Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events
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Guyana Is About to Open Up Pandora's Barrel
Expats hold the key to whether its big offshore oil deposits bring riches -- or ruin.
by Mac Margolis
February 16th 2018
Wedged between Brazil and Venezuela, Guyana could easily go unnoticed. It has fewer than 750,000 people and a per capita income of $4,300, half the regional average, qualifying it as the hemisphere’s third-poorest nation.
At the moment, Guyana also might be its luckiest. Having struck big oil offshore starting in 2015, industry experts reckon total reserves at around 2 billion barrels. That bounty could make Guyana immeasurably rich and Latin America’s biggest producer in less than a decade – or just another Trump-hole.
History abounds with tales of raw-material bonanzas turned into, at best, a mixed blessing for poor countries. Dutch disease, corruption (think Venezuela and Nigeria), life support for dictators: The gift of oil comes with many afflictions. A classic International Monetary Fund study found that living conditions in oil-rich nations in sub-Saharan Africa were no better or worse than countries without oil.
“Equatorial Guinea comes to mind,” Rice University energy scholar Francisco Monaldi told me, in reference to the Central African dictatorship which, after striking oil in the 1990s, went in a matter of years from desperately poor to desperately rich.
“We know historically that if you’re poorly managed when you received the windfall, you’ll likely have difficulty capitalizing your bounty for development,” said Monaldi.
The example is not lost on Guyana, which has a vibrant if flawed — “partially free,” according to Freedom House — democracy, but frail institutions and admittedly scarce human capital to manage the coming wealth. “Guyana has almost zero capacity now for dealing with oil and gas,” Jan Mangal, petroleum adviser to President David Granger, said recently at the University of Guyana.
While officials in Georgetown quickly disavowed Mangal, his comments were hard to ignore. With major oil set to flow as soon as 2020, authorities are bracing both for the shock of wealth and its attendant woes. The bounty will not come all at once: Exxon and other producers will use most of the early oil to pay down startup costs. But that will only delay the impact. “It’s like drinking from a fire hose right now,” Vincent Adams, a Guyanese engineer who recently retired from the U.S. Department of Energy, told me.
One of the biggest challenges is who will manage the gusher. Guyana is a nation of emigrants. Some 463,000 Guyanese, or 60 percent of its population, live abroad, and the outflow continues apace. What’s worse, the leavers have included roughly nine of every 10 graduates with higher education — energy experts and oil engineers among them — according to the World Bank. “The cream of the crop migrated,” said Adams. “In terms of local capacity, we are at a serious disadvantage.”
Guyana could attenuate the brain drain by reaching out to its diaspora. There are more than 100 reported expatriate organizations, and as a group overseas Guyanese consistently send more money back home than foreign investors plow into the economy every year, according to a recent study by Hisakhana Pahoona Corbin and Luis Eduardo Aragon of the Center for Advanced Amazonian Studies. “We have a repository of knowledge outside of Guyana which is amazing,” said Adams.
The government belatedly began to tap this talent pool, launching an official Guyana Diaspora Project in late 2012, but the effort has been criticized as timid. “In spite of this potential, few institutional arrangements have been put in place to better engage the diaspora or to unlock their potentials as an alternative for accelerating development,” Corbin and Aragon wrote last year.
Granted, Guyana will have some help. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is counseling officials on how to avert corruption. Multilateral lenders are training Guyanese to develop an investment plan and mitigate the fiscal risk of the oil boom. “The sudden inflow of wealth could become a tsunami, and if it’s not managed well, could leave a dire situation,” Ramon Espinasa, general coordinator of the Extractive Sector Initiative at the Inter-American Development Bank, said in an interview.
Big Oil also knows the stakes. Despite the familiar criticisms — “Dem know wha Exxon do to govt all over de world,” one marquee local columnist warned in a mock patois — drillers have every reason to make sure their investment is safe.
The hardest part will be down to the host country, of course. “Until recently, small countries like ours were sheltered by benefactors in the east or west. Now the Berlin Wall is gone and the protectors have become our competitors, and we’re left to deal with the world markets,” said Adams.
That’s the challenge the country’s emigrants faced when they remade their careers abroad. Now Guyana must reach out to its diaspora ringers and bring that lesson home.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Mac Margolis at mmargolis14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.net
Guyana Is About to Open Up Pandora's Barrel
Expats hold the key to whether its big offshore oil deposits bring riches -- or ruin.
by Mac Margolis
February 16th 2018
Wedged between Brazil and Venezuela, Guyana could easily go unnoticed. It has fewer than 750,000 people and a per capita income of $4,300, half the regional average, qualifying it as the hemisphere’s third-poorest nation.
At the moment, Guyana also might be its luckiest. Having struck big oil offshore starting in 2015, industry experts reckon total reserves at around 2 billion barrels. That bounty could make Guyana immeasurably rich and Latin America’s biggest producer in less than a decade – or just another Trump-hole.
History abounds with tales of raw-material bonanzas turned into, at best, a mixed blessing for poor countries. Dutch disease, corruption (think Venezuela and Nigeria), life support for dictators: The gift of oil comes with many afflictions. A classic International Monetary Fund study found that living conditions in oil-rich nations in sub-Saharan Africa were no better or worse than countries without oil.
“Equatorial Guinea comes to mind,” Rice University energy scholar Francisco Monaldi told me, in reference to the Central African dictatorship which, after striking oil in the 1990s, went in a matter of years from desperately poor to desperately rich.
“We know historically that if you’re poorly managed when you received the windfall, you’ll likely have difficulty capitalizing your bounty for development,” said Monaldi.
The example is not lost on Guyana, which has a vibrant if flawed — “partially free,” according to Freedom House — democracy, but frail institutions and admittedly scarce human capital to manage the coming wealth. “Guyana has almost zero capacity now for dealing with oil and gas,” Jan Mangal, petroleum adviser to President David Granger, said recently at the University of Guyana.
While officials in Georgetown quickly disavowed Mangal, his comments were hard to ignore. With major oil set to flow as soon as 2020, authorities are bracing both for the shock of wealth and its attendant woes. The bounty will not come all at once: Exxon and other producers will use most of the early oil to pay down startup costs. But that will only delay the impact. “It’s like drinking from a fire hose right now,” Vincent Adams, a Guyanese engineer who recently retired from the U.S. Department of Energy, told me.
