By Elizabeth Briggs
Research Associate at Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Guyana’s historical ethnic tension between the Indo-Guyanese and the Afro-Guyanese communities is routinely manifested in the political life of the small South American country. In Guyana, the larger Indo-Guyanese segment of the population favors the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C), while Afro-Guyanese largely support the coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which was formed in 2011 primarily by the People’s National Congress, as well as the Alliance for Change. In the November 2011 elections, the PPP/C-backed candidate Donald Ramotar was declared the presidential victor, but his party lost its parliamentary majority by one seat for the first time since 1992, giving the opposition alliance of the APNU and the AFC a virtual veto power over the national agenda.
The current tensions between Guyana’s major two parties boiled over during July in the country’s second largest city, Linden, a traditional stronghold of Afro-Guyanese electoral strength and political muscle. On July 18, three Lindeners partaking in an allegedly APNU-supported demonstration were killed and dozens more were injured while protesting the government’s increase of electricity rates in the region. Resulting protests and acts of arson inflicted significant infrastructural damages on the city, including the burning of the One Mile Primary School.
The PPP/C pointed to the protestors, who they believe were incited by APNU agent provocateurs, for the damage. In turn, the APNU has accused the police force, acting under PPP/C influence, of being racially motivated. PPP/C defector Khemraj Ramjattan, now the leader of the opposition Alliance for Change, went as far as stating, “It is my firm view, I can’t prove it, but my firm opinion that there are state agents involved (in Linden) operating under the arrangements of some of the people in senior government offices that are creating these burnings. I cannot believe that Lindeners are going to burn a school that 800 students go to. It has to be state agents doing that. The PPP thrives on these situations and the situation has the capacity to bring back their supporters into their wagon and they want that to happen.”[i]
The state-run Guyana Chronicle fought back against these accusations with an editorial titled “Ramjattan has gone into pure, unadulterated evil,” which accused Mr Ramjattan of treason and adamantly denied any governmental involvement.[ii] Eusi Kwayana, himself a former member of the PPP/C in the 1960s, came out strongly against PPP/C actions in Linden, denouncing their one-party administration and accused the government of a “barefaced and cowardly attack” on critical journalist Freddie Kissoon.[iii]
On August 21 President Ramotar signed a pact with Linden leaders, finally bringing to an end the four weeks of chaos and negating the provocative rise in electricity costs for Lindeners. In response to a request from the Guyanese government that was also approved of by the APNU, a CARICOM committee consisting of Justice Lensley Wolfe, KD Knight of Jamaica, and Ms Dana Seetahal of Trinidad and Tobago will investigate the situation and is expected to announce its findings by the end of September.[iv] It is certain that the late President Cheddi Jagan would have just cause to weep for the rack and ruin of contemporary Guyanese politics gutting the nation’s political life.
Citations:
[i]“Ramjattan has gone into pure, unadulterated evil.”Guyana Chronicle, August 14, 2012. (accessed August 24, 2012).
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Kwayana, Eusi. “Letter to the Editor.” Kaieteur News, August 18, 2012. (accessed August 24, 2012).
[iv] CARICOM, “Statement by the Caribbean Community Secretariat on the Recommendation of Commissioners RE: Linden Inquiry.” Last modified August 20, 2012. Accessed August 24, 2012. .
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being "one of the nation's most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers." For more information, visit www.coha.org or email coha@coha.org
August 30, 2012
Caribbeannewsnow.com
An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
...the United States is accused of exacerbating The Bahamas' crime problem ...by dumping criminals in The Islands who are not Bahamians ...and should be sent elsewhere
FOREIGN CRIMINALS DUMPED HERE
By Korvell Pyfrom
The Bahama Journal
Nassau, The Bahamas
A former high ranking police officer has accused the United States of exacerbating this country’s crime problem by dumping criminals in The Bahamas who are not Bahamian and should be sent elsewhere.
In an exclusive interview with the Bahama Journal yesterday, former Deputy Commissioner of Police Paul Thompson raised concerns about an increasingly large percentage of the criminal population in The Bahamas that is not Bahamian.
Mr. Thompson, a 30-year Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) veteran, said that the situation is further complicated by the fact that the United States is deporting criminals to The Bahamas whom he says should be sent elsewhere.
Mr. Thompson said the Bahamian government should demand that the US stop sending criminals to The Bahamas who are not Bahamians.
“It appears that anyone picked up in the United States who came from The Bahamas – the person might have stowed away or something else, but as long as the Americans establish that the person came from here, they will send them here,” he said. “They could be Haitian, Jamaican or anything else. Their citizenship has not been established. If they came from here, they are sending them back here and this is something we need to ask the US to stop.”
“The [Bahamian] government should say to the US – stop sending these people to us who are not Bahamian; send them to their country.”
The former deputy commissioner of police reminded that this situation should highlight the importance of creating a proper immigration regime.
He also warned of the precarious position the country places itself in by not reforming its policies regarding processing illegal nationals.
“During the earthquake in Haiti 350 dangerous prisoners escaped – gunmen, rapists and political prisoners escaped. We do not have a fingerprint, a photograph or a name of any of them and we do not know who of them are here and these are things we have to fight,” he said.
