标签： Jamaica

A recent U.S. military strike against a vessel in the Caribbean Sea that left four people dead has drawn sharp rebuke from one of the country’s leading independent human rights organizations, which is calling for an immediate end to the covert lethal operation campaign. Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based global human rights monitoring group, issued the condemnation Friday, arguing that the fatal attack is far from an isolated mistake — it is the latest example of a years-long pattern of unlawful extrajudicial killing carried out by U.S. forces outside recognized war zones.

Details of the strike were first released by U.S. Southern Command (Southcom), the Miami-headquartered military command responsible for operations across Latin America and the Caribbean, in a March 25 statement. According to the command’s official account, the lethal kinetic operation targeting the vessel was ordered by Marine General Francis L. Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, and carried out by the joint task force branded Southern Spear. The target vessel, Southcom claimed, was linked to officially designated terrorist groups, was traveling along well-documented narcotics smuggling corridors in the Caribbean, and was actively engaged in drug trafficking operations at the time of the strike. The command confirmed four male individuals described as “narco-terrorists” were killed in the action, and added that no U.S. military personnel were injured during the operation.

The attack marked the 47th lethal strike conducted by the U.S. military in counter-narcotics operations across the Caribbean and Pacific oceans, a campaign that has now claimed the lives of 163 people since its launch, according to data compiled by HRW. Sarah Yager, the organization’s Washington D.C. director, emphasized that the steady drumbeat of these strikes has created a systemic pattern of illegal force that has gone largely unexamined by the public and policymakers.

“These strikes aren’t one-off incidents, they’re part of a pattern of using military force where the law does not permit it, over and over again,” Yager said. “The fact that these strikes have faded from public attention does not make these violations any less grave or unlawful.”

HRW’s legal argument centers on a clear distinction laid out in international law between military operations in active armed conflict and civilian law enforcement actions. The organization stresses that the U.S. is not involved in any formal armed conflict with drug trafficking organizations operating in the Caribbean or Pacific, which means no suspected traffickers qualify as legitimate military targets under international legal standards. Outside of a declared armed conflict, the deliberate use of lethal force is only legally permissible when it is strictly necessary to defend against an immediate threat to human life. To date, the U.S. government has not released any public evidence demonstrating that any of the 163 people killed in these strikes posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone, HRW says, meaning the killings amount to unlawful extrajudicial executions.

The organization is calling on the sitting Trump administration to take immediate action to address the pattern of abuse: first, to halt the entire campaign of extrajudicial lethal strikes immediately, and second, to launch a full accountability process that includes investigating the unlawful killings, conducting formal assessments of harm to the victims and their surviving families, and providing appropriate legal and financial redress for the violations committed.

A sprawling public corruption investigation is unfolding at Jamaica’s sole teaching hospital, with multiple state agencies pursuing probes into widespread procurement breaches and unauthorized use of the institution’s tax-exempt status that has cost the country millions in lost revenue. The Major Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) has confirmed it is on track to collect testimonial statements from current University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) staff this week as law enforcement ramps up its inquiry into procurement irregularities that have drained millions from the public institution.

Parallel to the criminal investigation, Jamaica’s Integrity Commission (IC) has launched its own separate inquiry into a long-running scheme where hospital leadership routinely granted private firms illegal access to UHWI’s government-granted tax-exempt import status. That scheme alone has drained more than $20 million in uncollected revenue from Jamaica Customs, according to official disclosures.

Details of the multi-pronged probe were brought to light Tuesday when Eric Hosin, UHWI’s acting chief executive officer, testified before the country’s Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a legislative oversight body that is also conducting its own review of the scandal. Hosin told the committee that hospital administration has formally reported the misuse of tax-exempt privileges to MOCA, the national police fraud unit, and the Jamaica Customs Agency. “We’re cooperating fully with those agencies and remain in open dialogue with their representatives in order to recover the revenue lost to the Government of Jamaica,” Hosin told the committee.

Hosin confirmed that MOCA has formally requested written statements from a group of current UHWI employees, with submissions expected to be finalized by the end of this week. The acting CEO also told lawmakers that Jamaica Customs has already wrapped up its investigation into one of the four private firms that exploited the tax-exempt status, JACDEN Limited, and that hospital officials are waiting for results of probes into the remaining three companies. Under questioning from PAC members, Hosin publicly named the three previously undisclosed companies: Supreme Laundry Services, Willman Sales, and Scientific Medical Services.

Prior to Hosin’s testimony, only JACDEN Limited had been identified publicly. The firm is led by Dennis Gordon, who serves as an Opposition Member of Parliament for the St Andrew East Central constituency, and benefited from the scheme by importing dialysis machines through UHWI’s tax-exempt status. Beyond the lost customs revenue, Auditor General’s Department (AGD) investigators uncovered that UHWI often purchased the same imported goods back from the private firms at marked-up prices, costing the public hospital millions in unnecessary overspending. Hosin confirmed that because UHWI is the entity listed as the tax-exempt importer on all paperwork, the hospital is legally liable to Jamaica Customs for millions in unpaid fees and charges.

