Caribbean & Central America - October 2014 (ISSN 1741-4458)

***SURINAME AND NETHERLANDS IN SURPRISE RESTORATION OF DIPLOMATIC LINKS. In the last week of September, on the side-lines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the foreign ministers of Suriname and the Netherlands (respectively Winston Lackin and Frans Timmermans) announced that the two countries were to restore full diplomatic relations.

This represents something of a volte face for the Netherlands. Diplomatic relations were severed after the Suriname National Assembly approved an amendment to its amnesty legislation in April 2012 that could see President Desi Bouterse and 24 accomplices pardoned for the 1982 murders of 15 citizens. The Netherlands also froze all development aid.

Bouterse headed a military dictatorship from 1980-87, but he returned to power as elected president in May 2010. He has also been convicted in the Netherlands of drug smuggling, and following his election, Holland’s then foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, declared that the only terms under which Bouterse could visit Holland would be if he came to serve his 11 year prison sentence.

One of the motivations for the move by the Netherlands was hinted at by Timmermans when he met with Lackin in January 2013 at the meeting at the European Union (EU)-Latin America summit in Santiago de Chile. This was the first ministerial contact between the Netherlands and Suriname since 2010, and in explanation Timmermans said: “One-and-a-half million people in the Netherlands and Suriname share some kind of direct ties with each other. Our countries are inextricably linked through their people, culture, language and history. And since these things are more important than political differences, the Netherlands will continue to strive for good relations between our two countries.” The Suriname economy is also performing notably well, growing by 4.5% in 2013 with a further expansion of 4.4% expected for 2014.

There will be a general election in 2015 at which Bouterse will stand again having reversed his originally declared intention of serving only one term.

***ST KITTS’S DOUGLAS FACING DAY OF RECKONING. The prime minister of St Kitts & Nevis, Denzil Douglas of the ruling St Kitts & Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) has been avoiding a parliamentary no confidence motion filed on 11 December 2012. He has managed this because he retains a majority in parliament by virtue of appointed senators, but as only elected members are entitled to vote in a no confidence motion, this tactic can only work to block the motion not to defeat it. It has been a controversial manoeuvre, but Douglas has justified it by arguing that as the SKNLP won 60% of the vote in the last election, it shouldn’t have its mandate overturned just because two members elected on the SKNLP ticket have crossed the floor.

But all this will soon be academic as an election must be called by January 2015, and the opposition is trying its best to make the most out of having failed to secure a no confidence motion. Speaking on 30 September at a Team Unity opposition alliance meeting, the deputy leader of the People’s Labour Party (PLP) Sam Condor proclaimed: “Look how we outmanoeuvred Douglas; outmanoeuvred him! The elections are any time now. He run out of time, and this is exactly what we wanted, we wanted time. We wanted time and he gave us time.”

• “In the last week of September, on the side-lines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the foreign ministers of Suriname and the Netherlands (respectively Winston Lackin and Frans Timmermans) announced that the two countries were to restore full diplomatic relations.”