Carib Scope

分类： politics

  • Where have the lettuce beds gone?

    Where have the lettuce beds gone?

    By Marlon Bute, Special to iWitness News

    In the wake of the NDP government’s newly unveiled relief package to soften the blow of skyrocketing fuel and grocery costs, one long-time resident of Lowmans Hill found his memories drifting back to a bygone era that holds critical lessons for the island nation’s current cost-of-living crisis. Decades ago, when resources were tight and cash was far from plentiful, the writer recalls that local communities thrived on a culture of self-reliance that carried families through even the hardest seasons.

    Walking through those old memories, it is impossible to miss the vibrancy of local production that once defined Lowmans Hill. Neat lettuce beds carved from volcanic soil stretched across community provision grounds, while backyard gardens burst with pigeon peas, okra, sweet peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, and every other staple needed for a home-cooked meal. Village fishermen would pull in their Sunday morning seines with help from casual beachgoers, small-scale livestock keepers raised pigs, goats, and sheep, and nearly every household kept free-range yard fowls for a steady supply of eggs and fresh meat. Every sweet potato harvested, every egg collected, every cabbage cut from the garden was money kept in the household rather than spent at imported goods stores. No occupation was exempt from this productive mindset: teachers raised livestock, tradespeople planted staple crops, and even police officers produced charcoal for extra income to support their families. This culture of small-scale local production did more than put food on tables—it forged deep-seated national resilience, nurtured individual initiative and independence, and taught generations of children core values of responsibility, discipline, and the rewards of hard work through after-school and weekend work alongside their elders, strengthening family and community bonds in the process.

    Tragically, this foundational resilience has eroded almost entirely over the past 25 years. As successive governments shifted policy focus and investment away from agriculture, fisheries, and other productive domestic sectors toward prioritizing tourism and consumption-led growth, local production dwindled. Today, St. Vincent and the Grenadines imports nearly every basic good that earlier generations grew and raised themselves: from common vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, and lettuce to tens of millions of dollars worth of chicken, pork, beef, and processed food annually. This deliberate policy shift has created a dangerous systemic dependence that leaves the entire nation vulnerable to outside shocks.

    When global fuel prices climb, shipping costs surge, international conflicts disrupt supply chains, or inflation hits major food-exporting nations, St. Vincent and the Grenadines feels the full brunt immediately. While the country has always faced natural vulnerabilities—from annual dry seasons that strain water and crop production to hurricane risk and the constant presence of an active volcano—these are geographic realities the nation has adapted to for centuries. The over-dependence on imported food, by contrast, is a man-made vulnerability that the country has the power to fix.

    This context is why the recent government relief measures should not be viewed as a short-term band-aid, but as an opening for a broader national conversation about the country’s long-term economic trajectory. When the New Democratic Party was in opposition, it repeatedly campaigned on a platform of rebuilding domestic agriculture, strengthening the fisheries sector, supporting small entrepreneurs, expanding access to affordable capital, and cutting reliance on foreign imports. That vision has carried over into the party’s current administration.

    Agriculture Minister Israel Bruce has centered national conversations on food security and food sovereignty, emphasizing the urgent need to ramp up domestic food production—a framing that recognizes a fundamental truth: no nation can import its way to long-term resilience. The government has also elevated fisheries to an unprecedented level of priority, creating the country’s first dedicated Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Conservation and Climate Resilience led by Minister Conroy Huggins. This standalone ministry sends a clear signal that policymakers recognize fisheries as a critical source of food, jobs, economic activity, and much-needed foreign exchange.

    The administration’s proposed national development bank also has a central role to play in this broader vision. For decades, small-scale farmers, fishers, and local entrepreneurs have been held back by a critical gap: a lack of access to affordable capital. Countless hardworking, innovative Vincentians with viable business ideas have been unable to secure the funding they need to expand a farm, purchase new equipment, buy a fishing vessel, or launch a small enterprise. If structured and managed transparently and effectively, the new development bank could become a cornerstone of rebuilding the nation’s productive capacity, opening up financing to thousands of aspiring producers and helping ordinary families build their own wealth.

