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  • Council of Churches calls for greater accountability, consultation and safeguards in NaRRA Bill

    Council of Churches calls for greater accountability, consultation and safeguards in NaRRA Bill

    KINGSTON, Jamaica — As a key faith-based organization holding broad national influence, the Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC) has joined a growing chorus of voices demanding stricter transparency and accountability measures embedded in the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill, a piece of critical emergency legislation currently undergoing debate in the country’s Senate.

    The proposed legislation already cleared the House of Representatives last week Wednesday, passing through a tight early-morning vote that split sharply along partisan lines, with every opposition legislator voting against its adoption. Once given final approval by the Senate, the NaRRA Act will formalize the creation of a dedicated central body tasked with leading large-scale recovery and rebuilding efforts across the island in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, which left widespread damage in its wake.

    In an official public statement released this week, the JCC confirmed it has been closely following the heated national conversation that has emerged around the proposed bill.

    “As a collective fellowship of Christian communities dedicated to advancing the moral, spiritual, and social welfare of all Jamaicans, we recognize how critical it is to strengthen the nation’s ability to respond to natural disasters, growing climate vulnerability, widespread infrastructure damage, and mass community displacement,” the organization noted in its statement. “Recent destructive events, most notably Hurricane Melissa and a string of other severe weather events over recent years, have made it clear that Jamaica needs a coordinated, robust national framework to deliver reconstruction that lasts.”

    Despite acknowledging the urgent need for improved disaster response systems, the JCC argued that the urgency of national crisis should never erode the core democratic principles of accountability, transparency, broad public consultation, and fair justice that undergird the country’s governance.

    “Our faith tradition teaches us that rebuilding after a crisis is far more than just a technical engineering or administrative project — it is fundamentally a moral undertaking,” the council explained. “Looking back to the ancient rebuilding narratives recorded in the Book of Nehemiah and the Book of Ezra, reconstruction was paired with intentional public accountability, responsible stewardship of public resources, open consultation with the broader community, and rigorous oversight for those granted governing authority.”

    Building on this framing, the JCC is calling on the Jamaican government and sitting senators to revise the bill to embed strong, independent oversight mechanisms, clear transparent procurement and public reporting processes, explicit safeguards against conflicts of interest, structured opportunities for meaningful input from communities directly impacted by disaster, enforceable environmental protections, and equitable safeguards for marginalized and vulnerable citizen groups.

    The organization stressed that its intervention is not an attempt to block reconstruction efforts, improve national resilience, or streamline administrative efficiency.

    “Instead, we hold that national rebuilding must earn and maintain the public’s trust, and reflect the core ethical values of fairness, responsible resource stewardship, and accountability to all Jamaicans,” the JCC said.

    “At this critical moment for our nation, we encourage leaders to continue open national dialogue before giving the bill final approval,” the organization added, pointing out that legislation passed during periods of acute urgency often leaves a lasting impact on Jamaican national life for generations to come.

    “That is why it is essential that this legislation secures broad public confidence, and reflects the collective wisdom of the Jamaican people,” the council concluded.

  • Rubio says had ‘very good meeting’ with Pope Leo

    Rubio says had ‘very good meeting’ with Pope Leo

    VATICAN CITY, ROME — Amid already heightened tensions sparked by former U.S. President Donald Trump’s public rebuke of Pope Leo XIV’s anti-war stance, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that his closed-door discussions with the pontiff yielded a constructive, productive exchange. Speaking to assembled reporters on the grounds of the Vatican immediately after the hour-long meeting, Rubio characterized the encounter as a “very good meeting” that laid clear ground for mutual understanding between the U.S. government and the Holy See.

  • Antigua and Barbuda election review 2026

    Antigua and Barbuda election review 2026

    After the final votes were counted and all results certified, the dust has settled on the 2026 general election in Antigua and Barbuda – the second major Caribbean electoral contest of the year, one that follows a distinct regional political trend while carving out its own unprecedented place in Caribbean political history. This historic result offers rich analytical ground for scholars and political observers, with several standout takeaways that invite deeper examination from local and regional commentators.

