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  • Nutrien to shut Pt Lisas operations

    Nutrien to shut Pt Lisas operations

    A growing wave of industrial closures has hit Trinidad and Tobago’s key Point Lisas Industrial Estate, with global fertilizer giant Nutrien Ltd becoming the latest major firm to announce an indefinite halt to its nitrogen operations, citing persistent natural gas supply shortages and long-term uncertainty. The move has deepened concerns over the country’s struggling energy sector and ignited fierce political debate over the government’s management of critical natural resources.

    Nutrien’s final shutdown announcement comes just 10 months after the company initiated a controlled, partial shutdown of the facility in October 2025, when it already flagged unreliable, economically unviable natural gas supplies and restricted port access that had eroded the site’s free cash flow contribution for years. Following months of extensive strategic reviews and closed-door discussions with key stakeholders, the company confirmed that permanent idling was the only viable path to protect shareholder returns and boost free cash flow.

    “Due to ongoing natural gas constraints and uncertainty, this was determined to be the optimal path to enhance free cash flow and return on invested capital,” the company stated in an official release. In a statement acknowledging the impact on staff, Dean Perkins, Nutrien’s Senior Vice-President of Upstream, Nitrogen and Proprietary Product Operations, emphasized the firm’s commitment to a responsible transition: “We greatly appreciate the contributions and dedication of our Trinidad team and are committed to managing the transition responsibly and safely.”

    Local media outlet the Express estimates the shutdown will affect hundreds of permanent employees and contract workers. However, Nutrien noted that the decision will not alter its 2026 global nitrogen sales volume guidance, as its projections had already factored in zero production from the Trinidad site. The company added that it remains well positioned to meet global customer demand, with planned growth coming from reliability improvements and low-cost debottlenecking projects at its North American nitrogen assets.

    Nutrien’s announcement follows a string of similar exits by major energy firms at Point Lisas, all tied to natural gas supply issues. Less than two weeks before Nutrien’s announcement, Proman Trinidad, the industrial estate’s largest tenant, unveiled a restructuring plan that included workforce cuts to adapt to persistent supply constraints. In July of this year, Methanex Corporation indefinitely idled its Titan methanol plant at the site after failing to secure a new natural gas supply contract, and the company’s Atlas methanol joint venture — where Methanex holds a 63.1% economic stake — has also remained idled in a preserved, inactive state indefinitely.

    Reaction from Trinidad and Tobago’s political leadership has been swift and divided. Current Energy and Energy Industries Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal called Nutrien’s decision “unfortunate” but pushed back against the company’s claim that the shutdown was driven by natural gas shortages. In a statement to the Express via WhatsApp, Moonilal argued that the decision was instead rooted in the company’s desire to secure a higher profit margin aligned with the expectations of its international shareholders. He countered that the Trinidad and Tobago government is obligated to prioritize the interests of its own citizens, the country’s de facto public shareholders.

    Moonilal revealed that the government, through the state-owned National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC), had been negotiating with Nutrien to keep the PCS Nitrogen complex operational since October 2025, and that these efforts will continue. He added that NGC had made multiple good-faith offers to keep the plant running, including a formal proposal to purchase the complex outright. “At all material times, the National Gas Company has engaged with Nutrien in good faith. They were invited to engage with the NGC for the supply of gas to the facility but refused to accept that invitation,” Moonilal said. He emphasized that the idled plant is a critical national asset, and restarting production remains a top government priority — whether with Nutrien or a new operating partner.

    “It is unfortunate that the pursuit of profit has trumped the best interests of this country, the energy sector and the citizens who have in some cases given their entire professional career and adult lives to Nutrien,” he added. Moving forward, Moonilal said the government will ramp up discussions with existing stakeholders and potential new investors to restart the facility as quickly as possible, as part of broader efforts to rebuild the domestic energy sector and mitigate the economic damage of Nutrien’s exit. “We are working to rebuild the domestic energy sector and through this we intend to mitigate the impacts of the decision by Nutrien,” he said, noting the government aims to have the Point Lisas facility operational again “in the not-too-distant future.”

    Former energy minister Stuart Young, of the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), seized on the announcement to criticize the current ruling United National Congress (UNC) administration, calling Nutrien’s decision “black and white confirmation” of the government’s incompetence in managing the energy sector. “This is a loss of foreign exchange, massive loss of jobs, not only at the plants but all associated service providers as well. This is unfortunately bad news for all of Trinidad and Tobago,” Young said in a social media post.

    Young defended the PNM’s 2015-2025 tenure managing the sector, claiming the previous administration balanced natural gas supply and demand while keeping energy companies profitable. He accused the current UNC government of failing to negotiate a compromise to resolve the sector’s challenges, adding: “The UNC is incapable of negotiating and finding the necessary middle ground needed in tough times.”

    Warning that Nutrien’s shutdown could be the first of many industrial losses, Young said: “This is the first of more to come unfortunately and it is a very sad day for Trinidad and Tobago.” He also challenged the government’s record on natural gas development, claiming the current administration has not delivered a single new natural gas project, noting that all major ongoing projects — including Manatee, Coconut, Mento, Aphrodite, Ginger, Cassia Phase 2, Matapal and Cocuina/Manakin — were initiated under the previous PNM government. “The Kakistocracy is destroying Trinidad and Tobago whilst selling you fake snake oil promises. Elections have consequences,” he added.

