BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, September 16, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, has called on each and every citizen to be a hero to the nation by adjoining individual and collective responsibilities in their fight to contain and defeat Covid-19.

“We must continue to rise to the occasion,” beseeched Prime Minister Harris. “We will not all be named a National Hero, but we all can, in our individual and collective endeavours, be a hero to our nation. My call today is for every citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis to be a hero to our nation.”

The Honourable Prime Minister made the call on Thursday September 16 at the National Heroes’ Park in Conaree on St. Kitts as he delivered commemorative address during the ceremony for observance of National Heroes’ Day 2021 that was held under the theme ‘Adapt, Diversify, Recreate: Independence 38’.

“It is appropriate to adjoin individual and collective responsibilities,” advised Dr Harris. “It is the individual actions that will determine the collective outcomes. This is the reality of the fight in which we are engaged – to contain and defeat Covid-19. Your Team Unity Government is doing everything we can in this fight in the interest of all our people.”

According to the Prime Minister, the Team Unity Government has assembled the best team of experts who have provided it with reliable information, data and statistics. He noted that as a result, the Government has embarked upon an effective and comprehensive sensitisation strategy.

“Your Government continues to beseech you to adhere to the non-pharmaceutical measures,” he said. “Your Government has made available free vaccines – first the AstraZeneca, and now the Pfizer. We have implemented all the best practices; however, our success as a country in this fight will largely be determined by individual responsibility.”

Gracing the occasion was Governor General His Excellency Sir S. W. Tapley Seaton, GCMG, CVO, QC, JP, LL.D; Deputy Governor General for Nevis Her Honour Mrs Hyleeta Liburd, and Mr Elmo Liburd; the only living National Hero Dr the Rt. Honourable and Rt. Excellent Hon Sir Kennedy Simmonds and Lady Simmonds; members of the Federal Cabinet; and family members of the other four National Heroes.

“Every citizen and resident must adhere to the measures established by qualified health professionals following the science,” advised Prime Minister Harris. “The adherence on one hand, or non-compliance on the other by us as individuals, will determine our collective fate in this fight. Government can impose a curfew or lockdown, as we did, to restrict individual movement for a time.”

He posed what gains would people have gained if they came out of such measures with the same behaviours. He pointed out that the country can beat Covid-19 if all choose to do what they must, individually and collectively. He reminded them to wash their hands, to sanitise, to social and physical distance, to stay at home if they are feeling unwell, and to vaccinate.

The Prime Minister advised everyone to vaccinate so as to keep the country’s children safe at school and in classroom settings.

“Our national heroes all recognised the importance of education and they did all that they could to provide free and accessible comprehensive education here in St. Kitts and Nevis,” noted Dr Harris. “I appeal to all of us, especially our young people that we must not destroy that legacy by the failure, our failure as a people, our failure as teachers, educators, frontline workers and our students by not getting vaccinated.”

Challenging persons who know better to really do much better, he pointed out that one cannot be for vaccination and yet not get vaccinated even when they see others around the world dying from the virus. The virus, he added, is alive and roaming, ready to find the unvaccinated to kill, and as result urged everyone to do the right thing to protect themselves.

“Like some others around the world, there is here too the seeming distraction of me-ism, where we are only concerned with self, and we seem that this notion of self, extends only to our individual rights and privileges, and to our personal responsibility and not to the greater good of country above self,” the Prime Minister lamented. “We must change that in this fight of a lifetime. We must do all that is required of us. We must all become the hero that our nation needs now, more than ever.”

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CARACAS/LA PAZ, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Venezuela and Bolivia on Thursday rejected U.S. President Joe Biden’s claims the prior day that the countries had failed to meet counternarcotics obligations.

In a memo released by the White House, Biden said the two South American countries had not improved their efforts over the prior 12 months. U.S. officials have long accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other top authorities of involvement in drug trafficking, which they deny. read more

In a statement posted on Twitter, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia accused Washington of behaving like a “supranational police of sovereign and independent states.”

“Venezuela complies strictly with the requirements of international conventions on the control of psychotropic and narcotic substances,” read the statement.

Maduro, a socialist and staunch critic of the United States, has long maintained that Venezuela is a victim of the violence surrounding drug trafficking because of its lengthy, porous border with Colombia, one of the largest cocaine-producing countries in the world.

Bolivian Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo said leftist President Luis Arce’s government had managed to eradicate more than 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres)of coca plants, the main raw material to make cocaine, and had taken down criminal organizations.

“We reject this report because it has been prepared unilaterally,” del Castillo told reporters, adding that the United States had not conducted research inside the country as multilateral organizations focused on combating drug trafficking tend to do.

“We have a strategy, we have a plan, and we have the mission of a full fight against drug trafficking.”

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CNN- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday he has directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to shut down six points of entry along the US-Mexico border amid a surge in migrants.

The Republican called the crisis dire and said “agents are overwhelmed by the chaos” at the border.

“The sheer negligence of the Biden Administration to do their job and secure the border is appalling. I have directed the Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to surge personnel and vehicles to shut down six points of entry along the southern border to stop these caravans from overrunning our state,” Abbott said in a statement.

