of the region to produce and export food, with its capacity to receive investment, with the improvement of its public policies, and its advances in terms of the well being of its population.”
REPORT BY THE URUGUAYAN DEPUTY PUBLIC HEALTH MINISTER
The Permanent Council also heard a presentation from the Deputy Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Leonel Briozzo, who explained the Uruguayan model on “reduction of risks and harm in unsafe abortion.”
The Uruguayan Deputy Minister said “abortion is a complex issue” and “politically incorrect,” but said it “costs lives in the region.” In that context, he said that “Latin America holds the record for unsafe abortions” in the world, and that there a “direct link” between deaths of women who try to have abortions in unsafe situations and poverty. “We developed a model” whose objective was “a decrease in mortality,” said Briozzo.
Finally, the Council heard a Report from the Committee on Hemispheric Security and finished the session with a concert by the Cuban-American pianist, Mari Paz, on the occasion of Americas Day, celebrated April 14.
Trinidad and Tobago’s government will be introducing legislation to abolish Privy Council appeals in all criminal matters, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced in a statement to Parliament Wednesday.
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar
All of those cases would be ceded to the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The following is a text of Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s statement to Parliament Wednesday, as released by the Office of the Prime Minister:
On Aug. 31, 1962 our country threw off the shackles of colonialism and took its rightful place among the community of independent nations of the world.
Our then-leaders, who ushered us into our independent status, in their wisdom, recognised that a number of the institutions which formed part of our national endeavour ought not to be erased with a stroke of a pen, but be preserved, even if transitionally.
One such institution preserved was the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as our final Court of Appeal in both civil and criminal matters.
It was no doubt thought that, given our common law heritage, that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council had the expertise and objectivity to continue to adjudicate on matters from this jurisdiction and this was regarded as valuable for our fledgling independent democracy.
Moreover, the same would also serve during our early independent years to nourish and fortify our democracy.
Trinidad and Tobago has functioned within the framework of a unitary state regulated by a parliamentary democracy modeled on that of the United Kingdom, from which country we gained independence in 1962.
This year, Trinidad and Tobago celebrates our 50th anniversary as an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations, maintaining the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (“JCPC”) as our highest court of appeal for both the civil and criminal jurisdictions.
Our country’s highest court within our borders is the Court of Appeal, whose Chief Justice is appointed by the President after consultation with the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition. Final appeal is decided by the JCPC in London.
Over the years, there has been national and regional dialogue about our retention of the JCPC as our final Appeal Court.
There have been calls for our country to break with the JCPC, as other countries with more substantive legal jurisprudence have done. These include India, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Pakistan and New Zealand, but to name a few.
The JCPC remains the final appellate court for some 31 jurisdictions (including 13 independent nations).
Apart from Trinidad & Tobago, countries such as Jamaica, Bahamas, Dominica and Mauritius still maintain the JCPC as a final court of appeal.
Time and again, we have heard comments to the effect that the JCPC is out of sync with the times and our independence and should be replaced with a regional court of last resort.
In considering Trinidad & Tobago’s decision to maintain appeals to the JCPC, it is necessary to look briefly at the events leading up to the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2005.
At the 6th meeting of the Heads of Government Conference of Commonwealth Caribbean Countries in April 1970 in Kingston, Jamaica, a general view (but by no means unanimous) was expressed of the desirability that the Commonwealth Caribbean countries should move toward terminating appeals to the JCPC.
Subsequently, a meeting of the Committee of the various Attorneys General met in August 1970 and in March 1971 and issued a draft report on the establishment of a regional court of appeal for consideration by the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations.
Thereafter, in July 1989, at the 10th meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community in Grand Anse, Grenada, an agreement was reached for the establishment of a Judicial Service Commission responsible for the appointment of Judges.
This led to the West Indian Commission making recommendations during 1992 for the establishment of a Caribbean Supreme Court.