One of the biggest challenges is who will manage the gusher. Guyana is a nation of emigrants. Some 463,000 Guyanese, or 60 percent of its population, live abroad, and the outflow continues apace. What’s worse, the leavers have included roughly nine of every 10 graduates with higher education — energy experts and oil engineers among them — according to the World Bank. “The cream of the crop migrated,” said Adams. “In terms of local capacity, we are at a serious disadvantage.”
Guyana could attenuate the brain drain by reaching out to its diaspora. There are more than 100 reported expatriate organizations, and as a group overseas Guyanese consistently send more money back home than foreign investors plow into the economy every year, according to a recent study by Hisakhana Pahoona Corbin and Luis Eduardo Aragon of the Center for Advanced Amazonian Studies. “We have a repository of knowledge outside of Guyana which is amazing,” said Adams.
The government belatedly began to tap this talent pool, launching an official Guyana Diaspora Project in late 2012, but the effort has been criticized as timid. “In spite of this potential, few institutional arrangements have been put in place to better engage the diaspora or to unlock their potentials as an alternative for accelerating development,” Corbin and Aragon wrote last year.
Granted, Guyana will have some help. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is counseling officials on how to avert corruption. Multilateral lenders are training Guyanese to develop an investment plan and mitigate the fiscal risk of the oil boom. “The sudden inflow of wealth could become a tsunami, and if it’s not managed well, could leave a dire situation,” Ramon Espinasa, general coordinator of the Extractive Sector Initiative at the Inter-American Development Bank, said in an interview.
Big Oil also knows the stakes. Despite the familiar criticisms — “Dem know wha Exxon do to govt all over de world,” one marquee local columnist warned in a mock patois — drillers have every reason to make sure their investment is safe.
The hardest part will be down to the host country, of course. “Until recently, small countries like ours were sheltered by benefactors in the east or west. Now the Berlin Wall is gone and the protectors have become our competitors, and we’re left to deal with the world markets,” said Adams.
That’s the challenge the country’s emigrants faced when they remade their careers abroad. Now Guyana must reach out to its diaspora ringers and bring that lesson home.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Mac Margolis at mmargolis14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.net
Guyana Is About to Open Up Pandora's Barrel
CGG Geoconsulting Reports First Discovery Of Live Oil Onshore Jamaica
CGG GeoConsulting and the Petroleum Corp. of Jamaica (PCJ) reported the discovery of two independent live oil seeps from different parts of the island of Jamaica on Feb. 20.
This significant find marks the first documented occurrence of ‘live’, or flowing, oil from onshore Jamaica and will be of particular interest to oil explorers focused on Central America and the Caribbean.
The oil seeps were found during fieldwork for a recently completed multiclient Robertson Study (Red Book) of the petroleum potential of on- and offshore Jamaica entitled “Petroleum Geological Evaluation of Jamaica” made jointly by CGG GeoConsulting and PCJ.
Subsequent detailed geochemical analyses confirmed the oil seeps originate from two separate cretaceous source rocks. These results are included within the study, which gives a detailed account of the petroleum geology of this frontier region of the Caribbean. It comprises over 1,300 new geochemical, biostratigraphic and sedimentological analyses of over 800 individual outcrop, well, corehole and seep samples collected from Jamaica.
Jamaica and its offshore basins remain relatively underexplored. Oil or gas shows have been seen in ten of the eleven exploration wells drilled to date. The discovery of these seeps indicates the presence of working petroleum systems on the island that are generating and expelling liquid hydrocarbons to the surface. The Robertson Study offers a valuable tool for oil explorers to quickly become familiar with the geology of Jamaica and is available for purchase from CGG.
CGG GeoConsulting and the Petroleum Corp. of Jamaica (PCJ) reported the discovery of two independent live oil seeps from different parts of the island of Jamaica on Feb. 20.
This significant find marks the first documented occurrence of ‘live’, or flowing, oil from onshore Jamaica and will be of particular interest to oil explorers focused on Central America and the Caribbean.
The oil seeps were found during fieldwork for a recently completed multiclient Robertson Study (Red Book) of the petroleum potential of on- and offshore Jamaica entitled “Petroleum Geological Evaluation of Jamaica” made jointly by CGG GeoConsulting and PCJ.
Subsequent detailed geochemical analyses confirmed the oil seeps originate from two separate cretaceous source rocks. These results are included within the study, which gives a detailed account of the petroleum geology of this frontier region of the Caribbean. It comprises over 1,300 new geochemical, biostratigraphic and sedimentological analyses of over 800 individual outcrop, well, corehole and seep samples collected from Jamaica.
Jamaica and its offshore basins remain relatively underexplored. Oil or gas shows have been seen in ten of the eleven exploration wells drilled to date. The discovery of these seeps indicates the presence of working petroleum systems on the island that are generating and expelling liquid hydrocarbons to the surface. The Robertson Study offers a valuable tool for oil explorers to quickly become familiar with the geology of Jamaica and is available for purchase from CGG.
Rex Tillerson was down there recently, probably talking about Venezuela.CGG Geoconsulting Reports First Discovery Of Live Oil Onshore Jamaica
CGG GeoConsulting and the Petroleum Corp. of Jamaica (PCJ) reported the discovery of two independent live oil seeps from different parts of the island of Jamaica on Feb. 20.
This significant find marks the first documented occurrence of ‘live’, or flowing, oil from onshore Jamaica and will be of particular interest to oil explorers focused on Central America and the Caribbean.
The oil seeps were found during fieldwork for a recently completed multiclient Robertson Study (Red Book) of the petroleum potential of on- and offshore Jamaica entitled “Petroleum Geological Evaluation of Jamaica” made jointly by CGG GeoConsulting and PCJ.
Subsequent detailed geochemical analyses confirmed the oil seeps originate from two separate cretaceous source rocks. These results are included within the study, which gives a detailed account of the petroleum geology of this frontier region of the Caribbean. It comprises over 1,300 new geochemical, biostratigraphic and sedimentological analyses of over 800 individual outcrop, well, corehole and seep samples collected from Jamaica.
