Carib Scope

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  • New Vieux-Fort Mayor promises ‘new era of local governance

    New Vieux-Fort Mayor promises ‘new era of local governance

    A new chapter of community-centered local governance has begun in Vieux-Fort, as Rhyesa Joseph officially assumed office as the town’s mayor, anchoring her administration’s priorities in grassroots participation, worker dignity, and celebration of the region’s distinct cultural and civic identity.

    Joseph took the oath of office on Friday, August 21, during an inauguration ceremony that also swore in the full roster of members for the newly established Vieux-Fort South Constituency Council.

    Bringing a rich professional and academic background to the role, Joseph previously served as director of the Folk Research Centre, and earned the distinction of valedictorian during her studies at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill. In her inaugural address, she framed her decision to accept the mayoral post as a commitment rooted in public service and collective responsibility, rather than personal ambition.

    “While my stewardship will require the collective effort and support of councillors, staff, the community, private sector and the government, I asked myself, ‘Can I do any good here or be of any service?’ The answer was yes,” Joseph shared in her remarks.

    Collaborative, inclusive governance sits at the core of Joseph’s policy agenda for Vieux-Fort. A top priority for the new administration is restructuring how local government operates, pushing for a cultural shift that recognizes the full value of municipal workers beyond their most visible public-facing duties.

    Joseph outlined her goal to “usher in a new era of local governance where workers are respected and valued as more than street cleaners and democracy and development are community led”. Moving beyond internal administrative reform, she also laid out an ambitious long-term goal to position Vieux-Fort as a national benchmark for inclusive, sustainable municipal development, while investing more resources in amplifying and celebrating the town’s unique local history and identity.

    In a departure from top-down development frameworks, Joseph emphasized that local residents hold a critical share of responsibility for shaping Vieux-Fort’s future, urging community members to recognize their own agency in driving progress. She pushed back against the idea that successful development models must be imported from external regions, noting, “Development is homegrown and need not be imported or copied for success.”

    Closing her address, Joseph extended gratitude to the newly seated council members for their commitment to public service, as well as to the outgoing and continuing municipal staff who have maintained consistent operations for the town during the transition period.

  • BTL Withdraws Speednet Acquisition Bid

    BTL Withdraws Speednet Acquisition Bid

    In a major development in Belize’s telecommunications landscape, Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) has formally pulled its proposed takeover of Speednet Communications Limited, the parent company of popular mobile provider SMART. The formal notice of withdrawal was delivered to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Belize’s sector regulator, in an August 24 correspondence signed by BTL Chief Financial Officer Ian Cleverly.

    The acquisition proposal was first submitted to the PUC for regulatory review back on February 10, 2026. In his letter, Cleverly confirmed that BTL is withdrawing all regulatory filings and materials related to the planned transaction, and no longer has any intention to move forward with the purchase of Speednet. As a result, he noted the PUC is no longer required to continue its review of the abandoned proposal.

    Cleverly emphasized that BTL entered the acquisition process with genuine good intentions. The company framed the proposed merger as a move to consolidate and strengthen Belize’s entire telecommunications sector, generate operational efficiencies that would cut costs, and ultimately deliver improved, more robust services to end consumers across the country. Throughout the months-long regulatory review process, Cleverly added, BTL maintained open, constructive dialogue with all relevant stakeholders and regulatory bodies, including the PUC.

    However, the executive revealed that unforeseen changes to broader market and operating conditions have forced the company to reverse course. “Unfortunately, BTL will no longer pursue the proposed acquisition as a result of change in circumstances,” Cleverly wrote in the official notice.

    Parallel to this development, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB) has issued an urgent demand for the removal of BTL’s current chairman, setting a hard deadline of August 28 for the action to be taken. Details of the union’s specific grievances against the chairman have not been released in the initial reporting, but the high-stakes demand adds a layer of political and labor tension to the already evolving situation at Belize’s leading telecommunications provider.