The UNC-led Government under Prime Minister Basdeo Panday announced in 1999 that the Government of Trinidad & Tobago would provide a site to house the court and the Heads of government approved the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
On February 14, 2001, the agreement establishing the CCJ was signed by Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago to be followed in 2003 by Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Altogether, 12 signatories.
On April 16, 2005, the CCJ was inaugurated at a ceremony in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
The CCJ has two jurisdictions: an original and an appellate jurisdiction.
In its original jurisdiction, it interprets and applies the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which established the Caribbean Community and is an international court with compulsory and exclusive jurisdiction in interpreting the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
In its appellate jurisdiction, it hears appeals in both civil and criminal matters from those member states which have ceased to allow appeals to the JCPC.
At present, Barbados, Belize, and Guyana all of whom have replaced the JCPC’s appellate jurisdiction with that of the CCJ.
The CCJ was established at a time when the Caribbean Community sought to forge its own body of jurisprudence and reinforce its right to determine its affairs.
The situation has been complicated by the issue of the death penalty on which the Privy Council, reflecting contemporary English (and EU) mores and jurisprudence has been rigorous in upholding Caribbean appeals in death sentence cases.
It may have always been in the contemplation of the founding fathers that as our democracy grew from strength to strength and our Judiciary developed its confidence and expertise that the time would come when we would have to take responsibility ourselves for the final adjudication of our disputes consonant with the pristine principles of justice and fair play and say goodbye to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as our final Court of Appeal.
There were those in the embryonic stages of our independence who canvassed the view that true independence and sovereignty dictated an abolition of appeals to the Privy Council even at midnight on Aug. 31, 1962.
However, our experience over the years has repaid our caution and gradualism in treating with this question.
A quiet debate on this issue has continued over the years and it is with the recognition that the Gordian Knot to the Privy Council had to be cut at some stage that this country joined with our neighbours in conceptualizing and seeking to implement the Caribbean Court of Justice as our final Court of Appeal.
In this year as we celebrate our fiftieth anniversary of independence this year, the time has surely come for us to review our relationship with the Privy Council.
Such review takes into account the critical observations of the community of informed commentators, jurists and institutions for as I have always said that I would listen and then lead.
The prevailing and sustained analysis has suggested that the jurisdiction of JCPC in relation to criminal appeals is a matter of grave concern as it affects the dispensation of criminal justice at a time of high crime in our country.
The Caribbean Court of Justice remains committed in pursuing its enlightened role in Caribbean legal reform in the important area of the criminal law.
It is almost axiomatic that the Caribbean Community should have its own final Court of Appeal in all matters; that the West Indies at the highest level of jurisprudence should be West Indian.
A century old tradition of erudition and excellence in the legal profession of the Region leaves no room for hesitancy in our Caribbean region.
As is well known, Trinidad & Tobago has maintained for the time being its policy of the JCPC being its final appellate court, as it saw no good or plausible reason in 2005 to replace the JCPC with the CCJ until that court had established over time, the body and quality of its jurisprudence.
The international and global nature of complex and varied legal cases before the JCPC can only aid and assist the development of jurisprudence in the Caribbean which in my view is to be welcomed and we should be slow to cut off all ties with that august body.
The JCPC has an international reputation as being one of the finest commercial and civil law courts in the world.
It inspires confidence in foreign investors and its retention in this regard is conducive to an investor-friendly climate at a time when the international economic order is changing and Trinidad and Tobago is attempting to woo foreign investment from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries.
Consistent with our approach of caution and gradualism, this country has not rushed to surrender the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council but has rather kept the issue under constant review.
It is perhaps fitting, as we gear ourselves to celebrate what is essentially our golden anniversary of independence that we take another step in the furtherance of our national sovereignty now giving the Caribbean Court of Justice jurisdiction as our final Court of Appeal.
At the recently-concluded CARICOM Heads of Government Conference in Suriname, this matter was raised in discussion with several CARICOM heads of government.
On that occasion, I gave a commitment to our CARICOM partners that my government will review our approach to this matter on my return to Trinidad and Tobago and to Port of Spain.
