标签： Jamaica

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – In a historic announcement made public late Friday, South American nation Guyana has put forward its sitting United Nations ambassador, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, as a candidate to succeed António Guterres as the next UN Secretary-General. Guterres, the Portuguese incumbent who has led the global body since 2017, will conclude his second and final term at the end of 2024, opening up the top post for a new leader.

Rodrigues-Birkett, a 52-year-old seasoned diplomat, has served as Guyana’s permanent representative to the UN since 2020. She brings decades of high-level global and domestic experience to her candidacy: she previously held the role of Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2008 to 2015, before moving to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a special coordinator for parliamentary partnerships. In 2017, she took on leadership of the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva, Switzerland, a post she held until her appointment to the UN ambassadorship four years later.

Announcing the nomination in a national broadcast, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali highlighted Rodrigues-Birkett’s core policy priorities for the UN, noting her vision centers on reinforcing the multilateral system, boosting the global body’s effectiveness and ability to rapidly respond to global crises, advancing inclusive global governance, and preserving the UN’s capacity to tackle 21st-century challenges.

Ali also emphasized Rodrigues-Birkett’s proven leadership during Guyana’s recently concluded two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. “Our successful election to the United Nations Security Council, and the successful completion of our 2024-2025 term on that body, have demonstrated to the world that Guyana can provide leadership at various levels of the global system,” Ali stated.

Geographically, Guyana is a small Atlantic coastal nation sandwiched between Venezuela and Brazil, with a total population of under 800,000 – less than the population of many major global cities. Despite its size, its nomination adds to a growing field of candidates, and aligns with two growing pushes in global diplomacy: the long-running call for the first woman to lead the UN, and a regional claim from Latin America that the post should go to a candidate from the region under the UN’s long-standing (though not strictly enforced) tradition of geographical rotation of senior leadership posts.

To date, every person to hold the post of UN Secretary-General since the organization’s founding in 1945 has been a man. A wide coalition of member states has repeatedly pushed for a woman to break this glass ceiling in the 2024 selection process. Other high-profile women candidates already in the race include former Chilean president and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Rebeca Grynspan, the Costa Rican head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and former Ecuadorian foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa.

The field of candidates also includes non-Latin American male contenders, such as IAEA chief Rafael Grossi of Argentina and former Senegalese president Macky Sall. The selection process will unfold through closed-door consultations and voting across 2024, with the UN General Assembly set to confirm the next Secretary-General ahead of Guterres’ departure in December.

Months after catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Melissa destroyed homes and forced a major commercial closure in Montego Bay’s Catherine Hall neighborhood, Jamaican authorities have launched a wide-ranging drainage assessment paired with ongoing infrastructure upgrades to cut future flood risk for the growing community.

Works Minister Robert Morgan announced the new initiative Wednesday during his sectoral debate address to Jamaica’s House of Representatives, framing the study as a critical foundation for long-term sustainable development in the Greater Montego Bay region. “Montego Bay’s future cannot be built on roads alone. It must be built on drainage, storm water management, flood mitigation, and climate resilience,” Morgan emphasized, noting that the 2024 flood event served as a stark wake-up call for the need to update outdated water management infrastructure.

Last October, Hurricane Melissa dumped unprecedented rainfall across the region, triggering devastating flooding along the Montego River that inundated dozens of residential properties with mud and debris. One of the area’s largest commercial outlets, the Catherine Hall MegaMart, sustained irreversible damage and permanently closed its doors following the disaster. The crisis has also raised alarm for incoming major investment: National Baking Company is currently constructing a US$75-million manufacturing plant in Catherine Hall, and company leadership has openly voiced concerns about repeated flood risk derailing their large-scale commitment to the area.

“I spoke to the prime minister [Dr Andrew Holness] about [the flooding issue] and I am going to take him at his word because it is a hell of an investment down there,” National Baking Chairman and CEO Gary “Butch” Hendrickson told the Jamaica Observer on the sidelines of the 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Montego Bay earlier this week. Hendrickson noted that while he does not expect full elimination of flood risk, the government’s promised engineering work will help minimize danger—though he still questions how the area’s persistent flood threat will impact access to affordable flood insurance for major developments.

