Regional News Briefs

St Kitts opposition calls for fresh election

BASSETERRE (CMC):

The leader of the main opposition St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, Dr Terrance Drew, is calling for a fresh general election as a split widens within the ruling coalition Team Unity government.

In a statement, Drew said there was only one avenue through which the dissident factions within the coalition government could resolve the present situation.

“Too much damage has already been done since all ministers, including the prime minister, have openly spoken of the lack of equity and purpose in Team Unity and have hurled accusations and counter-accusations at each other of gross incompetence, corruption, and greed," he said.

Last week, seven legislators linked to the Dr Timothy Harris-led government wrote to the governor general indicating that the prime minister did not command the support of the majority of elected members in the National Assembly.

Harris has called on the population to be aware of “certain misgivings in the public domain with respect to the issues raised by the Team Unity partners".

Cuba, US take tentative step with talks on migration

WASHINGTON (AP):

Cuba and the United States took a tentative step toward thawing relations and resuming joint efforts to address irregular migration, a senior Cuban official said following the highest-level talks between the two countries in four years.

There were no major breakthroughs, but the mere fact that the US was holding substantive talks was a sign relations might be looking better under President Joe Biden after going into deep freeze under his predecessor, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said last Friday.

"They seem committed. They ratified that they are committed to the agreements in place," Fernandez de Cossio said. "So we have no reason to mistrust what they're saying, but time will tell."

The talks did not focus on broader US-Cuba relations, but more narrowly on restoring adherence to previous agreements that were intended to curtail the often-dangerous irregular migration from the island to the United States.

US officials want Cuba to resume taking back flights of deported migrants, which it stopped doing at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cuban authorities, meanwhile, want to see the US follow through on its plan to restore consular services in Havana, so people can once again get visas to legally come to the United States, as well as change other policies that it believes encourage irregular migration from the island.

Protesters call for reparations as royals visits St Vincent and the Grenadines

KINGSTOWN (CMC):

The St Vincent and the Grenadines government Saturday gave a red carpet welcome to two members of the Britain’s royal family, but a small group of protesters registered their objection to the visit and instead called for reparation for African slavery.

Prince Edward, 58, and his wife, Sophie, 57, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, were greeted by Acting Prime Minister Montgomery Daniel as Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves is in Venezuela seeking medical attention.

Steel band music welcomed the royals, whose visit forms part of the activities marking the Queen platinum jubilee, but the pomp and ceremony was overshadowed by the few protesters.

Former chair of the National Reparations Committee, Jomo Thomas, who was among those demanding the apology and reparation, said, “We just wanted to indicate, represent, manifest our disgust, our disdain and our concern that the neo-colonial government of St Vincent and the Grenadines would again, yet again, be welcoming and celebrating these people”.

The former government senator and speaker of the House of Assembly said that under the Royal African Charter, the British were “responsible for the hunting down, kidnapping and trans-shipment of 60 per cent of all of the Africans who were taken from the African continent”.

During their one-day visit, the royals planted a tree at the Botanical Gardens in Kingstown, the oldest in the Western Hemisphere, and met privately with the acting prime minister.

They also met with women in leadership roles regarding the response to the April 2021 eruption of La Soufriere volcano and congratulated those who have recently completed their Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. They also watched a local cricket match.