CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
The Antigua and Barbuda government
is in support of billionaire Richard
Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic,
interest in investing in the cashstrapped
regional airline LIAT.
Branson has proposed investing
US$7million and would wet lease several
aircraft, jets and they would very
likely fly from Fort
Lauderdale, USA, to
maybe Jamaica, Haiti,
down into Antigua and
Barbuda, according to
Antigua and Barbuda chief of staff,
Lionel Max Hurst.
He said the Gaston Browne administration
prefers the Branson involvement
in LIAT than what is being floated
by the Barbados government.
Hurst said the whole idea is to
enlarge LIAT rather than collapse the
regional airline or making it a smaller
entity.
“I believe the idea that Barbados had
in mind was to sell two of the aircraft,
which they claim would be theirs and
then use the cash component that will
result in starting up yet another carrier
that would be based primarily in
the southern part of the Caribbean.
We reject any plan that would result in
LIAT either being downsized or completely
collapsed,” Hurst told WINNFM
radio in St. Kitts.
He said Antigua and Barbuda is hoping
that Branson’s interest will materialized
into meaningful investment
in LIAT.
Bahamas
The Bahamas government has condemned
the murder of a United States
national in Bimini recently, saying that
it takes any incident
affecting a visitor very
seriously.
The government
was reacting to reports
by a friend of Alain Perez that “inaction”
by Bahamian officials and an
“under-equipped” clinic contributed to
his death.
Police are searching for the gunman
who shot the American multiple times
in his torso when he opened the door of
his condo during the early hours of the
morning after hearing a knock.
The government said in a statement:
“The government of The Bahamas continues
to monitor closely the situation
involving the unfortunate death of
Perez. We strongly condemn this random
and heinous act of violence.”
Minister of Health, Dr. Duane Sands
defended the efforts made to save Perez’s
life saying that a consultant physician
trained in advanced trauma life support
attended to him.
He said the physician cared for the
47-year-old for nearly two hours, noting
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Dr. Keith Rowley, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago ( front,l), arrives for the Nineteenth Special Meeting of the Conference of
Heads of Government held in Trinidad and tobago. CARICOM
that the man had life threatening
injuries and he succumbed from these
injuries.
The United States has in recent
months been issuing travel advisories
for its nationals visiting The Bahamas.
Caribbean
St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister,
Timothy Harris has called for the
strengthening of cooperation among
CARICOM nations, expressing “deep
concern about the level of crime in the
region.”
He was at the time
speaking at the recent
19th Special meeting
of the Conference of
CARICOM Heads of Government on
Security held at Hilton Trinidad and
Conference Centre, Port of Spain.
The meeting, which was chaired by
Harris, came at a time when the economic,
political and social collapse of
Venezuela could threaten border security
of neighboring nations.
He called for more information and
shared intelligence among CARICOM
nations as well as borderless data collection
to fight the scourge of crime
migration.
Harris said data collection “must
form the basis of devising strategies and
strengthening policy and operational
responses to the challenges.”
He also called for closer collaboration
by law agencies across the CARICOM
Caribbean L 4 ife, May 17–23, 2019 BQ
nations.
“Illicit trafficking in guns, drugs and
people pose significant threats to our
society and enhanced cooperation in
an urgent necessary to help in combating,”
he said.
The prime minister noted that there
was a connection between the drugs,
small arms, light weapons and the geographical
location of some CARICOM
islands.
Guyana
CARICOM has called on the United
States to renew legislation regarding
the extension of the Caribbean Basin
Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) and
the World Trade Organization (WTO)
waiver beyond December 2019 so as to
allow continued duty-free access to the
US market.
The call was made by CARICOM Secretary
General, Irwin La Rocque during
the recent accreditation ceremony of
the new US ambassador to the region,
Sarah-Ann Lynch at
the CARICOM Secretariat
in Guyana.
He said the region
also welcomes greater
flows of US investments in agriculture,
tourism and transportation.
In his address, La Rocque also underscored
the importance of cooperation in
clean and renewable energy and security
amidst increasing security threats in
the current global environment.
In that context, he said CARICOM is
looking forward to collaboration with
the United States at the US-Caribbean
Security Cooperation Commission in
Barbados and at the Eighth Caribbean-
US High-Level Dialogue in Washington
next month.
La Rocque said the United States
should now be more sensitive to CARICOM’s
concerns about black-listing
by the European Union, since the US
recently experienced that action itself.
The US diplomat said CARICOM had
been able to “successfully dismantle
barriers to fair trade and created the
formidable Caribbean Court of Justice.”
She said that the United States supported
and encouraged the single economic
space of the Caribbean Single
Market and Economy (CSME) that
allows for the free movement of goods,
skills, labor and services across the
15-member grouping.
Jamaica
The Jamaica government is moving
to establish a national insurance plan
(NHIP) for its citizens.
This was announced by Minister of
Health and Wellness,
Dr. Christopher Tufton
who said that only 20
percent of the population
has health insurance,
with more than half of these
being public sector workers.
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