Jamaica and its offshore basins remain relatively underexplored. Oil or gas shows have been seen in ten of the eleven exploration wells drilled to date. The discovery of these seeps indicates the presence of working petroleum systems on the island that are generating and expelling liquid hydrocarbons to the surface. The Robertson Study offers a valuable tool for oil explorers to quickly become familiar with the geology of Jamaica and is available for purchase from CGG.
Asif Ahmad, the high commissioner was talking about how Jamaican products so theycould "amplify" it out to the broader marker.
Not gonna lie, I didn't know they was looking at Ja like
just a little though, right?
If Jamaican politicians get their hands on oilRex Tillerson was down there recently, probably talking about Venezuela.
Asif Ahmad, the high commissioner was talking about how Jamaican products so theycould "amplify" it out to the broader marker.
Not gonna lie, I didn't know they was looking at Ja like
just a little though, right?
Both China and the US are looking at Jamaica like
Racism and February's earthquakes
The effects of the earhquakes on the Afro-Mexican communities of Oaxaca do nothing but add to the effects of racism which for centuries has fed relations of inequality
By Cristina Masferrer Leon
February 23 2018 | 02:03
"There was no damage", repeated several media outlets early on the morning of February 19. A lot of people on the capital believed it without asking how true it was. Soon it became known that it had been a M 6.0 earthquake with its epicenter being the coast of Oaxaca, but as a lot of people in Mexico City did not even feel the Earth's movement, it was easy to overcome the fright and go back to sleep thinking everything was ok.
The reality of Afro-Mexican and Mixtec communities in the epicenter was another. Since February 16 a lot of houses made of reed, tile, adobe and cement along the region of the coast were brought down or severely damaged; a lot of fences fell off, bathrooms and classrooms became unusable; churches and other monuments cracked; there were landslides on highways and roads; health centers and hospitals ran the risk of collapsing. The fissures that began to take form in the buildings with other earthquakes were now much more notable and fearsome.
In Santa María Huazolotitlán, in the coast of Oaxaca, not only was the February 19 quake strongly felt, it also caused damage because a lot of the constructions that were still up were brought to the ground; said mister Luis Ibarra, in charge of the community radio station in Huazolotitlán, who also ensures the February 19 quake was felt just as strong as the February 16 one. The nightmare that starded on Friday afternoon had repeated itself on Monday in the early hours of the morning.
The epicenter of the February 16 earthquake, M 7.2, was identified a few kilometers from Pinotepa Nacional, but according to some sources, the first station to detect the movement was the one in Santa María Huazolotitlán. According to the Intercensal Estimate carried out by INEGI in 2015, Huazolotitlán has a little more than eleven thousand inhabitants, of which 49.5% recognize themselves as black or Afro-Mexicans, 45.3% describe themselves as indigenous and 30.9% of inhabitants older than 5 years old speak some indigenous language.
The Costa Chica of Oaxaca and Guerrero is the region with the highest concentration of Afro-Mexican or black people, who for five centuries have lived with indigenous populations such as the Mixtec, the Amuzgo, the Tlapanec and the Chatino, among others. Together, the indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities have built what is now Mexico, contributing in economic, social, cultural and political terms. Nonetheless, they also face unequal conditions that are the product of historical racist and discriminatory relationships, a situation the February earthquakes have aggravated.
Today there is a state of emergency in Huazolotitlán and other cities in the coast of Oaxaca with an Afro-Mexican and indigenous presence, because due to the quakes, men and women of all ages are now sleeping in the open. Due to the humidity of the region, they face getting sick from sleeping outdoors, besides, the large amount of mosquitoes could eventually trigger dengue, chikungunya or zika epidemics, a situation that should be avoided as in past years these diseases caused severe health problems that persist to this day (because some of them are chronic) plus there were people who died due to complications derived from these conditions.
Therefore, it is urgent that these people receive the necessary support while they manage to rebuild their homes, which certainly should be done before the rainy season starts and the end of the election campaign period. The first, given the certainty that heavy rainfall will worsen the already complicated situation of families that have lost their homes; and the second, given the suspicion that political parties are more interested in supporting them before the elections than after them.
The February earthquakes rocked the coast of Oaxaca, but the effects that they caused on the Afro-Mexican communities of the region do nothing but add to the effects of racism which for centuries has fed relations of inequality. The same racism that sometimes prevents authorities from understanding the importance of taking action in their favor. The damages observed today are not only due to tectonic plates, they are also a consequence of the articulation of systems of inequality, oppression, discrimination and racism, because at least some of them could have been avoided if public policies had been generated and carried out in accordance with the constitutional recognitions of the indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities of Oaxaca, achieved twenty years ago (1998) and extended five years ago (2013), actions that would also be congruent with international agreements such as the International Convention on All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which has been mandatory for Mexico since 1975 and has constitutional status since 2011. What other reason, if not racism, may be behind so many omissions in matters of public policy in relation to the indigenous and Afro-Mexican populations of Oaxaca?
Professor - Researcher at the Department of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (DEAS-INAH)
Racism and February's earthquakes
The effects of the earhquakes on the Afro-Mexican communities of Oaxaca do nothing but add to the effects of racism which for centuries has fed relations of inequality
By Cristina Masferrer Leon
February 23 2018 | 02:03
"There was no damage", repeated several media outlets early on the morning of February 19. A lot of people on the capital believed it without asking how true it was. Soon it became known that it had been a M 6.0 earthquake with its epicenter being the coast of Oaxaca, but as a lot of people in Mexico City did not even feel the Earth's movement, it was easy to overcome the fright and go back to sleep thinking everything was ok.
The reality of Afro-Mexican and Mixtec communities in the epicenter was another. Since February 16 a lot of houses made of reed, tile, adobe and cement along the region of the coast were brought down or severely damaged; a lot of fences fell off, bathrooms and classrooms became unusable; churches and other monuments cracked; there were landslides on highways and roads; health centers and hospitals ran the risk of collapsing. The fissures that began to take form in the buildings with other earthquakes were now much more notable and fearsome.