    At its core, the challenge facing St. Vincent and the Grenadines is not just an agricultural problem—it is economic, social, cultural, and increasingly a matter of national security. The writer argues that the path forward requires a deliberate return to the land and the productive culture that once sustained the nation. For centuries up through the 1990s, bountiful harvests from thousands of small producers across hundreds of communities built resilience, provided nutritious affordable food, generated extra household income, and fostered collective pride and strong community ties. The near-total disappearance of backyard gardening, once a staple of households across the country, has left the nation poorer in more ways than one.

    True and sustainable prosperity, the writer argues, grows from increased domestic production: from small and large-scale farming, commercial and artisanal fishing, livestock rearing, agro-processing, and local entrepreneurship. It comes from making full use of the natural and human resources that the nation already owns. This is the only long-term path to cutting import volumes, reducing harmful dependence, and building a foundation of lasting resilience, shared prosperity, and national security.

    Reversing 25 years of decline will not be simple. Rebuilding agriculture, revitalizing fisheries, and restoring a culture of local production will require consistent investment, long-term political commitment, innovative policy, and widespread hard work across all sectors of society. But it is non-negotiable work for the nation’s future.

    That is the enduring lesson from the iconic lettuce beds of Lowmans Hill: where generations of producers used native bamboo to build raised beds, filled them with the island’s rich volcanic soil, and harvested fresh organic lettuce in just three weeks. That lesson holds just as true today: the path to security and prosperity lies in using what we have, to the best of our ability, to take care of ourselves.

    *Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion submissions can be sent to [email protected]*

  • PM Browne Says Second Batch of Building Materials Now Being Distributed

    PM Browne Says Second Batch of Building Materials Now Being Distributed

    Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne has confirmed that his administration has kicked off the second wave of free building material distribution as part of a national social assistance initiative designed to support low-income and vulnerable households across the country. The announcement was made during an appearance on the local *Browne and Browne* radio talk show, where the leader detailed the logistics of the ongoing rollout of the support program. “I’m also pleased to announce that we have the second set of our building material here, and we are now distributing those,” Browne told listeners during the on-air address. While distribution operations are already active across most communities, rollout has not yet begun in the two districts of Point and Villa. Browne confirmed that delivery of materials to these two areas will officially commence next week, giving local officials time to complete pre-distribution registration and logistics preparations. To streamline access for eligible residents, Browne urged community members who meet the vulnerability criteria and have not yet applied for support to reach out directly to government representatives to register for assistance. He noted that Housing Minister Rawdon Turner will lead on-the-ground coordination, processing applications and overseeing the final delivery of materials to individual residential properties. “Several of you will approach me and I will send your names to Mr. Turner, Minister Turner, [who will] assist me in delivering the material to your respective homes,” Browne explained. This targeted building material program is just one component of a broader suite of social safety net initiatives that the current administration has rolled out to address persistent socioeconomic hardship across the nation. Browne emphasized that the construction material initiative works in tandem with other existing social programs, including a widely used food voucher scheme for low-income families and a recently launched program that provides free prescription eyeglasses to eligible residents. According to the prime minister, the overarching goal of all connected programs is to directly address unmet needs of residents grappling with financial hardship, and to guarantee that no vulnerable individual or family falls through the gaps of the country’s social support system. “We’re a caring administration and we have these little pockets of poverty and need. We’re trying to fill them,” Browne said. He reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to inclusive support, adding, “He added: “We don’t want anyone to be left behind.” As of the latest announcement, government officials have not released public data on the total number of households expected to receive support through this second round of building material distribution.

  • LISTEN: Unsworn MPs May Not Be Entitled to Salary

    LISTEN: Unsworn MPs May Not Be Entitled to Salary

    A fresh political controversy is unfolding in Antigua and Barbuda, centered on the status of Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle, who remains unsworn in following the April general election. Prime Minister Gaston Browne has broken his silence on the debate over whether Pringle is eligible to receive his parliamentary salary, drawing a clear line between longstanding legal rules and his government’s pragmatic approach to the standoff.