  • Tighter controls on councillors

    Tighter controls on councillors

    A sweeping package of local government reforms that will reshape Trinidad’s municipal governance landscape took a key step forward this week, after the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was formally tabled before the country’s House of Representatives. The legislation, which is scheduled to open for floor debate tomorrow, includes 15 clauses and only requires a simple majority vote to pass, with its official implementation date to be set via presidential proclamation once approved.

    The proposed changes were first previewed exclusively by *The Express* yesterday, which confirmed the government’s plan to expand the total number of municipal corporations across the country from the current 14 to 17. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar later backed this report, publicly confirming the restructuring and framing the overhaul as a necessary correction for deep inequities embedded in the existing local government framework.

    One of the most consequential provisions included in the tabled bill, outlined in Clause 9, introduces a controversial anti-defection rule that directly ties an elected representative’s hold on office to their continued party membership. Under the new rule, any elected councillor or appointed alderman who either resigns from or is expelled by the political party on whose ticket they won office will immediately forfeit their seat. The process requires formal written notification: resignations must be documented via a signed notice from the officeholder submitted to their party, while expulsions require a written notice from the party delivered to the member. A certified copy of the notice is then sent to the municipal corporation’s chief executive officer, who passes it to the mayor. The mayor is required to convene a special council meeting within seven days to table the notice and formally declare the seat vacant. If the meeting is not held within the seven-day window, the seat automatically becomes vacant once the period expires.

    The bill also addresses a longstanding procedural gap by establishing a clear framework for resolving deadlocks in mayoral and deputy mayoral elections. If a vote for either leadership position ends in a tie, the new rules prioritize the overall popular vote result for the municipality. In cases where a deadlock occurs at the start of the election process over selecting a presiding officer, the role goes to a councillor or alderman from the party that won the highest total number of valid votes in the municipality’s local election; that presiding officer is barred from running for mayor or deputy mayor. If a final vote for the leadership position ends in a tie, the presiding officer must cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of the candidate backed by the party that won a majority of valid votes in the general local election. If no party crosses the 50% threshold, the rule defaults to plurality, meaning the party that received more votes than any other is deemed the majority for this purpose. All determinations of vote totals must be based on official results certified by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), and the same process applies to deputy mayoral elections.

    Another key change updates the rules for alderman appointments, granting political parties full flexibility to revise their alderman candidate lists at any point, both before and after formal appointments are finalized. Parties can add, remove, or substitute names, or adjust the order of preference on their lists at will. A mandatory revision is also required if an alderman dies, leaves the party, formally withdraws their support for the party, or becomes disqualified from serving. In these cases, parties have seven days to submit an updated list to the EBC, which automatically replaces all previous versions and becomes the official document used for alderman selection and appointment.

    To smooth the transition caused by the restructuring, the bill protects existing labor rights for municipal workers affected by boundary and organizational changes. Clause 15 guarantees that current collective bargaining agreements for employees at the reorganized San Juan/Laventille, Tabaquite/Talparo and Tunapuna municipal corporations will remain in full force after the reforms take effect.

    The legislative overhaul comes in advance of the 2027 Trinidad local government election, the next scheduled poll after the 2023 vote held on August 14. The 2023 election maintained the status quo of the 2019 poll, resulting in an even split of the 14 existing municipal corporations between the country’s two major parties: the United National Congress (UNC) and the People’s National Movement (PNM) each controlled seven bodies. Once the reforms are implemented, all 17 newly restructured municipal corporations will be contested in the upcoming 2027 election.

    Beyond the procedural changes for representatives and deadlock resolution, the bill redraws Trinidad’s entire municipal map. In addition to expanding the total number of corporations, the legislation formally establishes Chaguanas as a full city, creates three new boroughs (Barataria, Couva, and St Augustine), and converts the existing Sangre Grande Regional Corporation into a borough. Two existing regional corporations will also be renamed and restructured: the current Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation will become the Tunapuna Regional Corporation, while the Couva-Tabaquite-Talparo Regional Corporation will be reorganized into the Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation. The final restructured framework will consist of three cities (Port of Spain, San Fernando, Chaguanas), eight boroughs, and six regional municipalities across Trinidad.

  • …Beckles warns of ‘gerrymandering’

    …Beckles warns of ‘gerrymandering’

    A brewing political controversy has emerged in Trinidad and Tobago over the ruling government’s plan to create three new municipal boroughs, with Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles drawing sharp accusations of electoral manipulation against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The plan, outlined in the 2026 Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, was announced by the Prime Minister this past Sunday and formally introduced to Parliament this week. The legislation would establish the Boroughs of Barataria, St Augustine, and Couva as new local government entities.

    In a scathing public statement, Beckles argued that the proposal is a clear attempt at gerrymandering the local government framework to benefit the ruling United National Congress (UNC). She claimed that the Prime Minister’s actions have reinforced a growing narrative that describes Persad-Bissessar as a ‘rolling dictator’, whose overarching goal is to reshape constitutional and electoral systems purely to shore up the UNC’s political power.