  • King and Queen Visit to Antigua and Barbuda Confirmed

    King and Queen Visit to Antigua and Barbuda Confirmed

    Buckingham Palace has announced an ambitious eight-day Autumn Tour of the Caribbean for Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla, scheduled to run from October 27 to November 4, 2026. The multi-stop royal itinerary will center on the couple’s attendance at the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua and Barbuda, with preliminary official visits to two additional regional nations ahead of the global gathering.

    Before the opening of CHOGM, King Charles III – who serves as Head of State for The Bahamas in addition to his role as Head of the Commonwealth – will first carry out a royal visit to the island nation. Following that trip, the British monarch will travel to Guyana for an official State Visit, extended at the formal invitation of Guyana’s President and at the request of the United Kingdom government. This 2026 visit will mark a major milestone: six decades of formal diplomatic and bilateral relations between the UK and the South American Commonwealth nation.

    Across the entire tour, Their Majesties will focus on highlighting the diverse communities, rich cultural traditions, and unique natural environments that bind together the 56 member states of the voluntary Commonwealth association. The 2026 CHOGM itself will be hosted in St John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, running from November 1 to 4. The quadrennial gathering brings together sitting heads of government from all 56 member countries, alongside delegations from global business networks, civil society groups, and youth-led organizations working across the Commonwealth bloc. The official theme for the 2026 meeting is “Accelerating Partnerships and Investment for a Prosperous Commonwealth”, which will frame discussions on shared economic growth and cross-nation collaboration.

    For the royal party, the tour will hold personal as well as official significance. King Charles III (then the Prince of Wales) previously visited Antigua and Barbuda in 2017, in the immediate aftermath of catastrophic damage caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, when he travelled to survey recovery efforts and meet affected communities. For Queen Camilla, this 2026 trip will mark her first ever official visit to the twin-island nation. The King also has prior ties to the other stops on the tour: he carried out official visits to Guyana in February 2000, and previously visited The Bahamas in July 1973 for its independence-related celebrations.

  • Tax Workers Walk Out in Protest of Revenue Authority Bill

    Tax Workers Walk Out in Protest of Revenue Authority Bill

    On August 26, 2026, hundreds of employees from the Belize Tax Service Department (BTSD) launched a sudden full-day work stoppage, launching coordinated industrial action to oppose the newly proposed Revenue Authority Bill 2026. The strike has thrown a major wrench into tax administration operations across the Belize District, bringing widespread attention to deep-seated tensions between labor groups, government leadership, and senior department management over the controversial legislation.

    Dean Flowers, president of the Public Service Union (PSU) which represents the striking tax workers, has emerged as the most vocal critic of the bill and the handling of the reform process. In an impassioned address following the walkout, Flowers commended tax staff for unified action to defend their employment rights, noting that participation across all regional BTSD offices exceeded union expectations. “What we have seen today proves that these workers are ready to take control of their own future, not sit back and accept changes that threaten their livelihoods,” Flowers stated, adding that the widespread turnout reflects the depth of anxiety the bill has sparked among frontline tax employees.

    Flowers reserved his sharpest criticism for BTSD’s senior management team, accusing top leaders of abandoning rank-and-file staff instead of advocating for their concerns. He slammed management for parroting the government’s official line rather than addressing widespread fears of job insecurity triggered by the legislation. “When your team is drowning in anxiety over whether they will still have a job in six months, true leadership means stepping in to ease those fears, not repeating empty government talking points,” Flowers said. “These managers have failed their basic duty: instead of building up staff capacity to help workers adapt and grow, they are preparing to cast them aside. That is a disgrace, and every member of that management team should be ashamed.”

    Beyond targeting department leadership, Flowers also lambasted elected area representatives who have backed the bill, arguing that its provisions concentrate unprecedented power over public spending in a single political appointee while eliminating all independent oversight. The bill, he claims, removes legislative and public checks on nearly $1 billion in public revenue, handing full control over procurement, contracting, and expenditure to one individual. “These representatives were elected by the Belizean people to serve the public interest, yet they have backed this dangerous legislation,” Flowers argued. “There are only three explanations for this: they did not read the bill, they failed to understand what they read, or they have put party loyalty ahead of the needs of the Belizean people. None of these is acceptable.”