    ### Unprecedented Regional Milestones
    The Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP), led by incumbent Prime Minister Gaston Browne, first claimed national power in 2014. With its 2018, 2023, and now 2026 election victories, this marks four straight consecutive terms for the ABLP under Browne – a feat never before seen in Antigua and Barbuda’s national political history, and an extremely rare accomplishment across the broader Caribbean. Browne joins a small elite group of regional leaders that includes Dominica’s Roosevelt Skerrit and St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ralph Gonsalves, all of whom have broken the widely held psychological three-term barrier for incumbent prime ministers.

    What makes Browne’s fourth-term win unique among this elite group is the scale of his victory. Unlike Gonsalves, who saw just 1% growth in popular support during his fourth consecutive win, and Skerrit, who recorded a modest 2% gain, Browne and the ABLP secured a 13% double-digit swing in popular vote share and picked up additional parliamentary seats. This puts the 2026 result firmly in landslide territory, a historic first for any fourth-term incumbent government across the Caribbean.

    A second rare achievement is that this landslide swing to the incumbent occurred while the ABLP already held office. For most governments globally, and particularly across the Caribbean, first election wins usually mark a peak of support, with gradual erosion in subsequent contests. It is extremely uncommon for an incumbent government to grow its support share over time. The few exceptions include Skerrit in Dominica, former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, Jamaica’s Andrew Holness, and St. Lucia’s Philip Pierre. What sets Browne apart is that this is the second time he has pulled off this feat (following his 2018 win), placing him in the same rarefied air as Skerrit, who has also twice improved his incumbent support share.

    ### Key National Observations from the Contest
    Beyond the regional milestones, several national-level trends emerged from the 2026 election, most notably a sharp drop in overall voter turnout. While total registered voters grew by 4% (adding 2,397 new names to the roll) compared to the 2023 contest, this marked a major slowdown from 2023, when a 19% expansion added nearly 10,000 new voters. This contraction is largely attributed to a national voter recertification exercise, which required eligible voters to reconfirm their registration to receive a new polling card. Many disinterested voters opted not to complete the process, removing them from the active roll.

    Even accounting for the cleaner voter list, overall turnout remained far lower than the 2023 election and historical averages. It is worth noting that Antigua and Barbuda’s polling card requirement already produces a cleaner voter list than most regional counterparts, leading to historically higher reported participation than countries like Barbados, where bloated, outdated voter rolls skew turnout data. Even so, the 11% drop in turnout compared to 2023 represents a significant decline that warrants further discussion.

    The drop in participation disproportionately harmed the main opposition United Progressive Party (UPP). Data shows the ABLP won support from 38% of all registered voters, a 14% increase from 2023, while the UPP captured just 23% of registered voters – a 27% decline. This outcome aligns with pre-election polling from Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), which projected a convincing ABLP win and detected a major motivation gap among UPP supporters that kept many from heading to the polls.

    ### Political Context and Projection Accuracy
    A core factor behind the ABLP’s historic win was Prime Minister Browne’s decision to call an early election, a move that political analysts describe as a strategic masterstroke. While critics debate whether prime ministers should hold the power to call snap elections for political advantage, the region’s constitutions explicitly permit this practice, and Browne joins other recent leaders including Skerrit (2022, Dominica), Mia Mottley (2022 and 2026, Barbados), and Pierre (2025, St. Lucia) who have turned early election calls into major victories.

    Browne now enters his fourth term as the most electorately dominant fourth-term prime minister in Caribbean history, benefiting both from his own strong personal approval and significant weaknesses in the UPP. This was the first national election contested by UPP leader Jamal Pringle, and his debut at the head of the opposition ended in political disappointment. Pre-election CADRES polling from March accurately predicted the final result: it projected a 13% swing to the ABLP, which matched the exact swing recorded on election day, April 30. The poll also found 60% of voters preferred Browne as prime minister, compared to just 15% who favored Pringle – a gap that left Pringle unable to mobilize his base to turn out.

    The 13% swing to the ABLP represents a complete reversal of the 12% negative swing the party recorded in 2023. It restored the parliamentary configuration last seen in 2018, with the UPP holding just a single seat (won by Pringle himself), spurring the popular post-election moniker “Single-Pringle.” This swing is also a national historic record: it is the largest positive swing ever recorded for the ABLP, and the largest any party has ever achieved in Antigua and Barbuda’s electoral history.