Technical assessments conducted after Hurricane Melissa confirmed the Catherine Hall flooding was not caused by a single, isolated drain failure. Instead, it stemmed from a cascading multi-hazard event amplified by decades-old drainage infrastructure that was never designed to handle such extreme conditions. Morgan shared that the storm delivered more than 350 millimeters of rain in just 24 hours, with peak hourly rainfall hitting nearly 295 millimeters. Peak flows in the Montego River reached between 2,132 and 2,653 cubic meters per second, a magnitude consistent with a 500-year weather event. Those extreme flows exceeded the design capacity of the Barnett Street Bridge by roughly 1,200 to 1,600 percent, Morgan said, illustrating the scale of the climate-driven threats Jamaica now faces.

To address these systemic vulnerabilities, the preliminary Catherine Hall Drainage Concept Plan recommends a major strategic shift: moving away from the region’s current buried drainage network to an open, surface-level lined concrete channel system. Morgan explained that this design will significantly increase water conveyance capacity, simplify ongoing maintenance, perform more reliably in the area’s flat terrain, and reduce the risk of blockages from sediment and debris that crippled the old system during Hurricane Melissa. The new drainage plan is being developed as a core component of the broader Montego River Flood Control Plan, and it is engineered to protect the area’s existing levee system while adding controlled discharge outlets and backflow prevention measures to further boost resilience against extreme storm events.

Tensions boiled over during Wednesday’s sitting of Jamaica’s House of Representatives, forcing House Speaker Juliet Holness to call an urgent five-minute recess after bitter partisan bickering between government and opposition lawmakers devolved into unruly, shouting cross-exchange. The chaos erupted immediately after National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang delivered an official statement on a newly signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Jamaican government and the United States, which lays out terms for Jamaica to host third-country nationals (TCNs) transferred from U.S. custody. The controversial agreement quickly became a flashpoint for partisan conflict, with opposition legislators lining up to press the government for clarity on the deal’s terms, motivations, and impacts on Jamaica.

Led by Opposition Leader Mark Golding and opposition national security spokesperson Fitz Jackson, opposition lawmakers raised a string of pressing, unresolved questions for the government. Among the key inquiries were what concrete benefits the agreement would bring to Jamaica, what drove the administration to enter the deal, whether Jamaica faced external coercion to sign the MOU, how third-country nationals would be processed and housed within the country, and whether Haitian and Cuban migrants would receive disparate treatment compared to other TCNs.

The most dramatic confrontation unfolded between Dr. Dayton Campbell, the opposition MP for Westmoreland Western, and Speaker Holness. Campbell attempted to raise repeated questions about the alleged differential treatment of Cuban migrants, citing parliamentary standing orders to justify his persistence. After Speaker Holness ruled his line of questioning out of order and warned Campbell against defying her chair, the MP continued to press the same question multiple times. Off-microphone, Prime Minister Andrew Holness was caught repeatedly calling Campbell a bully. When Campbell returned to the Cuba question once again after being warned, the Speaker cut off his microphone entirely.

Earlier in the chaotic sitting, another opposition MP, Damion Crawford of St Catherine North Western, publicly accused the speaker and government of misrepresenting his questions after being told his queries had already been asked by other legislators, with Crawford declaring “Is lie dem a tell pon mi” (They are telling a lie on me) on the chamber floor. When the Speaker signaled that it was time for Chang to respond to opposition questions, opposition MP Nekeisha Burchell of St James Southern insisted on being allowed to speak first. The entire opposition caucus rose to their feet in protest, triggering the total gridlock that forced the recess.

When parliamentary proceedings resumed after the five-minute break, Minister Chang addressed the chamber to answer key questions about the MOU, which was formally signed one day prior last Thursday. Chang confirmed that third-country nationals hosted under the agreement would not be detained or incarcerated, and would instead be permitted to move freely across Jamaica. He added that all TCNs would undergo thorough background vetting before entering the country, and would be eligible to apply for asylum status. In a move that is likely to fuel further opposition criticism, Chang confirmed that full text of the MOU would not be tabled for public review by the parliament. Following the resumption of business, Speaker Holness again delivered a rebuke to all lawmakers, urging them to adhere to proper parliamentary decorum—a step she has taken repeatedly in recent sittings amid growing partisan unrest in the chamber.