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Caribbean

Caribbean Asks For Reparations

May 19, 2022 Colonialism Reparation. , , ,
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic on September 26, 2020 during the General Debate of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves said that [...] the international campaign for reparatory justice, widely promoted by governments across our Caribbean Community and by social activists within the industrialized metropoles, must form part of any serious efforts to achieve the sustainable development agenda […]. On November 3, 2020 during the "Peacebuilding and sustaining peace" debate organized by the United Nations Security Council the President of the "CARICOM Reparations Commission" Hilary Beckles [...] called on the Council to acknowledge the global reparatory movement, adding that while most crimes against humanity were committed in past, the current century will be one of peace and justice […].

Black Alliance For Peace: Boycott The Summit Of The Americas

May 13, 2022 Black Alliance for Peace. , , ,
The arbitrary decision by the government of the United States to exclude Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela from participation in the regional Summit of the Americas - scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, June 6 to June 10—represents another example of imperial hubris and delusion. Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently announced that he would boycott the Summit unless all countries in the region are invited. Some member states of CARICOM and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, including Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and Grenadines, are also considering not attending the Summit. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, stated that his country “does not believe in the policy of ostracising Cuba and Venezuela.”

These Dark Times Are Also Filled with Light

April 22, 2022 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. , , ,
In early March, Argentina’s government came to an Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $45 billion deal to shore up its shaky finances. This deal was motivated by the government’s need to pay a $2.8 billion instalment on a $57 billion IMF stand-by loan taken out under former President Mauricio Macri in 2018. This loan – the largest loan in the financial institution’s history – sharpened divides in Argentinian society. The following year, the Macri administration was ousted in elections by the center-left Frente de Todos coalition which campaigned on a sharp anti-austerity, anti-IMF program. When President Alberto Fernández took office in December 2019, he refused the final $13 billion tranche of the IMF’s loan package, a move applauded by large sections of Argentinian society.

The Venezuela Coup, 20 Years Later

April 15, 2022 Dan Beeton, CEPR. , , , ,
On April 11, 2002, Venezuela’s democratically elected government, headed by Hugo Chávez Frías, was ousted in a military coup d’etat. Then, dramatically, two days later, the coup was overturned by a mass mobilization of Venezuelans. They demanded the restoration of democracy and the return of a government that appeared to be making good on its commitment to redistribute Venezuela’s oil wealth to benefit the country’s most marginalized sectors. These events led to lasting ramifications not just for Venezuela, but for Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole, paving the way for a “pink tide” of progressive movements that took power democratically throughout the region.

Latin America Is Rejecting US Assistance

March 14, 2022 Kawsachun News. , , ,
Latin America and the Caribbean is partnering with China on multi-billion dollar development projects and while turning down assistance offered by the United States. 21 of 31 countries of the region, both friends and foes of Washington alike, have joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the dismay of U.S. lawmakers. Congressional Representative Lisa McClain sought an explanation for the phenomenon at this week’s House Armed Services Committee hearing on National Security Challenges and Military Activity in North and South America. McClain, a Republican representing Michigan, remarked on the failure of the U.S. Build Act (2018), which had been introduced in an attempt by Congress to counteract China’s BRI.

Latin America Is Moving Towards Plurinationalism

February 25, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , ,
The Latin American and the Caribbean region is advancing towards breaking free from colonial mentality and recognizing nationalities of the Indigenous people and their cultural heritage. In recent years, various progressive leaders across the region have presented in their election campaigns proposals for a plurinational state to work towards eliminating perceptions of ethnic and cultural inferiority and a form of internalized racial oppression. In practice this means the shift from the colonial one nation, one culture and one language state model to the plurinational state model, which recognizes different nations with their own languages, cultures and identities that were historically neglected, within a polity.

2021 Latin America And The Caribbean In Review: The Pink Tide Rises Again

January 1, 2022 Roger Harris, Counter Punch. , , ,
US policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean continued in a seamless transition from Trump to Biden, but the terrain over which it operated shifted left. The balance between the US drive to dominate its “backyard” and its counterpart, the Bolivarian cause of regional independence and integration, continued to tip portside in 2021 with major popular electoral victories in Chile, Honduras, and Peru. These follow the previous year’s reversal of the coup in Bolivia. Central has been the struggle of the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America) countries – particularly Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua – against the asphyxiating US blockade and other regime-change measures. Presidential candidate Biden pledged to review Trump’s policy of US sanctions against a third of humanity.

