Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events

[Yehuda]

Draft budget signals new direction for Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad & TobagoEconomy
Economic News Update

16 Oct 2015

Presented by the new government of Trinidad and Tobago on October 5, the draft budget signals an early attempt on the part of the administration to tackle the country’s changing fiscal balance.

Generating additional tax revenue, reining in public spending and reducing the national deficit were the prevailing themes of the proposed budget, which came just weeks after Prime Minister Keith Rowley and the Peoples’ National Movement (PNM) came to power.

While the proposed budget has been broadly welcomed by the business community, some analysts question whether T&T’s non-oil sector can realistically generate the higher tax revenues demanded by the budget.

Addressing the deficit

With T&T’s 2015/16 fiscal year beginning on October 1, just weeks after the September 7 elections, the government had little time to prepare the preliminary budget, which still requires parliamentary approval.

The draft budget acknowledges the need to curb government outlays in the face of lower oil and gas prices. Spending is set to increase by 2% year-on-year (y-o-y) to TT$63bn ($9.9bn), while capital expenditure in particular will be scaled back.

Despite a forecast 72% drop in hydrocarbons receipts, based on an oil price of $45 per barrel, the government expects total fiscal revenue to rise by 10% to reach TT$60.3bn ($9.5bn), which, along with spending cuts, could help reduce the deficit. The budget anticipates a much lower fiscal deficit, down 60% y-o-y to TT$2.8bn ($441m), which amounts to 1.7% of GDP, compared to 4.2% last year.

Restoring confidence

The draft budget has been widely welcomed as a starting point for rebuilding business confidence in the country, with RBC Caribbean calling the budget “an important step in the right direction” in a recent research note.

Angela Lee Loy, chairman of consultancy Aegis Business Solutions, highlighted the paradigm shift underscored by the new spending approach. “Compared to the budgets of years gone by, this [one] has only a small percentage of revenue attributable to oil,” she said. “This may very well be ushering an era in T&T where oil dependency cannot be taken for granted.”

To help make up the hydrocarbons shortfall, Colm Imbert, minister of finance, announced a range of tax changes aimed at boosting revenue from the non-oil economy.

The measures include the creation of a new Revenue Authority by the end of the fiscal year, which is designed to improve tax collection, as well as a value-added tax cut, from 15% to 12.5%, and the reintroduction of a property tax as of January 1, 2016. Taken together, these are expected generate around TT$13.2bn ($2.1bn) in additional revenue, according to the budget, TT$8bn ($1.3bn) of which will stem from the Revenue Authority.

Importantly, the budget also proposes reducing fuel subsidies. Diesel and super gasoline prices have been increased by 15%, saving an estimated TT$340m ($53.5m), though the government is still expected to pay out around TT$1bn ($158.1m) in fuel subsidies in 2016.

In addition, the government plans to raise TT$13.4bn ($2.1bn) worth of capital revenue through a campaign of initial public offerings, divestment and extraordinary dividends.

Positive reception

The initial private sector response to the draft budget has been favourable, with some measures, such as the reduction in fuel subsidies, previously called for by business lobbies.

Businesses have also lauded the government’s plans to revert to the market-based pre- 2014 system for allocating foreign currency to private companies. The private sector had complained of delays and shortages in meeting their foreign currency needs under the previous administration, despite US dollar reserves being in plentiful supply.

Many believe this change in policy could spark a depreciation of the Trinidad dollar against the greenback, which could provide a welcome boost to both export competitiveness and tourism.

High hopes

However, economists have raised doubts about T&T’s ability to reach the tax revenue targets laid out in the budget.

Speaking at a forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce of T&T, Marla Dukharan, group economist for RBC Caribbean, admitted she was “uncomfortable” with the budget’s forecasts for non-oil revenue, as “the non-energy sector is driven mainly by fiscal spending, and fiscal spending comes from partly the energy sector.” According to Dukharan, weak GDP growth further undermines such targets, with the economy contracting by 2% in the first half of the year.

Indera Sagewan-Alli, a fellow economist, expressed similar concern. “If you have a decline in the economy, one where your productive sector is not generating revenue, from where are you going to collect the increase in revenue?” she asked.

Nonetheless, the consensus remained that the budget reaffirms the need for a serious and sustainable economic diversification strategy designed to engage the private sector and boost non-oil activity. The feasibility of the new targets could become clearer after the mid-year review of the budget in March, at which point further fiscal adjustment could be made, according to Imbert.