In Santa María Huazolotitlán, in the coast of Oaxaca, not only was the February 19 quake strongly felt, it also caused damage because a lot of the constructions that were still up were brought to the ground; said mister Luis Ibarra, in charge of the community radio station in Huazolotitlán, who also ensures the February 19 quake was felt just as strong as the February 16 one. The nightmare that starded on Friday afternoon had repeated itself on Monday in the early hours of the morning.
The epicenter of the February 16 earthquake, M 7.2, was identified a few kilometers from Pinotepa Nacional, but according to some sources, the first station to detect the movement was the one in Santa María Huazolotitlán. According to the Intercensal Estimate carried out by INEGI in 2015, Huazolotitlán has a little more than eleven thousand inhabitants, of which 49.5% recognize themselves as black or Afro-Mexicans, 45.3% describe themselves as indigenous and 30.9% of inhabitants older than 5 years old speak some indigenous language.
The Costa Chica of Oaxaca and Guerrero is the region with the highest concentration of Afro-Mexican or black people, who for five centuries have lived with indigenous populations such as the Mixtec, the Amuzgo, the Tlapanec and the Chatino, among others. Together, the indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities have built what is now Mexico, contributing in economic, social, cultural and political terms. Nonetheless, they also face unequal conditions that are the product of historical racist and discriminatory relationships, a situation the February earthquakes have aggravated.
Today there is a state of emergency in Huazolotitlán and other cities in the coast of Oaxaca with an Afro-Mexican and indigenous presence, because due to the quakes, men and women of all ages are now sleeping in the open. Due to the humidity of the region, they face getting sick from sleeping outdoors, besides, the large amount of mosquitoes could eventually trigger dengue, chikungunya or zika epidemics, a situation that should be avoided as in past years these diseases caused severe health problems that persist to this day (because some of them are chronic) plus there were people who died due to complications derived from these conditions.
Therefore, it is urgent that these people receive the necessary support while they manage to rebuild their homes, which certainly should be done before the rainy season starts and the end of the election campaign period. The first, given the certainty that heavy rainfall will worsen the already complicated situation of families that have lost their homes; and the second, given the suspicion that political parties are more interested in supporting them before the elections than after them.
The February earthquakes rocked the coast of Oaxaca, but the effects that they caused on the Afro-Mexican communities of the region do nothing but add to the effects of racism which for centuries has fed relations of inequality. The same racism that sometimes prevents authorities from understanding the importance of taking action in their favor. The damages observed today are not only due to tectonic plates, they are also a consequence of the articulation of systems of inequality, oppression, discrimination and racism, because at least some of them could have been avoided if public policies had been generated and carried out in accordance with the constitutional recognitions of the indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities of Oaxaca, achieved twenty years ago (1998) and extended five years ago (2013), actions that would also be congruent with international agreements such as the International Convention on All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which has been mandatory for Mexico since 1975 and has constitutional status since 2011. What other reason, if not racism, may be behind so many omissions in matters of public policy in relation to the indigenous and Afro-Mexican populations of Oaxaca?
Professor - Researcher at the Department of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (DEAS-INAH)
Racism and February's earthquakes
might be some religious connection with the music (:
Palo (religion) - Wikipedia
María Lionza - Wikipedia
Venezuela has its own diasporic religions and Santeria and Palo have become very popular in the last 20 years in Venezuela.
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I think the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean should be one country 
only detriment would be UN representation
and people from poorer countries would move to the richer islands but this is already happening anyway
only detriment would be UN representation
and people from poorer countries would move to the richer islands but this is already happening anyway
WHO IS EPSY CAMPBELL BARR? COSTA RICA ELECTS FIRST BLACK FEMALE VICE PRESIDENT IN THE AMERICAS
BY ROBERT VALENCIA ON 4/2/18 AT 4:54 PM
Carlos Alvarado won Costa Rica's presidential election Sunday by a large margin against evangelical singer Fabricio Alvarado (no relation), who ran an anti-same-sex-marriage campaign. But equally important was the election of Alvarado’s running mate, Epsy Campbell Barr, as the first black female vice president in the Americas.
She will join the ranks of such other trailblazers as Victoria Garrón, the country’s first female vice president (1986-90); Thelma Curling, the first Afro-Costa Rican legislator (1982-86); and Laura Chinchilla, who became the first female president in the Central American nation (2010-14).
“It will be a responsibility not only to represent people of African descent but to represent all women and men in the country, a country that gives us all the same opportunities,” Campbell Barr told website CRHoy. “It would not be the first only in Costa Rica but in Latin America. And eventually, if the president leaves the country, [I would be] the first woman of African descent to assume the presidency of the entire American continent. It’s a big responsibility.”
According to local reports, Campbell Barr is an economist who helped found the ruling Citizens' Action Party in 2000. She was named "Epsy" after her paternal grandmother, who hailed from Jamaica. Campbell Barr, 54, was born in Costa Rica’s capital city of San José on July 4, 1963. She’s the fourth child in a family of two sons and two daughters.
The vice president-elect has published books and articles on economic participation, democracy, sexism, racism and people of African descent, among other topics. She has also remained active in Afro-Caribbean affairs and in 1996 founded the Women’s Forum of Central American Integration, an initiative she coordinated until 2001. The mother of two daughters, Campbell Barr received a master’s in international cooperation and development and advanced management techniques and political decision.
The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States, led by former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana, lauded Costa Rica’s electoral process. “The Mission appreciated the early recognition of the electoral results by the candidate Fabricio Alvarado and highlighted the display of political maturity from both contenders once the preliminary results of the second presidential round were announced,” the organization said in a statement.
“[The Mission] congratulated President-elect Carlos Alvarado for his victory in the elections on April 1st, and the people of Costa Rica for their civic spirit demonstrated during the election day,” the statement added.
Who Is Epsy Campbell Barr? Costa Rica elects first black female vice president in the Americas
BY ROBERT VALENCIA ON 4/2/18 AT 4:54 PM
Carlos Alvarado won Costa Rica's presidential election Sunday by a large margin against evangelical singer Fabricio Alvarado (no relation), who ran an anti-same-sex-marriage campaign. But equally important was the election of Alvarado’s running mate, Epsy Campbell Barr, as the first black female vice president in the Americas.