Mr. Thompson also called on the government to hold off on its decision to repatriate those Haitian nationals apprehended at sea in waters off Mangrove Cay, Andros last week until first determining whether they were involved in human smuggling.
“At least with the foreigners we have that law deportation. We ask people to leave and put on stop list. This boat with these people in Andros, well that’s a big boat. The owners of the boat, the captain and crew we should seek them out and put them in jail. Those people should go to jail and the remainder of the boat should be seized.”
The vessel carrying nearly 200 Haitians ran aground Saturday from the effects of Tropical Storm Isaac.
Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell has confirmed to the Journal that while investigations in to the incident involving the Haitian nationals is underway, the government was moving forward with its decision to repatriate the 197 nationals to Haiti today.
29 August, 2012
The Bahama Journal
The Bahama Journal
Nassau, The Bahamas
A former high ranking police officer has accused the United States of exacerbating this country’s crime problem by dumping criminals in The Bahamas who are not Bahamian and should be sent elsewhere.
In an exclusive interview with the Bahama Journal yesterday, former Deputy Commissioner of Police Paul Thompson raised concerns about an increasingly large percentage of the criminal population in The Bahamas that is not Bahamian.
Mr. Thompson, a 30-year Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) veteran, said that the situation is further complicated by the fact that the United States is deporting criminals to The Bahamas whom he says should be sent elsewhere.
Mr. Thompson said the Bahamian government should demand that the US stop sending criminals to The Bahamas who are not Bahamians.
“It appears that anyone picked up in the United States who came from The Bahamas – the person might have stowed away or something else, but as long as the Americans establish that the person came from here, they will send them here,” he said. “They could be Haitian, Jamaican or anything else. Their citizenship has not been established. If they came from here, they are sending them back here and this is something we need to ask the US to stop.”
“The [Bahamian] government should say to the US – stop sending these people to us who are not Bahamian; send them to their country.”
The former deputy commissioner of police reminded that this situation should highlight the importance of creating a proper immigration regime.
He also warned of the precarious position the country places itself in by not reforming its policies regarding processing illegal nationals.
“During the earthquake in Haiti 350 dangerous prisoners escaped – gunmen, rapists and political prisoners escaped. We do not have a fingerprint, a photograph or a name of any of them and we do not know who of them are here and these are things we have to fight,” he said.
Mr. Thompson also called on the government to hold off on its decision to repatriate those Haitian nationals apprehended at sea in waters off Mangrove Cay, Andros last week until first determining whether they were involved in human smuggling.
“At least with the foreigners we have that law deportation. We ask people to leave and put on stop list. This boat with these people in Andros, well that’s a big boat. The owners of the boat, the captain and crew we should seek them out and put them in jail. Those people should go to jail and the remainder of the boat should be seized.”
The vessel carrying nearly 200 Haitians ran aground Saturday from the effects of Tropical Storm Isaac.
Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell has confirmed to the Journal that while investigations in to the incident involving the Haitian nationals is underway, the government was moving forward with its decision to repatriate the 197 nationals to Haiti today.
29 August, 2012
The Bahama Journal
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Haiti, its history, its culture and its people
By Jean H Charles
Its history
Haiti, previously called Ayiti by the Tainos who inhabited the island, was the most populous and the most organized of the chain of the territories of the Caribbean. Their days were changed on December 5, 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in a northern bay renamed Bay of St Nicholas because of the feast of St Nicholas on that day. The Tainos received the Spanish explorers with genuine hospitality, offering gold chains to the men. Columbus returned to Spain to inform Queen Isabella of his discovery, leaving behind a crew of sailors.
Yet, the gold exploration had to continue, and a priest by the name of Las Casas, under the pretext of protecting the Taino population from oblivion, obtained from the Queen of Spain, the authorization to grant the right for merchants to seek and bring Africans into the Western hemisphere to labour in the mines.
From 1503 to 1793, almost three hundred years, the black slaves toiled the land, producing sugar, cotton and cocoa that enriched principally the French colonists, who ruled the island with an iron fist.
It was as such until a Jamaican slave by the name of Bookman organized a voodoo ceremony in the northern part of St Domingue on August 14, 1791, to energize the slaves in revolting with the slogan: Better death than return to slavery!
The destruction of the plantations followed, but Bookman was seized and killed. Toussaint Breda, who became later Toussaint Louverture, continued the movement. A well educated and profoundly religious man, Toussaint was aware of the wind of human rights brought upon St Domingue first by the American Revolution in 1776 and later by the French Revolution in 1789.
Through several battles, he defeated first the British, later the Spanish and proposed a French Commonwealth to Napoleon Bonaparte, leading the destiny of the island with prosperity and hospitality for all. His reputation as a nation builder was sterling. Indeed the second president of the United States, John Adams, already trading with the governor of the country, was contemplating advising him to become king of the island.
Bonaparte responded with an armada supported by the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Through a ruse, where family affection was at the root, two sons of Toussaint were on the boat coming from France, and he was lured into the hands of Rochambeau, Bonaparte’s brother in law, who was the commandant of the naval regiment.