    The walkout is not an isolated action, but the culmination of months of growing friction between the PSU and the Belizean government over the revenue authority reform. The union has long alleged that the government completely excluded organized labor from the legislative drafting process. The reform plans to transition the BTSD into a semi-autonomous government body, overseen by a Project Steering Committee that the PSU says never meaningfully incorporated union feedback before advancing the legislation. Even a formal submission compiled by BTSD staff in July outlining their collective concerns was never presented to the Finance and Economic Development Committee during that body’s August 12 review of the bill, according to the union.

    Looking ahead, Flowers has laid out the union’s next steps to block the legislation. He is calling on all Belizean residents to read the full text of the bill for themselves and organize against its passage. He also confirmed that the PSU will mount a direct lobbying campaign targeting social partner senators, urging them to reject the bill if it advances to a vote in the Senate. “This legislation is bad for workers, bad for public accountability, and bad for Belize,” Flowers said. “We will use every tool at our disposal to stop it from becoming law.”

  • Two Caribbean women offered historic acceptance into African Political Leadership Academy

    Two Caribbean women offered historic acceptance into African Political Leadership Academy

    In a groundbreaking step that deepens institutional and political ties between Africa and the Caribbean, two senior female political leaders from Eastern Caribbean nations have earned acceptance into the African Academy for Women in Political Leadership — a development initiative originally designed exclusively for women based on the African continent. This historic inclusion marks a tangible milestone for the African Union’s long-standing recognition of the African Diaspora as the body’s Sixth Region.

    According to an official press statement from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, Hon. Lanien Blanchette, Speaker of the National Assembly of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Hon. Lisa Jawahir, a sitting Cabinet Minister of the Government of Saint Lucia, were nominated and formally approved for participation in the academy. Both leaders traveled to Kigali, Rwanda, to attend the initiative’s official launch event, which was held between August 2 and August 7, 2026.

    The African Union brings together 55 sovereign member states across the African continent, making the admission of two Caribbean citizens into the continent-led leadership initiative an especially notable moment for transatlantic political cooperation. OECS officials emphasize that this inclusion formalizes a direct, substantive connection between Caribbean political leadership circles and a governance development initiative rooted in African institutional frameworks. The move aligns with the African Union’s formal designation of the global African Diaspora as its Sixth Regional bloc, expanding the body’s scope beyond the African continent to connect with diaspora communities across the globe.

    The academy itself is coordinated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in strategic partnership with three key African institutions: the African Union Commission, the African Women Leaders Network, and the African School of Governance. Its core training curriculum covers high-priority skills for women in political office, including electoral campaign strategy, cross-party coalition building, legislative reform processes, ethical public governance, and evidence-based public policy design.

    The OECS credits the breakthrough inclusion to the work of Aisha Maina, the commission’s Strategic Advisor for Africa-Caribbean Cooperation. Maina led the nomination process for Blanchette and Jawahir, and worked directly with academy organizers to expand the initiative’s traditional geographic reach to include Caribbean participants. The OECS press statement frames Maina as a leading architect of modern institutional collaboration between Africa and the Caribbean, noting her long-held position that meaningful transatlantic alignment goes far beyond trade and commercial exchange. True partnership, she argues, requires deep collaboration on governance systems, shared investment in women’s political empowerment, and cross-continental exchange between generations of leaders.

    Dr. Didacus Jules, Director General of the OECS, called the acceptance of the two Caribbean leaders a transformative milestone for the entire Eastern Caribbean region. He added that the opportunity will open new doors to deepen long-term transatlantic political and governance cooperation between African and Caribbean institutions.

    Blanchette, a trained lawyer by profession, has built her public service career around advancing youth inclusion in politics, upholding constitutional integrity, and strengthening democratic governance across Saint Kitts and Nevis. Jawahir brings extensive experience in executive leadership, strategic communications, and public administration to her role in the Saint Lucian Cabinet, with a track record of delivering public sector reforms across the island nation.