The IC, Jamaica’s independent anti-corruption oversight body, has already seized key evidence related to the scandal. Hosin told the committee that IC investigators visited UHWI’s headquarters and took custody of all documents tied to the misuse of tax-exempt privileges, as well as procurement records for civil works projects flagged for irregularities by the AGD. Hospital leadership is now waiting for the commission to release its official findings. Hosin added that UHWI has already ended the problematic practices that allowed the scheme to continue for years. The hospital has discontinued the routine practice of approving procurement processes after goods and services have already been delivered, cut off all arrangements that allowed private entities to bypass public procurement guidelines, and blocked private firms from accessing the institution’s tax-exempt status moving forward. He repeatedly emphasized that hospital administration fully accepts all findings laid out in the AGD’s audit.

The AGD’s public audit report, released on January 13, flagged a wide range of systemic failures that allowed the scandal to unfold. Beyond the tax abuse scheme, auditors found pervasive breaches of public contracting rules across UHWI’s procurement operations. The combined impact of the irregularities has potentially cost Jamaican taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in total losses. The audit found that UHWI suffers from “considerable deficiencies in governance, procurement, and contract management processes.” Auditors warned that if these gaps are not remedied, they will continue to create elevated corruption risks and erode the hospital’s ability to deliver high-quality healthcare services to Jamaican patients.

During a tense Tuesday sitting of Jamaica’s Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), explosive testimony from senior staff at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) laid bare a years-long pattern of systemic oversight failure that has left public funds exposed to widespread misuse. The hearing, launched to probe damning findings from the Auditor General’s Department (AGD) of widespread procurement rule-breaking at the public facility, revealed that repeated red flags raised by the hospital’s own internal audit team were consistently sidelined by the UHWI board, and the body tasked with vetting public contracts was regularly cut out of the approval process entirely.

The scandal first came to a head when the AGD released a report documenting widespread procurement violations that could have cost Jamaican taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. In response, the hospital’s previous chief executive officer, Fitzgerald Mitchell, was placed on administrative leave, and Eric Hosin was appointed acting CEO to lead the institution through the investigation. Hosin appeared alongside the UHWI leadership team before the PAC to answer questions about the AGD’s findings.

During questioning from PAC chair Julian Robinson, Dwight McLeish, UHWI’s chief audit executive, delivered the hearing’s most shocking revelation: his team had identified all of the major procurement breaches documented in the AGD’s report long before the national audit, and formally flagged the issues to the UHWI board for action—only for senior leadership to take no corrective steps. “Yes, Sir, they were captured by the department and reported to the board, but the board did not take any action,” McLeish confirmed directly to the committee.

Multiple PAC members expressed profound alarm at the admission. Committee member Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn called the news of ignored internal warnings deeply unsettling, noting that the failure to act on pre-identified risks created the perfect conditions for sustained misuse of public funds.

When questioned about the role of the UHWI procurement committee, Hosin admitted that the oversight body was routinely bypassed for major contract awards. The committee, which is supposed to meet every two weeks (and more often for urgent business) to review and approve contracts before awards are finalized, did not even receive many of the largest contracts for review, Hosin confirmed. As a result, dozens of awards were never included in committee meeting minutes, because they were never brought to the body for a vote.

Pressed by PAC member Heatha Miller-Bennett on how the committee could approve contracts that never crossed its desk, Hosin clarified that in many cases, no approval was ever sought or granted. “There are things highlighted by the auditor general and by our internal audit where, in fact, items that were processed did not go through the proper procedure, which included the procurement committee having received it, reviewed it, and made a decision on it,” Hosin said. When asked directly if the procurement committee was intentionally circumvented, Hosin acknowledged: “In some cases.”

Further details of the systemic failures laid out in the AGD audit painted an even clearer picture of unregulated spending. PAC member Kerensia Morrison, who summarized the audit’s key findings, noted that of 111 contracts reviewed, complete documentation was missing for 51. Many contracts were approved directly by the former CEO without any documented evaluation or procurement committee review. In multiple instances, procurement processes were launched only after goods or services had already been delivered, with retrospective bidding used to retroactively justify completed work. Some contracts were intentionally split into smaller packages to fall below mandatory procurement oversight thresholds, and 64 percent of all hospital procurement activity relied on direct, no-bid contracting, a practice that eliminates competitive pricing and transparency.

Morrison described the cumulative situation as “a cocktail of inefficiency,” warning that the complete lack of oversight created open opportunities for fraud and misuse of public funds. Robinson called the status quo completely unacceptable, noting that the Jamaican government spends billions of dollars annually at UHWI with no meaningful checks on spending. “It sounds like a runaway train where somebody, just on a frolic on their own, can spend taxpayers’ money like it’s the wild, wild west. It can’t be so,” Robinson told permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Errol Greene during the hearing.