    Beckles pointed out that all three regions selected for new borough status are currently represented by UNC members of parliament and have long been considered core political strongholds for the party. She questioned the extreme lengths the ruling party is willing to go to cling to power, saying the entire proposal raises serious questions about the government’s commitment to free and fair elections.

    The Opposition Leader also raised pressing questions about the financial sustainability of the plan. She noted that funding for municipal corporations controlled by her party, the People’s National Movement (PNM), was already slashed dramatically in the 2025/2026 national budget. Creating three new boroughs will require hiring additional staff and expanding public service delivery, placing new demands on government coffers. Beckles asked pointedly: ‘Where will this additional funding come from?’ She argued that the inevitable outcome will be even deeper cuts to PNM-held municipalities, while the government creates three unnecessary new administrative entities solely for political gain.

    Going further, Beckles accused the current government of being ‘out of control and hell-bent on creating a dictatorship in Trinidad and Tobago.’ Beyond the creation of new boroughs, she highlighted that the bill makes sweeping changes to the local government system: it redraws existing boundaries, reshapes electoral districts, and via Clause 4 of the legislation, grants national political parties far more control over the appointment of aldermen.

    Beckles emphasized that the future of local democratic governance in Trinidad and Tobago requires far more public scrutiny than it has received to date. She reiterated that two core questions remain unanswered: how the government will pay for the additional staffing and operational costs of the new municipalities, and why national political parties should be granted expanded power over already appointed local representatives.

    In closing, Beckles noted that PNM-led municipal corporations have already raised formal objections to existing funding cuts, and she called for transparent justification for the proportionality and necessity of the proposed changes. She argued that the government has failed to provide any clear public rationale for why these specific regions need new borough status, leading to only one conclusion: the entire plan is a naked power grab designed to skew the electoral system in the UNC’s favor.

  • The irony of a

    The irony of a

    For more than 60 years, Cuba has carried the heavy, unhealed scars of persistent terrorist violence originating from its northern neighbor, the United States. Official records count 3,478 Cuban children killed by these attacks, with another 2,099 left living with permanent disabilities from bomb blasts. Behind each of these statistics is not just a number, but a family torn apart by sudden, violent loss that has shaped generations of Cuban life.

    One of the earliest and most devastating attacks remains the 1960 La Coubre explosion in Havana’s port. What began as a routine day of cargo loading turned the busy waterfront into an inferno, killing 101 people and wounding more than 200 more. The victims were not political targets: they were dockworkers, firefighters, and young rescue workers who died trapped under twisted steel and burning debris. Many families were left to bury only partial remains of their loved ones, a wound that never fully fades.

    Sixteen years later, in 1976, a Cubana de Aviación passenger jet exploded mid-flight over Barbados, killing all 73 people on board. Among the victims were 24 young Cuban fencers, returning home from an international competition with medals and unfulfilled life dreams. Instead of a warm welcome, their families received coffins. The tragedy repeated its damage across dozens of Cuban households: a five-year-old boy learned of his father’s death when his older sister walked into his preschool classroom to break the news, leaving his young widowed mother to raise three children alone. Parents, partners, and friends waited for arrivals that never came, left only with an empty void where their loved ones once were.

    Decades later, the violence did not spare even innocent foreign visitors. In 1997, 32-year-old Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo was killed by a bomb blast at a Havana hotel. He was simply a young man on vacation, with no connection to politics or conflict. Years later, his father died still waiting for full justice – justice that would hold not just the bomber accountable, but the financiers who planned and funded the attack from outside Cuba. Even today, that justice remains out of reach.

    A single bomb does not only kill its immediate victims. It leaves an indelible, lifelong mark on everyone who survives, from family members to entire communities. That is the true, hidden toll of state-sponsored terrorism that Cuba has endured for decades.

    The cruelest, most absurd irony of this long history is that while Cuba has bled from these attacks, it is Cuba that has been labeled a state sponsor of terrorism by the very country that sheltered and enabled the attackers. Well-documented records show that violent anti-Cuba terrorist groups including Alpha 66, Omega 7, Comandos F4, and CORU operated openly on U.S. soil for decades, stockpiling weapons and planning attacks without any meaningful intervention from U.S. law enforcement agencies including the FBI and Department of Justice. Even the two masterminds of the 1976 Cubana airliner bombing, Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, lived out their full lives and died peacefully in Miami, Florida, never facing prosecution for their crimes. The facts are clear: the terrorists resided in the United States, the plots were planned on U.S. territory, yet Cuba is the nation that bears the accusation of terrorism.

    The author, who met several of these anti-Cuba terrorists in person at the Summit of the Americas in Panama, notes that even expensive tailored suits and carefully crafted “freedom fighter” branding cannot hide the reality of their acts of murder.

    This violence is not a chapter of distant history. As recently as 2026, an armed vessel departed from the Florida Keys, reached the Cuban coast, and opened fire on Cuban border guards. The entire operation was organized and funded from Miami. Terrorism against Cuba has not ended; it has only adapted its tactics, still originating from the north, still supported by hidden financiers, accomplices, and international silence.