    Speaking during his weekly *Browne and Browne* radio broadcast on Saturday, Browne addressed the growing discussion sparked by Pringle’s absence from the first post-election parliamentary sitting and subsequent barring from last week’s special joint parliamentary session. Under Section 48(1) of Antigua and Barbuda’s Constitution, no elected member of parliament may participate in any parliamentary proceedings before they take and formally subscribe to the required oath of allegiance. Pringle, who won his seat in the April general election, has not completed this mandatory step, and the government has stated he must wait until the next scheduled ordinary sitting of parliament to be sworn in.

    During the radio segment, the host referenced a landmark Privy Council ruling from a past case in Trinidad and Tobago, a fellow Caribbean jurisdiction, that establishes a clear legal precedent on this issue. According to that ruling, barring extraordinary extenuating circumstances, elected representatives who have not completed the oath of allegiance are not legally entitled to collect parliamentary remuneration for the period before they are sworn in.

    Browne confirmed that this precedent aligns with established parliamentary rules, and confirmed that technically, no salary can accrue to Pringle until he fulfills the constitutional requirement of taking the oath. “It has been held that if a member fails to take the oath, that period during which the oath is not taken, that that member of parliament should not be paid,” Browne explained during the broadcast.

    But despite affirming this clear legal position, the prime minister stressed that his administration has no intention of taking a hardline petty stance on the issue. “In fact, as far as I’m concerned, you should be paid. But technically speaking, he should not be paid [under the rules],” Browne said. Reaffirming his government’s position, he added, “But again, we’re not being petty. And if they pay him a month’s salary, we will not object to it.”

    Browne’s remarks come after he previously defended the decision to block Pringle from participating in last week’s joint parliamentary sitting, a move that stemmed directly from Pringle’s failure to complete the oath requirement. The prime minister’s comments this weekend clarify the government’s stance on both participation and salary, separating the strict constitutional and legal requirements for parliamentary access from the government’s willingness to avoid a petty dispute over salary payment.

  • Ezekiel Francois Elected President of National Youth Parliament Association

    Ezekiel Francois Elected President of National Youth Parliament Association

    The National Youth Parliament Association of Antigua and Barbuda (NYPAAB) has wrapped up a robust, participatory electoral process to select its new Executive Committee, marking a fresh transition of leadership for the island nation’s leading youth governance advocacy body.

    After a transparent voting process, Ezekiel Francois secured the position of President, bringing a forward-looking agenda focused on amplifying youth voices and strengthening parliamentary-style practice for young people across the country. He will lead alongside three newly seated executive members: Jordyn Roberts, who takes on the role of Recruitment and Mobilization Officer, tasked with expanding youth outreach and growing the organization’s membership; Lorianna Richards, who will serve as Projects and Events Officer, overseeing programming that connects young people to civic processes; and Janiyah Winston, who steps into the role of Financial Secretary to manage the association’s resources and fiscal operations.

    In the announcement of the new leadership lineup, the association issued a public statement of gratitude to the outgoing executive team, whose years of commitment laid the groundwork for the organization’s current momentum. Special commendation was reserved for outgoing Immediate Past President Jessica Zouetr, whose strategic leadership and long-term vision significantly expanded NYPAAB’s reach and influence, setting the stage for sustained growth in the years ahead. The association also highlighted the key contributions of two other departing leaders: former Financial Secretary Amelia Williams and former External Affairs Officer Celine Edwards, both of whom advanced NYPAAB’s core mission of youth civic engagement over their terms.

    With this leadership transition complete for initial positions, the organization noted that three additional executive roles—Vice President, General Secretary, and External Affairs Officer—will be filled via separate elections scheduled for a later date. Once those results are finalized, the full leadership team will take office to steer the association through its upcoming term, continuing its work to empower young people and foster meaningful civic participation in Antigua and Barbuda.

