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  • Dominican Republic and United Nations analyze impact of Haiti crisis

    Dominican Republic and United Nations analyze impact of Haiti crisis

    In a high-level diplomatic gathering hosted in Santo Domingo, officials from the Dominican Government and the United Nations System convened their Fourth Political Dialogue this week, centering discussions on the far-reaching political, economic, social and security ramifications of Haiti’s prolonged ongoing crisis, and its disproportionate cross-border effects on the Dominican Republic.

    Leading the closed-door talks were Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez and Julia del Carmen Sánchez, United Nations Resident Coordinator for the country. Throughout the meeting, the two top representatives delved into how Haiti’s multifaceted breakdown of order continues to strain core pillars of Dominican national life, including domestic stability, societal cohesion, long-term sustainable development progress, and the country’s standing within the broader Caribbean region.

    Attendees used the dialogue as an opportunity to conduct a full review of policy measures the Dominican state has already rolled out to mitigate the cascading consequences of the neighboring crisis. Particular focus was placed on key priority areas: cross-border administration and control, the strain on local public services, the protection of national security, upholding human rights standards for both migrants and local populations, and preserving domestic social stability along the shared border.

    Beyond assessing existing response efforts, the two sides also mapped out new avenues to deepen collaborative work between the Dominican government and the United Nations. These potential next steps include designing flexible adaptive mechanisms for UN support to the Dominican response, and maintaining continuous, up-to-date analysis of the fast-shifting situation on the ground in Haiti to inform evidence-based policy adjustments.

    By the close of the gathering, both the Dominican Government and the United Nations System issued a joint reaffirmation of their shared commitment to sustaining strategic dialogue and coordinated cooperation. The long-term partnership remains focused on addressing regional instability, tackling growing humanitarian needs stemming from the Haitian crisis, and advancing inclusive sustainable development across the island of Hispaniola.

  • Fedomu claims electricity companies owe municipalities millions

    Fedomu claims electricity companies owe municipalities millions

    A public dispute over reciprocal financial obligations has erupted between Dominican Republic’s municipal governments and the country’s main electricity distribution companies (EDEs), with the nation’s top municipal association leader challenging recent claims that local governments owe hundreds of millions in unpaid power bills.

    Speaking publicly this Wednesday, Nelson Núñez — who leads the Dominican Federation of Municipalities (Fedomu) and also holds the position of mayor of Samaná — pushed back against recent remarks from economist and former public official Celso Marranzini. Marranzini recently drew attention to the growing debt of municipal governments, arguing that unpaid electricity bills from local councils have become a massive strain on Dominican public finances, hitting a total of roughly US$300 million by last year.

    While Núñez does not dismiss the existence of outstanding municipal payments for power used by public infrastructure and street lighting, he says the narrative that only local governments are in debt is deeply one-sided. He argues that the EDEs have themselves failed to uphold binding legal requirements laid out both in the country’s General Electricity Law 125-01 and a 2013 landmark ruling from the Dominican Constitutional Court.

    That specific ruling, labeled TC/0100/13, establishes a clear reciprocal framework: electricity distributors are required to transfer 3% of all revenue they collect from customers within each municipal jurisdiction and municipal district to local governments every month. In exchange, local governments are legally obligated to cover the cost of electricity for public streetlights and municipal-owned public facilities.

    Crucially, Núñez clarified that the 3% transfer is not an arbitrary tax imposed on power providers, as some critics have framed it. The Constitutional Court itself explicitly confirmed that the payment qualifies as a legally authorized compensation fee for municipalities, he noted.

    Yet according to Fedomu’s records, the EDEs have failed to comply with this ruling consistently ever since it was issued in 2013. The cumulative sum that power distributors owe to municipalities across the country is “incalculable,” Núñez stated, and this long-running noncompliance has been a major contributing factor to the tight financial straits many local councils now face. The missing funds have made it especially difficult for municipalities to cover the very street lighting costs they are obligated to pay, exacerbating the current standoff over mutual debts.

    Núñez closed by emphasizing that financial responsibilities run both ways: if municipalities owe the EDEs for power delivered, the power distributors owe municipalities for the legally mandated funds they have withheld for more than a decade.