Toussaint was captured, imprisoned and sent to die in a prison in France. He had predicted that the roots of freedom were strong and deep and they would not wither.
Jean Jacques Dessalines took up the revolutionary movement and, within three years, he had succeeded, with the support of other generals such as Henry Christophe and Alexander Petion, to root out all the French soldiers from the island. In a memorable battle on November 18, 1803, the ragtag army of slaves succeeded where Spartacus with his 6,000 men could not accomplish with the Roman Empire some 2,000 years earlier in 70BC.
They rang the song of freedom for all slaves on the island and foreshadowed the beginning of the end of slavery in the world.
This saga was a short glorious moment for Haiti. Two years after Independence Day, on January 1, 1804, Jean Jacques Dessalines was assassinated on October 17, 1806, by his comrades in arms. His ideas of nation building, making Haiti hospitable to all were not the vision of the majority of the other generals. They envisioned the spoils of the colony for themselves only, and their families.
Haiti has never recovered. Through internal revolts fomented by foreign powers such as France, Germany and the United States, with the assistance of, first, mulatto rulers and later poorly educated black generals, Haiti and its people descended into a spiral of ignorance, misery and environmental calamity until today.
The latest one, the earthquake of January 12, 2010, destroyed its capital Port au Prince, as well as sending to death some 300,000 people. This disaster was preceded by 150 years of neglected mulatto governments and recently 50 years of black dictatorial regimes, followed by illiberal democracy that is closer to criminality than good governance.
Its culture
The slaves that climbed the mountains of Haiti after the Independence Day became the Haitian peasants. No one has ever bothered to ask them whether they should have good institutions such as schools and hospitals or decent infrastructure such as roads, electricity and communications. They have preserved intact the African culture mixed with the century’s old acculturation taken from the remaining Tainos and French masters during slavery times. Haiti is at the same time a mosaic of purely African, Santa Fe, USA, and Provence, France, culture.
The aftershock of the Haitian revolution was varied and unnerving as a cause. The Latin American revolution with Bolivar, through the help of Alexander Petion, took place. Abraham Lincoln and Frederic Douglass, inspired by Haiti, brought about the black emancipation. As such, the nation was ostracized by the then world order of slavery.
Only the Vatican, through a Concordat in 1860, accepted to send teachers to Haiti to educate the population. The priests and the nuns did what they could, they provided the bread of good formation to the tiny elite that peopled the cities, leaving behind the masses in the rural areas uneducated and ill advised.
Haiti is today a land of two cultures, the land of Catholic, refined, French-speaking and sophisticated city dwellers, as well as the land of voodoo practitioners, dispossessed former peasants living in squalid condition in shantytowns on the outskirts of prime land near the sea or peasants still forgotten in the mountains surrounding the cities.
Desperate, some have taken the ultimate chance of seeking a more hospitable sky through leaky boats to Florida, The Bahamas and all over the Caribbean islands, in particular, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, going as far as Suriname on firm land in Latin America.
Handy in arts and in art-craft, their production under different labels can be seen in the best hotels and shops on the tourist trail of the Caribbean, except that the label made in Haiti is removed. Good agricultural workers, from a native land that has been eroded by poor soil treatment and tree cutting for charcoal, they are replenishing the landscape of the Dominican Republic, Dominica and The Bahamas with fruit trees and hard wood that could have enriched their own country.
Its people
With a population of 10 million people, Haiti is in the enviable position of Sweden, Finland, Norway or Denmark; except it is not as cold. While the Haitian population is highly creative, it is not as educated and sophisticated as those Nordic countries, as such it miss the key ingredient that could propel the country into full employment and the bliss of growth and development.
It is a young population, eager to learn and pierce the world of modernity. Its adult population is resilient and willing to work hard for its daily bread. But its lack of education will continue to hamper the optimum utilization of its natural talents and the zeal to achieve.
In spite of this deficiency, Haiti, a small island with the proportions of the State of Maryland, has a brand name that goes beyond the Western Hemisphere. It has greatly contributed to the nation building process of several countries, through the utilization of its professional citizens, including the Congo, Brazzaville and Quebec, Canada. The famous Haitians, or celebrities with Haitian origins, include a roster that spans the arts, politics, sports and music. The list includes but is not limited to: E-W Dubois, James Audubon, Pierre Toussaint, Wyclef Jean, Edwige Danticat, Michaelle Jean, Andre Michael (boxer) Jean Michel Basquiat, Garcelle Beauvais, Jimmy Jean Louis, 50 Cent, Pierre Garcon, Jonathan Vilma, Maxwell Garcon.
Haiti experienced an avalanche of help from the nonprofit organizations and from the UN after the earthquake of 2010, but donor fatigue is languishing around because of a lack of good coordination and sound vision from the government. Will this new regime of Martelly/Lamothe deliver the goods to a nation and a people, so eager for so long to enjoy the bliss of hospitality?
It is too early to label the new regime as a Teflon government or a true agent of change that will transform the nation into the Tahiti brand of the western hemisphere, because of its natural and spectacular scenery, or the Bali brand of the Caribbean, because of its many cultural and religious festivals that are the staple of everyday life.