Having undertaken such a review, and consistent with our approach of caution and gradualism, I am pleased to announce that the Government will be bringing legislation to this Honourable House to secure the abolition of appeals to Privy Council in all criminal matters so that this jurisdiction would then be ceded to the Caribbean Court of Justice.
As a measure of our growing confidence in the CCJ, and as a mature and leading world democracy, in this year of our 50th independence anniversary, we will table legislation acceding to the criminal appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ, in very much the same way as other countries have similar to Hong Kong prior to the transfer of sovereignty to the Peoples Republic of China in 1979 and Singapore in 1989. There is ample precedent for such a phased withdrawal from the jurisdiction of Her Majesty’s Privy Council.
Mr Speaker, earlier today i had the honour to advise the substantive Chief Justice the Honourable Justice Ivor Archie, the Acting CJ the Hon. Justice Wendell Kangaloo; and the President to the Law Association, Ms Dana Seetahal, and the Criminal Bar Association Ms Pamela Elder on this new direction my government is embarking upon.
Such a measure will, of course, require a special majority and we look forward to bipartisan support for this historic withdrawal from the criminal jurisdiction of the JCPC.
We will continue to monitor the developments taking place in both the JCPC and CCJ including the quality of their decisions in deciding the future course of our judicial system
In so doing my Government affirms its commitment to deepening of the regional integration process and the development of a Caribbean jurisprudence and we view this step as a manifestation of that commitment.
Mr Speaker, by our commitment today, the government of the Peoples Partnership signals a most historic development in the administration of justice in independent Trinidad and Tobago.
These pledges to strengthen our democracy form the core value in the manifesto of the Peoples Partnership.
Today we deliver yet again on a promise to generations to come.
While the economic challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean differ across countries, one theme is common: they should rebuild policy space and be watchful for downside risks. Supportive external conditions facing some countries–abundant and cheap external financing, and favorable commodity prices—may persist for a while, but are likely to dissipate over time, the International Monetary Fund’s latest Regional Economic Outlook for the Western Hemisphere states.
“Conditions remain favorable. The double tailwinds of easy external financial and high commodity prices are likely to persist for a while but not forever,” said Nicolás Eyzaguirre, Director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department at the presentation of the report today in Bogotá, Colombia. “Now, the challenge for many countries is to take advantage of this environment to rebuild buffers, to enhance the resilience and flexibility that has served them so well the last few years,” he continued.
Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) continues to be firm despite a slowdown in the second half of 2011 due to tightened policies following the post-crisis rebound and the effect of global uncertainties. The Fund projects that the region will grow at 3.7 percent in 2012, and 4.1 percent in 2013, up modestly from forecasts published in January.
The regional outlook report indicates that near-term risks are still tilted to the downside, and revolve most notably around possible renewed tensions in European markets and an oil price shock. But the report also notes different conditions with the region that imply differing policy challenges.
Different Challenges Across the Hemisphere
South America’s financially integrated economies (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay) grew at an average rate of 5.5 percent in 2011, down from over 6½ percent in 2010. With these countries performing near or above potential, but global risks elevated, their central banks face a challenging balancing act. One the one hand, they will need to stand ready to support liquidity conditions if adverse global shocks materialize, while on the other they need to ensure that monetary policy settings continue to anchor inflation expectations. Meanwhile, macro-prudential measures can help avoid financial excesses in the face of robust credit growth and volatile capital flows. In addition, efforts at fiscal consolidation should step up to grant monetary policy the needed flexibility and to rebuild buffers utilized during the 2009 crisis.
Meanwhile, South America’s less integrated commodity exporters (like Argentina and Bolivia), which have for the most part have been operating above potential, the priority should be to shift away from procyclical policies, to avoid further exacerbating overheating pressures and weakening the balance of payments, the report highlights.
Countries in Central America, which are near potential and have debt-to-GDP ratios above pre-crisis levels, should redouble their efforts to consolidate fiscal positions, while strengthening monetary and prudential frameworks.
