Tag Archives: caribbean

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Colombia: Troops Sent In Amidst Rising Protests Death Toll

Bogota (CNN) More than a month since Colombians first took to the streets this year to protest against a botched tax overhaul and the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, tensions across the country are escalating rapidly with more than a dozen deaths over the weekend — and a risky new government tactic.

On Friday, the southern city of Cali witnessed new scenes of panic when several people in civilian clothing appeared to open fire against protesters, social media footage shows. Colombia’s Attorney General Francisco Barbosa later confirmed that one of the shooters was an off-duty employee of his office’s investigative unit.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the man killed two protesters before the surrounding crowd lynched him, Barbosa said. Footage of the man beaten to death has since gone viral on Colombia social media.

In another episode, a civilian was photographed aiming his gun towards protesters while standing next to uniformed police officers who did not intervene. The man, Andres Escobar, later published a video on social media saying he was shooting non-lethal rubber bullets and asking for forgiveness for his actions.

In an interview with local radio station BluRadio, Escobar said he was prompted to action by seeing “vandals” running wild in his neighbourhood, and did not intend to kill anybody.

Colombia’s police director Jorge Vargas Valencia has announced his office is investigating the incident.

In Cali alone, at least 13 people were killed over the weekend, according to Colombia’s Defense Ministry. In response to escalating violence around the country, President Ivan Duque has deployed the military to thirteen cities to reinforce local police. Defense Minister Diego Molano even posted a video of 500 infantrymen on their way to Cali, set to triumphant music.

Duque said he was pushed to send the military in order to lift dozens of protester roadblocks that since early May have brought the country to a standstill — but critics and some analysts see the deployment as a risky bet destined to add fuel to the fire.

 

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Alaska: Biden to Suspend Trump Arctic Drilling Leases

BBC- US President Joe Biden’s administration will suspend oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge pending an environmental review.

The move reverses former President Donald Trump’s decision to sell oil leases in the refuge to expand fossil fuel and mineral development.

The giant Alaskan wilderness is home to many important species, including polar bears, caribou and wolves.

Arctic tribal leaders have welcomed the move but Republicans are opposed.

Covering some 19 million acres (78,000 sq km), the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is often described as America’s last great wilderness.

How did we get here?

The push for exploration in the park has been the subject of a decades-long dispute.

The oil-rich region is a critically important location for many species and is considered sacred by the indigenous Gwich’in people.

One side argues that drilling for oil could bring in significant amounts of money and provide jobs for people in Alaska, while the other has raised concerns over environmental and climate threats.

Days before his presidential term ended in January, Mr Trump went ahead with the first sale of oil leases in the region’s coastal plain as part of his push to develop more domestic fossil fuel production.

His supporters said it would boost jobs and revenue for the state.

But the sale received little interest from the oil and gas industry. Companies said they were focusing their spending on renewable energy, amid a huge slump in oil prices. Several large US banks said they would not fund exploration in the area.

In total, 11 tracts were auctioned off, covering just over 550,000 acres, according to the Washington Post newspaper. The sale raised less than $15m (£11m) – far less than the government had hoped.

Most went to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency.

Map

While estimates suggest around 11 billion barrels of oil lie under the refuge, it has no roads or other infrastructure, making it a very expensive place to drill.

During his campaign Mr Biden pledged to protect the habitat. Once in office, he directed the Interior Department to review the leases.

In a statement on Tuesday, the department said it had “identified defects in the underlying record of decision supporting the leases, including the lack of analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives”, required under environmental law.

White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said Mr Biden “believes America’s national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country”.

“He is grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior to suspend all leasing pending a review of decisions made in the last administration’s final days that could have changed the character of this special place forever,” she added.

Since taking office, Mr Biden has signed executive orders aimed at freezing new oil and gas leases on public land, and has pledged to drastically cut carbon emissions.

But his administration disappointed environmental groups last week when the Justice Department defended a Trump-era decision to approve a major oil project on Alaska’s North Slope in the former Naval Petroleum Reserve.

How have people reacted to the suspension?

Arctic tribal leaders praised the decision.

“I want to thank President Biden and the Interior Department for recognising the wrongs committed against our people by the last Administration, and for putting us on the right path forward,” Tonya Garnett, special projects coordinator for the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, said in a statement.

“This goes to show that, no matter the odds, the voices of our Tribes matter.”

Kristen Miller, acting executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said suspending the leases was “a step in the right direction”.