    Across the transition, association representatives emphasized that every past and current member has played a critical role in building a dynamic, impactful youth parliament, and the organization remains committed to expanding its work as it enters this new chapter.

  • Colombia kiest tussen rechts en links in tweede ronde

    Colombia kiest tussen rechts en links in tweede ronde

    Colombia’s path to a new president has entered a tense new phase, with preliminary results from Sunday’s first-round vote confirming that a June 21 runoff will pit right-wing political newcomer Abelardo De La Espriella against long-serving left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, according to official data from the country’s national registration office.

    With over 97% of ballots counted, the gap between the two top finishers narrowed to just a few percentage points, setting the stage for a hard-fought campaign over the coming weeks. The first-round contest centered on deeply divisive core issues: public security, economic policy, and competing populist agendas that have sharply split the Colombian electorate.

    De La Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer who has never held public office, secured 43.7% of the first-round vote. A figure from the political movement Defenders of the Fatherland, he has drawn frequent comparisons to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for his combative rhetoric and hardline policy agenda. Positioning himself as an anti-establishment outsider untainted by traditional political careerism, De La Espriella has pledged aggressive crackdowns on illegal armed groups, a plan to construct 10 new maximum-security mega-prisons, and poverty reduction investments in education, healthcare, and housing for Colombia’s most disadvantaged communities. He has also emphasized that his campaign is fully self-funded, rejecting donations from established political parties and large corporate interests. On the campaign trail, he has warned that a Cepeda victory would lock in the controversial economic policies of current left-wing president Gustavo Petro, including a ban on new oil exploration projects that has drawn fierce pushback from establishment politicians and foreign investors alike.

    His challenger in the runoff, Cepeda, is a 63-year-old veteran activist and senator from the Historic Pact coalition who captured just under 41% of the first-round vote. The son of a murdered communist leader, Cepeda carries on a long legacy of leftist advocacy in Colombia. Echoing elements of Petro’s current governing agenda, Cepeda supports pursuing peace with illegal armed groups through negotiated dialogue — an approach that has made limited progress under Petro’s current term. His policy platform centers on deep structural reforms to reduce systemic inequality and poverty, including higher tax rates for top earners, the transfer of 1 million hectares of land to victims of Colombia’s 60-year internal armed conflict, and expanded public access to healthcare.

    The first round saw low voter turnout, with only a little more than half of Colombia’s 41 million eligible voters casting ballots. This low participation leaves both candidates with a critical opportunity to reorient their campaigns, consolidate support from losing factions, and mobilize disengaged voters ahead of the June 21 runoff. One major casualty of the first round was prominent right-wing candidate Paloma Valencia, who had been backed by former president Álvaro Uribe and was long seen as the leading right-wing contender. She ultimately won less than 7% of the vote, ending her campaign and clearing the way for De La Espriella’s unexpected breakthrough to the runoff.

  • Senior UWP members publish open letter denouncing calls for their expulsion from the party

    Senior UWP members publish open letter denouncing calls for their expulsion from the party

    Deep internal rifts have erupted within Dominica’s main opposition political bloc, the United Workers Party (UWP), as seven of its most veteran and high-profile members have publicly condemned a coordinated campaign of slander and intimidation targeting their faction. Dated May 31, 2026, the damning open letter carries the signatures of prominent long-time party members and former leaders: Edison James, Lennox Linton, Hector John, Danny Lugay, Francisca Joseph, Ezekiel Bazil, and Rosana Emmanuel.

    In the scathing document, the signatories detail ongoing harassment from anonymous social media profiles and political proxies loyal to the UWP’s current party leadership. They have been repeatedly branded with defamatory labels including “troublemakers”, “underminers”, and “washed-up politicians”, according to the letter. Most alarmingly, the group says a recent public demand has been made to forcibly expel them from the party they helped build. They characterize this inflammatory rhetoric as “dangerous and reckless”, warning it directly erodes the foundational democratic principles that the UWP was established upon.