Finally, Caribbean countries continue to face sluggish growth in tourism-intensive countries and stubborn fiscal imbalances. The near-term focus should thus remain on working off fiscal overhangs and addressing financial fragilities. Looking further ahead, greater efforts are needed to tackle structural weaknesses to boost competitiveness and growth.
Global Financial Shocks, Spillovers from Brazil and Mexico, and Housing Conditions
The report also features short analytical notes on the effects of global financial shocks, spillovers from Brazil and Mexico within the region, and housing and mortgage markets.
On the first topic, the report notes that sustainable external positions and exchange rate flexibility hold the key for emerging markets, particularly those highly financially integrated, to lessen the adverse effects of global financial shocks on economic activity.
Regarding potential knock–on effects from shocks in Brazil and Mexico, the Fund’s analysis finds that spillovers from these big neighbors are significant for Southern Cone partners (especially Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), including through indirect effects related to the amplification of global shocks.
On housing markets, rapidly growing mortgage credit does not appear to pose imminent risks to stability. However, this assessment is hampered by a lack of quality data, which points to an urgent need to close information gaps and strengthen oversight of the housing sector.
April 25, 2012 – The Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Albert Ramdin held discussions in Barbados on Friday with a series of officials including the President of the Caribbean Development Bank Dr. Warren Smith and high ranking members of the diplomatic corps. The Assistant Secretary General, who recently returned from the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, met with officials in Barbados on ways to improve support and coordinate issues affecting OAS Member States of CARICOM.
During the meeting with the President of the Caribbean Development Bank, discussions were held on areas for further collaborations between the CDB and the OAS in the areas of climate change, energy, initiatives to assist vulnerable groups, as well as initiatives on strengthening Civil Registries and the Puente in the Caribbean project.
According to the high ranking OAS official, “We recognize the need to strengthen collaboration
with all agencies to serve member states, especially in of financial constraint. We will continue to work together, to network where we can, and communicate with all partners on these issues.”
The OAS Assistant Secretary General also met with officials of St Vincent and the Grenadines, who were in Barbados at the time.
As part of his visit, Assistant Secretary General Ramdin addressed a conference on Peace in the Caribbean. According to the diplomat, the Caribbean region is home to some of the most stable democracies in the hemisphere, and while democracy must be safeguarded, governments across the region must intensify their efforts to address issues of crime and violence. “Sound government policy must continue to be supported and executed. Without adequate good governance, security cannot be guaranteed,” added Ramdin.
For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.
By EZEQUIEL ABIU LOPEZ
Associated Press
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) – The U.S. government is looking into allegations that Dominican sugar growers use child labor and keep workers in slave-like conditions as a possible violation of a free trade agreement, officials said Tuesday.
A delegation from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Trade and Labor Affairs is in the Caribbean country to review the allegations made by the Rev. Christopher Hartley, a Roman Catholic priest and advocate for the rights of Dominican sugar workers.
The U.S. Embassy said the delegation will review his allegations and determine if there have been any violations of the labor provisions of a trade agreement that was signed in 2004 and eliminated tariffs between the U.S., the Dominican Republic and five countries in Central America.
The Office of Trade and Labor Affairs has 180 days to review and publicly report on the charges.
“The review of the public submission in no way indicates a determination as to the validity or accuracy of the allegations,” the embassy statement said.
Hartley, who spent nine years in the Dominican Republic before he was transferred in 2006, called the review a “magnificent” first step toward addressing long-standing abuse of the country’s sugar workers, who are mostly migrants from neighboring Haiti or people of Haitian descent.
The priest has alleged that the Dominican sugar industry, dominated by three families, uses forced labor and trafficked workers, allows hazardous working conditions and provides inadequate medical and other benefits. The industry denies the allegations.
“This investigation is going to demonstrate that not just the Dominican government is negligent but the U.S. as well because it buys 200,000 tons of sugar every year from Dominican growers despite deplorable conditions,” Hartley said in a phone interview from Madrid.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Morales Troncoso told reporters that Hartley was unfairly “denigrating” the Dominican sugar industry and ignoring improvement in working conditions made in recent years.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
CARACAS — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been keeping an atypically low profile as he undergoes cancer treatment in Cuba, prompting his ministers to speak out to quell rumors his health had worsened.