    Being placed on the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism is not a meaningless label. It deepens the impact of the decades-long U.S. blockade on Cuba, drives away much-needed foreign investment, cuts off Cuban access to global banking systems, and drives up the cost of basic necessities including food and life-saving medicine. The entire Cuban people pay the price for this false accusation.

    How can one explain to a Cuban mother who already lost her child to a terrorist attack that the very country that sheltered her child’s killers is the same one that now judges who counts as a terrorist?

    Every October 6, the national day of remembrance for victims of terrorism in Cuba, and every other day of the year, Cuba does not ask for international charity. It asks for justice. It demands an end to the funding, protection, and reward given to terrorists who target the Cuban people, and it calls on the global community to remember the true history of these attacks. For as long as the victim is falsely labeled the perpetrator, this perverse reversal of justice continues to inflict a heavy, painful toll on the entire Cuban people.

  • Mother mourns second son killed

    Mother mourns second son killed

    A Trinidadian family is grappling with unfathomable grief after becoming the victim of a second horrific tragedy, when 17-year-old Tristan Stephen was found murdered, just over a year after his older brother was killed in the same community.

    Stephen, a resident of Blake Avenue, Damarie Hill in Guaico, Sangre Grande, was first reported missing by his family last Friday when he failed to return home as expected. Local police were alerted immediately, and the volunteer Hunters Search and Rescue Team, under the leadership of Vallance Rambarath, also joined the intensive search effort that unfolded across the weekend.

    The search wrapped up just after midday Sunday at Turure cattle farm, but the discovery of Stephen’s body came an hour later, when relatives conducting their own search found the teen’s remains and contacted police. According to official reports, officers led by Acting Corporal Kallicharan responded to the tip around 1:10 p.m., meeting family members at a gravel road across from Malco Lane, Blake Avenue Extension. Relatives guided officers roughly 210 meters from the road to the site where the body was located.

    At the scene, police documented Stephen’s clothing: he wore a red jersey, red shorts layered over black long jeans, and a dark green slipper on his left foot, with his other slipper found roughly 50 feet from the body. A brown t-shirt was pulled over his head and face, and investigators noted visible bloodstains on his chest and head. Three apparent gunshot wounds were recorded: two to the chest and one to the right rib area.

    Members of the Homicide Region II unit and the Special Evidence Recovery Unit’s crime scene investigation team were called to the site. Forensic officers processed the scene, documented evidence, and took photographs of both the body and the surrounding area before the remains were removed.

    Investigators have not yet established an official motive for the killing, but they have confirmed a key detail: last month, Stephen had a disagreement with a person he knew, and that individual reportedly threatened the teen prior to his death.

    In an interview with the *Express*, Stephen’s mother shared her family’s anguish, saying she knows her son would never have gone to that isolated area alone at night because he had a well-known fear of the dark. “My son is afraid of the dark, so we knew when he didn’t come home somebody went with him,” she said.

    She remembered her son as a loving, well-loved young man who grew up in the small community of Damarie Hill, when the area had only a handful of homes. “When the community got bigger, he was the baby of the avenue… So he was everybody’s baby. Everybody loved him,” she said.

    Stephen was a student at Johnson Finishing School, and had already begun looking forward to starting full-time work. His mother said she occasionally let him help with construction and yard work alongside other local young men, despite her efforts to keep him close to home at 17, because he was eager to earn his own money.

    She also opened up about how the 2023 murder of Stephen’s older brother, 20-year-old Stephon Saroopsingh, forever changed her son’s life. After Stephon was shot and killed just a short walk from the family’s home last March, other young people in the community taunted Stephen about his brother’s death, bullying him and saying his brother’s killing was deserved. This constant harassment led to Stephen getting into repeated fights, and ultimately the family pulled him out of school.

    Now, the family is forced to cope with the loss of a second child to gun violence. “This is the second son I’ve lost,” Stephen’s mother said quietly. “We just trying to hold on.”

    She also criticized local authorities for unnecessary delays in processing the case, saying the family encountered significant barriers moving Stephen’s body to the Forensic Science Centre for official identification, after initial attempts to reach the responsible agency went unanswered.

    For the family, the killing remains a senseless, unexplainable tragedy. Stephen had never been arrested, was not known to police, and his mother says there is no obvious reason why anyone would target her son. “The child died for nothing,” she said. “I can’t say what the motive is.”

    Stephen is survived by two older sisters, who are also struggling to process their younger brother’s sudden death. Despite the overwhelming pain, the mother says the family is clinging to each other to get through this: “All we doing is holding up.”

  • Braganza wacht op groen licht voor grootschalige teelt maïs en soja

    Braganza wacht op groen licht voor grootschalige teelt maïs en soja

    On October 6, Braganza Marketing Group, a Dutch Caribbean agribusiness firm, confirmed it is holding off on launching its planned large-scale corn and soybean cultivation initiative until it receives formal regulatory approval from national government authorities. The project, which centers on boosting domestic livestock feed production to cut the country’s reliance on imported agricultural inputs, has advanced in preliminary community-focused work even as it awaits official greenlight, according to company board member Lionel Blokland.