Oxford Business Group is now on Instagram. Follow us here for news and stunning imagery from the more than 30 markets we cover.

See also: GDP, American Chamber of Commerce

Draft budget signals new direction for Trinidad and Tobago

 

[Poitier]

Victims of police harassment, fire bombings and murders, Haitian and African immigrants coming to Brazil are confronted with ‘Brazilian racism’.


For geographical reasons, Acre is one of the main entry points for immigrants who want to rebuild their lives in Brazil

Note from BW of Brazil: So Brazil is supposed to be the wonderful paradise where all the races mix, everybody gets along and everyone is equal, right? Well, it’s no longer a secret that the country has some serious issues to deal with in relation to to the image it likes to promote of itself and the reality. And some groups who have been arriving in the country that they decided to call their new homes are finding this out the hard way. To be sure, Brazil has long had issues in terms of the treatment of its own black population, murder rates that are fitting for a country at war, murderous police and a recurring problem with lynch mob violence but with the experiences of recent immigrants, the image of the country that welcomes all is exposing another layer of a centuries old determinant of difference: skin color. In the case of immigrants, we know that skin color and country of origin play a huge role in how they will treated as we know that there are numerous immigrants from Latin America, Asian and Europe also living in Brazil but yet we never hear of these immigrants being treated in the harsh manner that seems to be reserved for Africans and Haitians. In past articles we have covered a number of reports detailing the experiences ofHaitian and African immigrants (as well as black Americans and Brits) and its great to see that the issue is receiving more attention.

Black immigrants coming to Brazil are confronted with ‘Brazilian racism’, says sociologist

By Paul Hebmüller

For Alex André Vargem, Africans and Haitians are treated differently in relation to immigrants of other nationalities coming to Brazil; the myth of the welcoming country of prevents self-criticism, he evaluates

The idea that Brazilians are warm and welcomes all immigrants doesn’t correspond to the reality of the cases of Haitians and Africans, victims of racism in Brazil. So says the sociologist Alex André Vargem, 35, a member of IDDAB, the Instituto do Desenvolvimento da Diáspora Africana no Brasil (Institute of Development of the African Diaspora in Brazil). For Vargem, in their countries of origin, these immigrants faced different ethnic issues from those arising from “racismo à brasileira” (Brazilian-styled racism), and it is here that they learn about concrete experiences of discrimination. “I believe that there is still resistance to making a self-criticism, and so the society clings to that image of that we welcome all well,” he says.

Sociologist lists some of the cases of violence that he has been collecting throughout his eleven years of experience in the area:

• In 2007, three apartments where African students on the campus of UnB (University of Brasilia) lived had the doors burned – racist graffiti, incidentally, having appeared on the premises of several universities in the country;
• In 2011, Toni Bernardo da Silva, 27, a student from Guinea-Bissau in a student exchange program at UFMT (Federal University of Mato Grosso), was beaten to death by a businessman and two police officers in a pizzeria in Campo Grande;
• In March 2012, 575 Africans and Haitians were arrested and taken on a bus to police precincts in a mega-operation in São Paulo’s downtown;
• In May 2012, the Angolan student Zulmira Borges Cardoso de Souza, 26, was shot deadafter arguments between Brazilians and a group of Angolans who fraternized in a Brás neighborhood bar in São Paulo;
• In August 2015, six Haitians were shot in two separate attacks in the Baixada Glicério, in downtown São Paulo. According to witnesses, before shooting, the person shouted: “Haitians, you steal our jobs.”

“Whoever is in that environment knows that they aren’t isolated actions: it’s violence that repeats itself at any moment,” says Vargem and concludes “it’s a “violence that maybe the person does not manifest against black Brazilian bodies, but demonstrate against African and Haitian bodies.”

A graduate from the PUC in São Paulo and with a degree in Direito Internacional dos Refugiados pelo International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Itália) (International Law of Refugees by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Italy), Vargem recognizes that he ends up being “the irritating one” in the immigration debate for raising these and other cases and says that, even with the creation of new laws and instances in public organs , it is still necessary to wait to see whether these measures will bring results.


Alex André Vargem during an event at USP

Skepticism is also based on the lack of concrete data on the number of immigrants living in Brazil. An example: it’s possible to know that there are about six thousand African students in undergraduate and graduate programs in Brazilian public universities because of bilateral agreements. However, it is unknown how many are in private universities. Without knowing the numbers, there is no way to formulate effective public policies, he considers.