Since arriving in Havana last week for a final round of radiation therapy, the 57-year-old Chavez — usually onmipresent in state media — has only communicated via Twitter and written statements, with no TV appearances.
The last new message on his Twitter feed appeared on Saturday. Some critics suggested the firebrand leftist president may have taken a turn for the worse, and slammed what they called his ruling from abroad by tweet.
But his ministers quickly rallied behind their leader, saying nothing was wrong.
Hugo Chavez is running for a third six-year term as Venezuela's president in the October election (AFP/File, Leo Ramirez)
Backed by one of the world’s largest oil reserves, Chavez has led the Bolivarian Alternative for the People of Our Americas, or ALBA by its Spanish acronym, and Petrocaribe, a group of countries across the Caribbean basin that receive subsidized Venezuelan oil.
Though polls show him leading Capriles ahead of the election, Chavez is battling public fatigue with his “socialist revolution,” an unstable economy with soaring inflation, and rampant street crime.
Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.
CARICOM Secretariat, Guyana – April 19, 2012 – The 39th Special meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), slated for Georgetown, Guyana on Friday, will provide the last ministerial platform for environment and sustainable development ministers to frame a regional strategic approach for the upcoming Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
Set for the Rio de Janeiro on 20-22 June, the Conference on Sustainable development hopes to “secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assess the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development, and address new and emerging challenges.” The Conference will focus on two themes: a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and the institutional framework for sustainable development.
Sustainable development has been the overarching goal of the international community since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. It emphasizes a holistic, equitable and far-sighted approach to decision-making at all levels and “rests on integration and a balanced consideration of social, economic and environmental goals and objectives in both public and private decision-making.” It also recognizes the special development challenges and concerns of small vulnerable developing states such as those in the Caribbean.
The Rio Conference has the potential to be transforming for its member states, but that depends largely on the political commitment of both developed and developing countries. Regrettably, such commitment may waver in the face of global economic and geopolitical realities: Developed, rapidly developing and developing nations are now grappling with huge fiscal challenges and massive debt levels. Political elections in seven EU countries, including France with the second largest economy in Europe, will also usher in new political thinking that will definitely sway the dialogue on new avenues or envelopes of financing. Such dialogue may not necessarily be in favour of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as those which comprise CARICOM. Arriving at any consensus on new envelopes of financing will be a sticking point.
It is against this background that the Special COTED on environment and sustainable development will have to shape its agenda for its Georgetown meeting on Friday. CARICOM ministers will need to establish and agree on clear regional priorities as well as a concrete approach on how they intend to engage their counterparts at the Rio+ 20 Conference.
The issue of our approach to developing the green economy has to be at the top of the agenda. The concept of green economy focuses primarily on the nexus between the environment, the economy and the social realities facing the Caribbean region. The underlying challenge for CARICOM is to determine how its focus on a green economy, in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, can foster regional development and a better quality of life for its peoples. In this regard, the 39th COTED will need to discuss and adopt an approach to developing a green economy and be ready to articulate what it considers the minimum architecture for the green economy framework to guide us in the next decade. For it to do so however, all Member States have to be in the choir, singing from the same hymn sheet regarding a common understanding and approach to developing a green economy. This must be done before the Rio de Janeiro Conference where a cleaner definition will be established.
In preparing for Rio+20, CARICOM Environment Ministers will also need to address the structural issues that impact its poverty alleviation and eradication efforts within the Caribbean Region. The Region needs appropriate financing mechanisms, policies, regulations and governance framework to be able to implement any sustainable development strategy that it develops. We also need to address the challenging issue of escalating energy and labour costs as well as the cost of raw materials. In the absence of new financing mechanisms, as part of the Rio strategy, the COTED may need to look at how it can re-shape existing funds disbursement and present a plan of action to the conference.