  • PM silent on Gardiner crash amid ‘Politician-1’ protests

    PM silent on Gardiner crash amid ‘Politician-1’ protests

    A growing political firestorm has engulfed the Bahamas’ ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) this week, after a recent plane crash off Florida’s coast linked to a well-known figure with alleged drug trafficking connections opened up fresh allegations of corruption and inappropriate ties between senior government officials and organized crime. The opposition Free National Movement (FNM) has taken to the streets outside Parliament to demand transparency, while top PLP leaders have repeatedly refused to address pressing public questions about the incident.

    The crash, which left 11 survivors after the unlicensed aircraft suffered dual engine failure and was forced to ditch into the ocean, centers on Eric “Player” Gardiner, a passenger who was reportedly found carrying $30,000 in cash when rescue teams reached him. One survivor told U.S. local media that Kingsley Smith, a sitting PLP member of parliament for West Grand Bahama and Bimini, helped secure their seats on the chartered flight traveling from Marsh Harbour to Grand Bahama. To date, Smith has not responded to repeated requests for comment on his role in arranging the flight.

    When reporters approached Prime Minister Philip Davis and Aviation Minister Jobeth Coleby-Davis on Wednesday to ask about the crash, both officials dodged all questions. Davis walked away without answering queries about any potential PLP connections to Gardiner or details of how the flight was authorized, while Coleby-Davis ignored questions about whether a full investigation would be launched into how an unlicensed aircraft was permitted to operate in Bahamian airspace.

    The opposition has amplified its demands, focusing additional scrutiny on Top Notch Builders, a construction firm linked to Gardiner that has been awarded multiple government contracts. FNM leader Michael Pintard has publicly questioned whether Finance Minister Michael Halkitis ever held a leadership role as president or director of the company. Halkitis has denied holding any such position, but has declined to explain how a firm tied to a convicted drug trafficker was able to secure public sector contracts.

    Outside the House of Assembly on Wednesday, FNM deputy leader Shanendon Cartwright led a small protest of around a dozen demonstrators holding signs calling for the public identification of the unnamed “Politician-1” referenced in recent U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) court filings. Opposition members wore custom name tags reading “not politician-1”, a gesture Pintard said was meant to signal that FNM members are not the individuals targeted in U.S. law enforcement investigations.

    Pintard launched a blistering attack on the Davis administration, accusing the prime minister of turning a blind eye to “gangsterism” within his own government. He claimed Davis has long been aware of the alleged ties between PLP officials and criminal figures, pointing to past public housing and infrastructure projects that have been linked to individuals now in U.S. custody. “We’re saying that he should speak up and deal with the individual or individuals,” Pintard said. “This is the same prime minister who was clearly aware when he signed the contracts related to the housing project, or he was involved as minister of works with the Eight Mile Rock project that involves a Bahamian now in US custody, he knew all along who the individuals were.”

    Pintard also criticized Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell for dismissing the entire controversy as a “nothingburger” that will fade away once all facts come to light, arguing that the downplaying of the allegations ignores severe damage to the Bahamas’ international reputation. “It’s a nothingburger to somebody who lacks concern about the reputation of the country being savaged, because people believe politicians are working with gangsters to move drugs from south to the US through The Bahamas,” Pintard said. “Five years of having people in government positions working with gangsters is worrisome. We’re gonna have more of this, more reputational damage, and that’s the cause for deep concern.”

    Speaking during the protest, Cartwright emphasized that a generic statement from the Prime Minister’s Office does not go far enough to address public concerns, and that continued silence from government leaders is unacceptable. He pointedly questioned how an elected MP who took their parliamentary oath just one week prior is alleged to have attempted to arrange a cocaine deal. “Today, as the government chuckled into the House of Parliament, one of those persons is Politician-1,” Cartwright said.

    Cartwright stressed that the prime minister has a clear constitutional and ethical duty to protect the Bahamas’ international standing and answer the questions that Bahamian citizens are asking. He warned that dismissing the serious allegations as an overblown controversy will only further erode public trust in government and democratic institutions. “This cuts at the heart of our democracy, and every day, every session that the government does not give answers, it will continue to leak confidence from this government and continue to call into question this institution,” he said, adding that Bahamian citizens are “enraged, hurt and disgusted” by the DEA allegations that a sitting MP was involved in coordinating drug trafficking activities from within Parliament.