    The senior party figures have forcefully pushed back against all accusations of internal sabotage. They reject claims that they are working against the UWP’s interests, backing competing political parties, or blocking the party’s candidate selection process. They further note that many of the signatories voluntarily stepped down from top executive party positions, a move made to eliminate any perception of factional disunity and to allow the current leadership full autonomy to build a leadership team aligned with its own vision.

    The letter reaffirms the group’s unwavering commitment to the UWP’s core mission. “We remain fully committed to the success of the United Workers Party because we firmly believe it is the only credible and organized political force capable of providing the people of Dominica with an alternative government,” the statement reads.

    The signatories issued a stark warning to party members: the greatest threat facing the UWP is not internal disagreement, but a leadership culture that frames all dissent as disloyalty. Successful political movements, they argue, grow through intentional coalition-building and embrace of diverse viewpoints, rather than aggressive exclusion of opposing voices. To prompt reflection among the party’s broader membership and supporter base, the group posed three critical questions: Is the UWP working to expand its public appeal, or is it shrinking inward through self-inflicted internal conflict? Is it growing its base of support, or driving loyal voters away? Is it strengthening its position ahead of upcoming political contests, or weakening its foundation from within?

    Closing the open letter, the group issued a formal appeal for internal reconciliation and a collective return to the UWP’s founding values: open debate, inclusive consultation, and mutual respect across differing viewpoints. “The challenges facing Dominica are too serious, the stakes are too high and the hopes of too many citizens depend on the existence of a strong, united and credible alternative government,” the signatories wrote. They called on all UWP members to reject a political culture of “hatred, intimidation, division and politics built on exclusion and fear”, insisting that the only sustainable path forward for the party is to “add and multiply, not divide and subtract.” A full copy of the open letter is available for public download.

  • Benjamin: No info on gangs uniting to attack police

    Benjamin: No info on gangs uniting to attack police

    A viral social media video calling for rival gangs to put down their differences and unite in violent action against law enforcement has sparked a firm condemnation and response from Trinidad and Tobago’s top political and police leadership, following a high-profile police-involved shooting earlier this year.

    The video, which circulated publicly on Friday, features two men, one of whom issued fierce criticism of the criminal charges filed against Kaia Sealy. Sealy, the common-law wife of Joshua Samaroo who was fatally shot by police during an encounter on January 20, currently faces eight criminal charges connected to the incident. She is currently based in the United States undergoing scheduled medical treatment, and is not in custody in Trinidad and Tobago as the case proceeds.

    In the recorded message, the speaker called for an end to ongoing gang conflict between two major local factions, Rasta City and Muslim City, framing the existing divisions as the product of a state-sponsored “divide and rule” system. He went further to urge members of four prominent gangs, numbered 6 through 9, to mobilize and prepare for a so-called “revolution” targeting state institutions.

    Within 24 hours of the video’s spread, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar issued a blistering rebuke of the call for violence. In an official public statement released Saturday, she labeled the appeal as the product of depraved thinking, saying “only sick and evil people would support calls for violent gangs to attack law enforcement officials and law-abiding citizens.”

    Persad-Bissessar also tied the incitement to a recent public demonstration outside the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) last week, noting that protesters had attempted to intimidate prosecutorial staff carrying out their official duties during that action. She credited the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) with intervening quickly to secure the building and protect staff, adding that the peaceful rule of law would not be undermined by violent intimidation.

    Deputy Commissioner of Police (Administration) Junior Benjamin has clarified that, as of the latest police briefings, law enforcement has not received any credible intelligence confirming that gangs have already finalized plans to make peace and carry out coordinated attacks on police officers. Speaking to reporters from the Trinidad Express Wednesday, Benjamin made clear that the TTPS is prepared for any contingency: if gangs follow through on the call for attacks, all involved will be prosecuted and face the full consequences of their actions under local law.

    Benjamin emphasized that the TTPS operates to balance two core constitutional rights that are central to Trinidad and Tobago’s democratic system. “One is the whole idea of expression. A person’s freedom of expression in a protest and that of public safety and national security,” he explained. The Police Service, he said, is committed to upholding both rights equally, and will act decisively against any person or group that violates legal boundaries by threatening public safety or undermining the rights of others.