Alex Vargem granted the following interview in a cafe in Shopping Light, in downtown São Paulo. During the conversation, it was possible to observe the passage of many immigrants – including Haitians and Africans – dealing with bureaucratic issues in the posts of the Federal Police and the Federal Revenue housed in the building, where there are also exchange offices and money transfer agencies for sending money abroad. In the interview, he laments the existence of situations such as the so-called Connector of Guarulhos International Airport (“legal limbo”, he defines) and the lack of contact between the organizations of recent African immigration and the Movimento Negro Brasileiro (black Brazilian movement).

Revista Samuel: You say that the cases of xenophobia and attacks on Africans and Haitians, like what happened in São Paulo in August, are not isolated, contrary to what some voices argue. Are these situations that are repeated?

Alex André Vargem: Historically one always started from the assumption that the Brazilian is welcoming and treats well those coming from outside. However, in my eleven years of work with research and denunciation of human rights violations, I notice a particularity of black migration, of Africans and Haitians, that has to do with racism in Brazil. The racial issue bothers a portion of society and those in public power. The violence is either direct or indirect: we have from the racist graffiti in universities, to the fire at the lodging of African students at UnB, to the arrest of nearly 600 Africans and Haitians three blocks from the city hall of São Paulo, on a weekday afternoon.

There are even cases of death, such as Zulmira and Toni, and of aggression as the recent attack on Haitians also in São Paulo. Late last year, during the Marcha do Migrante (March of the Migrants), started out in Praça da República (República Square) and went to Sé, a man started shouting, “go back to your homes, what are you doing here?” Whoever is that environment know that they aren’t isolated actions: they are of violence that repeats itself at any moment. That violence that maybe the person doesn’t manifest against bodies of black Brazilians will manifest against African and Haitians bodies.

RS: Do you think that society doesn’t acknowledge these facts or prefer not to take notice?

AV: There are the two sides. A few days ago I was in a debate and at the end a lady approached me and said, ‘My son, you just talk about negative things!’. Well, I’d like to talk about other issues, but precisely because much of the population doesn’t acknowledge these facts they have to be disclosed. Many of these immigrants have never suffered racism in their countries of origin and are starting to deal with this for the first time in their lives here. A friend from Guinea-Bissau told me that she was restricted in a bank where she had an account because, according to the security, “you don’t have a Brazilian face.” It’s shocking, because the ethnic issues in countries of origin are different, and here they learn about Brazilian racism. I believe there is still resistance to making a self-criticism, and so the society clings to that image that we welcome all well.


Ghanaians who came for the World Cup, asked for refuge in Brazil

RS: Do you think this issue is very hidden or is even denied in order that they don’t compromise the idea of the welcoming Brazilian, that is particularly strong in São Paulo?

AV: Exactly. Even from a legal point of view: the Estatuto do Estrangeiro (Statute of the Foreigner) still in force, is a law from 1980, the era of the military dictatorship. The first time that society and the government tried to think of enhancing public policies for migrants was in 2014, in Comigrar (National Conference on Migration and Refugee). 2014! In other words, we are far behind.

The welcoming myth always gets in the way: for what do we create public policies for those who are in situations of vulnerability if we are ‘good welcomers’? In São Paulo, we have sent migrants to hostels for the homeless population, which is absurd. The person does not speak Portuguese and the staff doesn’t speak other languages. This is another demand, another particularity. There are conflicts and prejudices of the homeless against Africans and Haitians, because there is a repertoire of ideas that are reproduced regardless of social class.


Haitians taking a Portuguese classes in Curitiba

RS: In 2011, the National Secretary of Justice, Paulo Abrão, disputed criticism that you had done on the refuge policy in Brazil. He said in an Estadão report, Brazil has infinitely smaller expulsion and repatriation numbers than those of European countries, and 99% of expulsions are related to trafficking. Are these allegations well founded?

AV: In my estimation, he mixed up a little the issue of refugee with migrants. We have reports that, at the borders and airports, it is the public official himself in the place that determines who receives refuge or not. His job is not this, but to send the case to Brasília, where the issue will be evaluated. Thus, certain authorities violate international treaties to which Brazil is a signatory. Who can’t get refugee status ends up looking for another way to regulate. That is, there is irregular migration produced by the state itself.