Institutional reform of the global architecture for sustainable development is also a burning issue, as countries within the prevailing economic climate grapple to decide which or what form of intergovernmental system is best suited and equipped to take on sustainable development and to address the implementation deficit which has posed a challenge for CARICOM over the years. This deficit has become even more pronounced in light of the complex and defused issues surrounding sustainable development. The COTED will need to examine these carefully.
The anticipated outcome from the 39th Special COTED therefore cannot be any “urging,” it must be a decision for a clear regional agenda for sustainable development. If we fail to set our own agenda, then someone else will do so through their own country development assistance programs. The region is only too familiar with the notion that “one size doesn’t fit all.”
For this COTED therefore, it cannot be business as usual; it must spawn a foolproof strategy on how CARICOM is going to the Rio+20 to help shape the future we want for our children and their children.
WASHINGTON, DC – The Caribbean economy is expected to grow in this year and next year.
So says the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It says Latin America and the Caribbean is “on a glide path to steady growth” as the global economy picks up pace.
But the financial institution is warning that “dangers remain.”
In its latest, World Economic Outlook report, the IMF said the swings in risk aversion in global markets over the past six months have had significant effects on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) forecasting “moderate” growth of 3.75 percent in the region this year and four percent in 2013.
Specifically, the Caribbean economy is expected to grow by 3.5 percent.
“High public debt and weak tourism and remittance flows continue to constrain the outlook for the Caribbean. The outlook for Central America, like that for Mexico, is closely tied to developments in the United States,” the IMF said, noting that “spillovers to the region, both real and financial, from renewed crisis in Europe are likely to be limited.”
The IMF said that among commodity exporters in LAC, strong domestic demand growth moderated, as tighter macroeconomic policies began to bear fruit and the external environment weakened.
And while economic activity in LAC is still subdued, strong real linkages with the United States “offer some upside prospects as the United States slowly recovers,” according to the report.
“Spillovers to the region through trade, financial, and banking channels were active during recent months but with only limited effects on activity,” the report said.
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, APRIL 17TH 2012 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Sen. the Hon. Richard Skerritt, wants Caribbean governments to reach out to grounded low-cost airline REDjet to ensure its return to the Caribbean skies soon.
Redjet landing at St. Kitts' Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport on a charter.
Minister Skerritt, in Guyana for the 13th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development, told journalists in Georgetown on Monday that there is a “pent-up” demand for air travel in the region, especially with the spiral cost for regional airlift.
Mr. Skerritt, who also chairs the Caribbean Tourism Organization, said high air travel cost will have dire consequences on regional tourism in the very near future.
He noted that REDjet’s recent suspension of its services, presents a valuable lesson to be learnt about the importance of affordable air transportation.
“You speak to Barbados and Guyana ministers which I have had the privilege to do with both just within the last week and both of them will tell you that REDjet was a major asset to them, it also stimulated competition” Skerritt remarked, adding that “Caribbean governments need to sit down and discuss whether you are an equity investor or not. What is needed to bring about affordable sustainable travel in the Caribbean.”
He wants regional governments to meeting the grounded airline’s officials and offered up the CTO to facilitate such gathering.
“I hope that by the time we meet for the State of the Industry conference in October this year in St. Kitts. What I hoped is that by then there would have been a significant (development) in the region and come to grips with the problem because OECS (Organisation of Easter Caribbean States) ministers met recently and this was the theme.
Recently REDjet officials met with Guyana’s ministers of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and Works to seek the country’s financial assistance in getting the carrier back in the Caribbean skies, however no definite position has been met.
The airline is also seeking outside investors, including from Venezuela.
REDjet suspended its operations early last month due to financial troubles, after it complained that it could not compete with other airlines that are receiving government subsidy, including the state-owned Trinidad Carrier Caribbean Airlines, which is receiving hefty fuel subsidy from the T&T government.
Trinidad is the only Caribbean country that revoked REDjet’s licence after the airline announced it was suspending operations.
However the Guyana government, one of the strong supporters of the airline’s entry to the regional market, said it has no intentions of suspended or revoke the licence.
Source: CUOPM
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