When Hosin noted that 29 of the 51 missing contract files had been recovered, that the hospital had issued orders to end the problematic practices, and that recovery efforts for the remaining files are ongoing, Morrison pushed back, noting that his answers failed to address accountability for the breaches. Morrison asked what disciplinary actions had been taken against staff involved in the violations, who was found to be complicit, and what the head of procurement had stated about the ongoing rule-breaking.

In response, Hosin confirmed that the UHWI board has convened an independent inquiry led by Ambassador Kathryn Phipps to investigate the AGD’s findings, identify staff that may be liable for the breaches, and recommend disciplinary or legal action. Hosin added that external law enforcement and oversight bodies are also conducting parallel investigations: Jamaica’s Constabulary Force, Customs Department, and Integrity Commission are all probing the cases to identify any potential illegal activity and pursue appropriate action.

To prevent future violations, Hosin said the hospital has already completed mandatory compliance training for all relevant staff, implemented new oversight systems, and issued formal cease-and-desist letters to staff involved in the problematic practices. The PAC hearing continues as lawmakers work to hold accountable those responsible for the breaches and shore up oversight of public funds at the nation’s leading public hospital.

A growing controversy over financial opacity at Jamaica’s Police Officers’ Club is putting new pressure on senior leadership of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to resolve longstanding questions around how the institution’s millions in annual revenue are spent, with calls for audited financial statements to be released before the month ends. Multiple senior JCF officers have raised alarms in anonymous briefings to the Jamaica Observer, noting that no audited accounts for the club have been made available to rank-and-file gazetted officers for several years. At the core of their concerns are unconfirmed questions about whether lease income from the club’s prime Hope Road property has been diverted to cover unapproved overseas travel costs and misallocated from designated Hurricane Melissa relief donations. Financial estimates peg the club’s annual income at roughly $10 million, generated through venue rental fees plus mandatory $1,000 monthly dues collected from every gazetted officer in the JCF. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one senior gazetted officer told the outlet that the lack of transparency does not look appropriate, and that only publicly shared, independently audited accounts will ease growing tensions among officers. When reached for comment, Wayne Cameron, the recently suspended Senior Superintendent and former chair of the Police Officers’ Association (POA), confirmed that he had received multiple formal complaints from concerned officers, but clarified that the POA holds no fiscal or oversight responsibility for the Police Officers’ Club itself. Cameron declined to identify which JCF official or body controls the club’s assets and revenue, instead directing all questions to the Office of the Police Commissioner. Follow-up reporting by the Observer confirmed that Deputy Commissioner of Police Karina Powell-Hood, who oversees the JCF’s Force Development and Logistics Portfolio, addressed the issue at a gathering of the Officer Corps this month, announcing that a leadership election for a new POA management team will be held in April, and that the long-awaited audited financial statements will be presented at that meeting. Powell-Hood also addressed one key point of speculation, confirming that last year’s annual Christmas Officers’ Cocktail, a traditional fundraiser hosted by the club, was canceled to redirect its expected budget to the JCF’s Children’s Advocacy, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) initiative — a program that earned broad public praise for its work supporting children in regions of Jamaica devastated by Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall on the island last October. The debate over the Police Officers’ Club’s finances comes amid an already high-profile public scandal over the management of JCF-linked institutional funds, sparked by Cameron’s arrest on fraud charges connected to POA finances. Following a months-long investigation into alleged financial irregularities within the POA, the director of public prosecutions issued a ruling that led to Cameron being charged with larceny and fraudulent conversion. He has since been suspended from his role as POA chair pending the outcome of his court cases. But a group of senior police sources have pushed back against the charges, arguing that the timing and scope of the investigation raise red flags that the action is rooted in political maneuvering and union-busting. These critics are now demanding that an independent forensic audit identical to the one that led to Cameron’s charges be conducted into the Police Officers’ Club’s finances to level the investigative playing field. Critics point to the suspiciously close timing of Cameron’s charges, which were filed shortly after he launched a court challenge against Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake’s move to remove him from his POA leadership post. Blake formally notified Cameron in a September 8, 2025 letter that he was required to vacate the POA chair, arguing that allegations of misconduct and indiscipline against Cameron threatened to undermine the POA’s work, particularly during ongoing high-stakes negotiations with the Government of Jamaica over salary and benefit adjustments for officers. Cameron’s legal team immediately contested the order, and the court granted an interim injunction blocking Blake, whether acting personally or through agents, from organizing any POA meeting to remove Cameron or appoint an interim chair pending a final judicial review of the commissioner’s decision. The court also ordered that implementation of Blake’s removal order be stayed until the judicial review claim is resolved or further court direction is issued. Both Cameron’s upcoming fraud trial and the full judicial hearing on his challenge to his removal from the POA chair are scheduled to be held in the near future, leaving the unresolved question of the Police Officers’ Club’s finances hanging over the JCF’s senior leadership until at least April, when the promised audited accounts are scheduled to be released.