Amnesty 2009 (to foreigners unlawfully in the country, according to Law 11.961) was very beautiful in the discourse, and many friends thought that Brazil was setting an example for the world. I said: let’s get out of the text and see what happens on the ground. Were only six months to refer to the request, from July to December; there was little publicity in the press; the rates were expensive – as well as the Federal Police, the consulates of the countries also charged. There were 40,000 amnestied in the first instance, as we have an estimate of 150,000 to 600,000 undocumented foreigners in Brazil. Of Africans, there were less than three thousand, which is not close to a number that we don’t know, but we believe it is much higher than what the government estimated.

 

[Poitier]

The Haitian student Marina Mathieu during the release of the NGO Viva Rio project launched in partnership with the Escola Municipal Haiti, that helps Haitian immigrants in Brazil

The second phase was to prove that they were working. We request the data from the government and to this day don’t know exactly how many were amnestied in total. For me, the amnesty didn’t work. When speaking of the Brazilian migration policy, between discourse and practice there is an abyss.

RS: And is the allegation regarding traffickers justified?

AV: I believe there is an institutionalized prejudice of the agents and of government power. There are dozens of arrests of nationalities involved with trafficking in the penitentiary of Itai (interior of São Paulo state): Spanish, French, German … But in the Brazilian sociological imagination, generally the category “African” slips into “Nigerian” and automatically “dealer”. This is what justifies the episode of the March 2012 arrests in downtown São Paulo: in the eyes of the government, it’s institutionalized that African is dealer.

The treatment is different with respect to other nationalities. But of course there is a whole range of situations, and those who are in an undocumented situation without possibility of getting a formal job, can fall into crime networks and be co-opted.

RS: You also mention the so-called connector from Guarulhos International Airport (São Paulo) as an area where many breaches occur. Why?

AV: Legally, that doesn’t even exist. In Europe there are legal mechanisms to regulate prisons or quarantines for migrants. But here, when going through Immigration, one can claim lack of documents and people stay there waiting for some form of regulation – or deportation. There are cases of people who had all the regular documentation and were detained. Others come to remain weeks or months there. It is a legal limbo in which one of the few authorities that come in is the Public Defender.


In Brasileia, Acre, Haitians were exposed to degrading situations while waiting to settle into the country

Last year, about 300 people were in the connector. And not only there. There was one case in Porto de Paranaguá (PR) in 2011, with nine Nigerians who came on a ship. Many boarding and traveling clandestinely in the basements thinking that the destination is Europe, and only on arrival do they discover that they stop in Brazil. One delegate said in an interview that he didn’t allow the entry of Nigerians because they could be “terrorists, threats to public safety, national security and public health”! What he should do is welcome and formalize the occurrence and wait for Brasília to respond to a refugee claim. It is not up to him to decide who enters or not. The Nigerians were only able to stay in the country because there were repercussions in the media. If this happens in large ports and airports, imagine what is happening in more distant regions. Certainly there are many other cases that we don’t even know. Many Haitians, for example, even with a humanitarian visa, were barred in Brazil. That is, they didn’t even have the right to seek refuge.

RS: On the other hand, there is a migration of Europeans fleeing the economic crisis in their countries. In this case, their entrance here is not questioned, is it?

AV: Yeah – and many more Latin Americans arrive also, but the major concern is with black migration. These African and Haitians boys are mostly young, in their 20s or 30s, and many have higher education in their home country. In the Congolese community, for example, one of the boys studied administration, speaks English, French and local languages, but what he got here was an ‘odd job’ of unloading trucks in early morning hours, and still earning less than the Brazilians.

Basically, we are talking about a number of people as derisory…there are just over 1 million documented migrants in a country of 200 million people. In the United States, perhaps 10% of the population.


Circuito Fora do Eixo – Pitchou Luambo (center), Congolese refugee, is coordinator of Grists (Group for Refugees and Homeless Immigrants of São Paulo) and one of the exponents of the fight for more rights

RS: What would have to change so that the action of these agents at the tip of the system would be different?

AV: What is being discussed with the new Immigration Act [under discussion in Congress] is the possibility of creating the so-called National Migration Authority, but its composition still seem vague to me. Even though this is a civil body, the Federal Police will hardly give up its monopoly on the borders. This dichotomy is always present in Brazil: we have great laws such as that of the refugee, but what’s the point if it is not followed? Less than 1% of applicants manage to get a change of a negative decision in the first instance. One thing is to be a refugee like Cesare Battisti, another is the overwhelming anonymous majority coming on the bottom of a ship. Anyway, all the effects of new laws, regulations or creation of organs need to be evaluated in the medium and long term.