    In an exclusive interview with local outlet Starnieuws during a visit to the project’s proposed base in Witagron, Blokland emphasized that the firm is committed to full compliance with existing national regulations and administrative procedures. “All regulatory frameworks and governing bodies are in place, and we have every intention of adhering fully to the law,” he stated. “All on-ground preparation work continues, but actual planting will not begin until we have secured all required government authorizations.”

    The planned initiative covers an estimated 34,000 hectares of agricultural land, with an projected total investment of $78 million spread across a five-year development timeline, though Blokland did not specify a full breakdown of how the funding will be allocated across the project. The core output of the farm operations will be corn and soybeans, both targeted specifically to supply feed for the country’s growing poultry and broader livestock sectors. Blokland noted that multiple local agribusinesses have already expressed interest in sourcing the domestic feed, a shift that would allow them to lower their overall production costs by cutting expensive import expenses.

    Parallel to waiting for regulatory approval, Braganza has moved forward with community partnership projects in the Witagron area, designed to demonstrate how the large-scale agricultural project can deliver tangible benefits to surrounding local populations. In collaboration with the Kwinti community of Witagron and Mennonite agricultural specialists brought in to contribute technical expertise to the initiative, the company has completed drilling for two new groundwater wells.

    Blokland explained that local residents in the area had gone roughly a decade without access to piped, in-home clean water infrastructure, making the new wells a critical improvement for daily community life. He stressed that the project is structured around collaborative work with local populations, pushing back against earlier public speculation that the Mennonite specialists would operate as a closed, isolated community separate from existing Witagron residents. The well project, he said, serves as a clear example of how cross-community collaboration will work under the initiative’s framework.

    In a further show of local support, members of the Witagron community have signed a petition that will be delivered to President Jennifer Simons, publicly voicing backing for both the large-scale agricultural project and Braganza’s collaborative implementation approach. According to Blokland, the petition confirms that local residents hold no objections to partnering or living alongside the Mennonite specialists brought in for the project.

    Blokland also outlined commitments to local employment: once the project officially launches, priority for all entry-level and operational roles generated by the initiative – including planting work, transport logistics, and other on-farm jobs – will be given to members of the local Witagron community. A formal formal agreement codifying this employment priority will be finalized with community leadership before full operations begin, he added.

    The involvement of Mennonite agricultural specialists in large-scale national agricultural development has sparked public debate and controversy across the country in recent months. Blokland confirmed the company is aware of the ongoing public discussion, and reaffirmed that no further development will proceed until government approval is secured. “We are simply waiting for the necessary authorizations from the government to move forward,” he said. “At the end of the day, our core goal is to expand domestic agricultural production that can supply reliable, local feed to the country’s poultry sector and support broader national food security.”

  • The scar that time cannot erase

    The scar that time cannot erase

    Half a century after a deadly act of state-sponsored terrorism cut short 73 lives, the trauma of the attack still lingers deeply across Cuban national memory. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of what Cubans universally call the Barbados crime, hundreds of young people gathered for a solemn candlelight vigil at the base of Havana’s José Martí Monument to pay tribute to the lives lost in the 1976 plane bombing.

    On October 6, 1976, a Cuban passenger jet carrying 73 people crashed into the waters off Barbados just minutes after departing the island nation’s main airport. There were no survivors. Investigations later confirmed two explosive devices hidden aboard the aircraft had triggered the fatal crash, a deliberate attack targeting innocent civilians, the overwhelming majority of whom were Cuban nationals.

    Among those killed were 24 members of Cuba’s national youth fencing team, who were returning home after a historic victory that saw the team claim every gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Championships. Many of the young athletes were under 20 years old when their lives were cut short. Also killed were 33 other Cubans and 13 passengers from other nations.

    For five decades, October 6 has held a searing place in Cuba’s collective consciousness, far more than a footnote in the country’s modern history. For the 50th anniversary, Cuban youth led the commemorations to honor the dead and keep alive demands for accountability for the attack, which has long been tied to anti-Castro militant groups backed by foreign state sponsors.

    Addressing the crowd of attendees, Elisbel Durán Borroto, a member of the National Bureau of the Young Communist League (UJC), reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to preserving the memory of the victims. “We do not forget that justice remains pending,” she said. “We will not allow history to be erased, nor pain to turn into silence. We will not allow impunity to masquerade as oblivion.”

    Durán Borroto added that the annual commemoration serves a larger purpose: “We remember the victims of the Barbados bombing to reaffirm that terrorism will never be the path, and that solidarity among peoples is the only road to peace.”

    The vigil was also attended by senior political figures, including Marydé Fernández López, head of the Communist Party Central Committee’s Office for Liaison with the UJC and mass organizations, Meyvis Estévez Echevarría, First Secretary of the UJC, and other Party and government officials from Havana. In remarks shared during the event, leaders emphasized that the bombing was not an attack on Cuba alone, but an act of terrorism against innocent civilians that the world cannot afford to forget.

    Following last night’s youth-led vigil, public tributes and commemorative events are scheduled across Cuba through October 6 to honor the victims. The late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who led Cuba through the immediate aftermath of the attack, once called the 73 victims symbols of the global fight against terrorism. Fifty years on, Cuban officials and young people alike say that legacy remains as relevant as ever, as the nation continues to wait for full accountability for the attack.