Anyway, Haiti has been too good for the region for humanity not to come to its help with enduring and sustainable tools that will change the lives of so many enduring and eager citizens ready to enjoy the bounties of God on this land that was once called the Pearl of the Islands.
August 25, 2012
Caribbeannewsnow
Friday, August 24, 2012
Gangs and Violence in Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) - Fox Hill - Nassau, The Bahamas
As Gangs Infest Prison
By Jones Bahamas
By Jones Bahamas
Something is going on in Her Majesty’s Prison in Fox Hill. And ‘that something’ does not have a good smell.
Whatever it is – it comes with stench attached.
We have heard enough and been told enough to believe that the public should have a full, frank and totally truthful accounting of what is going down in that complex.
Prison Superintendent Dr. Elliston Rahming continues to deny a senior prison officer’s claims that a “new breed of criminals” is infiltrating Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP), but also is quick to add that gang activity is increasing at the state-run facility.
Perhaps this might be the key: Rahming concedes: – One of the new developments is that we now have discernible gang related groupings in the prison. That is a fairly new phenomenon…”
Ah, hah! Echo cries: – we now have discernible gang related groupings in the prison!
Could this not be evidence of some facts that should matter to the neighbors, family and friends of both the men and women in prison and those who work there?
As we have learned, Dr. Rahming said prison officials are making some headway in figuring out just why gang activity is increasing.
We want to know what this means; how are they measuring headway.
We also want to know the facts behind Prisoner Officer Sergeant Gregory Archer’s statement to the effect that a new breed of more violent hardened criminals are infiltrating HMP, making prison officers’ jobs more dangerous.
The tit-for-tat between Rahming and Archer is itself revelatory of a system that is in need of urgent attention from the Minister of National Security and his colleagues around the Table.
This is most urgent.
Notwithstanding Rahming’s sophistry concerning human nature and all that blather of his about how Cain killed Abel where he so brilliantly opined: “I wouldn’t say that there is a new breed of inmates coming into the prison, but certainly the numbers are greater. But human nature has been the same ever since Cain killed Abel; human nature has not changed.
“We have certainly more persons to deal with, but the nature of mankind has not changed.”
The fact of the matter is this: the prison officer is the man in the middle of the mix.
If this man or woman ever becomes convinced that they should concede the fight, the prison would then and thereafter be in and under the command of the men and women in the gangs.
We must have none of this.
We need – as a matter of the most urgent priority – to know whether there is any truth to the word we are getting that speaks to prison realities where cell-phones are bought, sold and used by inmates; where recalcitrant men and women on remand are routinely being subjected to sexual abuse and where – for better or worse – money talks.
Then, there is all that talk about the extent to which the prison complex is pervaded and saturated with violence.
As Archer testifies: “…Despite prison already being a dangerous place to live and work, over the years the jail atmosphere has gotten even worse, mimicking scenes out of movies and the hit American television show Lock Up with the fights getting even more dangerous…”
And yet, Dr. Rahming maintains that Her Majesty’s Prison is safe.
Rahming’s parsing of prison reality would have us all believe that Archer is not lying; that Her Majesty’s Prisons is under control; that officers come to work with the fair expectation that they will return home to their families; inmates can go to bed at night with the fair expectations that, unless the Lord takes them home, they will wake up in the morning and those are signs of a well-run prison.
And then there is more of same: “A prison is not an easy place to run… But, that is not to say that danger is not ever present because it is ever present.”
Then he concludes danger is ever present as underscored by Rahming himself: “I think it’s fair to say that officers, although they work amongst the worst of the worst, they are in a safe environment insofar as one can call a prison safe.”
Quite frankly, we are not impressed.
We need hear no more to conclude that an end should come to this so-called ‘debate’ between Archer who seems to know what he is talking about and the Prison Superintendent Elliston Rahming who seems to have the public believe him when he says what he says.
We need to hear from the Minister of National Security; and we need to know what – if anything – he proposes to do about this mess.
23 August, 2012
The Bahama Journal
Whatever it is – it comes with stench attached.
We have heard enough and been told enough to believe that the public should have a full, frank and totally truthful accounting of what is going down in that complex.
Prison Superintendent Dr. Elliston Rahming continues to deny a senior prison officer’s claims that a “new breed of criminals” is infiltrating Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP), but also is quick to add that gang activity is increasing at the state-run facility.
Perhaps this might be the key: Rahming concedes: – One of the new developments is that we now have discernible gang related groupings in the prison. That is a fairly new phenomenon…”
Ah, hah! Echo cries: – we now have discernible gang related groupings in the prison!
Could this not be evidence of some facts that should matter to the neighbors, family and friends of both the men and women in prison and those who work there?
As we have learned, Dr. Rahming said prison officials are making some headway in figuring out just why gang activity is increasing.
We want to know what this means; how are they measuring headway.
We also want to know the facts behind Prisoner Officer Sergeant Gregory Archer’s statement to the effect that a new breed of more violent hardened criminals are infiltrating HMP, making prison officers’ jobs more dangerous.
The tit-for-tat between Rahming and Archer is itself revelatory of a system that is in need of urgent attention from the Minister of National Security and his colleagues around the Table.