  • Dominican government introduces first fully digital minor travel permit

    Dominican government introduces first fully digital minor travel permit

    In a major step forward for public administration modernization in the Caribbean, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has officially unveiled the nation’s first completely digital Minor’s Exit Permit (PSM), an innovative online tool crafted to cut through red tape for traveling families and advance the government’s broader digital transformation agenda. This rollout marks a key milestone under the administration’s flagship Zero Bureaucracy Program, a sweeping initiative that targets the elimination of unnecessary administrative barriers and aims to cement the Dominican Republic’s position as one of Latin America’s most digitally advanced public sectors by 2028.

    Unlike the outdated, paper-heavy system it replaces, the new digital platform empowers eligible parents and legal guardians to complete the entire exit authorization process remotely from any location across the globe. Gone are the requirements for in-person office visits, printed physical documentation, and days-long waiting periods that once plagued the permit application process. The new system integrates cutting-edge digital tools including biometric identity verification, legally recognized digital signatures, and electronic notarization, while also enabling seamless data interoperability with the country’s Central Electoral Board. This connected infrastructure allows the approved permit to be electronically linked directly to a minor’s passport, enabling instant digital validation at border checkpoints during travel.

    Speaking at the official launch ceremony, President Abinader emphasized that the push to modernize government services is rooted in a core commitment to improving daily life for all Dominican citizens. By overhauling clunky outdated processes, the administration is delivering services that are not only more efficient, but also more transparent and secure for users. Senior government officials also outlined the shortcomings of the old system that made the overhaul necessary: for years, applicants faced extensive wait times, convoluted paperwork requirements, and in some cases, informal and formal costs that added up to as much as 30,000 Dominican pesos per application.

    The complete redesign of the Minor’s Exit Permit service was a collaborative effort between the Dominican Republic’s General Directorate of Migration and the Zero Bureaucracy Program, with technical and financial support from global philanthropic organization Bloomberg Philanthropies. Officials used the launch event to tease upcoming reforms, confirming that additional high-impact government services — including new business registration and commercial construction permitting — will undergo the same full digital transformation in the coming months and years, as part of the nation’s long-term public sector modernization strategy.

  • All right with Anderson

    All right with Anderson

    Nearly eight months after Category 5 Hurricane Melissa carved a path of destruction across Jamaica, the island nation’s government has tapped a decorated veteran public servant to lead its long-awaited recovery and resilience-building effort, drawing measured praise and cautious scrutiny from private sector and civil society leaders.

    Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness announced the appointment of Major General (Ret’d) Antony Anderson as the inaugural chief executive officer of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) during a special post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House on Wednesday, confirming the retired military leader will officially take up his post on June 1. The announcement comes just days after the NaRRA Bill was signed into law, formalizing the new agency’s mandate to coordinate and accelerate the island’s post-storm reconstruction while strengthening national capacity to withstand future climate disasters.

    With more than 40 years of public service spanning multiple critical national leadership roles, Anderson brings an unparalleled resume of crisis management and institutional leadership to the new position. His career began with a 34-year tenure in the Jamaica Defence Force, where he rose to the top post of chief of defence staff. He went on to become Jamaica’s first national security advisor to the prime minister, later served as commissioner of the Jamaica Police Force, and most recently held the role of Jamaica’s ambassador to the United States. Now, he is tasked with delivering a timely, transparent and accountable recovery for communities devastated by the October 2024 storm.

    In his remarks Wednesday, Holness emphasized that Anderson’s appointment comes at a make-or-break juncture for Jamaica’s recovery program. The government is moving to scale up reconstruction work while embedding strict frameworks for accountability, transparency and fiscal stewardship over billions in recovery funding.

    “Major General Antony Anderson brings to NaRRA the discipline, integrity, and operational command required for this moment,” Holness said. “Jamaica is entering a period of reconstruction that must be defined by speed, but also by transparency, proper planning, and accountability. His experience leading national institutions, responding to crises, and strengthening disaster risk management systems makes him well-suited to drive this mandate.” The prime minister added that NaRRA’s core mission is to build stronger, more disaster-resilient communities across the island, and that his administration will ensure every dollar of recovery funding advances long-term national development, productivity and economic growth.

