CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
The United States government, in
collaboration with the government of
Antigua and Barbuda recently launched
a Police Records Management Information
System (PRMIS), which is designed
to help the Police Force to improve data
management and analysis.
PRMIS will be piloted in two police
stations — the Dockyard and St. John
Police Stations.
It will ultimately
strengthen police
response to support
crime reduction using
such measures as geo-mapping and victim
and offender profiling.
The system is a key component of the
United States Agency for International
Development’s (USAID) CariSECURE
project.
CariSECURE is a component of USA’s
wider Youth Empowerment Services
(YES) Project, which aims to reduce
youth involvement in the Caribbean. It
is implemented by the United Nations
Development program (UNDP).
PRMIS uses standardized crime and
violence data to foster evidence-based
policy and programing across eight
eastern and southern Caribbean countries,
including Antigua and Barbuda.
These countries will benefit from
customized software that allows for
cross country comparisons and generates
high quality data to support
cohesive regional crime strategies and
responses.
Antigua and Barbuda is the fifth
country to launch the PRMIS.
Barbados
The Barbados-based Caribbean
Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology
(CIMH) said that while there is
less concern over short-term drought,
there remains such concern over longterm
drought as the end of the year
approaches.
In its latest Caribbean
Drought Bulletin
released recently
in Barbados said the
drought situation is of even more concern
given that the wet season is also
coming to an end.
The CIMH said the long-term
drought situation — by the end of
November 2019 — is of immediate
concern in south-eastern Belize, while
noting that the long-term drought is
evolving in Antigua, Barbados, norther
and central Belize, Dominica, French
Guiana, Grenada, St. Kitts and Trinidad
and Tobago.
It said that long-term drought
might possibly continue in Hispaniola
and Martinique and might also
develop in northern Puerto Rico, St.
Martin, St. Vincent and the United
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Islands.
In a review of the situation in the
region for August, the CIMH said there
were mixed conditions seen throughout
the islands of the eastern Caribbean.
Caribbean
India is providing a US$150 million
line of credit to finance renewable
energy and climate change-related
projects in the Caribbean Community
(Caricom).
This is according to a statement
issued by the St. Kitts-Nevis government.
The statement follows
a historic summit
between India and the
15-member CARICOM
grouping that was aimed at deepening
the political cooperation among various
stakeholders.
CARICOM leaders as well as foreign
ministers, who recently attended
the 74th session of the United Nations
General Assembly (UNGA) met with
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
in the first–ever CARICOM-India summit
according to the statement.
New Delhi is also making available a
US$14 million grant for “quick impact”
community development projects within
CARICOM.
The prime minister of India also
Caribbean L 4 ife, Oct. 11-17, 2019 BQ
announced the establishment of the
Regional Center for Excellence in Information
Technology in Guyana and the
Regional Vocational Training Center in
Belize, which are upgrades to the existing
India-funded centers in those two
countries.
The St. Kitts-Nevis statement said
coming out of the meeting a joint task
force will be created to map the way
forward in deepening relations between
Caricom and India on bilateral and
regional matters.
Guyana
Guyana says the International Court
of Justice (ICJ) will carry out the oral
hearings in the case regarding the
country’s border dispute with Venezuela
from March 23 to 27 next year.
A statement issued by the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs said it welcomes the
notification by the ICJ on the issue.
The Arbitral Award of 1899 (Guyana
v Venezuela) matter will determine
whether the court has jurisdiction over
the case filed by Guyana on March 29,
2018.
Guyana is seeking
to obtain from the
ICJ, a final and binding
judgement that
the 1899 Arbitral Award, which established
the location of the land boundary
between the then-British Guiana and
Venezuela, remains valid and binding
and that Guyana’s Essequibo region
belongs to Guyana and not Venezuela.
Guyana submitted the case to the
court after the UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres determined, that the
dispute over the validity of the Arbitral
Award and the resulting boundary,
must be decided by the court. That constitutes
a sufficient jurisdictional basis
for the court to proceed.
The century long border dispute
escalated in May 2015 when oil was
found in disputed waters off the coast
of Venezuela.
Jamaica
Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw
says Jamaica will be partnering with the
Harvard International Phytomedicines
and the Medical Cannabis Institute
(HIPI) in the US on initiatives aimed at
improving the country’s competitiveness
in the global cannabis industry.
Shaw, in making the disclosure, said
representatives of HIPI will be visiting
the island this month as part of the
impending arrangement.
Speaking at the
opening of the CanEx
Business Conference
and Expo in the western
capital of Montego
Bay recently, Shaw said the administration
is committed to developing the
local cannabis industry in a holistic
manner, which will bring economic
benefits for Jamaicans.
More protest in Haiti
Continued on Page 52
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