This is most urgent.
Notwithstanding Rahming’s sophistry concerning human nature and all that blather of his about how Cain killed Abel where he so brilliantly opined: “I wouldn’t say that there is a new breed of inmates coming into the prison, but certainly the numbers are greater. But human nature has been the same ever since Cain killed Abel; human nature has not changed.
“We have certainly more persons to deal with, but the nature of mankind has not changed.”
The fact of the matter is this: the prison officer is the man in the middle of the mix.
If this man or woman ever becomes convinced that they should concede the fight, the prison would then and thereafter be in and under the command of the men and women in the gangs.
We must have none of this.
We need – as a matter of the most urgent priority – to know whether there is any truth to the word we are getting that speaks to prison realities where cell-phones are bought, sold and used by inmates; where recalcitrant men and women on remand are routinely being subjected to sexual abuse and where – for better or worse – money talks.
Then, there is all that talk about the extent to which the prison complex is pervaded and saturated with violence.
As Archer testifies: “…Despite prison already being a dangerous place to live and work, over the years the jail atmosphere has gotten even worse, mimicking scenes out of movies and the hit American television show Lock Up with the fights getting even more dangerous…”
And yet, Dr. Rahming maintains that Her Majesty’s Prison is safe.
Rahming’s parsing of prison reality would have us all believe that Archer is not lying; that Her Majesty’s Prisons is under control; that officers come to work with the fair expectation that they will return home to their families; inmates can go to bed at night with the fair expectations that, unless the Lord takes them home, they will wake up in the morning and those are signs of a well-run prison.
And then there is more of same: “A prison is not an easy place to run… But, that is not to say that danger is not ever present because it is ever present.”
Then he concludes danger is ever present as underscored by Rahming himself: “I think it’s fair to say that officers, although they work amongst the worst of the worst, they are in a safe environment insofar as one can call a prison safe.”
Quite frankly, we are not impressed.
We need hear no more to conclude that an end should come to this so-called ‘debate’ between Archer who seems to know what he is talking about and the Prison Superintendent Elliston Rahming who seems to have the public believe him when he says what he says.
We need to hear from the Minister of National Security; and we need to know what – if anything – he proposes to do about this mess.
23 August, 2012
The Bahama Journal
Monday, August 20, 2012
Venezuela and the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of our America (ALBA) Back Ecuador in Wikileaks Asylum Dispute
By
Mérida, 17th August 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela and the ALBA alliance have backed Ecuador against “threats” from Britain, after Ecuador granted Wikileaks founder Julian Assange diplomatic asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London yesterday.
Swedish authorities want to extradite Assange from the UK to investigate allegations against him of sexual assault.
However Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patino voiced fears that Assange, whose website Wikileaks often publishes US government secret documents, could face “political persecution” if extradited to Sweden, including being handed over to US authorities.
UK foreign minister William Hague described Ecuador’s move as a “matter of regret,” insisting that “We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom, nor is there any legal basis for us to do so”.
Patino also heavily criticised what he termed an “open threat” by the British government to enter the Ecuadorian embassy by force to arrest Assange. On 15 August he cited a diplomatic letter delivered through the British embassy in Quito, which stated “You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the Embassy”.
“We sincerely hope that we do not reach that point, but if you are not capable of resolving this matter of Mr Assange's presence in your premises, this is an open option for us," the letter continued.
Reactions
Venezuela called for Ecuador’s decision to grant Assange asylum to be respected, and criticised the British government’s conduct over the issue.
“We hope that the British government respects not only international law but the right to political asylum that Assange has received,” said yesterday Venezuela’s foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking during an official visit in the Dominican Republic, Maduro also expressed his rejection of “the arrogance and predominance that the British government has had in the region [Latin America], directly threatening a democratic and sovereign government and announcing the possible violation of international law”.
Meanwhile, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), which includes Cuba, Venezuela, and Ecuador among its members, also released a statement yesterday criticising the British government’s message to Ecuador.
The statement raised concerns that by Britain’s “threats” made “against the integrity” of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the British government was in danger of violating the Vienna Convention on [Diplomatic] Privileges and Immunities.
Declaring the ALBA’s “unfailing solidarity” with Ecuador, the statement further warned the British government of “the serious consequences for the relations with our countries that will follow in the event these threats are carried out”.
According to Maduro, regional organisations the ALBA, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) are being “activated…to accompany the Ecuadorian government” over the issue.
UNASUR is set to hold an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers in Quito, Ecuador, this Sunday. The Organisation of American States (OAS) also held an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the state of UK-Ecuador relations.
Mérida, 17th August 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela and the ALBA alliance have backed Ecuador against “threats” from Britain, after Ecuador granted Wikileaks founder Julian Assange diplomatic asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London yesterday.
Swedish authorities want to extradite Assange from the UK to investigate allegations against him of sexual assault.
However Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patino voiced fears that Assange, whose website Wikileaks often publishes US government secret documents, could face “political persecution” if extradited to Sweden, including being handed over to US authorities.
UK foreign minister William Hague described Ecuador’s move as a “matter of regret,” insisting that “We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom, nor is there any legal basis for us to do so”.