    The only outlier in the national result was the constituency of Barbuda, which bucked the national trend to easily return Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) incumbent Trevor Walker. This marked the only constituency where the ABLP lost support, even after the party fielded a cross-over candidate in an attempt to peel support away from the BPM. The candidate failed to gain any BPM backing and also lost existing ABLP support, leaving Walker with a comfortable win. This outcome aligns with Barbuda’s long history of distinct voting patterns, though it still surprised many observers given the ABLP’s national momentum.

    On policy issues, the election followed a familiar regional trend: cost of living was one of the most frequently cited voter concerns, matching results from recent contests in Barbados, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia. In Antigua and Barbuda, however, cost of living ranked second behind local issues of water access, road quality, and general infrastructure. The persistent prioritization of water access is particularly notable – the issue has topped CADRES polling in the country since 2004, when the UPP held office, and it was a core issue that helped the ABLP win power in 2014. Twenty years later, the problem remains unresolved, alongside long-running concerns over road quality. Even so, voters demonstrated that they viewed the Browne administration as the most capable of addressing these persistent issues, leading to their historic victory.

    *Peter W. Wickham is a political consultant and director of Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES)*

  • Twelve Newly Elected ABLP Representatives Sworn In as Prime Minister Browne Calls for Excellence, Unity and National Renewal

    Twelve Newly Elected ABLP Representatives Sworn In as Prime Minister Browne Calls for Excellence, Unity and National Renewal

    On a celebratory Tuesday ceremony steeped in national identity and a collective vow to serve the public, 12 freshly elected members of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) formally took office to begin their legislative terms. Among the group of incoming parliamentarians, three earned promotion to cabinet-level roles, completing their oaths of office as official Ministers of State. The public event drew hundreds of local residents from across both islands, marking a defining turning point for the nation’s governance just weeks after ABLP secured a resounding win in the 2023 General Elections. The decisive outcome of the vote handed Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne’s administration a strong popular mandate to advance its policy agenda for the coming term. The ceremony blended formal constitutional tradition with widespread public celebration, as attendees gathered to witness the peaceful transition of legislative power and reaffirm shared confidence in the new government’s ability to deliver on campaign promises.

  • Zuidoost-Azië zoekt oplossing voor energie- en voedseltekorten

    Zuidoost-Azië zoekt oplossing voor energie- en voedseltekorten

    Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN centered its urgent discussions on two pressing crises on Thursday: the unfolding Middle East conflict that has disrupted global energy flows via the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, and long-simmering regional disputes that threaten bloc cohesion, during pre-summit ministerial meetings held in Cebu City, the Philippines.

    Hosted by the Philippines, this year’s ASEAN chair, the gathering brought together foreign and economic ministers from the bloc’s 11 member states, home to nearly 700 million people, almost all of which rely heavily on imported energy to power their fast-growing economies. The session opened with remarks from Philippine Foreign Secretary and current ASEAN Chair Ma. Theresa Lazaro, who opened by highlighting how events outside the Southeast Asian region can send immediate, profound shocks to ASEAN economies and communities.

    “The ongoing crisis in the Middle East makes clear that developments far beyond our borders carry direct and deep-seated impacts for every ASEAN member,” Lazaro told attendees, stressing that strengthened crisis coordination and institutional preparedness are non-negotiable for the bloc right now.

    The Straits of Hormuz, a chokepoint that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and gas supplies, has become a flashpoint amid escalating Middle East tensions, with blockades disrupting global energy trade. For energy-import dependent ASEAN economies, this disruption has already driven up fuel costs and created significant downside risks to regional economic growth, prompting ministers to push for a coordinated regional response.

    The Philippine chair has prioritized rapid adoption of a regional oil exchange agreement, a framework designed to spread supply risk across the bloc by creating a reserve sharing mechanism on a voluntary, commercial basis. Economic ministers also put forward two additional key proposals: developing alternative energy supply routes to reduce reliance on the strait, and upgrading cross-border communication protocols to respond faster to future supply disruptions.

    Beyond energy security, the meeting also tackled multiple simmering regional conflicts. On the sidelines of the official gathering, the Philippines facilitated a rare three-way meeting between Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, aimed at de-escalating a long-running border dispute between the two neighboring Southeast Asian states. The conflict, which erupted into heavy armed clashes and airstrikes last year, has left a fragile ceasefire in place that remains vulnerable to collapse.