A demonstrator holds a sign against drilling in the Arctic Refuge on the 58th anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, during a press conference outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, December 11, 2018.
Arctic tribal leaders and environmental groups have welcomed the move

 

But the Biden administration’s move was criticised in a joint statement by Republican senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski along with representative Don Young and Governor Mike Dunleavy.

“This action serves no purpose other than to obstruct Alaska’s economy and put our energy security at risk,” said Ms Murkowski, who has represented Alaska in the Senate since 2002.

Mr Dunleavy added that the leases sold by the Trump administration “are valid and cannot be taken away by the federal government”.

Oil revenues are critical for Alaska, with every resident getting a cheque for around $1,600 every year from the state’s permanent fund.

Mr Dunleavy has previously said that opening the refuge for “responsible resource development” could “put more oil in our pipeline, put Alaskans to work, bring billions of dollars of investment to our state, support American energy independence, and provide critical revenues to our state and local communities”.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority said it was disappointed by the decision, and had no reason to believe that the environmental analysis was inadequate.

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Biden Uveils Racial Equity Plan at Tulsa Massacre Centennial

President Joe Biden speaks as he commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, at the Greenwood Cultural Center, Tuesday, June 1, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

By Marty Johnson and Brett Samuels

The Hill

President Biden traveled to Tulsa, Okla., to meet with the survivors of the city’s 1921 race massacre, unveiling a broad plan to drive racial equity throughout the country while holding up the city’s past as evidence of the pervasive effects of racism.

Monday and Tuesday marked the centennial of the race massacre in which an angry mob of white Tulsans burned and looted Tulsa’s thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood. Biden is the first president to visit the neighborhood in recognition of the massacre in 1921, a point he highlighted in his remarks.

The president spent a significant portion of his speech giving a historical recounting of the events of 100 years ago in Tulsa. The massacre has gained attention in recent years after being an often overlooked instance of racism and violence.

“The history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness,” Biden said. “But just because history is silent, it doesn’t mean that it did not take place.”

“And while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing,” he continued. “Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they can’t be buried no matter how hard people try.”

President Biden in Tulsa:

“Just because history is silent, it doesn’t mean that it did not take place. And while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing … Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they can’t be buried no matter how hard people try.” pic.twitter.com/zS5zO4R88U

President Joe Biden in Tulsa: “My fellow Americans, this was not a riot. This was a massacre… among the worst in our history, but not the only one, and for too long forgotten by our history. As soon as it happened, there was a clear effort to erase it from our memory.” pic.twitter.com/4xpLplHL1b

Biden on Tuesday announced plans to expand and target federal purchasing power to benefit more minority-owned businesses. His administration will also submit in the coming days multiple rules that strengthen anti-discrimination housing measures rolled back during the Trump administration.

The president pointed to Tulsa as an illustration of the ways in which highways segregated cities, Black Americans face a more difficult path to home ownership, and impoverished communities haven’t been given the resources to climb into the middle class.

“There’s greater recognition that for too long we’ve allowed a narrow, cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester,” Biden said. “The view that America is a zero sum game, where there’s only one winner.”

The success of Greenwood’s business district in 1921 was well-known and referred to as Black Wall Street as it featured a trove of successful Black businesses such as medical practices, law offices, restaurants and hotels.

Located in the northern section of Tulsa, Greenwood prospered at a time when Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan rampantly discriminated against and terrorized Black Americans in the south.

But, in a span of less than 24 hours, the white mob destroyed 35 city blocks, razing more than 1,200 homes and pillaging hundreds more. The cost of the property damage totaled nearly $2 million, which translates into almost $30 million today.

As many as 300 people died during the massacre, roughly 10,000 Greenwood residents were displaced and the community has never come close to recovering.

Today, white Tulsans are twice as likely to own a home compared to Black Tulsans. White households have a median income of $55,448, while the median income of Black households is significantly lower at $30,463.

And despite an Oklahoma-sanctioned commission recommending in 2001 that reparations in the form of direct payment should be paid to the massacre’s survivors and their descendants, such remittance has never materialized.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have asserted that not only do the three remaining survivors of the massacre deserve justice, but that what happened in Tulsa 100 years ago is a perfect example of why the discussion of federal reparations needs to move forward.

“The idea of Tulsa, and the idea of continued disparities in the African American community, are ones that need to be repaired,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said Tuesday morning during a virtual caucus press conference.

Jackson Lee is the current sponsor of H.R. 40, a bill that would create a federal commission to study the need for reparations for Black Americans.