    The police service, Benjamin added, maintains active, ongoing intelligence gathering operations focused on gang activity across the country. Any intelligence related to potential planned violence is immediately shared with specialized operational units, which are prepared to intervene to de-escalate and neutralize any threat before it can harm civilians or law enforcement. “We are therefore saying we are here to ensure law and order at all times and we will ensure the safety of our citizens, no matter what,” he said, reaffirming the force’s commitment to public safety amid heightened tensions.

  • Probe into threats against ‘cop’

    Probe into threats against ‘cop’

    A viral social media video has triggered an official investigation by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), after an individual claiming to be a serving police officer detailed escalating threats aimed at forcing him to abandon a court case against the government.

    The video, which has spread rapidly across major social platforms, opens with a pair of gloved hands handling a sealed brown envelope, while the male narrator lays out the sequence of intimidation he has faced in recent days. According to the narrator, the envelope was left at his residential address early one morning, and he had already been targeted with threatening harassment over the weekend while out with his wife and child. He told viewers that his assailants attempted to force his vehicle off the road, and had sent threatening text messages that proved they were monitoring his movements and knew he was with his family.

    When the envelope is opened at the end of the footage, three 5.56 calibre bullets tumble out, and a handwritten warning printed across the front of the envelope leaves no room for ambiguity: “Last warning for you (and two named people). Drop the court matter against the govt. Last night you get away. Next time is shots.”

    The narrator also added that when he first attempted to report the incident at his nearest local police station, he was turned away temporarily due to a routine shift change. He recalled that the desk officer informed him no available personnel were able to visit his home to take his official statement, and that he would need to wait for the shift handover process to conclude before any action could be taken.

    Within hours of the video circulating widely online, TTPS Deputy Commissioner Suzette Martin released an official statement confirming that a full investigation into the incident is now underway. Martin emphasized that the service takes all reports of intimidation, threats, and interference with ongoing judicial processes with the utmost urgency and seriousness.

    She framed the threat not as an attack on a single individual, but as a direct challenge to core state institutions. “A threat directed at a police officer who is lawfully carrying out his or her duties is not merely a threat against an individual officer. Such actions may constitute an attack on the administration of justice, the rule of law, and the institutions responsible for maintaining public safety and order,” Martin said in the statement.

    Martin added that the TTPS has committed to deploying all necessary resources to protect the affected officer, his family, and uphold the integrity of both law enforcement and the national judicial process. The service remains unwavering in its commitment to ensuring all officers can carry out their lawful duties without intimidation, coercion, or fear of retaliation, and confirmed that any individuals found responsible for this criminal act will face full prosecution under Trinidad and Tobago law.

  • NCIC: Name Piarco Airport after Bas

    NCIC: Name Piarco Airport after Bas

    On Saturday, during the National Council for Indian Culture (NCIC)’s annual Indian Arrival Day celebrations held at the Divali Nagar site in Chaguanas, NCIC president Surujdeo Mangaroo made a striking proposal: rename Piarco International Airport, Trinidad and Tobago’s primary international gateway, to Basdeo Panday International Airport, to honor the nation’s first prime minister of East Indian descent.

    Mangaroo framed the renaming as a fitting permanent tribute to the late leader, who passed away on January 1, 2024 at the age of 90 following a bout of pneumonia. Notably, Panday himself once referred to Piarco International Airport as the “gateway to the Americas” — a fact Mangaroo highlighted to underscore how well-aligned the gesture is with Panday’s own framing of the airport’s national and regional significance. Beyond remembrance, Mangaroo argued that attaching Panday’s name to the country’s busiest port of entry would send a clear message to young Trinbagonians: dedicated public service, courageous leadership, and personal sacrifice do not go unrecognized in the nation.