Patino also heavily criticised what he termed an “open threat” by the British government to enter the Ecuadorian embassy by force to arrest Assange. On 15 August he cited a diplomatic letter delivered through the British embassy in Quito, which stated “You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the Embassy”.
“We sincerely hope that we do not reach that point, but if you are not capable of resolving this matter of Mr Assange's presence in your premises, this is an open option for us," the letter continued.
Reactions
Venezuela called for Ecuador’s decision to grant Assange asylum to be respected, and criticised the British government’s conduct over the issue.
“We hope that the British government respects not only international law but the right to political asylum that Assange has received,” said yesterday Venezuela’s foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking during an official visit in the Dominican Republic, Maduro also expressed his rejection of “the arrogance and predominance that the British government has had in the region [Latin America], directly threatening a democratic and sovereign government and announcing the possible violation of international law”.
Meanwhile, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), which includes Cuba, Venezuela, and Ecuador among its members, also released a statement yesterday criticising the British government’s message to Ecuador.
The statement raised concerns that by Britain’s “threats” made “against the integrity” of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the British government was in danger of violating the Vienna Convention on [Diplomatic] Privileges and Immunities.
Declaring the ALBA’s “unfailing solidarity” with Ecuador, the statement further warned the British government of “the serious consequences for the relations with our countries that will follow in the event these threats are carried out”.
According to Maduro, regional organisations the ALBA, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) are being “activated…to accompany the Ecuadorian government” over the issue.
UNASUR is set to hold an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers in Quito, Ecuador, this Sunday. The Organisation of American States (OAS) also held an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the state of UK-Ecuador relations.
Published on Aug 17th 2012 at 5.30pm
Sunday, August 19, 2012
MERCOSUR: Toward Latin American Integration
By Juan Diego
Nusa Peñalver:
JULY 31, 2012 will be recalled in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean as a landmark, a giant step, with Venezuela’s full entry into the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), in the first extension of this customs association in the 21 years of its existence.
It will also be recalled as a resounding failure of the imperial policy of the United States in relation to a region which it can no longer dominate at its whim.
For Argentine political economist Atilio A. Borón, from the geopolitical point of view, Venezuela’s inclusion in MERCOSUR after a six-year wait constitutes the greatest U.S. diplomatic defeat since the disastrous Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Beatriz Miranda, columnist in the Colombian El Espectador, defines it as a strategic accomplishment, given that the new entrant concedes the bloc a greater economic and commercial weight. Analysts consider that in geopolitical terms, Caracas’ arrival represents the possibility of increased Brazilian insertion in the Andes and Caribbean and Venezuelan access to the South Atlantic. Thus MERCOSUR is facilitating strategic integration, giving the group an Amazonian, Atlantic, Caribbean and Andean identity, and a strong energy component.
Doubtless, this bold step will affect U.S. interests in the region in the long term, given that it prevents Venezuela from signing a free trade treaty with this country, still set on re-conquering the Bolivarian Republic’s oil wealth.
It is no secret that with Venezuela‘s energy potential – according to the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) it has the largest certified oil reserves in the world: 297,570 million barrels – the industrial vigor of Brazil (the sixth largest world economy), and the agricultural potential of Argentina and Uruguay, this regional bloc will acquire a strategic role. Created March 25, 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, it promotes the free circulation of goods and services, common external tariffs and trade policy, as well as coordinated macroeconomic policies among member states and compatible legislation.
In effect, the United States was unable to prevent MERCOSUR, now including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela (Paraguay’s membership is suspended due to the parliamentary coup d’état against President Fernando Lugo), from growing in strength and promoting sovereign economic and social policies in accordance with national interests, far removed from the dictates of the discredited financial institution of Bretton Woods and the anti-democratic Washington consensus.
The U.S. maneuver to utilize the Paraguayan oligarchy, entrenched in the country’s Senate, to block Venezuela’s entry backfired. In fact Paraguay’s suspension and Venezuela’s participation could make MERCOSUR more attractive to Bolivia, Ecuador and other nations in the region.
From the Planalto Palace, headquarters of the Brazilian government, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez emphasized the historic importance of the unity of Latin American countries in terms of promoting their independent development, within which MERCOSUR represents a platform for the changes needed.
"We are exactly in our historic position, our North is our South, we are where we always should have been, we are where Bolívar left it to us to arrive," the Bolivarian leader affirmed during the extraordinary session of the bloc in Brasilia.
What is being reconfigured is a balance which will allow South America to address, on more equal footing, other centers of power such as the United States and the European Union, which have demanded subordination and an anti-national submission to their transnationals.
BUILDING THE PATRIA GRANDE
According to analysts, Venezuela‘s incorporation into MERCOSUR makes the bloc the world’s fifth largest economic power, extending from Patagonia to the Caribbean over an area of close to 13 million square kilometers, linking more than 270 million inhabitants (70% of the population of South America) to form an impressive and gigantic bloc with the largest oil reserves, booming industrialization and excellent potential for food production.
It will have a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $3.3 trillion at current prices, equivalent to 83.2% of the Southern Cone GDP, and the largest global biodiversity and fresh water reserves, a reality very much to be borne in mind in terms of world geopolitics by the select club of the G-8 and emerging giants such as China and India, two nations which have a more constructive position in international economic relations.