The idea of reparations has gained more traction in recent years and the long-standing bill passed out of committee for the first time in April. However, it has yet to receive a floor vote in the House.

“I want to commend the president for coming to Tulsa to bring additional awareness, and the need for racial equity, healing and justice,” Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), the caucus’s first vice chair, said during the virtual press conference.

“This has been a cornerstone of what he has talked about in his administration, and not just talked about, but actually taken action to implement.”

The White House has repeatedly said that the president supports the purpose of H.R. 40, but has stopped short of fully backing direct payments or other forms of reparations.

Biden has also faced pressure to forgive up to $50,000 per person in student loan debt, which groups like the NAACP have said would do more than any other measure to narrow the wealth gap in the country. But the White House made no mention of student loan forgiveness in Tuesday’s announcements, and Biden has said he’s uncomfortable canceling more than $10,000 per person in outstanding student loan debt.

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US Sec. of State: Central America Must Do More to Stop Mass Immigration

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Central American governments to do more to help contain illegal immigration and voiced concerns about the health of local democracy and human rights during a visit to the region on Tuesday.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado, Blinken said the United States wanted to hear from its partners in the region about their shared commitment to managing migratory pressures.

“Good governance is crucial for confronting the challenges and seizing the opportunities of this moment, and yet we meet at a moment when democracy and human rights are being undermined in many parts of the region,” Blinken told reporters.

Blinken cited erosion of judicial independence, crackdowns on independent media and NGOs, as well as the suppression of anti-corruption efforts to illustrate his point, noting that the United States had also suffered its own setbacks.

U.S. President Joe Biden has been under pressure to reduce a sharp increase in undocumented immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office in January.

Regional cooperation to address the issue was now more important than ever, said Blinken, who traveled to Costa Rica, to hold talks with leaders from Central America and Mexico.

Many immigrants stopped at the U.S. border are from three violent and impoverished Central American countries, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which Washington has pledged aid in return for commitments to improve local governance.

That drive has been clouded by concern about graft, cronyism, signs of authoritarianism and efforts to block the appointment of judges with track records of tackling corruption.

The United States has promised to help poorer countries in the fight against COVID-19 with vaccines, and Blinken said the government would in the next week or so set out plans for how millions of doses would be distributed. read more

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Virus Variants to Have Greek Alphabet Names, Ecuador Vaccinates, World Stats

WHO revising COVID-19 variant naming to avoid stigmatizing countries

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced changes to how it will label COVID-19 variants on Monday, saying the variants will be named using letters of the Greek alphabet instead of the place where they were first discovered.

The WHO declared that variants of interest and variants of concern will receive a designated Greek letter listed on its website.

Researchers will continue to use the scientific names for each variant, created by Pango and GISAID, because the names include helpful information on the strains.

Why the change: The naming system was developed after the WHO consulted experts from around the world following concerns that labeling the variants by their location of discovery is “stigmatizing” and “discriminatory.”

The international health organization predicts the new system “will be easier and more practical” for nonscientists to use.

“While they have their advantages, these scientific names can be difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting,” the WHO said in a statement. “As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory.”

“To avoid this and to simplify public communications, WHO encourages national authorities, media outlets and others to adopt these new labels,” the statement continued.

New names: The WHO identifies four “variants of concern,” including B.1.1.7, the variant first discovered in the United Kingdom, which will be called Alpha. The B.1.351 variant first found in South Africa was labeled as Beta, the P.1 variant first discovered in Brazil became Gamma and the B.1.617.2 variant first detected in India is now Delta.
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Ecuador Launches 100 Day Vaccination Plan

Ecuador this week launched a plan to vaccinate 9 million people against the novel coronavirus in 100 days, part of recently installed President Guillermo Lasso’s plan to revive the economy by battling the pandemic.

Lasso recognized that the country needed to acquire further doses from overseas in order to reach that goal, and said the government was in talks with Russia over the purchase of some 18 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.

“All of our logistical effort will be successful once we have vaccines,” Lasso said while presenting the plan. “It is urgent, and we depend on the provision of vaccines from abroad.”

Ecuador began its inoculation campaign in January, but former President Lenin Moreno’s administration advanced slowly due to logistical issues, allegations of nepotism in the allocation of shots, and frequent changes of top health officials.

Lasso, a conservative ex-banker who took office on May 24, said he had also asked the United Nations to speed up the delivery of vaccines under the COVAX initiative intended to supply shots to poor countries. The World Health Organization, part of the U.N. system, oversees the program.

The Health Ministry has said that Ecuador has received some 3.5 million doses so far of Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), Sinovac (SVA.O) and AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) vaccines.