  • Barbuda’s Special Electricity Tariff Could Be Reviewed

    Barbuda’s Special Electricity Tariff Could Be Reviewed

    Antigua and Barbuda’s Utilities Minister Melford Nicholas has announced plans to initiate a review of Barbuda’s longstanding preferential electricity tariff, a move that comes as the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) advances projects to expand and upgrade the island’s power infrastructure to meet surging post-development demand.

    For decades, Barbudan consumers have operated under a separate, more favorable tariff structure than their counterparts on the neighboring main island of Antigua. Nicholas, however, has framed the existing arrangement as outdated and unfair to Antigua’s ratepayers, arguing that the current split regime creates an inequitable burden across the twin-island nation. “The way that the tariffs work in Barbuda is a little different to Antigua, and it’s not equitable as far as consumers here in Antigua are concerned,” Nicholas explained, noting the current model is anachronistic even as he acknowledged Barbuda’s unique geographic and economic circumstances set it apart from the main island.

    Before any adjustments are finalized, Nicholas emphasized that the process will follow a deliberate, consultative path: he plans to first bring the proposal before the national Cabinet for discussion, then engage directly with the Barbuda Council and local residents to gather input. No fixed timeline has been set for the review, with the minister stressing that meaningful stakeholder outreach will take priority over a rushed decision.

    The review coincides with a pressing need to expand Barbuda’s electricity capacity, driven by growing residential development across the island following recent reforms to land tenure rules. APUA Electricity Business Unit Manager Andre Mathias explained that power delivery to Barbuda inherently carries higher costs than in Antigua: all equipment and fuel must first be shipped to Antigua, then transferred to smaller vessels for transport to Barbuda, adding logistical expenses. Additionally, Barbuda’s grid relies almost entirely on more costly diesel fuel for generation, while some of Antigua’s generating units use lower-priced heavy fuel oil, further widening the cost gap between the two islands.

    Barbuda first launched its hybrid renewable energy system years ago, pairing a 741-kilowatt solar array with an 800-kilowatt-hour battery storage facility to cut reliance on fossil fuels. When the system was installed, total electricity demand across Barbuda sat just above 500 kilowatts, enough for the solar and battery infrastructure to fully power the island during daylight hours and allow diesel generators to be shut down completely. But rapid population and economic growth has pushed peak demand to more than 800 kilowatts, outstripping the capacity of the existing renewable system and forcing diesel generators to run during daytime hours.

    To address this growing demand, APUA is moving forward with an expansion of the island’s power network, and the project will continue to prioritize hybrid renewable energy, with financial and technical support from the International Solar Alliance. “We’re going to have to expand, and we’re going to have to expand with a hybrid arrangement,” Nicholas said. “It works, and we want to have more of it, not less of it.”

    In addition to expanding renewable generation capacity, APUA has already completed work to move Barbuda’s main transmission line serving the capital Codrington underground. The upgrade is designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic, widespread outages during hurricane season, a critical resilience improvement for the hurricane-prone Caribbean island. Nicholas noted that burying key grid infrastructure aligns with APUA’s long-term strategy to build a more robust, climate-resilient electricity network across the country.

  • Police Urge Organizers to Reschedule Major Events During CHOGM 2026

    Police Urge Organizers to Reschedule Major Events During CHOGM 2026

    ST. JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbua – August 26, 2026 – As the Caribbean nation prepares to welcome global leaders for the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda has issued a formal public appeal asking event organizers and industry stakeholders to adjust their plans for the end of October and early November. The law enforcement agency is calling on promoters, entertainment planners, and other event hosts to reschedule any large-scale gatherings currently slated to run between October 30 and November 5, the official dates of the upcoming high-profile summit.

    CHOGM, which brings together heads of government from across the Commonwealth bloc, will require a sweeping national security operation to protect all attendees and the general public. To deliver this safety mandate, a large share of the Royal Police Force’s personnel and critical security resources will be reassigned to CHOGM-specific duty for the duration of the event. Even with this rediversion of resources, the force remains obligated to uphold its core day-to-day responsibilities: continuing regular crime prevention work and maintaining essential community policing services across both Antigua and Barbuda.