She will join the ranks of such other trailblazers as Victoria Garrón, the country’s first female vice president (1986-90); Thelma Curling, the first Afro-Costa Rican legislator (1982-86); and Laura Chinchilla, who became the first female president in the Central American nation (2010-14).
“It will be a responsibility not only to represent people of African descent but to represent all women and men in the country, a country that gives us all the same opportunities,” Campbell Barr told website CRHoy. “It would not be the first only in Costa Rica but in Latin America. And eventually, if the president leaves the country, [I would be] the first woman of African descent to assume the presidency of the entire American continent. It’s a big responsibility.”
According to local reports, Campbell Barr is an economist who helped found the ruling Citizens' Action Party in 2000. She was named "Epsy" after her paternal grandmother, who hailed from Jamaica. Campbell Barr, 54, was born in Costa Rica’s capital city of San José on July 4, 1963. She’s the fourth child in a family of two sons and two daughters.
The vice president-elect has published books and articles on economic participation, democracy, sexism, racism and people of African descent, among other topics. She has also remained active in Afro-Caribbean affairs and in 1996 founded the Women’s Forum of Central American Integration, an initiative she coordinated until 2001. The mother of two daughters, Campbell Barr received a master’s in international cooperation and development and advanced management techniques and political decision.
The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States, led by former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana, lauded Costa Rica’s electoral process. “The Mission appreciated the early recognition of the electoral results by the candidate Fabricio Alvarado and highlighted the display of political maturity from both contenders once the preliminary results of the second presidential round were announced,” the organization said in a statement.
“[The Mission] congratulated President-elect Carlos Alvarado for his victory in the elections on April 1st, and the people of Costa Rica for their civic spirit demonstrated during the election day,” the statement added.
Who Is Epsy Campbell Barr? Costa Rica elects first black female vice president in the Americas
a lot of these Jamaican women be popping up.AfroSalud: a "reparatory tool" or "greater stigmatization"
8/04/2018 11:31
The Intendancy of Montevideo defended in the Parliament the installation of a health service destined for the Afrodescendant population.
Last week the Human Rights Commission of Deputies was the scene of a debate about the Intendancy of Montevideo's decision to implement the AfroSalud service. An initiative that has been proposed by the community to ensure better access to health for the Afrodescendant population, but which has been questioned by the National Party deputy Goria Rodríguez (Herrerism).
The Afro-Uruguayan legislator stated that the polyclinic, installed in the Barrio Sur neighborhood and that will exclusively serve members of this collective, will generate discrimination and greater segregation, of which she directly accused the capital authorities, who rejected such claims.
Elizabeth Suárez, Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat of Ethnic-Racial and Migrant Populations of the city, described the program as an affirmative action.
"The Afrodescendant collective that lives in our country is one of the populations with the most afflictions, the worst living conditions and a long history of violated human rights, with effects that have left a heavy legacy in the medium and long terms", she said.
In this regard, she stressed that they constitute 10.6% of the country's population and it can be said 80% are below the poverty line. "This is reflected in a greater lag and dropout at the educational level, and has a direct correlation in the labor system, where they are generally noticed working in low-skilled and lower paying jobs, without social security coverage and greater unemployment", stated the coordinator who is also of African descent.
"Racism and racial discrimination expose people of African descent to violent situations that are naturalized, such as the fact that this group often lives in unhealthy conditions and environments, which generate much more stress, as well as diseases linked to anxiety, depression, diabetes and cholesterol", she said.
In this sense, she spoke about sickle-cell anemia, a blood disorder that affects the haemoglobin and has its origins in Africa, developing as an adaptive response to malaria and prevalent in the Afrodescendant population, with approximately one out of 380 persons from this collective being affected by it.
"It is estimated that the real number is higher, but statistical invisibility and the absence of a culture that integrates the ethnic-racial dimension prevent the possibility of knowing the figure", she noted.
Suárez argued that discrimination is a social factor that foments health disparities among the population, hindering the access of those in need to health services, allowing poor quality services and preventing them from receiving adequate information for decision-making.
"It has been shown that there are important differences in the health status of the population following distinct socioeconomic, demographic, geographic, ethnic or gender attributes", she said.
The coordinator ensured that Plan AfroSalud is particularly important for the Afrodescendant population. "It recognizes our rights and it is a reparatory and compensatory tool of institutional racism, which has historically been a determinant of our situation", she said.
The aim of this plan is to reduce the gap in the comprehensive development of historically vulnerable groups, using strategies that favor and increase equity in the health field, argued the member of the Division of Health of the Intendancy, Analice Berón.
She explained that it is about implementing a service based on high-quality comprehensive care, which incorporates as a central aspect the cultural, ethnic and racial diversity of its users into the framework of the National Integrated Health System.
Furthermore, more in-depth research on prevalent illnesses among the Afrodescendant population is also proposed. It will be through a chromatograph donated by the Japanese Embassy.
An ideological issue
In turn, the director of Social Development of the Intendancy, Fabiana Goyeneche, raised her concern about the allegations made by deputy Rodríguez.
"We are worried, because these declarations seemed like a very sensitive accusation to us", she said. "The principle of equality rules over every public policy defined and carried out by the Intendancy of Montevideo", said the director.
Goyeneche raised before the lawmakers a "humble but firm" request. She asked that, if there was a person in the commission who felt that this program discriminates or does not respect human rights, that he or she makes the corresponding report to the competent bodies.
"As head of the Department of Social Development I already affirm my commitment to comply with all the measures and recommendations that could be made to resolve any situation of discrimination that may be indicated", she ensured.
Rodríguez took the challenge and asked why the Intendancy decided to implement this program within its sphere of influence instead of supporting a nationwide attention. She also asked what are the objectives installing a polyclinic for an ethnic-racial collective.
The National Party deputy questioned the criteria for assuming what Barrio Sur meant "simbolically" for Afro-Uruguayans and installing the health care center there, being that only 13% of Afrodescendants live in the area, who have a majority presence on the outskirts of Montevideo.
