标签： Jamaica

On Monday, former U.S. President Donald Trump put forward a nomination that has already sparked political discussion: tapping controversial former television news anchor Kari Lake Halperin to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica. Should the U.S. Senate vote to confirm her appointment, the Arizona-based Republican will step into a role previously held by Nick Perry, a Jamaica-born diplomat who held the post from 2022 through January 2025.

Now 56 years old, Lake built a 20-plus year career in broadcast media before entering politics. She launched her media journey in Arizona back in 1991, working her way up local industry ranks to become one of the state’s most recognizable and popular news anchors. Earlier in her political affiliation, Lake identified as a Democrat, and over her journalism career she secured high-profile interviews with two sitting U.S. presidents: Barack Obama in 2016 and Donald Trump in 2020.

Lake’s sharp turn toward hardline pro-Trump politics followed the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, an event incited by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. Since that attack, Lake emerged as one of the most prominent voices in American politics pushing false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. This unwavering denial of the election’s outcome earned her fierce loyalty from Trump and the core of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, but political analysts widely argue that this same stance contributed to her two high-profile election defeats. In 2022, she lost her bid for Arizona governor to Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs, and she suffered a second defeat in a 2024 U.S. Senate race against Democrat Ruben Gallego.

Prior to this ambassadorial nomination, Lake held a key role within the second Trump administration. In March 2025, Trump appointed her as a senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, a federal body that oversees the Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Her mandate in that role was to restructure the agency and reduce its overall size and scope. During her tenure, she implemented deep cuts to both staff and agency operations, a move that was later ruled illegal by a federal judge, according to multiple news reports.

Outside of her professional and political life, Lake has been married to Jeff Halperin since August 1998, and the couple shares two adult children.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – In a landmark step toward strengthening property rights and driving inclusive national development, the Government of Jamaica has formalized a new partnership with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to launch a $1.42 billion initiative focused on transforming the country’s outdated land administration framework.

The cross-border collaboration between Seoul and Kingston is designed to deliver three core long-term benefits: formally secured land rights for more Jamaican homeowners, more robust governing institutions for land management, and accelerated sustainable development by making land ownership verification and transfers more accessible and transparent to the public.

Addressing attendees at the official signing ceremony, Jamaican Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness emphasized the far-reaching socioeconomic impact of the project beyond administrative reform. “A land title is more than a document, it is a platform for opportunity. This project is about building that platform at scale,” he said, noting that formalized land ownership unlocks access to loans, home improvement investments, and economic mobility for millions of Jamaican households.

Scheduled for full implementation through 2030, the initiative centers on two key strategic upgrades to Jamaica’s land governance ecosystem. First, it will equip the National Land Agency (NLA), the country’s lead land management body, with cutting-edge digital infrastructure to cut processing times and reduce bureaucratic red tape. Second, it will establish a dedicated Land Administration Innovation Centre (LAIC) based at 84 Hanover Street in downtown Kingston, which will roll out targeted upskilling programs for local workers in geospatial planning and modern land management techniques.

Construction and operational setup of the LAIC will be carried out gradually across the full implementation period of the project, according to official project outlines.

Minister of Land Titling and Settlements Robert Montague shared context on the urgent need for reform, noting that Jamaica currently has roughly 900,000 distinct land parcels nationwide. As of today, only around 500,000 – just 55 percent of the total – have been formally titled, leaving nearly half of all land holdings undocumented and leaving owners without legal protections for their property.

Sook Jin Byun, Country Director of KOICA based in the Dominican Republic, expressed confidence in the project’s success during the ceremony. “With the strong leadership and cooperation of the National Land Agency of Jamaica and together with the expertise of our Korean team, I believe that this project will make a very meaningful contribution to the modernisation of Jamaica’s land administration system,” Byun said.

The initiative marks one of the largest bilateral development projects focused on land governance in Jamaica’s recent history, with expectations that it will lay the groundwork for years of more equitable economic growth.

As he nears his 80th birthday, one of the Caribbean’s most long-serving and influential political figures has announced he will step away from front-line electoral politics, but has no plans to exit public life. Instead, former St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is preparing to step into a new, high-profile role advancing the regional movement for reparatory justice for the harms of chattel slavery, indigenous genocide, and centuries of colonial exploitation.

Gonsalves, who led his country for more than 22 years before his Unity Labour Party (ULP) suffered a lopsided electoral defeat in November 2023 that left him as the sole opposition lawmaker in parliament, made the remarks during an address to the Jamaica Observer Press Club last Wednesday. While confirming he will not encourage his party to select him as its lead candidate in the next general election, he stressed that the final decision on his electoral future rests with ULP membership.

“I’m a party man, but I would not encourage the party to do that,” Gonsalves told attendees, pushing back on speculation he could reverse course if party leaders would beg him to stand again. “The ruling New Democratic Party has publicly hoped he would fade quietly from public life after the election result, but Gonsalves made clear that stepping back from electoral leadership is not equivalent to full retirement.

“Fate, history, and circumstance have accorded me this current role in the legislature. The Government would have liked it if I would just fade away but the good Lord doesn’t intend for me to do that,” he declared.