    Early reactions from Jamaica’s leading private sector bodies have been overwhelmingly positive, with leaders pointing to Anderson’s proven track record of integrity and leadership as exactly what the high-stakes role demands. Patrick Hylton, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, called the appointment a welcome choice for the critical post.

    “From my personal knowledge of him, as well as his track record, he is the consummate professional, very experienced, very knowledgeable, with a good sense of judgement and great personal and professional integrity,” Hylton told the Jamaica Observer. He added that Anderson’s decades of public service, deep understanding of Jamaica’s local context, extensive professional networks and broad public respect make him uniquely positioned to deliver results for the recovery effort.

    Kathryn Silvera, president of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), echoed Hylton’s assessment, noting that past challenges with relief fund management make disciplined, ethical leadership non-negotiable for NaRRA. “His track record of integrity and results gives confidence that he will act with transparency, resist undue influence, and ensure accountability in this critical role,” Silvera said.

    Not all stakeholders have offered unqualified endorsement, however. While civil society leaders universally praised Anderson’s qualifications and decades of distinguished service, many have retained cautious reservations about the structural transparency of NaRRA itself, calling for clearer public disclosure of the agency’s mandates, timelines and budget allocations ahead of its launch.

    Dr Gavin Myers, principal director of national anti-corruption watchdog National Integrity Action, noted that Anderson’s career across the military, law enforcement and diplomacy leaves no question about his qualifications for the role. But he emphasized that Jamaica’s longstanding culture of low public trust means proactive transparency is essential to build public confidence in the recovery effort.

    “We would value information up front rather than things coming out trickle by trickle,” Myers said. He called for full public disclosure of Anderson’s core duties, key operational milestones and allocated recovery budgets ahead of the June 1 launch, so Jamaican citizens can hold agency leadership accountable from day one. “It would be good to know these from early so that we the citizens can work with and watch with Major Anderson,” he added.

    Emile Leiba, president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, echoed that wait-and-see approach, affirming confidence in Anderson’s capabilities but noting that the proof of NaRRA’s success will be in its operational performance. “Based on his track record in his leadership positions prior to this, I think he would be a good pick because the role does require significant organisational skills to monitor and keep track of the large-scale projects outlined in the NaRRA legislation,” Leiba said. “However, it’s very early days yet, so we’ll have to see how it all works out in practice.”

    Leiba extended well wishes to Anderson and the government, noting that the entire nation has a stake in NaRRA’s success. “For the sake of the country, we certainly hope it’s a viable venture. If it’s not, then that has very serious implications. But the country needs NaRRA to succeed, and so we should all make reasonable efforts for that success to happen,” he said. “It’s one thing to legislate, it’s quite another for it to be operationalised, and so we have to wait and see how it operates from a functional perspective and then we take it from there.”

  • Opposition leader slams budget, demands accounting of funds

    Opposition leader slams budget, demands accounting of funds

    As the Bahamian government tables its 2026/2027 national budget, the country’s Opposition Leader Michael Pintard has launched a sweeping critique of the fiscal plan, centered on a fiery demand for answers over an alleged scandal involving hundreds of thousands in public funds misused for political gain ahead of the last general election.

    At the heart of the controversy is a reported $200,000+ in publicly funded gift certificates said to have been distributed to voters in Abaco, framed as Hurricane Dorian disaster relief, but issued under the names of ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) candidates and party officials. According to Chris Lleida, chief executive officer of Premier Importers — the commercial entity that printed and distributed the vouchers — the entire cost of the gift certificates was covered directly by the Ministry of Finance.

    Speaking in response to Finance Minister Michael Halkitis’s official budget presentation, Pintard argued that Halkitis had a non-negotiable obligation to address the unaddressed allegations in his opening address to parliament. Pintard called the apparent diversion of public treasury funds to partisan political campaigning a clear case of illegal misappropriation, saying the public deserves a full accounting of how public money left the ministry of finance and ended up in Abaco to benefit the governing party’s election effort.