In São Paulo, we have a Coordination of Policies for Migrants for at City Hall, but questionable actions on the streets still occur. There are several Senegalese craftsmen in Praça da República (República Square) who complain that the supervision and the (police) stops are more with them than with others, whether Brazilian or other nationalities. Even with these new instances, in practice things haven’t changed much.

RS: Locating the number of undocumented aliens between 150,000 and 600,000 is a wide range. When there is no reliable data, how do you create effective public policies?

AV: There are several instances that rack the brain. The work visas, for example, are usually granted by CNIg (National Immigration Council), of the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Already Conare (National Committee for Refugees) is in the Ministry of Justice, which also has other departments to deal with these issues. We need to have a central agency with official figures so that public policies can be worked on.


Grupo Fora do Eixo held in August, a cultural event with refugees in downtown São Paulo

RS: You say that Movimentos Negros (black social movements) in Brazil don’t talk to Africans. Why does this happen?

AV: It is a central issue. The principle instrument to create public policies in Brazil is national conferences. In the last Racial Equality [III National Conference on Promoting Racial Equality – CONAPIR, 2013] a single line aimed at the African or Haitian diaspora didn’t come out. I believe that from the point of view of the old leaders of the Movimento Negro, the redemption that is done is always historic, a descendant of slaves, which is reflected in the implementation of Law 10.639, on the teaching of African history in schools. But there is a distancing of the living Africa, which is present here.

Part of the assumption is that there is a denial, an attempt of not wanting to see this reality as a problem itself. It’s that discourse: ‘we have so many problems, now more with Africans and Haitians…’ I have heard comments that ‘the black foreigner is not our problem’. Many people who were leaders of the black movement and today are in central positions in the government reproduce the same practice and the same social vision. On the other hand, the younger ones already have a certain approximation, perhaps more caused by shock, as in the killing of Zulmira. Today there is a plethora of actors and associations. The Congolese, for example, have about four – they are still simple groups without legal recognition.


Former President Lula with students from Angola, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, at the new campus of the University of International Integration of Lusophone Afro-Brazilian in Bahia.

To enhance the rights of these immigrants, it would essential that the Movimento Negro learn, know and be together. There are some minor actions, often linked to cultural issues, music, religion and food. But in the political struggle there is no programmatic agenda.

Source: Opera Mundi

Victims of police harassment, fire bombings and murders, Haitian and African immigrants coming to Brazil are confronted with ‘Brazilian racism’.

 

[Yehuda]

Monday, October 19th 2015 - 09:53 UTC

Guyana beefs up reserves to protect country from Venezuela and Suriname

Against the background of what he said were continued territorial threats from both Venezuela and Suriname, Guyana President David Granger has announced a Total National Defense Policy.

“All the elements and instruments of national power need constantly to be employed in order to protect our territory,” he said as he met with Guyana Defense Force (GDF) officers.

Venezuela has been laying claim to the vast mineral-rich area of jungle west of the Essequibo River, which accounts for about 40% of Guyana’s territory. Earlier this year, Nicolás Maduro extended Venezuela’s maritime claims after Exxon Mobil announced it had made a significant oil discovery in Guyana’s territorial waters.

Then earlier this month, Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse was quoted in the media in his country as saying that the issue regarding the New River Triangle territory, which both countries have been claiming intermittently for decades, was back on the agenda.

Granger said that in order for Guyana to face head on, the claims being invented by Venezuela and Suriname, a plan for total national defense is vital.

The GDF Chief of Staff, Brigadier-General Mark Phillips, said the new policy was “timely” and would provide a framework for elected civilian officials and military officers to continuously review the roles and missions of the Force.

The Total National Defense Policy will give regular and reserve forces the resources they need to perform their mission over the next five years. The president has instructed that the reserve force is never again to fall below the required 50% of regular force strength.

He explained that the long-term objective is to ensure that Guyanese can depend on defense forces to ensure the safety of the citizens and the security of the country.

“The age of very visible warfare, in the form of harassment on our borders or the intrusion of gunboats into our waters is not yet over,” Granger declared.

He said the new policy would focus on the reorganization and strengthening of the GDF on five pillars: personnel, readiness, infrastructure, morale and equipment, with emphasis on the Air Corps, the Coast Guard and the Engineer Corps.