20th ALBA-TCP Summit Declaration

December 17, 2021 Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
The Heads of State and Government and the Heads of Delegations of the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), meet in Havana, Cuba, on December 14, 2021 to commemorate the 17th Anniversary of the Alliance. In signing this Declaration, we renew our commitment to strengthen this mechanism of political coordination based on the principles of solidarity, social justice, cooperation and economic complementarity, a result of the political will of its founders, the Commanders Fidel Castro Ruz and Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías.

Barbados: The Long Road To The Republic

December 12, 2021 Richard Drayton, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
On November 30, 2021, on the 55th anniversary of its political independence, Barbados will become a republic. It is commonly assumed this was some sudden decision by Mia Mottley’s government. The most bizarre suggestion came from British voices, who asserted this had to do with Barbados tilting to China. But the roots of this change go back decades, and are anchored in the politics of the wider Caribbean. Forbes Burnham’s decision in 1970 to proclaim the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and Eric Williams’s push towards the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in 1976, are the key precedents. Both were underpinned by the politics of what I have called ‘secondary decolonization’, for which, in the long 1970s, the global Black Power moment was central.

Barbados Becomes A Republic

December 4, 2021 La Izquierda Diario Argentina, Left Voice. , , ,
At midnight on Tuesday, November 30, Barbados, an island nation in the Caribbean, declared itself a republic. Sandra Prunella Mason was promoted from governor general to president after by Parliament. In a formal ceremony, attended by Prince Charles representing Queen Elizabeth II, the country ceased to be a constitutional monarchy, removing the queen from her position as head of state. The country, however, will remain part of the Commonwealth of Nations.

2021: Political Turning Point In Central America And The Caribbean

December 4, 2021 Mision Verdad, Orinoco Tribune. , ,
With the background noise of migration to the United States and the recent victory of Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, Central America and the Caribbean are at a turning point that will play an important role in the years to come in Latin America and the Caribbean. The region comes from processes of civil wars, historical colonization and systematic impoverishment; however, the facts are woven with this historical thread in which democracy and human rights are used in the interest of the hegemonic narrative to intervene and capture geostrategic resources. Three of the multiple processes taking place are described below.

Building Towards Climate Resilience In The Caribbean

October 17, 2021 Johannah-Rae Reyes, ROAR Magazine. , , ,
In 2017, Hurricane Maria raged across the Caribbean island of Dominica, leaving 31 people dead with many more still missing to this day. When the hurricane had passed, island residents were left to contend with widespread infrastructural damage and economic instability. Life as Dominicans knew it, would never be the same again.

Historic Africa/CARICOM Summit

September 17, 2021 Don Rojas, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
It was an idea whose time had come. On Tuesday, September 5 this idea took material form at the first Africa/CARICOM Summit conducted virtually and broadcast to the world via the Web and social media. Participants at the historical event included heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community and the African Union, chairs of Caricom and the African Union Commission, the Africa Regional Economic Communities, the Secretaries General of Caricom and the Organization of the African Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and the president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). The Summit was chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya under the theme ‘Unity Across Continents and Oceans: Opportunities for Deepening Integration’.

First Africa-CARICOM Summit

September 8, 2021 Kawsachun News. , ,
Hosted by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, and with the theme ‘Unity Across Continents and Oceans: Opportunities for Deepening Integration’, participating governments looked at ways to strengthen the linkages between the people of Africa and the Caribbean regions by addressing integration challenges across continents. Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, and Chair of CARICOM, proposed the establishment of a Forum of African and Caribbean Territories and States (FACTS) to be coordinated jointly by the Secretariats of CARICOM and the African Union (AU). He also proposed the designation of September 7th “Africa-CARICOM Day” in every year going forward, which would coincide with a repeat of the Africa-CARICOM summit “to analyze the global situation and our place within it; to discuss initiatives and programs; and to authorize joint actions.”

Collective Militarized White Supremacy And Black Neocolonialism

August 19, 2021 Gerald A. Perreira, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
Except for the hum of US helicopters flying overhead, there was a deafening silence throughout the Caribbean region, during the recent Operation Tradewinds, Progressive and Pan-African forces did not utter a word, as soldiers from Guyana, Brazil, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago participated in this region-wide military exercise with army personnel from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and the Netherlands. We were told that Operation Tradewinds was “a US Southern Command sponsored combined joint exercise conducted with partner nations to enhance the collective ability of defense forces and constabularies to counter transnational criminal organizations, conduct humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief operations.”
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