Caribbean & Central America - September 2013 (ISSN 1741-4458)

***BAHAMAS STILL BATTLING AGAINST HIGH LEVELS OF CRIME. On 9 September, in response to a two week surge in violence that included 13 murders, National Security Minister Bernard Nottage announced measures to increase the number of police on the front line by up to 350. The total number of murders for the year has now reached 82, and local media reports have talked about people seeking refuge in their homes, “hunkering down and barricading themselves inside”.  Nottage said: “The situation cannot continue like this without a response commensurate with the wanton acts of violence and lawlessness.”

As part of the measures announced by Dr Nottage, 150 Royal Bahamas Defence Force Marines will be deployed to undertake sedentary and other non-frontline duties normally carried out by the Royal Bahamas Police Force.  According to Nottage, “this will have the effect of doubling the number of officers on the frontline”. In addition to this initiative, there will be 12-hour shifts in place for police officers on New Providence.

The government is attributing the high crime levels now being witnessed to the trans-shipment process, which it says has led to guns, firearms, and drugs remaining in the country which in turn has fed the escalation of gang violence and turf wars.

Nottage has also pointed to a disturbing growth in human trafficking, which he says has been "silently festering within our community". According to Nottage “the geography of our islands and our porous borders render The Bahamas ideally suited as a transit point for illicit trafficking activities from the South destined for the North; and trafficking in persons is no exception”.  The government has partnered with the International Organization for Migration for a 36 month project aimed at strengthening The Bahamas’ ability to combat human trafficking.

***BERMUDA BLACKLISTED BY FRANCE. France has identified Bermuda in its list of “uncooperative tax havens”, much to the professed bewilderment of the Bermudan government. The government responded by saying that it was “surprised” that the territory is to be included in France’s list of offshore financial centres with which France has issues.

This development comes as part of French President François Hollande’s endeavour to increase the transparency and regulation of tax in the wake of a run of scandals that have resulted in a significant loss of confidence by the electorate in France’s political class. The most damaging and noteworthy of these was the admittance by Hollande’s ex-budget minister, Jerome Cahuzac, that he had been using a Swiss bank account to hide 600,000 euros. Cahuzac was responsible for tackling the issue of tax noncompliance, and given Hollande’s stated determination to ‘moralize’ French public life the scandal is likely to have been the main driving force behind the blacklisting of Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, and Jersey.

According to Michel Collet of CMS Francis Lefebvre law firm, “being on the 'blacklist' triggers the application of 75% withholding taxes on French source flows to those territories and the strengthening of anti-abuse mechanisms”. The Bermudan government has been in contact with the French government to gain clarity over the island’s inclusion on the list, and it says that it “envisages any entry on France’s list will be short-lived or never happen if in fact that list is to be effective later than 2013”. Bermuda is expecting to have completed all its internal processes for the automatic exchange of information to be completed by the end of September 2013.

***DINO BOUTERSE ARRESTED AS FATHER HOSTS UNASUR SUMMIT. On 30 August Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse hosted the annual summit of South American Nations (Unasur).  On the same day his son Dino was arraigned in New York following his earlier arrest in Panama in relation to drug and weapons charges which, if convicted, could both carry life sentences.

The Bouterse family has form.  In 1999 Desi was convicted in absentia in the Netherlands for smuggling cocaine.  Desi is also accused of serious human rights abuses during his 1980-87 military dictatorship.  Dino, for his part, was sentenced in Suriname to eight years in prison in August 2005 after a judge found him guilty of leading a ring that trafficked in cocaine, illegal arms, and stolen luxury cars. However, he was released after just three years for good behavior, and was subsequently appointed director of Suriname’s Counter Terrorist Unit after his father became president in 2010.

The president said on 3 September that the timing of Dino’s latest arrest was deliberately aimed at undermining his hosting of the Unasur summit.  However Desi, who intends to run for a second term in 2015, also seemed to be distancing himself from his son when he said: “When people talk about Dino sometimes it sounds like they are talking to me about a 12-year old. But he is a grown man, with 13 children, who will turn 41. He is responsible for his own actions.”

*** MARGINAL GROWTH FOR OECS.  On 7 September Kenny Anthony, the chairman of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), said that members of the currency union would record average growth of just 1.5% in 2013 and 2.2% in 2014.  The ECCU links the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).  Anthony called for strategies to lift annual growth to at least 3.5% by 2015 and to 8% thereafter.

• “On 30 August Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse hosted the annual summit of South American Nations (Unasur).  On the same day his son Dino was arraigned in New York following his earlier arrest in Panama in relation to drug and weapons charges which, if convicted, could both carry life sentences”.