She also asked about whether they thought if calling it "AfroSalud" was a form of discrimination.
Regarding whether Barrio Sur was the best enclave, Berón replied that "it was nothing more than a tribute" but the recruitment will be in all polyclinics.
The director of the Division of Health stated that not only cases of sickle-cell anemia will be treated but all deseases prevalent in the Afrodescendant population.
For example hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, which in this collective appear at a younger age.
Goyeneche, on the other hand, considered on a personal level that this topic is deeply ideological. "The fight against racism is ideological, as is racism itself. It is not a partisan issue", she added.
AfroSalud: a "reparatory tool" or "greater stigmatization"
8/04/2018 11:31
The Intendancy of Montevideo defended in the Parliament the installation of a health service destined for the Afrodescendant population.
Last week the Human Rights Commission of Deputies was the scene of a debate about the Intendancy of Montevideo's decision to implement the AfroSalud service. An initiative that has been proposed by the community to ensure better access to health for the Afrodescendant population, but which has been questioned by the National Party deputy Goria Rodríguez (Herrerism).
The Afro-Uruguayan legislator stated that the polyclinic, installed in the Barrio Sur neighborhood and that will exclusively serve members of this collective, will generate discrimination and greater segregation, of which she directly accused the capital authorities, who rejected such claims.
Elizabeth Suárez, Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat of Ethnic-Racial and Migrant Populations of the city, described the program as an affirmative action.
"The Afrodescendant collective that lives in our country is one of the populations with the most afflictions, the worst living conditions and a long history of violated human rights, with effects that have left a heavy legacy in the medium and long terms", she said.
In this regard, she stressed that they constitute 10.6% of the country's population and it can be said 80% are below the poverty line. "This is reflected in a greater lag and dropout at the educational level, and has a direct correlation in the labor system, where they are generally noticed working in low-skilled and lower paying jobs, without social security coverage and greater unemployment", stated the coordinator who is also of African descent.
"Racism and racial discrimination expose people of African descent to violent situations that are naturalized, such as the fact that this group often lives in unhealthy conditions and environments, which generate much more stress, as well as diseases linked to anxiety, depression, diabetes and cholesterol", she said.
In this sense, she spoke about sickle-cell anemia, a blood disorder that affects the haemoglobin and has its origins in Africa, developing as an adaptive response to malaria and prevalent in the Afrodescendant population, with approximately one out of 380 persons from this collective being affected by it.
"It is estimated that the real number is higher, but statistical invisibility and the absence of a culture that integrates the ethnic-racial dimension prevent the possibility of knowing the figure", she noted.
Suárez argued that discrimination is a social factor that foments health disparities among the population, hindering the access of those in need to health services, allowing poor quality services and preventing them from receiving adequate information for decision-making.
"It has been shown that there are important differences in the health status of the population following distinct socioeconomic, demographic, geographic, ethnic or gender attributes", she said.
The coordinator ensured that Plan AfroSalud is particularly important for the Afrodescendant population. "It recognizes our rights and it is a reparatory and compensatory tool of institutional racism, which has historically been a determinant of our situation", she said.
The aim of this plan is to reduce the gap in the comprehensive development of historically vulnerable groups, using strategies that favor and increase equity in the health field, argued the member of the Division of Health of the Intendancy, Analice Berón.
She explained that it is about implementing a service based on high-quality comprehensive care, which incorporates as a central aspect the cultural, ethnic and racial diversity of its users into the framework of the National Integrated Health System.
Furthermore, more in-depth research on prevalent illnesses among the Afrodescendant population is also proposed. It will be through a chromatograph donated by the Japanese Embassy.
An ideological issue
In turn, the director of Social Development of the Intendancy, Fabiana Goyeneche, raised her concern about the allegations made by deputy Rodríguez.
"We are worried, because these declarations seemed like a very sensitive accusation to us", she said. "The principle of equality rules over every public policy defined and carried out by the Intendancy of Montevideo", said the director.
Goyeneche raised before the lawmakers a "humble but firm" request. She asked that, if there was a person in the commission who felt that this program discriminates or does not respect human rights, that he or she makes the corresponding report to the competent bodies.
"As head of the Department of Social Development I already affirm my commitment to comply with all the measures and recommendations that could be made to resolve any situation of discrimination that may be indicated", she ensured.
Rodríguez took the challenge and asked why the Intendancy decided to implement this program within its sphere of influence instead of supporting a nationwide attention. She also asked what are the objectives installing a polyclinic for an ethnic-racial collective.
The National Party deputy questioned the criteria for assuming what Barrio Sur meant "simbolically" for Afro-Uruguayans and installing the health care center there, being that only 13% of Afrodescendants live in the area, who have a majority presence on the outskirts of Montevideo.
She also asked about whether they thought if calling it "AfroSalud" was a form of discrimination.
Regarding whether Barrio Sur was the best enclave, Berón replied that "it was nothing more than a tribute" but the recruitment will be in all polyclinics.
The director of the Division of Health stated that not only cases of sickle-cell anemia will be treated but all deseases prevalent in the Afrodescendant population.
For example hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, which in this collective appear at a younger age.
Goyeneche, on the other hand, considered on a personal level that this topic is deeply ideological. "The fight against racism is ideological, as is racism itself. It is not a partisan issue", she added.
AfroSalud: a "reparatory tool" or "greater stigmatization"
After receiving death threats, Niterói city councilor says she won't back down
by Tatiana Merlino — published 14/04/2018 00h10, updated 13/04/2018 16h23
Talíria Petrone (Socialism and Liberty Party — PSOL) is a black human rights activist. A friend of Marielle Franco, assassinated a month ago, the councilor is facing persecution
City councilor Talíria Petrone is a victim of racist attacks and threats
"Filthy ******", "go back to the slave quarters", "in my opinion, she needs to be exterminated", "this one deserves a 9mm to the head". These are a few examples of the racist attacks and threats on social media Talíria Petrone (Socialism and Liberty Party — PSOL), a city councillor from Niterói, is receiving since she took one of the seats of the Municipal Chamber of the Greater Rio de Janeiro city.