  • The injustice that weighs like an eternal debt

    The injustice that weighs like an eternal debt

    Every year, as the calendar turns to October 6, Cuba collectively pauses to confront a grief that has never truly faded. It is a day marked by tight lumps in throats, quiet shared hugs among those who lost loved ones, and an empty chair at every family table that has held the space of absence for half a century. As long as the memory of that 1976 attack endures and justice remains undelivered, the wound of the Barbados bombing will never stop aching.

    There are some losses that do not soften with time; they become a permanent part of the lives of the people left behind, walking with them until their own final days. José María Uranga knows this pain better than most. His daughter, Nancy Uranga Romagoza, was a young Cuban foil fencer returning home from a triumphant competition in Caracas when she was killed in the attack. When asked about his daughter, Uranga’s voice breaks, barely holding back tears as he says, “Today, just like the first day, I am always remembering her. Her mother and I… But what can we do? Twenty-odd or thirty years of laying flowers…” He leans back slowly into his chair, as if searching for shelter in the hollowed-out space that grief carved into his life. For some voids never close, and some parents are forced to learn how to live with an absence planted in violence and bloodshed.

    Haymel Espinosa was only a few months old when her father, Miguel Espinosa Cabrera, co-pilot of the doomed Cubana de Aviación flight, died in the terrorist bombing off Barbados’ coast. Now grown, she shared her unending grief in the documentary *Explosión a bordo* (Explosion on Board): “So many times I needed him by my side; so many times I wanted him close. I wanted him with me on my wedding day. I feel that the photo is incomplete: I am there with my mother, but my father is missing.” She added, “When someone is taken from you like that—so suddenly—you are left with the quiet hope that they might return. For me, it is a dream; it is what I always dream regarding my dad. Sometimes I think I’m going to run into him, that perhaps he survived as a castaway.”

    The horror of that day, October 6, 1976, unfolded when two explosive devices detonated mid-flight aboard the Cuban passenger plane. All 73 people on board were killed, among them 24 teenaged athletes who made up Cuba’s national youth fencing team, fresh off their victory in Venezuela. Most victims’ remains were torn apart by the blasts, scattered across the Caribbean seabed, and only eight sets of Cuban remains were ever recovered. Those eight have become a permanent symbol for all 73 lives cut short by terrorism.

    Word of the attack spread across Cuba in hours, shattering countless lives in its wake. It broke the hearts of proud mothers waiting to wrap their victorious children in hugs; it left children growing up forever deprived of a father’s embrace; it robbed families of the small, daily joys—a gentle scold, a reassuring pat on the back, the chance to watch a loved one walk down the aisle and build their own family. Terrorism did not only steal 73 lives that day. It stole the chance to say goodbye, the bodies to grieve properly, the chance to hold a loved one’s hand one last time, and the closure of final words. All that was left behind was an unfinished wedding photo, an empty seat at dinner, a silent telephone that will never ring with their voice, and a question that ages with every passing year: Why?

    When a loved one dies of natural causes, even when grief feels like an uncrossable abyss, there are rituals to help process the loss. But when violence and terrorism take someone suddenly, grief becomes a persistent, unanswerable interrogation: What were their final moments like? What were they thinking? How could anyone do this? The mind refuses to accept the senseless loss, the heart keeps waiting for a return that will never come, and the empty space left behind becomes a wound that reopens every year as October 6 rolls around.

    Only families who have lost loved ones to terrorism can understand this overwhelming pain: the stifled sobs that break out in the middle of the night, the rage with nowhere to go, the irrational, lingering guilt of having survived when a loved one did not, and the stubborn refusal to accept that the loss is irreversible. More than a few grieving parents never recovered from the blow; sorrow rooted itself so deeply in their souls that it eventually took their lives too. For decades, many families held to fading hope, struggling to find the will to keep going. No parent is ever prepared to bury their own child, to outlive the young people they brought into the world.

    In the days immediately after the bombing, life across the entire nation of Cuba came to a standstill, collective grief multiplying the pain of every affected family. Havana’s Revolution Square filled with a sea of mourners, united in sorrow, shock, and outrage. Newspapers from that era preserved the harrowing scenes that still move readers today: mothers bending over faded photos of their children, as if trying to breathe life back into the images; others clinging to empty air where their loved one’s body should have been. Photos survive of the triumphant young fencers fresh from their Caracas win, and of their heartbroken teammates standing an honor guard in the aftermath, overcome with grief.

    All of it is etched permanently into Cuba’s collective national memory, along with the words Fidel Castro spoke that day, echoing across the square and down through the decades: “When an energetic and virile people weeps, injustice trembles.” He told the gathered crowd, “Their medals will lie at the bottom of the ocean and rise to the Homeland’s Olympus.”