    Anutin noted ahead of the meeting that the primary goal of the discussion was to rebuild bilateral trust, and that no final binding agreement was expected to emerge from Thursday’s talks. The delicate situation adds an extra challenge to the Philippines’ ASEAN chairmanship, which must balance competing priorities across the bloc’s 2025 agenda.

    Myanmar’s political crisis, one of the most divisive ongoing issues for ASEAN, also featured heavily in closed-door discussions. Since the 2021 military coup, the country has remained deeply split, and the new military-backed civilian government installed earlier this year has been pushing for re-engagement with ASEAN. To date, the bloc has withheld recognition of the new administration, citing a lack of meaningful progress on peace negotiations with opposition groups.

    The Philippines, as chair, has called for the Myanmar military government to grant ASEAN’s special envoy access to detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, as a concrete confidence-building measure to prove the junta’s commitment to the bloc’s five-point peace plan agreed after the 2021 coup.

    Going into Friday’s official 48th ASEAN Summit and related leaders’ meetings, a draft consensus statement obtained by Reuters shows bloc leaders are set to formally call for immediate de-escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran, an immediate end to hostilities in the Middle East, full compliance with international maritime law, and the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to global commercial traffic. The statement will also repeat the bloc’s call for rapid ratification of the regional oil exchange agreement to strengthen regional energy security.

    For decades, ASEAN has faced longstanding criticism for its consensus-based approach that often produces statements of intent rather than binding, enforceable action. But current leaders and analysts note that the severity of the current energy crisis has created new urgency that is pushing member states to move past procedural delays toward tangible, coordinated policy action.

  • Long-term NHC tenants to gain ownership as Senate cuts red tape

    Long-term NHC tenants to gain ownership as Senate cuts red tape

    Barbadian lawmakers have passed a transformative new bill on Wednesday that clears years of bureaucratic backlog to grant homeownership to nearly 3,900 long-term tenants of National Housing Corporation (NHC) properties, a move cross-party senators have praised as a long-overdue step to deliver tangible social and economic uplift for low-income households across the country.

    The legislation, officially named the State (Acquisition and Vesting of Property) Bill, covers nine major housing estates located across the island: Deacons Farm, Grazettes, Fernihurst, Wildey, Bonnetts, Golden Acre, Silver Hill, Gall Hill and Wotton. Unlike a 2013 predecessor law that required time-consuming, case-by-case property transfers that left more than 85 percent of eligible applicants waiting indefinitely for title deeds, the new framework streamlines the entire process into a single administrative action. Under the new rules, all qualifying properties will first be legally vested to the Barbadian state, then immediately transferred to eligible tenants – cutting out the lengthy red tape that derailed the earlier policy effort.

    During Senate debate ahead of the bill’s approval, two independent senators – Karina Goodridge and Jamal Slocombe – emphasized the bill’s potential to reshape the lives of low-income Barbadians who have waited decades for housing security. Goodridge framed the legislation as a direct response to years of public outcry over Barbados’s persistent housing access challenges. “This bill does not only just bring a practical answer and solution to the long-standing issues that many Barbadians have faced, but it will cement the fact that persons who are waiting for so long will now become homeowners and that gives those people a sense of security,” Goodridge told the chamber, adding that the reform should have been enacted years earlier.

    Goodridge also raised critical concerns about transparency and equitable allocation, urging the sitting administration to put safeguards in place to ensure properties go to the tenants who rightfully qualify. She called attention to anecdotal reports of fraudulent rent arrangements, where third parties have held NHC unit tenancy agreements while collecting inflated market rent from low-income households actually living in the properties. To prevent eligible residents from being displaced, Goodridge proposed that all applicants be required to disclose the date they began occupying their unit and their total monthly gross income, with income details verified directly through the Barbados Revenue Authority.

    Slocombe echoed Goodridge’s support while pushing for the fastest possible rollout of the new policy, noting that overcrowding is widespread in many of the NHC units. “We recognise there are people who in those small housing units, there are seven and eight people living in two-bedroom houses sometimes, and it provides a unique opportunity for Barbadians to be able to feel a sense of pride and dignity,” he said.