In the internal context, Venezuelan José Gregorio Piña emphasizes that while, initially, the country was only offering MERCOSUR oil and hard currency, "the panorama has changed, given that it can develop its productive potential through a more complete relationship with bloc members, which includes complementary trade, a innovative financial architecture, internal regional investment and the free circulation of persons and jobs, among others."
Caracas has already invited MERCOSUR enterprises to participate in housing provision for the Venezuelan people, with a target of three million family units, as well as conjoint work with the state to promote other social, industrial and agricultural development projects. The new Venezuela wishes to leave behind the private model to which it was subjected by the United States, the only legacy of which was enormous social inequality and widespread poverty.
This effort will benefit from the bloc’s creation of a Structural Convergence Fund to reduce imbalances among its members, in a necessary spirit of solidarity with the less developed nations. "This is an experiment to reduce the imbalances of our countries and promote equitable regional development," stated Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff during the extraordinary summit. She also noted that 40 regional projects have been approved, with an initial start-up fund of $1.1 trillion, good news further boosted by MERCOSUR’s announced expansion of credit to promote the economy of this part of the world.
PROTECTING MERCOSUR
Given the blows the United States delivered to progressive processes in Honduras and Paraguay, a reaction to Venezuela’s inclusion in MERCOSUR is also anticipated. The country will use any possible means to prevent a united, prosperous and strong South America capable of defying its political hegemony and global economy.
This warning was given by Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who urged the member countries present at the summit "to create, sooner rather than later, the instruments and institutions which will make this new pole of power indestructible and indivisible." The Argentine leader strongly attacked attempts by imperialist nations to weaken South America.
MERCOSUR is thus moving ahead to create the Patria Grande to which Latin American and Caribbean nations rightly aspire.
August 16, 2012
Granma.cu
JULY 31, 2012 will be recalled in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean as a landmark, a giant step, with Venezuela’s full entry into the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), in the first extension of this customs association in the 21 years of its existence.
It will also be recalled as a resounding failure of the imperial policy of the United States in relation to a region which it can no longer dominate at its whim.
For Argentine political economist Atilio A. Borón, from the geopolitical point of view, Venezuela’s inclusion in MERCOSUR after a six-year wait constitutes the greatest U.S. diplomatic defeat since the disastrous Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Beatriz Miranda, columnist in the Colombian El Espectador, defines it as a strategic accomplishment, given that the new entrant concedes the bloc a greater economic and commercial weight. Analysts consider that in geopolitical terms, Caracas’ arrival represents the possibility of increased Brazilian insertion in the Andes and Caribbean and Venezuelan access to the South Atlantic. Thus MERCOSUR is facilitating strategic integration, giving the group an Amazonian, Atlantic, Caribbean and Andean identity, and a strong energy component.
Doubtless, this bold step will affect U.S. interests in the region in the long term, given that it prevents Venezuela from signing a free trade treaty with this country, still set on re-conquering the Bolivarian Republic’s oil wealth.
It is no secret that with Venezuela‘s energy potential – according to the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) it has the largest certified oil reserves in the world: 297,570 million barrels – the industrial vigor of Brazil (the sixth largest world economy), and the agricultural potential of Argentina and Uruguay, this regional bloc will acquire a strategic role. Created March 25, 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, it promotes the free circulation of goods and services, common external tariffs and trade policy, as well as coordinated macroeconomic policies among member states and compatible legislation.
In effect, the United States was unable to prevent MERCOSUR, now including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela (Paraguay’s membership is suspended due to the parliamentary coup d’état against President Fernando Lugo), from growing in strength and promoting sovereign economic and social policies in accordance with national interests, far removed from the dictates of the discredited financial institution of Bretton Woods and the anti-democratic Washington consensus.
The U.S. maneuver to utilize the Paraguayan oligarchy, entrenched in the country’s Senate, to block Venezuela’s entry backfired. In fact Paraguay’s suspension and Venezuela’s participation could make MERCOSUR more attractive to Bolivia, Ecuador and other nations in the region.
From the Planalto Palace, headquarters of the Brazilian government, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez emphasized the historic importance of the unity of Latin American countries in terms of promoting their independent development, within which MERCOSUR represents a platform for the changes needed.
"We are exactly in our historic position, our North is our South, we are where we always should have been, we are where Bolívar left it to us to arrive," the Bolivarian leader affirmed during the extraordinary session of the bloc in Brasilia.
What is being reconfigured is a balance which will allow South America to address, on more equal footing, other centers of power such as the United States and the European Union, which have demanded subordination and an anti-national submission to their transnationals.
BUILDING THE PATRIA GRANDE
According to analysts, Venezuela‘s incorporation into MERCOSUR makes the bloc the world’s fifth largest economic power, extending from Patagonia to the Caribbean over an area of close to 13 million square kilometers, linking more than 270 million inhabitants (70% of the population of South America) to form an impressive and gigantic bloc with the largest oil reserves, booming industrialization and excellent potential for food production.