The South American country’s rollout will use more than 300 spaces that had been equipped to serve as election centers in the recent April vote. The government will deploy mobile vaccination brigades to hard-to-reach rural areas, including the communities of the Amazon region.

Ecuador, with a population of 17.5 million, has reported some 427,690 coronavirus cases and more than 20,620 deaths between confirmed and likely cases.

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WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

171,944,492

Deaths:

3,576,062

Recovered:

154,455,111
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

[back to top ↑]

Latest News

June 2 (GMT)

Updates

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Copa America: Brazil’s President Defends Hosting the Event

Brazil’s president has defended its hosting of the Copa America tournament despite the raging Covid pandemic there. Brazil took over the event from Argentina because of coronavirus in that nation.

There has been widespread criticism after the South American Football Association (Conmebol) announced on Monday that Brazil would be hosting the event, due to start next week.

A Supreme Court judge has ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to provide more information on the decision.

Brazil has been hit hard by the pandemic, with nearly 463,000 deaths.

Mr Bolsonaro said the decision was not up for discussion and that the tournament, which involves players across South America, did not pose a health risk.

He said on Tuesday that he had spoken with the health minister and they had agreed to host the event.

‘We have to live’

“As far as it is up to me, and all the ministers, including the health minister, it is all decided,” Mr Bolsonaro told his supporters in Brasilia.

“From the beginning I have said about the pandemic: I regret the deaths, but we have to live,” he added.

But the decision has been criticised by a number of lawmakers in the country. One senator, Otto Alencar appealed to star Brazilian footballer Neymar for assistance.

“Neymar, I want to tell you something: You shouldn’t agree with the holding of this America’s Cup in Brazil! Don’t agree to this. It is not this championship that we need to now compete in. We need to compete in the vaccination championship,” he said.

The Supreme Court has given Mr Bolsonaro five days to submit information on the government’s decision to host the tournament after the opposition Workers’ Party filed a suit objecting to the tournament.

Mr Bolsonaro has announced that four states including Rio de Janeiro will host the matches however fans will not be able to attend. At least six states said they would not be hosting matches due to the pandemic, AFP news agency reports.

The Copa America was originally set to be co-hosted by Argentina and Colombia in 2020 but the tournament was pushed back a year due to the pandemic.

Colombia was removed as hosts last month amid widespread protests against the government, with Argentina later stripped of the role too due to rising Covid-19 cases.

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Biden Ends Trump-Era ‘Remain in Mexico’ Immigration Program

By Olafimihan Oshin and Rafael Bernal –
The Hill- The Biden administration has formally terminated the “Remain in Mexico” program, the latest in a series of moves to dismantle the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies.

The program, known formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), was a cornerstone of Trump’s border management policy; it forced potential asylum seekers to stay in Mexico to wait out the result of their case in U.S. immigration court.

In a memo ending the program Tuesday, Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said the MPP did not help with enhancing the border management.

The move was first reported by Reuters.

President Biden paused MPP shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, and has allowed into the country around 11,000 people who were in the program according to Reuters.

The formal end of MPP comes days after the Department of Homeland Security officially banned family separations for prosecutions of illegal border crossings, another Trump administration policy designed to slow the asylum process.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif), chairwoman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations, released a joint statement Tuesday applauding the announcement.

“This policy was a stain on our nation’s history and our longstanding tradition of protecting refugees and asylum seekers,” Thompson and Barragán wrote.

“Despite Republican efforts to misrepresent U.S. asylum law and smear those fleeing violence and seeking asylum, we must remember that it is completely legal to come to the U.S. border and seek asylum. While the process has been underway to dismantle MPP and bring asylum seekers in the country, more still needs to be done to help those hurt by the policy and we look forward to working with the Administration on those efforts. We must ensure we have a just and humane asylum processing system,” they added.

Biden has faced criticism over his immigration policies from both the right and left, from one end for discontinuing Trump’s restrictive approach and from the other for not moving quickly enough to dismantle it.

But the administration has sped up the pace of reform, drawing praise for moves like the end of MPP, family separations and providing safe haven to Haitian immigrants in the United States.

“This is a huge victory. The forced return policy was cruel, depraved, and illegal, and we are glad that it has finally been rescinded,” said Judy Rabinovitz, an attorney for the ACLU who led the organization’s legal challenge against MPP.

Still advocates for a return to broad application of asylum law say obstacles remain, including a measure known as Title 42, which allows U.S. border officials to quickly expel anyone crossing the border without authorization — including potential asylum seekers — under the guise of protecting from the spread of COVID-19.