    Yet decades later, the people who planned and carried out the attack have never faced accountability. Orlando Bosch, one of the masterminds, was granted a pardon and never punished. Co-conspirator Luis Posada Carriles died a free man, never forced to answer for his role in the mass killing. While the perpetrators lived out their days in freedom, Cuban families have continued to visit graves, lay flowers, and carry the weight of their unhealed grief year after year. This impunity has inflicted a second, deeper wound on the families: the bitter knowledge that the men who spread terror got to grow old in peace, walk free, and sleep without guilt, while grieving mothers speak only to photographs and daughters learn to love a father they know only through old stories.

    Today, half a century after the attack, every October 6 finds Cuba reliving that original pain. As long as memory of the attack persists and justice remains pending, the wound of Barbados will keep aching. It will ache even as those responsible try to hide the crime behind the fog of oblivion, because this injustice weighs on the Cuban nation like an eternal, unending burden.

  • Defence Force Confirms Officer Stabbed While Trying to Break Up Fight

    Defence Force Confirms Officer Stabbed While Trying to Break Up Fight

    On Monday, the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force (SKNDF) issued an official statement confirming that one of its band personnel was injured in a stabbing incident that unfolded over the weekend in the Newtown district of St. Kitts. The incident occurred when the off-duty officer, who was spending leisure time with members of the Nu Vybes Band as part of his regular social routine, spotted a violent scuffle breaking out between multiple young people in the area. Choosing to step in to de-escalate the conflict, the officer moved to separate the fighting parties. During his intervention, he was stabbed by one of the individuals involved in the brawl, resulting in unspecified physical injuries. The SKNDF confirmed in the statement that its command has already reviewed all available details of the incident and has formally passed all relevant evidence and context to local law enforcement authorities to support official investigations. As the probe into the stabbing continues, the SKNDF has made clear that it is rolling out full logistical and welfare support for the injured officer and his family. The organization also issued a public note wishing the wounded service member a fast and full recovery from his injuries. As of Tuesday afternoon, when the report was first published by local outlet SKNVibes.com, authorities have not released further details on the officer’s current medical condition, the specific identities of the other people involved in the original fight, or any updates on potential arrests connected to the incident.

  • Heeft Lula zijn eigen politieke tegenpool gecreëerd?

    Heeft Lula zijn eigen politieke tegenpool gecreëerd?

    Brazil’s 2026 general election has emerged as a study in striking political paradoxes, one rooted directly in the decades-long career of incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Workers’ Party (PT) candidate, who built his political legacy on lifting millions out of poverty through economic growth and state-led social protection, now finds himself trailing in first-round results after a political shift among the very demographic his policies helped create. When Brazil heads to the polls for the runoff election on October 25, voters will not just choose between Lula and right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro — they will decide the future direction of a nation transformed by Lula’s own reforms.

    In the first round of voting held Sunday, preliminary results confirmed Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, secured 47.03% of valid votes, edging out Lula who took 45.16%. The gap of just over 2.2 million votes marked the first time in Lula’s decades-long political career that he will enter a runoff trailing his opponent. Beyond the presidential race, the results confirmed a dramatic rightward shift across Brazil’s national legislature: the Bolsonaro family’s Liberal Party (PL) became the largest single bloc in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, outperforming all polling projections and cementing a new power balance in Brasilia regardless of the runoff outcome.

    To understand how Lula arrived at this juncture, analysts point to the shifting social landscape his own administrations built over the last 20 years. When Lula first took office in 2003, his identity as a former metalworker and union leader was clear: he represented low-wage workers, impoverished families, and groups shut out of Brazil’s traditional elite-dominated power structure. His signature policy, the Bolsa Família cash transfer program, paired with aggressive minimum wage hikes and expanded social spending, pulled more than 20 million Brazilians out of extreme poverty and lifted a large segment of the population into the lower middle class.

    It is this upward mobility that has created the electoral paradox facing Lula today, according to Felipe Krause, director of the Brazilian Studies Programme at the University of Oxford. Krause argues Lula’s Workers’ Party has failed to adapt to the social change its own policies brought about. The new lower middle class that emerged from Lula’s social programs no longer automatically views the state as the primary solution to its challenges, he explains. For this growing demographic, entrepreneurship, individual autonomy, and market access have often become more pressing priorities than traditional union and labor rights — a shift seen across many global economies, but one with uniquely transformative political consequences in Brazil.

    Twenty years ago, many of these voters relied on formal employment, union representation, and state social safety nets to make ends meet. Today, a growing share work as small business owners, online sellers, gig workers, delivery drivers, and freelancers. While this group still needs social security protections, its relationship with the state has grown far more complex, notes Thomas Zicman de Barros, a researcher affiliated with Sciences Po in Paris. Zicman de Barros describes a rising embrace of individualism and the “self-made” ideal among Brazilian voters: the core question is no longer “what can the government do for me?” but rather “why is the government making it so hard for me to build something on my own?”

    This public sentiment has created a clear opening for Flávio Bolsonaro, whose campaign blends a hardline public safety agenda with a platform of cutting bureaucracy, reducing taxes, and expanding space for individual economic activity. His rhetoric echoes the libertarian politics of Argentine President Javier Milei, who successfully campaigned to slash state bureaucracy by tapping into widespread voter anger that the state is a barrier to, rather than a driver of, upward mobility.

