*** CRACKS APPEAR IN BARBADOS GOVERNMENT. The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) was returned to power for a second term almost exactly a year ago. Its election platform was unequivocal: it promised “stability through austerity”. And this is what Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has sought to deliver, including through the lay-off of 3,000 civil servants. In early February, however, Agriculture Minister David Estwick broke ranks and publicly opposed what he called the “wrong medicine”. Estwick’s criticism has added weight because of his status as a former finance mnister. Estwick said that the government’s strategy would not fix the country’s US$700m current…
Constitutionally Antigua & Barbuda should hold an election by 12 March, although in exceptional circumstances there may be a delay of up to 90 days, which the opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) says is what Prime Minister Spencer Baldwin is planning. Whatever the truth of this allegation, the ruling United Progressive Party (UPP) cannot be feeling overly confident about its chances of winning a third term in power, although it is putting up a good case. The January budget statement was as much an election manifesto as a budget, and it began with a defence of the UPP’s record since…
On 7 February, Grenada marked 40 years of independence. It may be independent from Britain, but it is very far from being out of the clutches of international lenders following its March 2013 default on US$257m of foreign and local debt. A US$193m bond maturing in 2025 is currently trading at 32 cents to the dollar, and creditors are losing patience with the government’s reluctance to start “good faith” negotiations. Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been looking in depth at reasons behind the failure of its 2006-2010 and 2010-2013 programmes. The IMF attributes the failure of its programmes…
The Dominican Republic (DR)’s main opposition party, the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), is struggling to overcome the internal political crisis it has faced since its third consecutive defeat at the polls in the 2012 presidential elections. As the party prepares to stage its 30th national party convention where it will decide its plan of action up to the next (2016) presidential elections, it remains deeply divided. With no signs that the differences between the opposing factions led by party president Miguel Vargas Maldonado and former president, Hipólito Mejía (2000-2004), are any closer to being bridged, the possibility of a rupture…
The big news in Miami this month was the announcement by a well-known hard-line conservative Cuban exile, the sugar magnate Alfonso Fanjul, that he would invest in Cuba “under the right circumstances” and had visited his homeland twice in the past two years during which he had met senior Cuban government officials. The 76-year old Fanjul told the equally conservative Washington Post on 2 February that he wanted to “reunite the Cuban family” and, given the right conditions in Cuba, would be prepared to invest there again. According to the Post, since his two visits (in April 2012 and February…
Just days after a very successful heads of state summit of the Community of Latin American & Caribbean States (Celac) in Havana, where regional leaders of all stripes lined up for five minutes and a photo op with Fidel Castro and no-one but the Chileans made any mention of political dissidents, Cuba got more good news: the confirmation that foreign ministers from the European Union (EU) would give the go-ahead, on 10 February, for new talks on a special bilateral cooperation accord with Cuba in support of increased trade and investment and dialogue on human rights. Cuba’s relations with the…