In recent weeks, Gonsalves was appointed senior advisor to the Repair Campaign, a regional advocacy initiative launched in 2022 by Irish businessman Denis O’Brien that supports the work of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Reparations Commission (CRC). The campaign focuses on public education, academic research, and global diplomatic engagement to push for formal reparations from former colonial powers for harms inflicted on Caribbean peoples. Drawing on his decades of experience in regional politics and his background as a trained lawyer and social scientist, Gonsalves plans to leverage existing professional and personal connections to strengthen coordination between governments, civil society groups, academic institutions, and international stakeholders working on the reparations cause.

Gonsalves argues that reparations is far more than a government-led initiative, saying the movement requires coordinated action from across regional and global groups. “We do not make history in circumstances chosen by ourselves but by conditions which are inherited from the past and those which have arisen from the extant circumstances,” he noted in his address, framing the reparations fight as a defining historical project for the Caribbean region.

His new role is not the only activity keeping him engaged post-election. Gonsalves shared that he is putting the final touches on a 480-page manuscript examining Caribbean political leadership, hosts a three-hour weekly radio show on his party’s radio station twice a week, and prioritizes time with his 15-month-old granddaughter, whom he called “a beautiful young lady in my life” that he often brings with him on regional travel.

“ I take her walking in the morning, walking in the evening. She loves to be with her papa. If I come to Jamaica, I have to bring her with me because she wouldn’t want me to leave her home,” he said warmly.

Even as he spoke of personal life and political transition, Gonsalves repeatedly circled back to the reparations movement, framing it as an unfinished great cause that demands unwavering commitment from regional leaders. Invoking a quote from Jamaican National Hero Norman Manley, he argued that transformative progress cannot be achieved by leaders who are uncertain of the cause.

“In August I am going to be 80 years old. As you notice, I have all my marbles, the brain is ticking over well,” he joked. “West Indian integration, regional integration, is a great cause, and great causes have never been won by doubtful men and women. The same thing with reparations; it is a great cause, and this cannot be won by doubtful men and women.”

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A sitting Jamaican lawmaker has launched sharp criticism of the national government’s flagship SPARK infrastructure initiative, flagging systemic problems ranging from delayed timelines and mismatched budgeting to flawed road selection that have left key communities stranded in unsafe, unnavigable conditions. Omar Newell, the Member of Parliament representing the St Mary Central constituency, laid out his grievances in a dedicated press briefing held Tuesday, branded “Uncovering the Facts on the SPARK Road Programme”, where he detailed years of broken promises that have eroded public confidence in the government’s development commitments.

Designed to upgrade Jamaica’s crumbling road network and align with the administration’s broader economic growth and social development targets, the SPARK programme is structured into four large-scale construction packages focused on expanding and rehabilitating transportation infrastructure across the island. But for St Mary Central, Newell argues, the initiative has failed to deliver on even its most basic pledges, leaving multiple long-suffering communities stuck with deteriorating roadways that cripple daily life.

Among the hardest-hit areas are Islington, Marlborough, Essex and Tremolesworth, where unsafe road conditions have brought everyday activity to a near standstill. “These communities are dying. Islington has a high school, one of two high schools in the constituency, and three primary schools. There is no safe way in and no safe way out,” Newell told reporters.

The lawmaker recounted the timeline of unmet promises stretching back more than two years. During a public SPARK consultation held in May 2024, local residents were told that 10 roads across the constituency would be selected for rehabilitation under the programme. Newell left that meeting expecting key corridors including Thompson Town Road, Esher Avenue and Albion Mountain to be upgraded alongside several other critical routes.

After Newell was confirmed as the St Mary Central parliamentary candidate, he was invited to name liaison officers for two prioritized road projects. Construction work on those projects kicked off in March 2025, with heavy excavation equipment and work teams mobilizing to begin overhauls.

But the progress quickly ground to a halt over unresolved infrastructure issues, Newell claims. In April 2025, the liaison officer for the Kilancholly corridor flagged that contractors were preparing to lay asphalt without addressing long-standing leaking water pipe problems that had damaged the road foundation for years. Fed up with repeated complaints that went unanswered by officials, local residents grew increasingly frustrated and threatened to reach out to independent media to highlight the issue.

According to Newell, when media did begin to inquire about the problems, Robert Morgan, the minister responsible for public works, told reporters in May 2025 that piping upgrades had always been part of the Kilancholly project scope, and the issue would be resolved. More than a year later, however, residents still face major disruptions and unsafe conditions.

“We are now in May 2026, and up to last week, people were still driving into Kilancholly and into Tremolesworth experiencing significant delays because of a ridiculous amount of mud on the road,” Newell said. It was only after the MP issued a public press release last week that a work team was dispatched to the community on the following Saturday, he added. Even that intervention did little to repair public trust, Newell noted, as residents have become accustomed to repeated starts and stops on the project with no sustained progress.

Newell pushed back against attempts by the works minister to claim credit for SPARK’s successes across other parts of the country, arguing that Morgan must also take accountability for the failures in St Mary Central. Beyond the execution delays, the MP also raised serious questions about the programme’s budgeting for the constituency. When he took office, Newell said, he learned that the estimated total cost to rehabilitate the 10 promised roads exceeded 800 million Jamaican dollars — yet the total SPARK budget allocated to St Mary Central sits at just 272 million dollars.

The gap between promises and available funding has led Newell to question whether the initial commitments were made for political gain rather than genuine development. He warned that the mishandling of the programme is doing lasting damage to public confidence in government. “If you can’t trust the word of your Government, you can’t trust anything,” he said.