    “At a minimum, the Minister of Finance should have advised the country on the status of any investigation into how public monies were moved from the Treasury to advance a political campaign,” Pintard said. “Our minister of finance must give an accounting for that.”

    Pintard’s demands over the Abaco voucher scandal formed the opening of a broader rejection of the government’s full budget proposal, which he scored at less than 50 out of 100, arguing the plan fails to deliver tangible policy improvements that would ease daily burdens for ordinary Bahamian citizens. He pushed back against the governing administration’s claims of progress on three key voter priorities: energy sector reform, cost of living relief, and accessible affordable housing, saying everyday residents have not experienced the positive changes the government has touted.

    The Opposition Leader also challenged the government’s narrative of improving national public finances, accusing the administration of hiding major unacknowledged fiscal risks and failing to explain a sharp, unexpected uptick in the country’s total public debt. Official data from the Ministry of Finance puts total public sector debt at an estimated $14.1 billion as of the end of March 2026 — a $689.2 million increase from just nine months prior in June 2025, and a $57 million rise from the end of December 2025.

    Pintard noted that the government’s original annual borrowing plan had explicitly stated no new borrowing would be needed over the period, raising urgent questions about how the national debt grew by nearly $700 million without the administration returning to parliament to secure additional borrowing approval. He accused the government of consistently avoiding parliamentary oversight of public spending, warning that this new debt burden will create fiscal strain that extends far beyond the current 2026/2027 fiscal year.

    Further, Pintard claimed the administration is intentionally shifting public fiscal exposure to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) through off-budget loans, long-term contracts and financing arrangements that do not appear in the full budget figures shared with lawmakers. He pointed to a dramatic surge in direct Treasury lending to public authorities, which he said grew from less than $100 million at the end of 2022 to more than $600 million today.

    “In just over three years, more than a half a billion dollars have been advanced to state-owned entities, and all of those have been under the guise of loans,” he said. “We’ve not been told which budgetary appropriations these funds came from. What was the legal authority that allowed the government to do this, and what are the terms of each of these loans, and how will these funds be repaid? This matters because the law is clear: the government lending must come from properly appropriated funds approved by parliament. If these loans were not drawn from such appropriations, the government must explain what legal basis it relied on — and over and over, their answer has been silence.”

    Using Bahamas Power and Light, the country’s primary national utility, as a key example, Pintard said tens of millions of dollars in Treasury funds have been transferred to the state-owned power provider without any adequate public explanation. He added that he has submitted formal questions to Prime Minister Philip Davis and raised the issue repeatedly in the House of Assembly, but has yet to receive any substantive response.

    Pintard also backed up his claims by referencing official warnings from the independent Fiscal Responsibility Council, which has flagged unreported fiscal risks tied to SOEs, missing key fiscal data, and liabilities that are not properly disclosed in national public accounts. He added that the government is artificially inflating its reported surplus by relying on unpaid public bills, and structuring large infrastructure projects in opaque ways to hide their full total cost from the public and parliament.

    While the bulk of Pintard’s address was critical, he did acknowledge a small number of positive housing-focused measures included in the budget, most notably value-added tax reductions for first-time home buyers and owners of multipurpose properties. Even on housing policy, however, Pintard raised unaddressed questions about $40.2 million in public spending allocated to the Carmichael Village Project, part of the government’s broader Housing Project Renaissance initiative. He said neither current nor former housing ministers have explained how the public funds allocated to the development were spent, and called for the issue to be fully debated during parliament’s budget consideration process, questioning whether the completed housing stock delivers public value matching the investment.

    Closing his response to the budget presentation, Pintard rejected the government’s optimistic assessment of the national economy, emphasizing that public trust in government depends entirely on full transparency around how public money is used. “We do not believe that this budget speaks to the real issues Bahamians are dealing with,” he said. “Transparency is not optional. It’s the price for public trust.”

  • ‘They take us for fools’

    ‘They take us for fools’

    At a recent policy roundtable hosted by Jamaicans for Justice at New Kingston’s Courtleigh Hotel, former Commissioner of Police and retired Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin delivered a sharp rebuke of repeated delays and excuses from Jamaica’s government and Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) leadership over the deployment of body-worn cameras for planned police operations.