    Against this resource allocation challenge, police administration is strongly encouraging organizers to hold off on submitting new permit applications for large entertainment and major public events during the CHOGM window. For events that have already been planned, officials are asking stakeholders to defer these gatherings to dates outside the October 30 to November 5 period wherever possible.

    In issuing the appeal, police leadership emphasized that they recognize the outsized social and economic contribution the events and entertainment sector makes to Antigua and Barbuda, and expressed gratitude in advance for the cooperation, flexibility and understanding expected from organizers, promoters and the general public as the nation hosts this landmark international gathering.

  • Abinader backs new telecom competitors to improve services and lower prices

    Abinader backs new telecom competitors to improve services and lower prices

    Santo Domingo — Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has doubled down on his administration’s pledge to inject greater competition into the country’s telecommunications sector, arguing that new market entrants will drive up service standards and cut consumer costs amid a decades-old concentrated market structure.

    In remarks delivered during a public press briefing, Abinader specifically addressed the upcoming entry of a new Vietnamese-owned telecommunications provider, framing the move as a core part of his government’s broader economic agenda. That agenda centers on dismantling entrenched oligopolistic and monopolistic control across key domestic industries by opening closed markets to new domestic and international competitors, the president explained.

    Current market dynamics leave the Dominican telecommunications sector heavily concentrated, Abinader revealed: roughly 95% of the entire market is controlled by just two dominant incumbent operators. As a direct result of this limited competition, local consumer telecommunications rates sit roughly 22% above the regional average for Latin America, he added. The president contended that expanded competition will force existing and new operators alike to ramp up investment in modern network technology, upgrade customer service offerings, and align pricing with more competitive regional benchmarks.

    While the administration prioritizes supporting domestic Dominican investment, Abinader clarified that the country actively welcomes responsible investment from foreign firms based in allied nations, so long as those entities do not pose any identifiable threat to Dominican national security.

    Speaking specifically to the incoming Vietnamese investment, Abinader noted that Vietnam maintains a strategic alliance with the United States, and emphasized that any telecommunications firm seeking to operate in the Dominican Republic is required to adhere strictly to international information security standards and regulatory safeguards. The president closed by reaffirming that the administration’s overarching goals are to foster fair, open competition across the sector, upgrade the quality of telecommunications services available to the public, and deliver tangible, long-term price reductions for all Dominican consumers.

  • LGBT+ groups seek explicit protection against discrimination in new Penal Code

    LGBT+ groups seek explicit protection against discrimination in new Penal Code

    SANTO DOMINGO — A coalition of leading LGBT+ rights organizations in the Dominican Republic has launched a formal legal challenge before the country’s Constitutional Court, pushing to fix what they call a critical gap in the newly enacted national Penal Code. At the center of the dispute is Article 173, the statute that codifies penalties for discriminatory conduct across the country.

    The coalition presented its arguments during a public hearing for an unconstitutionality action filed against the current text of Article 173. Rights advocates emphasize that the provision outlines criminal penalties for discrimination rooted in a range of personal attributes — including sex, skin color, age, disability, nationality, religious belief and political affiliation — carrying sentences of two to three years of imprisonment alongside financial fines. Yet notably, the text fails to explicitly name sexual orientation as a protected ground against discriminatory acts.

    Organizations behind the legal action include Colesdom, Diversidad Dominicana, Amigos Siempre Amigos (ASA), Trans Siempre Amigas (Transsa), Casa Quisqueyana, Revasa, Proactividad and TEPA. Representatives of these groups stress that their lawsuit does not seek any special or exclusive rights for LGBT+ Dominican people. Instead, their core demand is targeted legal reform that would deliver clearer, more robust legal protections against bias and unfair treatment.