    Introducing the bill to the Senate, Leader of Government Business Senator Lisa Cummins outlined the core benefits of the streamlined process, noting that homeownership will unlock new economic opportunities for thousands of qualifying residents that were out of reach as long-term tenants. Cummins confirmed that eligibility is restricted to tenants who have occupied their NHC unit for 20 years or more, maintain a positive rental payment history, and meet all structural and legal requirements for property transfer. She emphasized that the reform imposes no additional financial burden on beneficiaries, as the transfer is an internal administrative process between the NHC and the state. Where the 2013 policy only managed to complete transfers for 567 of more than 3,900 eligible units over its decade-long implementation, Cummins said the new bill will resolve all pending cases in a single unified action, fulfilling the original unmet promise of the 2013 reform.

  • President en granman Aboikoni overleggen over ontwikkeling Saamaka-gemeenschap

    President en granman Aboikoni overleggen over ontwikkeling Saamaka-gemeenschap

    On May 7, Suriname President Jennifer Simons led a government delegation on an official working visit to the Upper Suriname region, where she held high-level talks with traditional leader Granman Albert Aboikoni centered on advancing inclusive growth for the Saamaka community. The discussions, hosted in the local settlement of Asidonhopo, focused on strengthening collaborative governance between the national government and indigenous traditional authorities, while addressing pressing challenges faced by local residents and unlocking new opportunities for sustainable regional development.

    A key milestone of Simons’ visit was the official inauguration of new solar energy projects in the Goejaba and Langu areas. These installations have now brought 24-hour continuous electricity access to large swathes of Upper Suriname, closing a long-standing energy gap that held back local progress. During her address at the opening, President Simons underscored that reliable energy infrastructure is a foundational pillar for unlocking socioeconomic development across Suriname’s inland regions, creating the conditions for new businesses, improved services, and higher quality of life for local residents.

    Beyond energy expansion, the visit delivered tangible progress for education and agricultural development in the Langu region. According to official updates from the Communication Service of Suriname, new school furniture was donated to the O.S. Makanti school, and a national school feeding program was officially launched to support student nutrition and attendance. To further boost local livelihoods, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries has scheduled specialized training sessions for local community members focused on commercial chicken farming, equipping residents with new skills to generate income and strengthen local food security.

    The meeting between President Simons and Granman Albert Aboikoni marked a continued push by the Suriname government to center partnership with traditional indigenous leadership in inland development planning, ensuring that regional growth aligns with the needs and priorities of local communities.

  • Senate meets briefly, then adjourns

    Senate meets briefly, then adjourns

    In an unusual development that has raised unanswered questions about parliamentary procedure, Trinidad and Tobago’s Senate wrapped up its sitting on Wednesday in less than one hour, adjourning without setting a firm return date after government leaders pushed through the sudden end of proceedings. The truncated session came only after Justice Minister Devesh Maharaj introduced the long-awaited Victims’ Rights Bill, a key piece of legislation focused on supporting crime victims across the country. Immediately following the bill’s first reading, Senate Government Business Leader Darrell Allahar tabled a motion to adjourn the upper chamber to a date yet to be announced.

    When local media outlet the Express reached out to Allahar to request clarity on why the session was cut short without any debate on the introduced legislation, he declined to offer any on-the-record comment, leaving the public without an official explanation for the abrupt end to proceedings. Opposition Senate Business Leader Dr. Amery Browne later confirmed that the Opposition caucus had received informal notice of the planned early adjournment on Tuesday, but was never given a clear, formal justification for the decision. “The early adjournment was the decision of the Government, which they signalled to us since yesterday evening. They gave no clear reasons,” Browne stated in an interview.

    While government officials have refused to comment on the cause of the early adjournment, multiple sources familiar with the situation have confirmed to the Express that the sudden end of the sitting is directly tied to an ongoing ethics controversy involving two sitting Opposition Senators: Faris Al-Rawi and Janelle John-Bates. Both lawmakers were present and took their seats on the Opposition bench during yesterday’s short sitting, despite ongoing calls for disciplinary action over their involvement in a document preparation scandal linked to a former cabinet minister.