    A second layer of the paradox comes in the state of Brazil’s economy, which defies simple narratives of failure that would explain Lula’s underperformance. Economic data does not back the idea that Brazilian voters rejected Lula because his economic policies failed to deliver growth. The country’s labor market has rebounded steadily in recent years: households enter the election with higher employment and incomes than in recent years, according to analysis from leading Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, but they also carry higher debt loads. High interest rates and soaring living costs continue to squeeze household budgets significantly. The International Monetary Fund has labeled Brazil’s economy resilient, forecasting continued growth in 2026 while warning of persistent inflation pressure and the need to put public debt on a sustainable path.

    The core challenge for Lula is not that voters have failed to see economic progress, but that progress has not translated into confidence about future upward mobility. A voter who earns more today but struggles with sky-high housing costs, grocery prices, interest payments, and debt may still feel that their improvement is insufficient, Krause explains. This amounts to a broader lack of confidence that there will be room to continue advancing in the future — a gap that can erode political support even when headline economic indicators are improving.

    Flávio Bolsonaro has not just sought to mobilize his father’s old conservative base; he has built a broad new coalition that taps into this shifting voter sentiment. On one side are traditional conservative voters, including the large bloc of evangelical Brazilians and long-time supporters of Jair Bolsonaro. On the other is the growing group of economically ambitious voters who no longer identify with the traditional left-wing rhetoric of the Workers’ Party. This coalition explains how the Bolsonaro family, despite Jair Bolsonaro’s ongoing legal troubles and multiple controversies surrounding family members, continues to successfully position itself as an anti-establishment force, Zicman de Barros argues.

    This positioning is rooted in a key political shift: Lula, once the firebrand union leader challenging Brazil’s old power structures, now represents the established political system. As the incumbent president of one of the world’s largest democracies, leading a party that has operated at the national level for decades, Lula has become the face of the status quo for many younger or economically ambitious voters, even as he defends democratic institutions from far-right attacks. For his traditional base, he remains the leader who ended poverty and expanded social mobility; for a growing share of the electorate, he is the embodiment of the stagnant system that is holding back their progress.

    The election results also lay bare the deep geographic polarization that continues to divide Brazil. Flávio Bolsonaro won 14 states and the Federal District, while Lula carried 12. Lula’s largest margins came from the impoverished Northeast, where his social policies remain deeply popular, while Bolsonaro dominated the South, Southeast, Midwest and North. Key swing state Minas Gerais, long seen as a political bellwether for Brazil, went to Flávio by a 4.9-point margin, while Rio Grande do Sul delivered a 19.9-point win for the challenger. The results confirm that Lula’s once-broad national coalition is becoming far harder to hold together.

    More than a quarter of eligible Brazilian voters did not align with either candidate in the first round: roughly 21% of registered voters stayed home on election day, amounting to around 33 million abstentions, while another 9.2 million votes went to third-party candidates. That means both candidates will spend the three-week runoff campaign fighting to win over these swing voters, whose choices will likely decide the final outcome. Analysts note that the preferences of these voters remain unclear: they may have voted third party out of protest, ideological alignment, or a desire for a different economic approach, giving both campaigns room to court them.

    Observers warn that focusing only on the presidential race overlooks the most consequential shift of the 2026 election: the clear rightward shift in Congress. The Liberal Party expanded its Chamber of Deputies representation from 98 to 121 seats, and grew its Senate bloc from 15 to 28 seats, while Lula’s Workers’ Party holds just 9 Senate seats and 88 lower house seats. Even if Lula wins the runoff, he will face a far more hostile legislative landscape than he did during his current term, making it far harder to pass his policy agenda without concessions to center and right-wing parties. For the Bolsonaro camp, the legislative results deliver a solid power base that will shape Brazilian policy regardless of the presidential outcome, meaning the election will determine not just who holds the presidency, but what laws, budgets, and institutional reforms can pass over the next four years.

    This rightward shift also carries major consequences for environmental policy, particularly protection of the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous territories. Indigenous and environmental advocacy groups have warned that the new congressional balance of power will clear the way for policies to expand mining and agricultural development on protected Indigenous lands, a direct reversal of Lula’s signature international climate agenda that has focused on curbing Amazon deforestation. The election outcome will thus directly shape how much space Brazil opens for economic exploitation of its most ecologically sensitive protected areas.

    Ultimately, it is an oversimplification to say Lula’s electoral challenges are solely a product of his own successes. A range of other factors, including public concern over crime, cultural divides, deep political polarization, corruption scandals, religious identity, and the personal political appeal of the Bolsonaro family have all shaped the 2026 race. But the core paradox remains: Lula helped build a new Brazil where millions of people are no longer focused solely on survival, and a large share of this group now holds different ambitions: small business ownership, higher incomes, home ownership, and financial autonomy.

    As Brazilians prepare to vote in the runoff, the election has become a choice between two competing visions of the nation’s progress, shaped by the changes of the last 20 years. Lula must not just defend his existing social achievements; he must convince voters that the same state that lifted them out of poverty can also help them continue to advance toward their new ambitions. Flávio Bolsonaro offers a competing narrative: that the next step of progress requires less state intervention and more space for individual initiative. On October 25, Brazilian voters will decide which vision of their country’s future they embrace.