“The border crisis is so dire that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is requesting our help as their agents are overwhelmed by the chaos. Unlike President Biden, the State of Texas remains committed to securing our border and protecting Americans.”

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Marsha Espinosa told CNN on Thursday that it “is not seeking assistance from the State of Texas to shut down ports of entry,” adding that “it would be a violation of federal law for the Texas National Guard to unilaterally do so.

Earlier in the day, Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Victor Escalon said that all the points of entry to Del Rio, Texas, will be shut down due to the overwhelming number of migrants there.

“Six, seven days ago, Del Rio saw 400 migrants sitting, underneath the bridge, the (point of entry) in downtown Del Rio … there’s about 6,000 sitting there right now and more are coming,” said Escalon.

“Before I came here today, my last instructions are, we’re going to shut down all the POEs in Del Rio,” he said, following an update on Operation Lone Star.

CNN previously reported Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said there were over 8,500 migrants under the Del Rio International Bridge waiting to get processed.

According to the US Customs and Border Protection website, the “Del Rio Sector is responsible for detecting and preventing the smuggling and unlawful entry of undocumented immigrants into the United States along 245 miles of the Rio Grande River and Lake Amistad that forms the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The area covers 55,063 square miles of Texas, and reaches 300 miles into Texas from the U.S.-Mexico border.”

The crisis at the southern border has been a key focus of the Biden administration, though President Joe Biden has had to contend with losses in court cases over some of the policy changes they have made

On Thursday, a federal judge blocked the administration from turning away migrant families with children under a public health order related to the coronavirus pandemic, marking a defeat for the administration which has relied on the order amid an influx of arrivals. The order takes effect in 14 days.

And last month, a federal judge in Texas ordered the administration to revive a Trump-era border policy that required migrants to stay in Mexico until their US immigration court date. Biden had ended the program earlier this year.

Meanwhile, border arrests remain at the highest level in decades, reaching one million before the end of the fiscal year and more than 208,000 in August alone. Some of those apprehended at the US-Mexico border are repeat crossers.

This story has been updated with additional details Thursday.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez and Devan Cole contributed to this report.]

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Thousands of migrants converge under Texas bridge, posing new challenge for Biden

CIUDAD ACUÑA, Mexico, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Thousands of migrants have converged under the bridge that connects Del Rio, Texas and Mexico’s Ciudad Acuña, creating a makeshift camp with few basic services in intense heat in the latest border emergency facing U.S. President Joe Biden.

Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said that as of early Thursday evening 10,503 migrants were under the Del Rio International Bridge, up from 8,200 in the morning.

Food and water has been scarce, around 20 migrants told Reuters, and temperatures have risen to around 99 Fahrenheit (37 Celsius). Reuters witnessed hundreds of migrants wading through the Rio Grande river and back into Mexico to stock up on essentials they say they are not receiving on the American side.

The migrants are mostly Haitians, with Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans also present.

The squalid conditions are reflective of the humanitarian challenge facing Biden as border arrests hover around 20-year highs. U.S. authorities arrested more than 195,000 migrants at the Mexican border in August, according to government data released on Wednesday.

Ernesto, a 31-year-old Haitian migrant, slipped back into Mexico on Thursday to buy water and food – for the fourth time, he said, since arriving in the United States on Monday morning. Ernesto, who declined to give his surname to protect his identity, said he and his 3-year-old daughter had not been fed at the camp, where migrants are jostling for shade.

Sometimes, he said, he runs to avoid Mexican migration officials but is usually not bothered by them. “But now money is running out,” he added.

Migrants showed Reuters tickets with numbers they had received from U.S. Border Patrol. Several said other migrants told them they could be stuck at the camp for up to five days.

Border Patrol said in a statement it was increasing staffing in Del Rio to facilitate a “safe, humane and orderly process.” Drinking water, towels and portable toilets have been provided, the statement added, while migrants wait to be transported to facilities.

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Biden, a Democrat who took office in January, has rolled back many of the hardline immigration measures of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

But he has been caught between pro-migrant groups and some Democrats who have criticized him for not doing more to help migrants, and opponents who say his policies have encouraged illegal immigration.

Del Rio is in Val Verde County, which voted for Trump in 2020. Some residents in this sprawling, bilingual border town say they feel abandoned by the federal government on border security.

“Are they doing anything to stop them from coming?” one woman said while she looked down at the encampment while driving over the bridge.

‘WHEN ARE WE LEAVING?’

Carlos, a 27-year-old Venezuelan who said he left his home after graduating university in July, said he thought the camp had doubled in size since he arrived on Tuesday. Carlos, who declined to give his full name, said he had only $10 left, and that there were 400 families ahead of him in the queue for processing.

Both migrants and Mexican officials said many more people are expected in coming days. Some told Reuters they had chosen to cross here because the river is shallow and they felt there was comparatively less cartel activity.

Jeff Jeune, a 27-year-old Haitian who was reselling water bottles for a 3 peso (15 cent) profit, said he and his young family were exhausted, hungry and sleeping on the ground. He fretted about his kids falling ill in the makeshift camp.

“My ten-year-old asks: ‘When are we leaving?’ He’s always asking that.”

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