In fact, the persecution started with the campaign, which had the slogan "For a black, popular and feminist Niterói", but the tone was raised when she was elected with the highest vote total of the 2016 election, becoming the most voted woman of the Municipal Chamber of Niterói of all time, with 5,121 votes.
A friend, party and militancy colleague of Marielle Franco, fatally shot in the head four times on March 14, 2018 along with her driver Anderson Gomes, Talíria is also a black feminist and acts in the denouncing of police brutality. Unlike her late friend, whom was never threatened, Talíria suffers from attacks which have not ceased since Marielle's death a month ago.
At the beginning of 2017, the party's headquarters in Niterói was invaded by an armed man who was looking for the councillor. Graffiti is so common that the party's employees keep cans of paint to erase the offensive messages.
On November 14, four months before Marielle's assassination, the threats reached their peak. "I want the phone number of the bytch the people elected", a man said on a call to PSOL's headquarters in Niterói, referring to Talíria. He also said he would blow up one of the meetings in which she would be present. "He systematically called from 10 in the morning to 7 in the evening wanting my phone number, saying he was going to kill me, blow me up", remembers Talíria in an interview with CartaCapital.
PSOL filed a complaint on the 76 precint of Niterói and at the end of March the Civil Police identified and questioned the man who threatened the councilwoman. His name was not disclosed, but the police confirmed that he admitted to making the threats for "political reasons".
"In his statement, this man said he did this because he was angry after seeing a comment on [councilman Carlos] Jordy's page and decided to call. This makes it clear how there is a sector in politics which defends hatred and violence", states Talíria.
Jordy, a city councilor for the Social Christian Party (PSC), is an ally of federal deputy Jair Bolsonaro (Social Liberal Party — PSL/RJ). According to her, "the problem is not this man himself, but an organized sector that, through public figures, uses the parliament to incite and reaffirm hatred".
Next one to die
The persecution continues. After Marielle's death, there were videos of Talíria shared accompained by comments such as "one advocate for thugs has already been killed, this one is the next one to die".
In the video, the councilwoman speaks at the Municipal Chamber of Niterói about an Army and Civil Police operation in Complexo do Salgueiro, a favela in São Gonçalo, a city neighbouring Niterói, carried out last November and which resulted in the death of 8 people.
Talíria called the episode a "massacre", asked for a moment of silence for the victims and defended a new model of public security. City councilor Carlos Jordy immediately rebutted Talíria's declarations and accused her of being a "defender of thugs".
On Youtube, there are several videos with excerpts from Talíria and Jordy's speeches and violent messages and threats directed to the councilwoman. One of the channels that has been advertising such videos is called Jordy Opressor, with a Facebook page and Youtube profile where the councilman is presented as a "child of Bolsonaro" and where Talíria is mentioned in an aggressive manner. "We have filed a formal complaint against these cases", states the councilwoman.
The politician receives several complaints regarding police brutality through the Commission on Human Rights of the Chamber of Niterói, which she presides. She tells us that she recently took the case of two women who were assaulted by the Civil Police. "They were punched and kicked. And, during the aggressions, the police officers shouted out "Go, Mariola, go call Freixo", a reference to Marielle and Marcelo Freixo, a state deputy for the same party. These are the kind of cases we receive in the comission. We have a lot of fighting to do", she says.
Gender and police brutality
There are two topics that provoke the most hateful reactions in Niterói, explains the politician. "Gender discussion and police brutality". Regarding debates about gender, she cites as an example the approval of an amendment of the Municipal Plan of Education, which forbids the use of any ludic or didactic material that addresses the issues of gender, diversity and sexual orientation in public and private schools.
PSOL is studying ways of precaution and security for the councilor, but she does not intend to back down. "After Marielle's death, we have been more concerned with security, of course. On the other hand, however, they tried to silence her because of the agendas she pushed. So now more than ever, I will not back down. Now my sense of urgency is stronger than it has ever been. I am feeling a lot of pain, a pain that will never go away, but it is a pain that is turning into a struggle. Whoever killed her tried to send a message, but they failed. We will not stop, we will continue the resistance and radicality", she said.
The daughter of a woman who works as a teacher and a man who's a plastic artist, a singer and songwriter, the politician was born and raised in a working class neighborhood on the North Zone of Niterói. She and her siblings studied with a scholarship at a middle class private school where their mother taught at, where Talíria lived the reality of racial inequality. "The treatment was different, it was evident we were the children of an employee".
Popular education
She studied History at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) and was even a volleyball player, but: "I dropped everything to be a teacher". She taught at poor neighborhoods and in Maré, where she met Marielle. It was in the classrooms, through popular education, where Talíria started to "feel and understand the world's inequalities".
Then came the antiracism and feminism flags. In the process of struggle, she started to recognize the racism present in her history: "it was a powerful but tough process: I remembered the experience of interactions with boys, for instance, who were always just friends and never boyfriends, and even interactions within my family".
Within PSOL, where she's a militant since 2011, she would participate in the discussion about the low level of representation of women — especially black women — in institutional spaces, in addition to the importance of building female public figures. "The left-wing parties are still very masculine. And, as a black woman, I was even more of a minority". The candidatures of Marielle and Talíria came to occupy this space, "so we could be the spokespersons of a sector which did not have a space in politics".
Day by day, the two councilwomen shared the challenges of being black women in the Municipal Chamber. "We would talk to each other everyday, one supported the other. She was the person with whom I would share my problems, we would help each other, we would strengthen each other.
She was the only councilwoman with whom I could share and comprehend what it means to be a woman in this space. It is being very hard to keep on without her". Because of this, she says, "we must have the sense of responsibility to continue on her behalf. Before it was for Amarildo, Claudia, DG, Dandara. Now it is also for Marielle".
After receiving death threats, Niterói city councilor says she won't back down
by Tatiana Merlino — published 14/04/2018 00h10, updated 13/04/2018 16h23
Talíria Petrone (Socialism and Liberty Party — PSOL) is a black human rights activist. A friend of Marielle Franco, assassinated a month ago, the councilor is facing persecution
City councilor Talíria Petrone is a victim of racist attacks and threats
"Filthy ******", "go back to the slave quarters", "in my opinion, she needs to be exterminated", "this one deserves a 9mm to the head". These are a few examples of the racist attacks and threats on social media Talíria Petrone (Socialism and Liberty Party — PSOL), a city councillor from Niterói, is receiving since she took one of the seats of the Municipal Chamber of the Greater Rio de Janeiro city.