    The controversy first erupted during last Friday’s Senate sitting, when John-Bates made a surprise announcement that she had submitted her resignation to Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles. She also issued a formal public apology to the entire Senate for her role in the scandal, which came to light after tracked changes in a publicly submitted document revealed that she and Al-Rawi had assisted former Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh in drafting his witness statement for the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), a legislative oversight body.

    During last Friday’s debate on a special PAAC report that called on Parliament to review John-Bates’ conduct, Al-Rawi publicly confirmed that he serves as Deyalsingh’s legal counsel. Shortly after the disclosure, Government Senator David Nakhid tabled a successful motion to refer both Al-Rawi and John-Bates to Parliament’s Privileges Committee, which is tasked with investigating potential breaches of parliamentary ethics and privilege. The committee will now hold closed hearings to determine whether any rules were broken and what disciplinary measures, if any, should be imposed.

    Following the referral last Friday, Beckles told reporters that she was still reviewing John-Bates’ resignation offer and planned to hold a one-on-one meeting with Al-Rawi to discuss his role in the incident before making any final decisions. To date, the Opposition Leader has not issued any further public statements on the controversy, and has indicated she will announce her final decisions on the matter when she has completed her internal review.

  • From university to industry: The best path for Artificial Intelligence

    From university to industry: The best path for Artificial Intelligence

    On the morning of Wednesday, May 7, 2026, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic of Cuba, undertook a working visit to the University of Havana, where he held an in-depth meeting with academic researchers leading cutting-edge artificial intelligence development initiatives across the institution. The visit, framed within Cuba’s national Science and Innovation-based Government Management System, underscores the top leadership’s sustained commitment to advancing digital transformation and leveraging AI to address pressing social and economic challenges across the island.

    Díaz-Canel was joined on the visit by Walter Baluja García, Minister of Higher Education, Mayra Arevich Marín, Minister of Communications, and Miriam Nicado García, Rector of the University of Havana. During the session, researchers from two leading faculties — Physics, and Mathematics and Computer Science — presented a curated selection of their ongoing AI projects, all tailored to deliver tangible benefits for Cuba’s public and private sectors.

    Leading the presentation from the Faculty of Physics was Dr. Milton García Bonato, a senior researcher at the faculty’s Center for Complex Systems. He outlined that his team’s work in AI stretches back more than 30 years, predating the global mainstream boom in artificial intelligence driven by large-scale internet-based language models. One of the team’s most high-impact innovations is an AI model built to analyze human mobility patterns. This tool proved critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling policymakers to accurately assess population movement trends and measure the effectiveness of public health restriction measures. Beyond public health, the model also serves as a core planning resource for urban transportation systems, helping city officials organize transit networks based on commuter origin and destination data.

    The Faculty of Physics has also expanded its AI applications into other key national sectors, including telemedicine solutions for the public health system and efficiency-focused tools for the national economy. In a post-meeting interview with reporters, García Bonato emphasized that AI aligns naturally with the faculty’s longstanding research focus on complex systems: “AI is fundamentally about leveraging existing data that captures complex interrelationships to build predictive models that support better decision-making,” he explained. “Our team is fully committed to translating academic breakthroughs into solutions that address the country’s current needs, from more efficient resource management to tangible problem-solving. The nation can count on us — our work is rigorous, peer-validated, and published in top international journals, so this is established, credible science.”

    From the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Dean Dr. Suilan Estévez Velarde presented a broad overview of the faculty’s AI-driven contributions to Cuba’s digital transformation. Her presentation highlighted a diverse portfolio of tools, including platforms for AI-augmented citizen engagement, open science collaboration portals, enterprise project management systems, and logistics and operational optimization frameworks. Special attention was given to work from the faculty’s Cryptography Institute, along with advances in data analytics for decision support, medical image processing for biomedicine, and domestic language model development — headlined by CeciLIA, Cuba’s homegrown large language model.

    Like their colleagues in Physics, the mathematics and computer science team made major contributions to COVID-19 response through combined AI and mathematical modeling for outbreak prediction, tools that have since been adapted for forecasting other infectious diseases. The faculty has also developed AI-powered diagnostic support tools for specific conditions including skin diseases, and industry-focused solutions ranging from predictive analytics for the domestic software sector to integration of generative AI and blockchain technology for Cuban enterprises. Estévez Velarde noted that these innovations have the potential to drive widespread modernization across the Cuban economy, boosting operational efficiency, cutting costs, and creating new export-ready products and technologies that strengthen national competitiveness.