    This year’s Indian Arrival Day observance carried the theme “The toil of our ancestors, our identity today”, which anchored broader discussions of legacy and inclusion across the event. Mangaroo opened the day by reflecting on the centuries-long journey of East Indian indentured laborers who crossed the “kala pani” (black water) to build new lives in Trinidad and Tobago. He stressed that honoring the sacrifice of these forebears requires building a cohesive, equitable society that draws strength from all cultural contributions, noting that people of East Indian descent have shaped the nation’s cultural fabric, economic growth, and professional sectors in lasting ways. He called on all segments of national society to uphold a shared vision of unity and hope while protecting the cultural heritage passed down by earlier generations, reaffirming NCIC’s ongoing commitment to preserving this legacy for future Trinbagonians. As part of the day’s programming, NCIC presented a recognition award to retired dentist Dr. John Bharath, father of former government minister Vasant Bharath.

    Delivering the event’s keynote address as chief guest, Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh echoed calls to honor ancestral sacrifice through ethical public service. Boodoosingh, who traced his own family’s roots to the indentured laborer journey, gave a public assurance that during his tenure leading the national Judiciary, he would work tirelessly to safeguard judicial independence. Outlining the judiciary’s core role in upholding public safety and equal fairness under the law, he stressed that all current public officeholders have a duty to avoid actions that would dishonor the legacy of sacrifice left by earlier generations. Boodoosingh committed that the judiciary would enforce the rule of law equally for all citizens, promising court decisions would be rendered without fear, favor, or bias. He emphasized that equality must be advocated for all groups, not just one racial or religious community, and called on citizens to speak out against all forms of discrimination. He also noted that historic gains for labor and working people were only achieved through cross-community collaboration, praising the contributions of all ethnic and religious groups to expanding educational access and raising national living standards.

    Basdeo Panday, the figure at the center of the renaming proposal, was a towering figure in modern Trinidad and Tobago politics: a trade union leader, founder of the United National Congress (UNC), and the country’s fifth prime minister, serving in office from 1995 to 2001. Panday passed away in Jacksonville, Florida earlier this year at 90, following a brief hospital stay for pneumonia. His tenure was marked by significant political controversy tied to the Piarco Airport development project, the same facility now proposed for renaming. Panday and his wife Oma were charged with corruption over allegations they received bribes to favor a foreign construction firm for airport work, but all criminal proceedings against the couple were formally dropped in March 2023. Related prosecutions of several businessmen and a former UNC minister connected to the case resulted in a $131.3 million civil fraud judgment that was upheld on appeal against businessman Steve Ferguson and former cabinet minister Brian Kuei Tung.

  • Cuba is not a threat; it is a victim of terrorism

    Cuba is not a threat; it is a victim of terrorism

    On the anniversary of Cuba’s formal legal proceedings against the U.S. government seeking compensation for human harm from decades of anti-revolutionary terror, the full scope of the violence that has shaped the island nation’s modern history remains a raw, unhealed wound for generations of Cuban families.

    This history of state-sponsored aggression began within months of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, when U.S. authorities viewed a sovereign socialist government 90 miles from its shores as an unacceptable threat. Under the Eisenhower administration, the U.S. government formally approved a covert action program against the new revolutionary government in March 1960, allocating substantial funding to build armed opposition networks and carry out destabilizing attacks across the island. That decision planted the roots of widespread terrorism that would cost hundreds of lives and leave irreversible pain across Cuban communities for decades.

    The casualty list of this anti-revolutionary campaign includes dozens of innocent civilians, many of them children, cut down in unprovoked attacks by U.S.-funded armed gangs. In January 1963, 11-year-old Yolanda Rodríguez Díaz and 13-year-old Fermín Rodríguez Díaz were murdered by a counter-revolutionary gang operating in Matanzas’ southern region at the La Candelaria farm in Bolondrón. The previous year, 22-year-old Andrés Rojas Acosta was killed by a mercenary gang in San Nicolás de Bari, hanged with the same rope he had used to tie his pig. In October 1960, 22-month-old Reynaldo Núñez-Bueno Machado and his mother were gunned down by Gerardo Fundora’s gang during a roadside attack on a passing civilian jeep between Madruga and Ceiba Mocha. By March 1963, 10-year-old Albinio Sánchez Rodríguez was shot dead by Delio Almeida’s gang as retaliation for a defeat the group suffered at the hands of Cuban National Revolutionary Militia forces.