It will have a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $3.3 trillion at current prices, equivalent to 83.2% of the Southern Cone GDP, and the largest global biodiversity and fresh water reserves, a reality very much to be borne in mind in terms of world geopolitics by the select club of the G-8 and emerging giants such as China and India, two nations which have a more constructive position in international economic relations.
In the internal context, Venezuelan José Gregorio Piña emphasizes that while, initially, the country was only offering MERCOSUR oil and hard currency, "the panorama has changed, given that it can develop its productive potential through a more complete relationship with bloc members, which includes complementary trade, a innovative financial architecture, internal regional investment and the free circulation of persons and jobs, among others."
Caracas has already invited MERCOSUR enterprises to participate in housing provision for the Venezuelan people, with a target of three million family units, as well as conjoint work with the state to promote other social, industrial and agricultural development projects. The new Venezuela wishes to leave behind the private model to which it was subjected by the United States, the only legacy of which was enormous social inequality and widespread poverty.
This effort will benefit from the bloc’s creation of a Structural Convergence Fund to reduce imbalances among its members, in a necessary spirit of solidarity with the less developed nations. "This is an experiment to reduce the imbalances of our countries and promote equitable regional development," stated Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff during the extraordinary summit. She also noted that 40 regional projects have been approved, with an initial start-up fund of $1.1 trillion, good news further boosted by MERCOSUR’s announced expansion of credit to promote the economy of this part of the world.
PROTECTING MERCOSUR
Given the blows the United States delivered to progressive processes in Honduras and Paraguay, a reaction to Venezuela’s inclusion in MERCOSUR is also anticipated. The country will use any possible means to prevent a united, prosperous and strong South America capable of defying its political hegemony and global economy.
This warning was given by Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who urged the member countries present at the summit "to create, sooner rather than later, the instruments and institutions which will make this new pole of power indestructible and indivisible." The Argentine leader strongly attacked attempts by imperialist nations to weaken South America.
MERCOSUR is thus moving ahead to create the Patria Grande to which Latin American and Caribbean nations rightly aspire.
August 16, 2012
Granma.cu
Friday, August 17, 2012
...the Government of The Bahamas is considering proposals for solar energy, waste-to-energy, ocean thermal energy plants and wind... ...The geographic and physical setting of The Islands lends itself to a myriad of alternative energy possibilities
Renewable energy in The Bahamas
Nassau, The Bahamas
The Minister of Environment and Housing Kenred Dorsett addressed the House of Assembly on “Planning Our Electric Future”, on Wednesday, August 14.
Wednesday marked the PLP’s 100th day in office, so we were not surprised to hear of a plan to combat high electricity costs and promises of alternative energy production.
But The Bahamas does not need and does not have the time for any more plans; the PLP had five years to devise a plan. We need action.
Integrating alternative and preferably renewable energy production into our power generation portfolio is certainly the way of the future, but was it not the way of the future years ago? Diversified energy production — coal, diesel, nuclear, etc. — is not a radically new idea and is practiced in many jurisdictions around the world.
The dramatic rise in fuel prices is no excuse. Fuel prices have consistently been on the rise for the past 10 years, at least, and we see no indication that OPEC intends to diminish rising profits any time soon. Blaming high energy costs on the high cost of fuel is a dated argument, for which the past and present governments have only reinforced by building and upgrading power production with additional heavy fuel oil generators.
Any additional investment in heavy fuel generation should not be considered as part of reducing the cost of electricity, unless BEC enters a public-private partnership in which maintenance becomes a priority. Abaco still suffers inconsistent electricity and it was the recipient of the $105 million new 48MW Wilson City plant.
Bahamians are left to bear the brunt of high costs and low reliability brought on by poor planning and management of operations and maintenance.
The minister went on to indicate that the Government of The Bahamas is considering proposals for solar energy, waste-to-energy, ocean thermal energy plants and wind. The geographic and physical setting of The Bahamas lends itself to a myriad of alternative energy possibilities.
So why hasn’t The Bahamas invested or been the recipient of private investment in alternative energy? In an ironic twist of fate, Bahamian legislation is our biggest obstacle. The government must relinquish absolute control over the national grid to allow for some friendly competition to BEC.
As if amending our existing legislation was not difficult enough, pursuing diversification of energy production in The Bahamas will be encumbered by the announcement of a new sustainable energy unit, new renewable energy legislation, new electricity sector regulation and a new national review plan for cross-island sharing.
The government must be transparent and honest with the Bahamian people. When will we see public or private investment in alternative energy? Private industry does not have years to twiddle its thumbs while we form new committees.
Should a renewable project be approved tomorrow, it would take years for such projects to ultimately be built and for new electricity to be put into the grid for consumption. Action must be taken and quickly. The time for action is not now, it was yesterday.
It is encouraging that the government has received proposals that intend on saving BEC $100 million annually, though such enormous sums of monetary savings leave us intrigued. The government need not only approve a single entity for alternative power production but an array of alternatives, as some are bound to fail.
It would be a remarkable feat of the PLP’s tenure if alternative power production from a private entity was to enter the grid and coexist with BEC. It is possible, but only if the government acts as a facilitator rather than a hindrance.
August 17, 2012
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