News

KINGSTON, Jamaica - THIS week, as Jamaicans brace themselves for severe belt-tightening because of the accord to be signed between the Government and the IMF, two incumbent parties in the Eastern Caribbean will be struggling to avoid becoming one-term administrations. The governments facing this survival "political cliff" — while Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's ruling People's National Party (PNP) struggles against its very challenging "fiscal cliff" — are those of Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart in Barbados and of his Grenadian counterpart Tillman Thomas.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The two main political parties here are in a statistical dead heat ahead of Thursday’s general election with Barbadians giving the nod to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart over his main challenger, Owen Arthur, according to the latest opinion poll published here on Sunday. The poll by the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), published in the Sunday Sun newspaper however indicates that Arthur’s Barbados Labour Party (BLP) still hold a “slight edge” for control of the 30 seats in the parliament.

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Grenada’s two major political parties were entering the final 24 hours of their campaign for Tuesday’s general election, buoyed by the large turnout of supporters Sunday and predicting a win that allow them to govern this Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country for the next five years.

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- When Jamaican officials snubbed a group of young Haitian soccer players who visited two years ago on the heels of a deadly cholera outbreak in their quake-torn homeland, a revolted Marguerite Rigaud immediately went into action. In a matter of days, the Pétionville restaurateur had thousands of Haitians marching through the streets of Port-au-Prince protesting the boys’ mistreatment by a fellow Caribbean nation. “I couldn’t believe that another black nation would do this to a sister nation. I found it revolting,” Rigaud said.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - THE CRIME menace afflicting the Caribbean region as well as recurring air transportation woes are scheduled for special focus at the two-day 24th Inter-Sessional Meeting of Caribbean Community Heads of Government that gets underway today in Haiti.
Participating in the special session on crime and security with the CARIC0M leaders and their relevant cabinet colleagues will be the Attorney General of the United States of America, Eric Holder.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC - Guyana’s Aviation Minister Robeson Benn has called on the management of Fly Jamaica Airline to meet certain conditions before it begins flights out of the country. Benn has asked for the submission of corporate financial information as well as a bond from the airline. “The government of Guyana, like any responsible government and particularly for airlines which are coming to Guyana and we are having failures and withdrawal, has to be interested in whether there is viability and sustainability and financing for that operation,” he said.

BRUSSELS—The European Union and the United States announced yesterday that they have agreed to pursue talks aimed at achieving an overarching trans-Atlantic free trade deal. The 27-country EU said such an agreement, first announced in Tuesday’s State of the Union address by President Barack Obama, would be the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated. Any agreement could boost the EU’s economic output by 0.5 per cent—a highly desirable outcome when the EU and the US are struggling with slow growth, high unemployment and high levels of debt.

SAN JUAN—The number of people traveling to the Caribbean is bouncing back to pre-recession levels, with visitors from Canada and the US giving a boost to a region struggling to recover from a global economic crisis, a top tourism official said. About 25 million tourists visited the Caribbean last year, a more than five per cent increase from 2011. It’s a growth rate that outpaced the rest of the world, which saw arrivals increase by 4 percent, said Beverly Nicholson-Doty, chairwoman of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organisation.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s currency devaluation took effect on Wednesday amid questions about how the government can get a grip on 22-per cent inflation and satisfy growing demand for dollars to pay for imported goods. Some economists predict that the devaluation won’t solve problems such as a dearth of dollars for imports and shortages of some staple foods. The country’s fifth devaluation in a decade established a new government-set rate of 6.30 bolivars to the dollar, replacing the previous rate of 4.30 bolivars.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Guardian -T&T is not in danger of a devaluation of its currency as just happened in Venezuela because the two foreign exchange regimes are different, a University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) economist and International Relations lecturer, who asked not to be named, told the T&T Guardian yesterday. The lecturer explained that Venezuela has a fixed exchange rate and Venezuelan Central Bank officials made the decision to increase revenues to fund the country’s popular social programmes.