    Advocates warn that the current legislative omission creates dangerous legal ambiguity, opening the door for inconsistent, arbitrary interpretations of anti-discrimination law that could leave LGBT+ people without meaningful recourse when targeted for bias. They note that systemic discrimination against sexual and gender minority groups remains an ongoing, tangible crisis across the Dominican Republic, pointing to empirical evidence from the 2020 National LGBT+ Survey. That landmark study documented widespread vulnerabilities for LGBT+ people across every sector of public life, including routine exclusion from employment, unlawful denial of public and private services, pervasive bullying in educational and community spaces, high rates of family rejection, and systemic barriers to accessing equal justice under the law.

  • Inversiones Calpe installs bollards at Playa Encuentro property following court rulings

    Inversiones Calpe installs bollards at Playa Encuentro property following court rulings

    In the coastal town of Cabarete, located in Puerto Plata province of the Dominican Republic, a long-running legal conflict over land rights and public beach access has entered a new phase: private investment firm Inversiones Calpe, S.R.L. has begun installing concrete bollards along the boundaries of what it confirms is its privately held parcel at the popular surf destination Playa Encuentro.

    Led by U.S. investor Lance B. Lundberg, the company has emphasized that all construction work is taking place strictly within its registered property lines. The bollards, company representatives explain, are only intended to block unauthorized vehicle and foot traffic that has historically cut across the private land to reach the beach. Far from cutting off public access to the shoreline, Calpe notes that the project leaves intact the court-recognized public access route that all visitors can use to reach the beach. To accommodate beachgoers, the firm has even set aside part of its land for public parking, added public restrooms, outdoor showers, and on-site security for visitor convenience.

    Beyond property protection, Calpe frames the boundary installation as an environmental conservation measure. By redirecting all public traffic to the designated public route, the work will cut down on unregulated vehicle passage through ecologically fragile coastal habitats, helping to preserve the area’s sensitive natural ecosystem, the company says.

    All of the current work aligns with a series of binding Dominican court rulings dating back to late 2024. In a decision issued April 30, 2025, the Fifth Chamber of the Superior Administrative Court (TSA) ordered that Calpe be allowed to fence and mark the boundaries of Parcel 1-Ref-13, Cadastral District No. 2 of Puerto Plata, without interference from any government bodies. The ruling also required state institutions to remove misleading signs placed on the private property that incorrectly directed beach traffic across the land, and correct incorrect directional signage in surrounding areas. The court explicitly stated that public access to the beach’s public-domain section should not use Calpe’s private land, as a formal public right-of-way already exists for that purpose.

    The legal dispute originated with an earlier TSA ruling issued November 13, 2024, which first ordered state agencies to end interference with Calpe’s property rights and correct misleading access signage. When compliance stalled, the court issued a follow-up ruling on April 10, 2026, finding that two key agencies—the Ministry of Tourism and the Dominican Navy—had failed to comply with the 2025 order for 213 days, between June 24, 2025 and January 22, 2026. The court imposed cumulative daily penalties (called astreinte) totaling RD$213,000 to be paid jointly by the two agencies, gave them 30 days to achieve full compliance, and increased the daily fine for future noncompliance to RD$1,500. This 2026 ruling also explicitly banned the Ministry of Tourism and Dominican Navy from entering the private property without explicit permission from Calpe.

    Calpe further confirmed that the Third Chamber of the Dominican Supreme Court of Justice rejected appeals filed by the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources challenging the 2025 TSA ruling, in a decision dated December 18, 2025, numbered SCJ-TS-25-4322.

    According to Calpe, the current bollard and fencing project simply fulfills the rights granted to the company by these binding court decisions. The work’s core goals are to clearly mark the private parcel’s boundaries, deter unauthorized trespassing, and direct all beach visitors to the court-authorized public access route. The company has issued a public call for both government authorities and beach visitors to respect two equally important principles: the public status of the majority of Playa Encuentro, and the private property rights that have been repeatedly upheld by Dominican courts.

    A broad group of Dominican government institutions have been involved in the dispute, including the Ministry of Tourism, the Committee for the Execution of Tourism Zone Infrastructure (CEIZTUR), the Dominican Navy, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, and the National Environmental Protection Service (SENPA).