Regional Briefs

Venezuela gov't, opposition to hold talks in Barbados

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (CMC):

Norway has confirmed that Venezuela government and opposition representatives will meet here this week as part of the ongoing efforts to find a solution to the economic and political crisis in the South American country.

Norway’s foreign ministry, which is acting as a mediator, issued a statement on Sunday confirming that talks will start “this week” in Barbados, but gave no specific date for the third round of discussions between the parties.

Norway said that the parties will now meet to continue work on finding a negotiated and constitutional solution as “quickly as possible”.

“Norway reiterates its recognition of the parties for their efforts and willingness to cooperate,” Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said.

Venezuelan Opposition Leader Juan Guaido, who has declared himself interim president, is seeking the removal of President Nicolas Maduro from office.

 

 

Private sector leader says honeymoon over for T&T security officials

PORT-OF-SPAIN (CMC):

The president of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA), Gregory Aboud, says the “honeymoon” for Police Commissioner Gary Griffith and National Security Minister Stuart Young has ended and called for more effective action to deal with the crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago.

“We would like to signal our growing impatience and anxiety with the lack of actions regarding persons who are free to kill,” Aboud told the Trinidad Express yesterday.

Both Young and Griffith were appointed to their respective positions last August, and Aboud said his organisation was among those that were enthusiastic about their appointments.

“But we feel entitled to say ... it is high time that something be one to confront the freeness with which persons are able to kill in broad daylight, without fear of any accountability or fear of being ­apprehended”.

At least 516 people were murdered in the twin-island republic last year, and so far this year, more than 240 people have been killed.

 

 

Probe begins into deadly Bahamas helicopter crash

NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC):

Air Accident Investigation Department Chief Investigator Delvin Major says the probe into the helicopter crash last Thursday that killed an American billionaire and six other Americans has begun in Florida.

Yesterday, the police officially released the names of those killed when the helicopter crashed during the early hours of July 4, two miles off the private island, Big Grand Cay, of 61-year-old billionaire Christopher Cline, who, along with his 22-year-old daughter, was among the victims.

The helicopter had departed Grand Cay and was en route to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when it crashed. Search-and-rescue efforts began after the plane did not arrive at its destinations. The aircraft and all of the bodies were recovered by authorities.

 

 

FAO issues dire warning for Latin America, Caribbean

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Latin America and the Caribbean produces enough food to feed its entire population, but a new report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the central problem concerning hunger in the region is not a lack of food, but rather the difficulty the poorest inhabitants face in being able to access that food.

The Food and Nutrition Security in Latin America and the Caribbean, however, pointed out that "between 1990 and 2014, Latin America and the Caribbean, as a whole, reduced by 60 per cent its proportion of undernourished population, making it the only region in the world to achieve the goal of halving the percentage of people suffering from hunger set for 2015 by the Millennium Development Goals".