WASHINGTON, CMC – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Monday expressed concerns regarding the human rights situation of the Maya indigenous communities in the District of Toledo, in Belize. The IACHR said that it has received information that private companies have been carrying out oil exploration and exploitation and logging activities in the traditional lands of Maya communities under permits issued by State authorities without prior consultation.
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ST JOHN_ Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Minister John Maginley will speak to Chinese authorities later this month in Beijing about renewed efforts to tap into their tourism market. The announcement came as newly appointed Chinese ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda Ren Gongping paid a courtesy call on the tourism minister. Maginley believed the time had come for Antigua and Barbuda and, by extension, the Caribbean to do more to attract the attention of Chinese holidaymakers, adding that such a lucrative market would augur well for small states like his.
NEW YORK, CMC - United States federal prosecutors have charged a powerful Caribbean American legislator with embezzlement.
New York State senator, John L. Sampson, who represents the largely Caribbean 19th Senatorial District in Brooklyn, had been charged with stealing funds from the sale of foreclosed properties and using the money to help finance his race for Brooklyn district attorney.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Portia Simpson Miller government says it will establish a comprehensive database of Jamaican professionals and investors abroad.
"We will be embarking on a mapping of this later on in the year with the assistance from the International Organization on Migration," said junior Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Arnaldo Brown.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar has indicated that her former national security minister Austin “Jack” Warner is not an automatic choice of the ruling United National Congress (UNC) to contest the parliamentary seat he vacated in the wake of a damning report of his activities as an international football executive.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is trying to rebuild his political party as the Caribbean nation prepares for legislative and local elections, a prominent hotelier said Sunday.
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC – The two main political parties used Monday’s Labour Day celebrations to encourage voters to be prepared for a general election that though constitutionally due by 2015, could, according to political observers be held long before that deadline.
Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas, addressing a large gathering at the Allers Playing field in the St. Johnson’s Village, following the Full Confidence Labour Day Parade, told supporters that they should ensure they are registered in order to vote.
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony has been defending his government's decision to join the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) dismissing suggestions that membership would harm the island’s future socio-economic development.
Last month, Governor General Dame Pearlette Louisy said St. Lucia was joining Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as the newest member of the Venezuelan-led initiative.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados is moving to establish a hotel innovation fund to provide low-cost finance to hoteliers and other stakeholders in the tourism industry, Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Chris Sinckler has announced.
“I recently had discussions with the chairman of the National Insurance Board, Dr. Justin Robinson, and he has assured me that very shortly we will be able to bring our sector stakeholders and players in to begin to fashion the Hotel Innovation Fund that we had announced in the Financial Statement and Budgetary proposals of last year.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - The group, Jamaicans United for Sustainable Development, is calling for the newly established International Monetary Fund Oversight Committee to ensure that the country takes immediate advantage of the new economic zone for investment, trade and development.
The economic zone was among measures agreed on by PetroCaribe member states during the summit in Venezuela over the weekend.