    Lewin opened his remarks by acknowledging the Jamaican government’s substantial $2-billion investment in boosting the JCF’s crime-fighting capacity, including plans to acquire thousands of additional body-worn cameras by 2029, a timeline first announced by Deputy Commissioner of Police Warren Clarke at the same event. He commended the government for the large-scale national security spending that has modernized the force, but made clear that progress on high-impact transparency and crime prevention tools remains unacceptably slow.

    The former head of both the JCF and Jamaica Defence Force argued that closed-circuit television (CCTV) infrastructure, particularly the national JamaicaEye public surveillance program, represents the most transformative shift in Jamaican law enforcement since the adoption of police automobiles. He emphasized that the core mission of policing is not solving crime after the fact, but preventing crime from occurring in the first place. While official policing metrics often rely on case clearance rates to measure effectiveness, Lewin noted that deterrence and prevention are the true markers of success — and CCTV technology is irreplaceable for advancing that goal. He pushed for the government to prioritize expanding JamaicaEye with the same urgency it has applied to other policing priorities.

    Turning to body-worn cameras, Lewin pushed back against the range of justifications officials have cited for the slow rollout, from claims the devices cannot operate in stealth mode to assertions they cannot be properly affixed to some officers’ uniforms. He dismissed these excuses as nonsensical goalpost-shifting, saying “they take us for fools” with repeated delays.

    Lewin also publicly defended the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom), the national police oversight body that has repeatedly demanded immediate deployment of body-worn cameras across all operations, particularly those expected to involve confrontations with armed suspects. The call for expanded camera use has grown more urgent amid a sharp uptick in fatal police shootings across Jamaica.

    Without body-worn camera footage, Lewin explained, Indecom is left powerless to resolve conflicting accounts of officer-involved shootings. When multiple officers provide consistent but uncorroborated statements about a shooting, and witnesses are unavailable while the suspect is killed, the oversight body has no way to independently verify what occurred. This leaves innocent officers who used force legitimately unfairly tainted by suspicion, and makes it impossible to hold officers accountable when they act outside the rules. Lewin stressed that the number of fatal police shootings is not the core issue: what matters is transparency, accountability, and verifiable proof that any use of deadly force was justified.

    Lewin went a step further, claiming that ongoing resistance to rolling out body-worn cameras for planned operations betrays a “sinister purpose”. Drawing on a 2025 June 22 op-ed he published in the *Jamaica Observer* titled “Those police fatal shootings”, he argued that prolonged delays are a deliberate strategy to avoid scrutiny from international partners and advocacy groups. He acknowledged that a “ends justify the means” approach to fighting violent crime is popular among many Jamaicans who have suffered from years of rampant homicide and criminal activity, but challenged the public to consider what kind of nation it wants to be. “Is it a nation governed by laws, rules, and regulations that affect all equally, or is it acceptable to break our own laws to enforce laws and protect our people?” he asked.

    Addressing rank-and-file and leadership of the JCF directly, Lewin noted that the force currently has more officers, more resources, and more highly educated, well-trained personnel than at any point in its history, with more resources promised in coming years. He urged officers to reject popular but unlawful shortcuts to crime reduction: “Criminals do not play by the rules, and that is what makes them criminals. If you play outside the rules it makes you a criminal also.” He ended by warning officers that those who praise extrajudicial tactics today will be the first to abandon them when public and political pressure mounts.

  • Dominican Navy concludes joint military training with U.S. forces

    Dominican Navy concludes joint military training with U.S. forces

    LAS CALDERAS NAVAL BASE, PERAVIA – The Dominican Republic Navy has officially wrapped up three interconnected military training initiatives, including the annual Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET), Basic Diving Courses 011-012, and the Naval Special Forces Qualification Course (CCUFEN), during a formal closing ceremony hosted at its primary southern coastal installation.

    The high-profile ceremony was presided over by Dominican Republic Defense Minister Lieutenant General Carlos Antonio Fernández Onofre, with senior leadership in attendance that included Vice Admiral Juan Bienvenido Crisóstomo Martínez, General Commander of the Dominican Navy, and Leah Francis Campos, the United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Senior military stakeholders from across the Dominican Armed Forces General Staff and top-ranking Navy command staff also took part in the event, which centered on the tangible progress made in upgrading the Dominican Navy’s tactical and operational capacity.

