Cuba, a year after protests

A year after Cuban protesters took to the streets in massive anti-government demonstrations, there have been few policy changes in response to the economic, social and political demands that fueled the unrest, reports Americas Quarterly.

Government crackdowns demoralized protest organizers, and “demands for political reform, delivered by young, middle-class professionals, did not speak to the most urgent issue for the majority of Cubans: their deteriorating standard of living,” writes William LeoGrande in The Nation.

The frustrated protest movement has fed into one of the largest exoduses from the island since the 1959 revolution. Some are activists fleeing persecution, while others are seeking economic opportunities, reports the Washington Post. The migration wave is sapping Cuba of many of its youths, as well as undermining efforts to oppose the island’s government.

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Haiti, a year after Moïse’s murder

A year after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was killed, Haiti has no political solution in sight. “The picture remains grim with a seeming state of lawlessness taking hold in parts of the country,” reports the New York Times.

The investigation into the killing is stalled in Haiti, part of a broader problem of a justice system plagued by protests, robberies, gang violence and death threats, reports Voice of America. Judges and legal clerks in the case have been threatened and told to change witness testimony.

In the meantime, Haiti is rudderless. Prime Minister Ariel Henry has promised to create a new provisional electoral council, which is responsible for organizing general elections, but that hasn’t happened. There hasn’t been a Parliament because the government failed to organize elections in 2019, and Moïse dismissed most lawmakers in early 2020 and ruled by decree for more than a year before he was killed. Attempts to form a coalition government have faltered in recent weeks, reports the Associated Press.

Public Security

• Gun battles between rival gangs have killed more than 50 people since Friday in Cite Soleil, near Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. Shootouts between gangs in the impoverished suburb have also left more than 100 people wounded, according to Cite Soleil Mayor Joel Janeus. (Reuters)
  
  
• Thousands of people are trapped without drinking water, food or medical care in an isolated area of Cité Soleil, as armed groups battle for control of the area, warned Médecins Sans Frontières this week.
  
  
• Violent crime in Haiti has residents of Port-au-Prince living forms of security quarantines, in which running basic errands can be a fraught endeavor, reports the Miami Herald. Kidnappings and intentional homicides, according to the United Nations’ Haiti office, have risen by 36% and 17% respectively, compared with the last five months of 2021. In May alone, the Haitian National Police reported 200 kidnappings, an average of almost 7 cases per day.
  
  
• Haiti’s Customs Agency seized an extremely large quantity of illegally imported ammunition, last week, the same day that its director was replaced on suspicion of arms trafficking. The case highlights the country’s struggle in combating weapons flows, according to InSight Crime.
  

Human Rights

• Haiti’s Cité Soleil is at risk of becoming a ‘sacrifice zone’ with its inhabitants facing extreme environmental injustices and an acute waste problem that threatens their health and safety, UN human rights experts said in a report last week. Cité Soleil is an impoverished commune in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince and home to nearly 400,000 people. An open canal serves as the commune’s sewage system and waste dumps grow into mountains over three metres high near residential areas where children play and go to school. (OHCHR)
  
  
• The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded its first promotional visit to the Commonwealth of Dominica, conducted with the purpose of strengthening and deepening the Commission’s collaboration with the government. (IACHR)
  
  
• Jamaican prosecutors’ plans to seek the death penalty in the case of a young man accused of the throat-slashing murder of a mother and four children has provoked mixed reactions from lawyers, reports the Jamaica Gleaner.
  
  

Diplomacy

• China launched a development center with Caribbean countries — part of an effort by Beijing to step up cooperation on poverty alleviation, food security, pandemic response and green development with the region.The China-Caribbean Development Center, which was unveiled in Jinan city in Shandong province, will serve as a catalyst for more high-standard and sustainable cooperation projects to enhance the well-being of people in the Caribbean, said Xie Feng, vice-minister of foreign affairs. (China Daily)
  
  
• The U.S.-Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030 (PACC 2030), the U.S.-Caribbean cooperation on climate adaptation, energy security, and clean energy investment framework could be the biggest breakthrough announced at the Summit of the Americas, according to Global Americans.  
  
  

Climate Justice and Energy

• The US has inflicted more than $1.9tn in damage to other countries from the effects of its greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new analysis that has provided the first measurement of nations’ liability in stoking the climate crisis. The report is relevant as activists push for loss and damage to be contemplated at this year’s COP27 meeting. Developing countries and climate activists have pushed for ‘loss and damage’ payments to be made to those who are suffering the most from global heating through heatwaves, floods and drought.  (Guardian)
  
  
• Future global biodiversity may be intrinsically linked to the adaptive and resilience capacities of island ecosystems, but terrestrial biodiversity of islands is often under-represented within climate change impact assessments — the terrestrial island biodiversity conundrum. (SDG Knowledge Hub)
  
  
• Sargassum is a brown macroalgae that has wreaked havoc on the Caribbean, decimating coastal ecosystems and threatening the tourism economy on which the region depends. New companies and initiatives are exploring ways to monetize sargassum harvesting via processing, while others are investigating how to sequester carbon by sinking the algae, reports Global Americans.
  
  
• Grenada has become the world’s first country to create a digital replica of itself, a 3D model government officials can use for sustainability plans. (Geospatial World)
  
  

Decolonization and Democratic Governance

• The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) denounced the British government’s threat to re-impose direct rule from London on the British Virgin Islands, calling the position a sword of Damocles. Bahamas Foreign Affairs Minister, Fred Mitchell said that the CARICOM leaders had issued a ‘strong statement of support” for the BVI. (Loop News, see  June 17’s briefs.)
  
  

Culture

• Trinidadian author Monique Roffey’s  latest novel, “The Mermaid of Black Conch,” is inspired by the legend of Aycayia, or “Sweet Voice” — an Indigenous Caribbean woman cast off her island centuries ago and condemned to exile as a mermaid. In Roffey’s version, Aycayia is captured by American tourists in 1976. — Los Angeles Times
  
  
• Puerto Rican writer Marta Aponte Alsina has created a new way of rewriting the Caribbean beyond the stereotypes and clichés. “My interest in the Caribbean stems from a feeling I’ve had for a long time, which is that of living in a kind of cage,” said the author at a roundtable discussion held during the Barcelona Latin American literature festival KM América. (Repeating Islands)
  
  

Opportunities

• The Loss and Damage Youth Coalition — Story Telling Cohort — From 19th July to 22nd August — Apply Here
  
  
  
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