Caribbean & Central America - February 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

*** JAMAICA TOURISM GROWTH.   Preliminary figures suggest that Jamaica has experienced strong growth in tourist arrivals this winter, with stop-over arrivals up 9.2% to 311,210 in the December-February period.   Earnings weren't quite as strong, increasing by 7.5% to US$209m.   The number of cruise passengers in January was up by 10.5% to 96,323.
 Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett described the figures as “very strong".   However, he warned that airlines in North America were looking at reducing their flights to the Caribbean, with the loss of up to 60,000 seats in the summer possible.

*** ST LUCIA GEARING UP FOR ELECTIONS.   Prime Minister Stephenson King and his ruling United Workers' Party (UWP) should face the polls before 11 December 2011, the fifth anniversary of the last general election.   However, King has hinted that there could be a delay of up to three months as the country struggles to overcome the consequences of Hurricane Tomas.
 The opposition St Lucia Labour Party (SLP) says that any delay beyond 11 December would be unacceptable, but King has responded saying: “The constitution allows that option, and we are the ones who will decide whether to use it."   Elaborating, King added: “I can't give any assurances, what I have indicated is that the experience of Hurricane Tomas has certainly extended the agenda of the government and has added more weight to our workload.   It has given the government the additional task of engaging in its reconstruction programme, and that can extend the call of the election."
 In 2006, the UWP took 11 seats to the SLP's six, but since then it has lost its charismatic founder-leader John Compton, and King has yet to be tested in the polls.   The expectation at this stage is that opposition leader Dr Kenny Anthony will lead the SLP back to power in December.

*** CHAVEZ AND BOUTERSE.   In documents made public by the WikiLeaks website, US diplomats claim that Suriname's President Dési Bouterse received funding from Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez for the election in May last year in which Bouterse's Mega Combinatie (MC) coalition secured the largest number of parliamentary seats.   Bouterse was sworn in as president in August.
 A 2005 diplomatic cable to Washington reported that a member of Bouterse's Nationale Democratische Partij (NDP) has claimed that “the former military dictator Desi Bouterse has made a number of recent trips to Venezuela; that he is receiving financial support from Venezuela; and that President Chavez has promised him recognition and support should Bouterse succeed in his stated goal of bringing down the government of President Venetiaan".

*** BETTER NEWS ON CCJ.   There was dismay among supporters of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) when Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding hinted during a speech in December at the possibility of Jamaica establishing its own final court of appeal to replace the London-based Privy Council [RC-11-01]. Meanwhile in Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar continues to show little interest in pushing the CCJ agenda given the distrust that many of her core supporters from the Indian community have of an institution in which their interests would be marginalized.
 However Grenada's Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, one of the strongest critics of Bruce Golding's suggestion, has now backed up his criticism by saying that Grenada will soon take the necessary measures to adopt the CCJ. Despite being established in 2005, only Guyana, Barbados, and Belize have so far agreed to use the CCJ as their final court of appeal.