    In his keynote address to participating service members and assembled officials, Vice Admiral Crisóstomo Martínez underscored the outsized role that these structured multinational training programs play in boosting three critical pillars of naval readiness: cross-force interoperability, global defense cooperation, and the operational preparedness of Dominican naval special operations units to counter evolving maritime security and defense threats. He specifically highlighted the value of the longstanding defense partnership with the United States, noting that collaborative training frameworks create structured pathways to exchange frontline operational insights, updated military doctrine, and decades of tactical expertise between the two nations’ forces.

    Following official remarks, the ceremony featured a live operational demonstration that put on display the specialized skills all participants mastered over the course of the training cycle. Trainees from the Dominican Navy joined operators from Alpha ODA 735, a team from the U.S. Army Green Berets, to execute tactical drills, showcasing the high level of coordinated readiness the joint program was designed to build.

    Per Dominican Navy leadership, collaborative joint exercises like JCET are an indispensable component of the country’s efforts to reinforce national response capacity against a broad spectrum of transnational security challenges, ranging from maritime organized crime to large-scale search and rescue operations, as well as critical infrastructure protection. Each of the three training initiatives was tailored to target distinct, high-priority capability gaps: the Basic Diving Course focused on building foundational proficiencies in underwater operations, technical rescue procedures, maritime hazard mitigation, and specialized underwater naval missions, while the CCUFEN qualification program was structured to develop advanced special operations skill sets, including large-scale amphibious operations and direct-action special combat tactics.

    Navy officials confirmed that these ongoing training programs are a core element of the service’s long-term institutional modernization and force strengthening strategy. The overarching goal of the initiative is to maintain a consistently high-readiness, fully trained maritime defense force capable of upholding Dominican national sovereignty and safeguarding the country’s extensive territorial maritime boundaries.

  • Trump’s face could appear on US$250 bill

    Trump’s face could appear on US$250 bill

    A provocative new push from within the Trump administration has sparked fierce debate across Washington, as senior political figures and regulators clash over a proposal to add former President Donald Trump’s portrait to a newly created $250 United States banknote, a plan that would break 150 years of established American currency tradition.

    Details of the initiative were first reported by *The Washington Post* on Thursday, which obtained internal design mockups for the proposed bill. The draft concept frames the new banknote as a tribute to America’s 250th anniversary of independence, marked in 2026, with the wording “America 250 anniversary” printed alongside Trump’s image. According to the publication, two senior Trump appointees at the US Treasury Department began lobbying leadership at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to develop working prototypes of the bill as early as last year.

    If the plan moves forward, it would mark the first time in 150 years that a living American has been featured on official US currency, breaking a long-standing norm and explicit federal regulation that prohibits depictions of sitting presidents on circulating or commemorative money. Bureau employees, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to avoid professional retaliation, confirmed that bureau leadership immediately flagged significant legal and procedural barriers to senior Treasury officials, including US Treasurer Brandon Beach.

    After Bureau of Engraving and Printing director Patricia Solimene pushed back against the initiative to defend existing federal law, she was abruptly reassigned to a new, lower-profile role within the agency, multiple sources confirmed to the Post.

    The proposal to add Trump to the $250 bill is far from an isolated move: over the past several months, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to embed the president’s name and likeness across a wide range of national cultural and government institutions, a pattern that has drawn repeated accusations of cultivating a cult of personality around the 79-year-old commander-in-chief.

    Earlier this year, the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose entire voting panel is made up of Trump appointees, unanimously approved the production of a 24-carat gold commemorative Semiquincentennial coin that includes Trump’s imagery. In recent months, two major national institutions — the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the US Institute of Peace — have been officially rebranded to add Trump’s name to their titles. Large banners bearing the president’s portrait already hang in the lobbies of the US Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture, and the State Department has confirmed that Trump’s likeness will soon be added to the inside pages of new US passports.