“These changes must be designed to develop the Force’s capability to provide continuous surveillance over Guyana’s air, territorial and maritime borders and approaches, to provide search-and-rescue services to persons in distress and to provide assistance to the civil authority in response to any threat or disaster,” Guyana’s Commander-in-Chief said.

The policy will see the re-establishment of the People’s Militia as a credible reserve in all 10 regions, and the National Cadet Corps to allow boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 years in secondary schools to pursue part-time training. A Civil Defense Corps will also be established to support the work of the Civil Defense Commission in responding to and managing disasters.

Guyana beefs up reserves to protect country from Venezuela and Suriname

 

[Poitier]

Photo: Buhari receives Venezuelan envoy
Posted By: Presidencyon: October 21, 2015In: Photo / VideoNo Comments

R-L;President Muhammadu Buhari being presented with a letter by the Venezuela Special Envoy and Vice Minister for Africa, Mr. Reinaldo Bolivar accompanied by Permanent Representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United Nations, Mr. Samuel Moncada during a courtesy visit at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday


L-R ; Permanent Representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United Nations, Mr. Samuel Moncada, Venezuela Special Envoy and Vice Minister for Africa, Mr. Reinaldo Bolivar, President Muhammadu Buhari and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bulus Lolo during a courtesy visit at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday


L-R ; Permanent Representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United Nations, Mr. Samuel Moncada, Venezuela Special Envoy and Vice Minister for Africa, Mr. Reinaldo Bolivar, President Muhammadu Buhari, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bulus Lolo, Venezuela Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Miguelangel Della Vecchio and former Venezuela Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Enrigue Arrandell during a courtesy visit at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday.


President Muhammadu Buhari (Right) receives the Venezuela Special Envoy and Vice Minister for Africa, Mr. Reinaldo Bolivar at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday

Photo: Buhari receives Venezuelan envoy - The Nation Nigeria

 

[Yehuda]

Monday, October 12th 2015 - 06:11 UTC

Guyana now faced with refloated territorial claims from Suriname

Less than a week after returning from the United Nations, where he raised concerns about Guyana’s border dispute with Venezuela, President David Granger was confronted with a similar issue involving Suriname.

Suriname’s online media outlet de Ware Tijd reported that Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse had said that the issue regarding the New River Triangle territory, which both countries have been claiming intermittently for decades, was back on the agenda.

Stabroek News reported that President Granger dismissed Suriname’s reported revival of its claim to the New River Triangle in south-eastern Guyana, calling it “spurious,” but said that he will seek clarification on the matter.

“I read the statement attributed to President Bouterse and as far as I am concerned it does not change the price of rice,” Granger said at a news conference at the Ministry of the Presidency, his first since assuming office over four months ago.

The president said he would meet with his Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge before the minister sought official clarification from the Surinamese envoy.

“We feel that this claim is spurious and we have taken measures in the past to protect our territorial integrity and we will continue to do so,” Granger said.

According to The Guyana Times, the controversy between Guyana and Suriname is a historical one. The latter laid claims to part of Guyana sea space, which was addressed and essentially settled in Guyana’s favor by an international tribunal spearheaded by the United Nations.
President Granger explained, however, that Suriname’s claim to the Corentyne River area remains a matter of contention since there has never been a treaty that clearly demarcated the boundary between the neighboring countries.

Additionally, Suriname has also been claiming the New River Triangle area, which encompasses a mass of land that is larger than the size of Jamaica. The President said that while this is a historical claim, this is neither the time nor the place to advance this matter.

He explained that the eastern boundary where Guyana, Brazil and Suriname meet was clearly marked out since 1936. This he said is an indelible mark, since it is the international boundary not the New River Triangle.

“This is what we are going to stand by . . . You cannot convene a meeting of your Parliament and change your boundary,” the Guyanese leader noted

Suriname and Guyana are members of Unasur, but Suriname under Bouterse has closer links with Venezuela and Brazil. It should not come as a surprise that Suriname refloats claims when the conflicting situation with Venezuela.

Suriname a former Dutch colony received much aid from Holland, Venezuela in the form of oil and from Brazil in infrastructure support.

Guyana now faced with refloated territorial claims from Suriname

 

[BigMan]

this could be good for guyana in the long run (assuming borders stay the same)

 

[Yehuda]

October 22, 2015, 7:35 PM

Guyana says Venezuela lays false claim to gold mine

President David Arthur Granger of Guyana addresses attendees during the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, September 29, 2015. REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR

GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- Guyana's president says Venezuela is inflaming a border dispute by claiming territory in his country where one of South America's largest gold mines is.

