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

*** BARBADOS TOURISM DOWNTURN. For the nine months to 30 September 2013, long-stay arrivals in Barbados were down by 6.3% over the same period last year. This in turn fed a decline in retails sales of up to 20% during the period. Arrivals from the US were down by 9.6% and Canadian arrivals were down by 7.3%. The British market was slightly more resilient, declining by 2.9%. The biggest shortfall came from Trinidad & Tobago, which recorded a 17.2% decline. Trinidad traditionally provides Barbados with the most amount of visitors from the Caribbean region.

*** DRUG LINK FOR BOUTERSE. According to Dutch media outlets, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has details of phone records linking Suriname President Desi Bouterse with Guyanese drug baron Roger Khan, currently serving a 40-year sentence in the US for cocaine trafficking. The alleged phone calls between Bouterse and Kahn took place from end-2005 until mid-2006 when Khan was arrested. In August, Desi’s son Dino was arrested in Panama and handed over to the US authorities on charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the US. In late September, the Dutch evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported links between the Bouterses, Khan and Piet Wortel, alleged to be one of Holland’s biggest drug traffickers, who is to stand trial in December when more might be made public.