“The administration must follow through on this announcement by ensuring that everyone who has been subjected to this policy can now pursue their asylum cases in the United States, in safety and without additional trauma or delay. And it must swiftly move to dismantle the Trump administration’s other attacks on the asylum system, including the unconscionable ‘Title 42’ order,” said Rabinovitz in a statement.

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Active COVID-19 Cases up to 25, Officials confirm Community Spredd

Active COVID-19 cases in St. Kitts and Nevis are now up to 25 after four additional cases have been reported in the last 24 hours.

This was revealed by Cheif Medical Officer Dr Hazel Laws who said the federation has reported 73 cases of COVID 19 with 25 currently active cases.

She said that case 70 and 71 had no links to recent cases that were found in recent weeks.
“We have not found any link between these two cases and recent cases.  There is not a recent travel history to or from a hot spot. Based on the information we have this is a state of community spread.
“A state of community spread implies the virus is now circulating in the community. It is theoretically possible for someone in the community to catch COVID 19.”

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T&T Opposition Leader Cites COVID Restrictions for Economic Hardships

Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar said while the restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are necessary, “thousands of people are unable to earn an income and care for their families”.

In a message to mark Indian Arrival Day on Monday, Persad Bissessar, the leader of the United National Congress, said just as “our forefathers united to overcome challenges and build a nation, we must work together now to bring the COVID-19-19 crisis under control”.

She said on the 176th anniversary of the arrival of the first East Indian immigrants to Trinidad and Tobago, the population is also reminded of their courage and resilience in a time of great uncertainty.

“Having braved the perilous journey, our forefathers suffered great hardship upon their arrival to our shores. They persevered and held on to their religious beliefs, culture and traditions, which were passed on through generations. In spite of the harsh conditions and experience of indentureship, the majority of Indians who came to Trinidad and Tobago chose to make this country their home,” said Persad Bissessar, the first woman of Indian descent to lead a government in Trinidad.

She said that the indenture system lasted for over 70 years, ending in 1917, and just a year later, our country, along with the rest of the Caribbean was ravaged by an influenza pandemic, with the Indian immigrant population and the poor and indigenous populations being particularly hard-hi

“Today, our nation is once again in the throes of a pandemic, this time because of a novel coronavirus – COVID-19. While we have the benefit of advances in technology, equipment, and health care, the poor and vulnerable in our society are severely impacted in many ways.

“The restrictions that are in place, while necessary to curb the spread of the virus, mean that thousands of people are unable to earn an income and care for their families. There is a need for greater protection of the poor and vulnerable at this time,” she said.

Persad Bissessar said that “today we can draw inspiration from our East Indian forefathers and all others who made this nation their home as they looked out for each other, and worked together to build communities. Let us follow their example and work together to overcome this crisis that we are facing.

“Indian Arrival Day serves as a reminder of the diverse beauty of our nation as individuals of different cultures all united to build our nation. The people of Trinidad and Tobago are resilient, and I am confident that together, we can rebuild and emerge stronger than before, and realize our vision for our nation.”

CMC

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It’s Here: CDEMA Calls for Caution and Preparation During Hurricane Season

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) has called on the region to pay close attention to the upcoming hurricane season.

The 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, is forecast to be above normal with a likely range of 13 to 20 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which six to 10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including three to five major hurricanes with winds of 111 mph or higher.

“It only takes one event to make an impact so hurricane preparedness is critical every year regardless of how much activity is forecast,”Elizabeth Riley, Executive Director of CDEMA, said at a media conference today.

“The message is really one of preparedness and we say this every year and the national disaster offices reiterate the message and we want to repeat it.”

The risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading during the hurricane season remains high and Riley said both her organisation and its partner the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) have agreed that virus prevention measures need to be maintained as some states are battling with the spread of variants of concern such as the one discovered in Brazil.

Over 700,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the region and more than 10,000 of those people have died.

“Individuals and communities must therefore continue to adhere to covid-19 protocols in the face of hurricane threats especially if public sheltering is required,” Riley said while noting that sheltering at public facilities will be limited.

She encouraged people, who plant to use their private dwellings as hurricane shelters, to ensure that sanitation measures are in place for all guests.

The process to restock items taken from CDEMA’s sub-regional warehouses in Barbados, Trinidad and Antigua to respond to the La Soufriere volcano eruption has started. Riley noted that most of the food and water sent to St Vincent were donated by the private sector.

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