President David Granger said Thursday that Venezuela sent a letter to Toronto-based Guyana Goldfields warning it could face legal consequences for operating on land claimed by Venezuela. He accused Venezuela of trying to scare away foreign investors from Guyana.

The mine is one of Guyana's biggest investment projects. It employs 500 workers and is expected to produce 3 million ounces of gold in about 17 years.

Guyana Goldfields did not respond to a request for comment.

Venezuela has long claimed 40 percent of Guyana's territory and extended its maritime claims this year after oil was discovered in disputed waters.

Guyana said any attempt by Venezuela to enforce its claims will be "vigorously resisted" and brought to the attention of the international community.

In September, Guyana conducted military exercises days after Guyana President David Granger accused Venezuela of deploying troops to a border region.

The U.N. is mediating the dispute.

Guyana says Venezuela lays false claim to gold mine

 

[Yehuda]

Foreign minister makes strong case for Bahamas to sit on UN Human Rights Council

Published on October 23, 2015

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell speaking at the welcome reception for Diplomatic Week

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Minister of foreign affairs and immigration, Fred Mitchell, on Thursday made a strong case for The Bahamas to become the first English-speaking Caribbean nation and small island developing state from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Noting that there is a Latin American and Caribbean group on the UN Human Rights Council, Mitchell said, however, that “no one from the Caribbean group has ever sat on the Council.”

“We think it is time,” Mitchell said.

The minister was speaking at the official opening of his ministry’s Second Annual ‘Diplomatic Week’, which is being held in Nassau on October 18 – 24, under the theme “Diplomacy: Positioning for the Future Toward New Approaches, Tools and Methods for Implementing New Goals.”

The event also serves as a forum to strengthen and deepen bilateral and multilateral relations with some 70 countries and was earmarked to provide an effective arena to extend The Bahamas’ campaign for election to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council and re-election to the International Maritime Organization.

In his remarks at the official opening, Mitchell reinforced his remarks that now is time for a Caribbean nation from CARICOM to sit on the UN Human Rights Council by emphatically declaring, “We think more importantly that we have something to contribute and amongst other things we believe that the world’s interest in migration at the moment is a subject to which The Bahamas can contribute. We experience thousands of economic migrants coming to our shores without leave every year and it is important from the Caribbean perspective on these issues to find their way into this world forum.”

In addition, Mitchell said notwithstanding that there are “some areas that need to be addressed, the record of The Bahamas is a good one on human rights.”

He added, “Indeed, with regard to a recent matter in our own courts and which you may read in our newspapers I said the following yesterday to the parliament:

“The one thing that I would like to say as a general point is that notwithstanding any lapses or errors that may be made or may have been made in our systems, the Government of The Bahamas does not condone discrimination, inhumane treatment, assaults on detainees or abuse of any kind. There are systems in place as we have seen to deal with matters which require redress. They may need some tweaking to be more efficient but they exist.”

As seen in the most recently publicized case, the minister declared that the system works.

“I would also urge legal counsel who run into these issues … that they can freely call my office directly if there is a specific case that needs to be addressed,” he said. “I will be speaking with the prison officials to see if any complaint was ever made of the kind of abuse that has been reported in the Jamaican press during the incarceration of the individual who is now complaining. We must try to get at the facts.”

By making that statement, the minister said he does not “want to appear to be excusing any behaviour by officialdom, which is unacceptable.”

“My point is that we must know the facts,” he said. “I have been around long enough to know that you ought to hear the other side. When the other side of a story is told, you may be surprised at what you will find.”

Noting that the prime minister “will speak to the other themes that are of some importance to us,” Mitchell said The Bahamas is also seeking “support for us to return to the Council of the International Maritime Organization.”

He added, “We continue to speak up for the viability of our financial services sector. We want to develop our young people and provide them with opportunities to live and work at home and abroad. We are a concerned about climate change and the environment. We look forward to some binding commitments in Paris. We hope that the funding will be available to states like ours that our vulnerable and the fact of our GDP per capita is not used to our detriment. We are continuing to assert that in UN peacekeeping the status quo with regard to payments should continue to obtain and that the present discount for us a small state should not be removed. During the course of the day, you will get a good feel for these and other subjects of interest.”