In fact, the persecution started with the campaign, which had the slogan "For a black, popular and feminist Niterói", but the tone was raised when she was elected with the highest vote total of the 2016 election, becoming the most voted woman of the Municipal Chamber of Niterói of all time, with 5,121 votes.
A friend, party and militancy colleague of Marielle Franco, fatally shot in the head four times on March 14, 2018 along with her driver Anderson Gomes, Talíria is also a black feminist and acts in the denouncing of police brutality. Unlike her late friend, whom was never threatened, Talíria suffers from attacks which have not ceased since Marielle's death a month ago.
At the beginning of 2017, the party's headquarters in Niterói was invaded by an armed man who was looking for the councillor. Graffiti is so common that the party's employees keep cans of paint to erase the offensive messages.
On November 14, four months before Marielle's assassination, the threats reached their peak. "I want the phone number of the bytch the people elected", a man said on a call to PSOL's headquarters in Niterói, referring to Talíria. He also said he would blow up one of the meetings in which she would be present. "He systematically called from 10 in the morning to 7 in the evening wanting my phone number, saying he was going to kill me, blow me up", remembers Talíria in an interview with CartaCapital.
PSOL filed a complaint on the 76 precint of Niterói and at the end of March the Civil Police identified and questioned the man who threatened the councilwoman. His name was not disclosed, but the police confirmed that he admitted to making the threats for "political reasons".
"In his statement, this man said he did this because he was angry after seeing a comment on [councilman Carlos] Jordy's page and decided to call. This makes it clear how there is a sector in politics which defends hatred and violence", states Talíria.
Jordy, a city councilor for the Social Christian Party (PSC), is an ally of federal deputy Jair Bolsonaro (Social Liberal Party — PSL/RJ). According to her, "the problem is not this man himself, but an organized sector that, through public figures, uses the parliament to incite and reaffirm hatred".
Next one to die
The persecution continues. After Marielle's death, there were videos of Talíria shared accompained by comments such as "one advocate for thugs has already been killed, this one is the next one to die".
In the video, the councilwoman speaks at the Municipal Chamber of Niterói about an Army and Civil Police operation in Complexo do Salgueiro, a favela in São Gonçalo, a city neighbouring Niterói, carried out last November and which resulted in the death of 8 people.
Talíria called the episode a "massacre", asked for a moment of silence for the victims and defended a new model of public security. City councilor Carlos Jordy immediately rebutted Talíria's declarations and accused her of being a "defender of thugs".
On Youtube, there are several videos with excerpts from Talíria and Jordy's speeches and violent messages and threats directed to the councilwoman. One of the channels that has been advertising such videos is called Jordy Opressor, with a Facebook page and Youtube profile where the councilman is presented as a "child of Bolsonaro" and where Talíria is mentioned in an aggressive manner. "We have filed a formal complaint against these cases", states the councilwoman.
The politician receives several complaints regarding police brutality through the Commission on Human Rights of the Chamber of Niterói, which she presides. She tells us that she recently took the case of two women who were assaulted by the Civil Police. "They were punched and kicked. And, during the aggressions, the police officers shouted out "Go, Mariola, go call Freixo", a reference to Marielle and Marcelo Freixo, a state deputy for the same party. These are the kind of cases we receive in the comission. We have a lot of fighting to do", she says.
Gender and police brutality
There are two topics that provoke the most hateful reactions in Niterói, explains the politician. "Gender discussion and police brutality". Regarding debates about gender, she cites as an example the approval of an amendment of the Municipal Plan of Education, which forbids the use of any ludic or didactic material that addresses the issues of gender, diversity and sexual orientation in public and private schools.
PSOL is studying ways of precaution and security for the councilor, but she does not intend to back down. "After Marielle's death, we have been more concerned with security, of course. On the other hand, however, they tried to silence her because of the agendas she pushed. So now more than ever, I will not back down. Now my sense of urgency is stronger than it has ever been. I am feeling a lot of pain, a pain that will never go away, but it is a pain that is turning into a struggle. Whoever killed her tried to send a message, but they failed. We will not stop, we will continue the resistance and radicality", she said.
The daughter of a woman who works as a teacher and a man who's a plastic artist, a singer and songwriter, the politician was born and raised in a working class neighborhood on the North Zone of Niterói. She and her siblings studied with a scholarship at a middle class private school where their mother taught at, where Talíria lived the reality of racial inequality. "The treatment was different, it was evident we were the children of an employee".
Popular education
She studied History at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) and was even a volleyball player, but: "I dropped everything to be a teacher". She taught at poor neighborhoods and in Maré, where she met Marielle. It was in the classrooms, through popular education, where Talíria started to "feel and understand the world's inequalities".
Then came the antiracism and feminism flags. In the process of struggle, she started to recognize the racism present in her history: "it was a powerful but tough process: I remembered the experience of interactions with boys, for instance, who were always just friends and never boyfriends, and even interactions within my family".
Within PSOL, where she's a militant since 2011, she would participate in the discussion about the low level of representation of women — especially black women — in institutional spaces, in addition to the importance of building female public figures. "The left-wing parties are still very masculine. And, as a black woman, I was even more of a minority". The candidatures of Marielle and Talíria came to occupy this space, "so we could be the spokespersons of a sector which did not have a space in politics".
Day by day, the two councilwomen shared the challenges of being black women in the Municipal Chamber. "We would talk to each other everyday, one supported the other. She was the person with whom I would share my problems, we would help each other, we would strengthen each other.
She was the only councilwoman with whom I could share and comprehend what it means to be a woman in this space. It is being very hard to keep on without her". Because of this, she says, "we must have the sense of responsibility to continue on her behalf. Before it was for Amarildo, Claudia, DG, Dandara. Now it is also for Marielle".
After receiving death threats, Niterói city councilor says she won't back down