    Despite these significant advances, Estévez Velarde also highlighted a key ongoing challenge: strengthening collaboration between academic research institutions and domestic industry. She noted that misalignment around project timelines, communication styles, and priorities between academia and the private sector can leave promising research trapped as unpublished theses rather than scaled into real-world solutions, emphasizing the need for targeted training to bridge this gap and translate academic work into tangible national impact.

    In her closing assessment of the meeting, University of Havana Rector Miriam Nicado García called the exchange “extremely productive.” She noted that the session gave researchers the opportunity to outline how the university is integrating AI into strategic sectors spanning health, energy, transportation, the broader economy, and public services. Attendees also reached consensus on the key priorities for future growth: continued investment in university infrastructure and faculty development, expanded AI education across all levels of the national education system, and sustained training of new PhDs, masters students, and specialists in AI and related digital fields — all critical to advancing Cuba’s long-term development goals.

    Díaz-Canel reaffirmed during the visit that advancing AI and digital transformation is a core strategic priority for the Cuban government, as the nation works to build a more modern, digitally connected society that delivers greater benefits to all citizens.

  • Our people will continue to defend the political system that is sovereignly recognized in the Constitution

    Our people will continue to defend the political system that is sovereignly recognized in the Constitution

    In an official statement released in early May 2026, the International Relations Committee of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power has issued a sharp rejection of a new U.S. Executive Order that further intensifies the decades-long economic, commercial and financial blockade against the Caribbean nation. The committee emphasizes that this latest measure is designed to deepen the illegal, immoral collective punishment imposed on the Cuban people for more than 60 years, constituting another direct attack on Cuba’s national sovereignty and right to self-determination.

    Beyond tightening restrictions on the island, the new executive order pushes an extreme internationalization of the blockade, the committee notes. It expands coercive secondary sanctions, pressuring and threatening third countries, foreign businesses and global financial actors to cut off all commercial and financial ties with Cuba, isolating the nation from the global economy.

    The statement goes further to condemn escalating belligerent rhetoric from the current U.S. administration, which has recently included open threats of military aggression against Cuba. The committee describes the long-running U.S. blockade as an inherently genocidal policy, one that has inflicted widespread harm on Cuban livelihoods for generations, and argues the new measures only worsen this humanitarian harm.

    Against this backdrop, the committee reaffirms the Cuban people’s unwavering commitment to defending their sovereign political system, which was enshrined in the national Constitution via a universal popular referendum supported by an overwhelming majority of Cuban voters. Cuba remains dedicated to building a socialist society centered on advancing social justice for all its citizens, a path the Cuban people have repeatedly chosen and defended.

    Just weeks before this statement, more than six million Cuban adults – 81% of all Cubans over the age of 16 – participated in the nationwide “Signature for the Homeland” initiative, reaffirming their collective support for Cuban independence, the Cuban Revolution, and the nation’s sovereign revolutionary governance. More recently, on International Workers’ Day, more than five million Cuban men and women marched through streets and public squares across the country, demonstrating their united resolve to defend the homeland against external aggression and interference.

    Cuba’s longstanding commitment to global peace is also reaffirmed in the statement, which reiterates the principles of the 2014 Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by heads of state and government during the CELAC summit held in Havana.

    The committee, acting on behalf of the Cuban people through their elected parliamentary representatives, issued a global call to parliamentarians, national legislative bodies, and inter-parliamentary organizations around the world to raise their voices and take collective action to end the U.S. military threat, economic blockade, and energy sanctions against Cuba.

    The statement references the recent International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, held in Havana on May 2, where participants from across the globe unanimously agreed that Cuba has an inalienable right to live in peace, defend its sovereignty, and pursue independent national development – and that global solidarity with Cuba cannot be blocked by any external power. The meeting’s Final Declaration praised Cuba’s consistent commitment to peace, called out the escalating aggression from the current U.S. administration, and pledged to expand global resistance and support for Cuba as the world marks the centennial of the birth of iconic Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

    The statement concludes with the iconic slogans that have defined Cuban resistance for decades: Long live peace! Down with aggression! Defend the Homeland! Homeland or death, we shall prevail! (Venceremos!)