    These child killings are not isolated tragedies, but part of a broader pattern of violence that targeted even young Cubans working to advance the revolution’s social goals. The murders of volunteer literacy teacher Conrado Benítez García, young literacy worker Manuel Ascunce Domenech, and fellow educators and peasant organizers who worked to eradicate illiteracy across the island remain a defining reminder of how U.S.-backed terror targeted everyday Cubans working to build a better future. Even the 1961 Playa Girón mercenary invasion, a large-scale covert aggression, left a generation of families shattered: 13-year-old Nemesia Rodríguez Montalvo watched her mother die and her young siblings wounded from U.S.-supplied shrapnel, while 176 people were killed and more than 300 wounded across the island in the fighting.

    By the time counter-revolutionary gang activity was fully suppressed in 1965, the death toll from U.S.-sponsored terror had already reached 725 people, including civilians, active-duty troops, and militiamen, with hundreds more left permanently disabled and traumatized. Beyond the killings of civilians, the U.S. campaign included widespread economic sabotage and attacks on critical infrastructure designed to destabilize the new government. In February 1960, a U.S.-tied small plane set fire to 1.5 million arrobas of sugarcane across four major mills in Camagüey, striking at the heart of Cuba’s core export economy. The 1960 sabotage of the French freighter *La Coubre* in Havana’s port remains one of the most brutal early acts of state-sponsored terror: the ship carried a legal shipment of arms purchased by Cuba from Belgian industry, and the blast killed 101 people and left hundreds injured.

    Other high-profile attacks targeting civilian infrastructure followed throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In April 1961, the country’s largest department store, El Encanto, was burned to the ground by a CIA-linked terrorist, killing salesclerk Fe del Valle Ramos and injuring 18 other workers. A month earlier, an attack on the Hermanos Díaz refinery in Santiago de Cuba killed 27-year-old on-duty sailor René Rodríguez Hernández and left 19-year-old Roberto Ramón Castro permanently disabled. In May 1961, terrorists set fire to a crowded cinema in Pinar del Río during a children’s matinee, injuring 26 children and 14 adults. By 1963, an air strike on Santa Clara killed teacher Fabric Aguilar Noriega and wounded three of his four children. A 1971 machine gun attack on the coastal town of Boca de Samá, carried out by terrorist vessels launched directly from U.S. territory, killed two civilians and wounded multiple residents. Two years later, terrorists attacked two Cuban fishing vessels in the Florida Straits, murdering fisherman Roberto Torna Mirabal and stranding his crew on rafts without food or water.

    The deadliest and most infamous of these attacks came in October 1976, when a Cuban civilian airliner was blown up in mid-flight, killing all 73 people on board—including 24 members of Cuba’s youth fencing team, who had just swept all gold medals at the Central American regional championships. Beyond attacks on civilians and infrastructure, terrorist operatives backed by the U.S. also carried out hundreds of assassination attempts against revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz, totaling more than 600 plots that were all foiled by Cuban security agencies. The campaign of aggression also extended to biological warfare: in 1981, the deliberate introduction of hemorrhagic dengue fever by U.S. operatives killed 158 people, including 101 children, and required the hospitalization of more than 116,000 Cubans.

    Six decades after the first anti-revolutionary terror attacks began, the Cuban people formally marked their collective claim for justice in two landmark legal actions: a 1999 lawsuit seeking compensation for human harm caused by U.S.-sponsored terror, followed by a 2000 filing for economic damages stemming from decades of aggression. Even after 67 years, the pain of these losses remains raw for the families of the victims, who have watched as successive U.S. administrations have maintained a hostile policy that has made Cuba the longest-running primary target of American state-sponsored aggression in modern history. Today, the lawsuits stand as a permanent historical record of the heavy price Cuba has paid to defend its sovereignty and right to exist as an independent nation.