Additionally, Mitchell said The Bahamas continues its “outreach to the Gulf States and to the Far East and China even as we maintain good relations with our main trading partners the United States of America, Canada and Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Foreign minister makes strong case for Bahamas to sit on UN Human Rights Council | Caribbean News Now

 

[BigMan]

Bahamas wants to sit for human rights but they treating haitians like shyt tho

 

[x2y]

My bronx brehs know about Garifunas

yea, are you garifuna?

 

[BigMan]

yea, are you garifuna?

nah

 

[x2y]

nah

Aight cool. I didn't know any till I spent more time in the bx.

 

[Yehuda]

Guyana rules out giving Venezuela access to Atlantic waters

Published October 27, 2015
EFE

Guyanese President David Granger has ruled out giving neighboring Venezuela access to the Atlantic as part of any settlement of the border dispute over Essequibo region.

"We cannot sell out. We cannot give away. We cannot offer the adversary any corridor or any passage," Granger said on Tuesday after the successful completion of Exercise Greenheart, a tactical exercise in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni area in Region Seven.

The president's comments came days after former President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that his administration had considered a negotiated settlement to the dispute with Venezuela that would have seen Guyana retain all of Essequibo region in keeping with the 1899 arbitration decision while allowing its western neighbor access to the Atlantic Ocean off Essequibo.

Granger reiterated that Guyana was committed to protecting foreign direct investment and declared that no country must intimidate or threaten investors.

Last week, in his address to Parliament, Granger said Caracas sent a letter to Guyana Gold Fields Incorporated, which operates a large mine in Aurora, Region Seven, accusing the company of infringing on the territorial sovereignty of Venezuela.

With the successful completion of the tactical exercise on Tuesday, Granger told members of the Guyana Defense Force, or GDF, "what you have done here today is an example to show our foreign direct (investors) that their investments are safe and that Guyana will use every fiber of its state system of its defense forces to protect their investment."

Calling the exercise a timely one, because of the territorial threats Guyana faces, Granger said, "this is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation."

"People must know that when they come into Guyana to invest, they will be coming into a safe environment that is protected by one of the best defense forces in the Caribbean, the GDF," the Guyanese president said.

The long-simmering territorial dispute took on new urgency on May 20, when a subsidiary of U.S.-based ExxonMobil announced the discovery of significant oil reserves in the waters off Essequibo.

A week later, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued an executive order asserting sovereignty over the waters. EFE

Guyana rules out giving Venezuela access to Atlantic waters

 

[Yehuda]

Barbados and Guyana sign Third Joint Commission to foster cooperation in tourism and other sectors

CARIBBEAN360 NOVEMBER 3, 2015

Barbados’ Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Maxine McClean

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Tuesday November 3, 2015 – Barbados and Guyana have signed a Third Joint Commission, which is intended to foster cooperation in tourism and other sectors.

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. and the Guyana Tourism Authority; and a Memorandum of Understanding between the Barbados Port Inc. and the Guyana Port Authority, were signed recently in Barbados.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, which took place after a day of deliberations between Barbadian and Guyanese officials, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Maxine McClean explained that the talks gave both countries the opportunity to exchange ideas and assess the level of cooperation within the Joint Commission.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean and Guyana’s Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge signing the Joint Commission.

Adding that such a commission was intended to strengthen bilateral ties between the countries, Senator McClean noted that it would not only benefit the respective governments, but positively impact the principal economic sectors of each country.

“In 2007, we signed the first step of this initiative, and in 2013 we had a second meeting of the Joint Commission that allowed us to identify several critical areas of cooperation in tourism, education and agriculture, and we sought to concretise efforts to increase trade,” she said.

“In my opinion, this exercise will not only benefit the respective governments but the principal economic sectors of our respective countries and I anticipate that building on what we have achieved [there will be a] mix of synergies which will allow sectors to grow.”

Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Guyana Carl Greenidge announced that he was satisfied with the progress made with the Joint Commission so far, which included an internship for Guyanese students at the Crane Beach Resort and scholarships provided by the Guyana School of Agriculture to Barbadian students.

He added that he was looking forward to deeper collaboration in the fisheries and maritime sectors, particularly planned exchanges of technical assistance and the development of related services.

Greenidge also highlighted a number of improvements that could be made to the agreements. He outlined a need for careful budgeting when projects were being implemented and suggested that more work needed to be done within the education system to encourage persons to be more fluent in other languages.

Barbados and Guyana sign Third Joint Commission to foster cooperation in tourism and other sectors | Caribbean360