标签： Jamaica

HAVANA, Cuba — Cuban authorities issued a forceful rejection this Tuesday of what it calls American “slander” targeting GAESA, the island nation’s military-backed economic conglomerate that has become the latest focus of sweeping new United States sanctions. The fresh restrictions, announced earlier in May, represent a sharp escalation of the Trump administration’s long-running pressure campaign against Cuba’s communist-led government, a campaign that has included public musings from former President Trump about potential US takeover of the island.

In unveiling the new sanctions, then-Secretary of State Marco Rubio leveled sharp accusations against GAESA, an entity analysts estimate controls roughly 70 percent of Cuba’s total national economy. Rubio claimed the conglomerate operates as an unaccountable “state within a state,” accumulating massive wealth for a small ruling elite while ordinary Cuban citizens bear the cost of its opaque operations. “It hoards the profits from its businesses for the benefit of a small elite,” Rubio stated.

Cuba’s official response, released in a public statement Tuesday, pushed back firmly against these claims, rejecting characterizations of GAESA as either an opaque institution or a parallel structure operating outside of Cuban state oversight. “On the contrary,” the statement read, the conglomerate “has been a coordinated response of proven efficiency to the economic siege that has historically sought to suffocate the Cuban Revolution” — a direct reference to the US trade embargo that has been in place against Cuba since 1962.

The latest round of US sanctions strengthens existing restrictions on GAESA, ordering a full freeze on all of the conglomerate’s assets held within US jurisdictions and imposing harsh penalties on any foreign companies that choose to conduct business with the entity. Cuban officials framed the measures as “the most intense, disproportionate, and dangerous escalation in the recent history of relations between Cuba and the United States.”

The statement also highlighted GAESA’s widespread contributions to Cuban public welfare and economic stability, noting the conglomerate played a critical role in sustaining the island’s economy through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and has overseen the construction of more than 10,000 new residential homes for Cuban citizens. “Its work speaks for itself, and it does so above the state slander concocted in Washington,” the statement concluded.

Multiple independent sources confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that Spanish hospitality giant Iberostar has begun exiting from 12 Cuban hotel properties it previously operated in partnership with GAESA-affiliated firms. The company made the decision to withdraw from hotels co-managed with Gaviota, Cuba’s state tourism group that is a core subsidiary of GAESA, one insider confirmed. “As of June 1, Iberostar is pulling out of all its hotels (run with) Gaviota,” a second senior tourism industry source corroborated.

When contacted by AFP for comment, the Mallorca-based hospitality group declined to provide on-the-record details about its decision. Sources added that Iberostar will maintain its existing co-management agreements for hotels owned directly by Cuba’s national tourism ministry, separate from GAESA-linked entities.

Iberostar’s exit follows a similar move by Canadian mining corporation Sherritt, which terminated its long-standing partnership with GAESA earlier this year after facing US sanctions penalties for its operations in Cuba.

Weeks after a violent assassination attempt targeting then-President Donald Trump forced an emergency evacuation and shut down the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, event organizers have announced the gala will be revived next month with upgraded security protocols. The White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) confirmed the long-awaited rescheduling in a member notice issued Tuesday, scheduling the revamped gathering for Friday, July 24 in Washington, D.C.

The chaotic original event unfolded on April 25 at a downtown Washington hotel. As Trump prepared to deliver his scheduled keynote address, a gunman opened fire at an exterior security checkpoint near the event ballroom, triggering an immediate emergency evacuation of the sitting president. The accused attacker, 31-year-old Cole Allen, a California resident, has since entered a plea of not guilty to a series of felony charges, including attempted assassination of the president.

In an official email circulated to WHCA members, association president Weijia Jiang framed the decision to reschedule as a stand against violent intimidation, tying the moment to the United States’ ongoing 250th founding anniversary celebrations. “We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for,” Jiang stated.

Jiang confirmed that the rescheduled event will roll out substantially enhanced safety measures and revised entry protocols to prevent a repeat of the April incident. Unlike the large, glitzy annual gathering that typically draws thousands of journalists, government officials, and public figures to the Washington Hilton, the July event will be structured as a smaller, more intimate gathering, Jiang added. Specific details regarding the exact venue, ticket sales, and event programming are still being finalized and will be released to members in the coming weeks.

Notably, the WHCA president declined to confirm whether Trump would be in attendance at the rescheduled dinner. Trump himself has publicly voiced support for reviving the disrupted event, and has also cited the security breach to bolster his push for construction of a controversial new event ballroom on White House grounds, a project that has drawn political pushback from critics.

After weeks of escalating political tension and public demands for transparency, Jamaica’s long-awaited Integrity Commission investigation into the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) was formally presented to Parliament this Tuesday. The sweeping probe, which centers on allegations of corrupt practice, unethical conduct and procedural irregularities across the agency’s core operations, has laid bare critical gaps in data governance, inventory control and information management that have raised alarms about oversight failures at the state body.

The report’s journey to public release was fraught with conflict, with opposition lawmakers staging a walkout in protest of what they called an intentional delay by the sitting government to hide the document’s damning findings. For weeks leading up to Tuesday’s tabling, the investigation remained a flashpoint for political friction, as opposition representatives insisted on full and immediate disclosure before the report could be formally reviewed by legislators.

The Integrity Commission’s probe targeted a wide range of alleged misconduct spanning the FLA’s firearm licensing processes, ammunition inventory tracking and secure storage operations. One of the most serious findings centers on deliberate manipulation of the agency’s core Licence Management System (LMS) linked to licensed firearms dealer Kent Brown. According to the report’s conclusion, the LMS was altered by FLA personnel to insert inaccurate data into Brown’s account without his knowledge or approval.

The Director of Investigation based this finding on concrete evidence that Shevon Robinson, the FLA’s former Database Administrator, added four unauthorized entries to Brown’s account. These entries documented three separate individuals purchasing a combined total of 6,000 rounds of 12-gauge bird-hunting ammunition, transactions that Brown never requested or approved, the report confirms.

Beyond the deliberate data manipulation, the investigation also uncovered systemic weaknesses in the FLA’s ammunition storage and inventory accountability protocols. Auditors found that 191 rounds of 0.22-caliber ammunition registered to a licensed firearm holder could not be located or accounted for, a gap that prompted the commission to recommend a full independent audit of all FLA secure vaults.

The report also highlights ongoing risks from poor maintenance of stored stockpiles: many rounds have deteriorating packaging and faded identification markers, issues that further complicate accurate inventory tracking and create additional security vulnerabilities.

To address the litany of gaps and failures uncovered during the probe, the Integrity Commission has put forward a series of targeted recommendations designed to strengthen internal governance, overhaul record-keeping practices, and beef up independent oversight of the FLA’s operations. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now expected to debate next steps for regulatory and operational reform in response to the report’s findings.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — As artificial intelligence continues to reshape global labor markets, a senior Jamaican opposition figure is raising urgent alarms over the accelerating risk AI poses to the island nation’s critical business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, a sector that sustains tens of thousands of local jobs. Christopher Brown, the opposition’s spokesperson for Science, Technology and Digital Transformation, delivered a sharp rebuke of the ruling administration during Tuesday’s Sectoral Debate in the country’s House of Representatives, accusing officials of dragging their feet on a coordinated response to the disruption.