    Formal legislation to authorize the $250 bill and change existing federal law to allow a living president’s depiction was introduced to Congress last year, but the bill has not advanced to a floor vote or committee markup and remains stalled in legislative limbo. A spokesperson for the Treasury Department offered a measured response to questions about the internal proposal, telling the Post that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is “conducting appropriate planning and due diligence” in response to the pending congressional legislation.

    Democratic lawmakers have uniformly condemned the initiative, with Senate Banking Committee member Senator Mark Warner arguing that the unprecedented plan amounts to a naked power play designed only to inflate the president’s personal standing. “This is the White House blatantly stoking the president’s ego at the expense of long-held American institutional norms,” Warner said of the proposal.

  • Cuba raises concerns over U.S. actions during UN Security Council debate

    Cuba raises concerns over U.S. actions during UN Security Council debate

    On May 26, 2026, during an open UN Security Council debate focused on upholding the core principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla delivered a sweeping address that linked global order-building to urgent threats facing his small island nation. The address, released officially via Cuba’s embassy, saw Rodríguez Parrilla open by thanking China for leading the initiative to convene the debate, praising Beijing’s commitment to strengthening multilateralism, reforming the UN system to be more democratic and effective, and building a global order rooted in sovereign equality and justice.

    Turning to the challenges facing global peace, Rodríguez Parrilla called out unaddressed conflicts from Palestine to the Middle East, before turning to what he framed as long-standing U.S. aggression against Cuba that directly violates international law and undermines regional stability. He reserved sharp criticism for the recent U.S. criminal indictment of retired Cuban leader Raúl Castro Ruz, calling the move a legally baseless, politically motivated fraud designed 30 years after the 1996 downing of two rogue aircraft to manufacture support for U.S. military intervention and regime change in Cuba. He noted that the indictment relies on deliberate distortions of fact: the aircraft were shot down in Cuban sovereign airspace, were conducting illegal terrorist operations against Cuba that violated U.S. law itself, and Cuba was exercising its legitimate right to self-defense, facts the U.S. proceedings systematically conceal.

    Beyond the indictment, Rodríguez Parrilla detailed the catastrophic humanitarian toll of the decades-long U.S. trade embargo and the newly tightened “energy blockade” that has restricted Cuban access to fuel and critical oil supplies. He called the energy siege an act of war equivalent to a naval blockade, pointing to alarming public health data that underscores its deadly impact: Cuba’s infant mortality rate has more than doubled from 4.0 to 9.2 per 1,000 live births, while five-year survival rates for children with cancer have fallen from 85 percent to 65 percent. This deliberate pressure on ordinary Cubans, he argued, is a form of collective punishment that already constitutes a humanitarian crisis, and is being cynically exploited by the U.S. to justify foreign intervention.

    Rodríguez Parrilla pushed back against long-standing U.S. claims that Cuba poses a threat to American national security, calling the narrative logically absurd for a small island facing a nuclear superpower. He reaffirmed that Cuba has no desire to be an enemy of the U.S., maintains deep cultural and people-to-people ties with the American public, and remains open to bilateral dialogue and cooperation on issues of mutual concern—including counterterrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, and migration—so long as discussions are conducted on the basis of sovereignty, equality, and non-interference in Cuba’s internal affairs.

    He issued a direct appeal to the U.S. public, particularly young Americans, to reject elite manipulation by pro-interests factions in Miami that do not represent the views of most Americans or Cuban expatriates. He warned that any U.S. military aggression against Cuba would unleash an unprecedented bloodbath, killing thousands of Cubans defending their homeland and needlessly sacrificing young American troops for an imperialist agenda of plunder and domination. Any U.S. leader who orders such an attack, he stressed, would be remembered in history as a war criminal responsible for crimes against humanity.

    Closing his address, Rodríguez Parrilla called for unified global action to prevent further escalation, appealing to the UN Security Council to fulfill its core mandate of maintaining international peace by addressing the military threat and blockade against Cuba. He urged Latin American and Caribbean nations to protect their region’s status as a zone of peace, and called on the Global South to speak with one united voice to oppose hegemonic interference and show solidarity with Cuba, a nation that has consistently extended solidarity to other developing countries across decades. He closed with Cuba’s defiant rallying cry: “Homeland or death, we shall overcome!” reaffirming that the Cuban people will fight to defend their sovereignty to the end if forced.