I would really like to ask all bloggers to take a look at this letter from a local 'indigenous' activist here on SXM giving a warning to bloggers. This Leopold James has been taken to task or criticized in blogs on our local site SXM Private Eye in the past. He doesn't like it.

Anyway, it's been blogged about by my friend LH and we would really like to hear some support and thoughts from the blogging world on this matter.

Caribdude

Fear, Threats and Intimidation - SXM PE

Kim Sengupta | June 13

The Independent - Decision to send Guantanamo inmates to British colony sours 'special relationship', The secret deal allowing detainees from Guantanamo,to settle in tropical Bermuda was made without the knowledge of David Miliband

Senior aides to President Barack Obama accompanied four Uighur prisoners as they were flown from Guantanamo Bay to the British colony of Bermuda, without the UK being informed, it was revealed yesterday.

In an escalating diplomatic row over the transfer of the former terrorist suspects, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the transfer with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in what was said to be an uneasy conversation. Privately Whitehall officials accused America of treating Britain, with whom it is supposed to have a "special relationship", with barely disguised contempt.

One senior official said: "The Americans were fully aware of the foreign-policy understanding we have with Bermuda and they deliberately chose to ignore it. This is not the kind of behaviour one expects from an ally."

Stephen Foley | New York | June 8

The Independent - He is said to have been the subject of some cartoonish plots over the years, from poisoned ice cream, mines disguised as sea shells and, of course, exploding cigars, but even Fidel Castro says that the story of an elderly American couple accused of spying for Cuba for three decades reads like "an espionage comic strip".

The retired Communist leader declined over the weekend to say whether Walter Kendall Myers, 72, a US intelligence official, and his 71-year-old wife Gwendolyn really had passed secrets to his regime, but he said they deserved praise if they did.

"I can't help but admire their disinterested and courageous conduct on behalf of Cuba," he wrote in a web column published three days after the couple's sensational arrest.

"Those who in one form or another have helped to protect the Cuban people from the terrorist plans and assassination plots organised by various US administrations have done so at the initiative of their own conscience and are deserving, in my judgment, of all the honours in the world."

As the US State Department works to assess the security damage that may have resulted from the couple's alleged subversive activities, details are emerging about the anger the pair felt at US foreign and domestic policies during the Seventies, when they are said to have begun working for Cuba.

Luisa Yanez | Miami | May 30

Miami Herald - In what may be the largest civil judgment ever against the Cuban government, a Miami-Dade judge on Friday awarded more than $1 billion to a Homestead man who blamed Fidel Castro and Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara for driving his father to suicide in 1959.

''What the defendants did was torture this family and tear it apart,'' said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Peter Adrien in ruling for Gustavo Villoldo, 73, who ironically became a CIA operative and helped track down Guevara in the jungles of Bolivia in 1967.

It makes me wonder how much the judge would award the families of those we tortured and killed..

Frances Robles | May 27

Miami Herald - Cuba's decades-old suspension from the Organization of American States appears to be coming to an end.

As more countries clamor to lift the communist country's 1962 suspension from the hemispheric group, the U.S. State Department threw a curve ball at the debate late Tuesday by submitting a new proposal that would eventually allow Cuba back to the OAS -- as long as Havana abides by the organization's democratic principles.

The OAS meets Wednesday in Washington to review three proposals submitted that ultimately reach the same goal: an end to Cuba's suspension.

Just how the suspension should be lifted will be taken up at the group's permanent council meeting in Washington, where they will hammer out a final agenda for thegeneral assembly next week in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The council will decide which of the three proposals submitted that lift Cuba's suspension will be voted on in Honduras.

1 minute ago. approximately 9.02 what felt like a rather large earthquake was felt in St. Maarten. Anyone know where up to date information can be found about it? It lasted about 5/8 seconds.

Caribdude

Louis Charbonneau | United Nations | May 18

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to name former U.S. President Bill Clinton as his special envoy to Haiti, U.N. officials said on Monday, in a move that could attract investment in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation and help stabilize the country.

"The announcement is expected to come soon," one U.N. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The official said a formal announcement could come as early as Tuesday.

Clinton, who has galvanized efforts to help the impoverished Caribbean nation recover from the devastating impact of four hurricanes last year, accompanied Ban on a trip to Haiti earlier this year.

Several other diplomats confirmed the appointment of the former president, who is trying to help Haiti through his Clinton Global Initiative foundation.

"This is something that has been in the works for some time," a diplomat said.

Nick Miroff | May 16

WaPo -

Deep in the Gulf of Mexico, an end to the 1962 U.S. trade embargo against Cuba may be lying untapped, buried under layers of rock, seawater and bitter relations.

Oil, up to 20 billion barrels of it, sits off Cuba's northwest coast in territorial waters, according to the Cuban government -- enough to turn the island into the Qatar of the Caribbean. At a minimum, estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey place Cuba's potential deep-water reserves at 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, stores that would rank the island among the region's top producers.

Drilling operations by foreign companies in Cuban waters are still in the exploratory stage, and significant obstacles -- technological and political -- stand between a U.S.-Cuba rapprochement eased by oil. But as the Obama administration gestures toward improved relations with the Castro government, the national security, energy and economic benefits of Cuban crude may make it a powerful incentive for change.

Limited commercial ties between U.S. businesses and the island's communist government have been quietly expanding this decade as Cuban purchases of U.S. goods -- mostly food -- have increased from $7 million in 2001 to $718 million in 2008, according to census data.

Thawing relations could eventually open up U.S. investment in mining, agriculture, tourism and other sectors of Cuba's tattered economy. But the prospect of major offshore reserves that would be off-limits to U.S. companies and consumers has some Cuba experts arguing that 21st-century energy needs should prevail over 20th-century Cold War politics.

Ian Thomson | May 10

The Independent - The holiday-brochure chic of its resorts belies the unremittingly harsh underbelly of the real Jamaica. Here, the eminence of drugs and guns have created a society in which 'respect' has replaced civic values – and where a lack of it results in a trip to the morgue. Ian Thomson ventures into the heart of the country to ask, what went wrong?

Whatever happened to Jamaica – for so many years Britain's pride and joy? Since independence in the early 1960s, the drug barons have taken over, hopes of social equality have faded and there's a pall of violence. Tourists rarely see anything of the twisted side of island life, as they hardly ever venture outside the stockaded beach resorts and private beaches advertised as "paradise". Tourism contributes an estimated $1bn a year to Jamaica's economy and has become a part of Jamaican life, with hordes of vendors, hustlers and "guides" ready to hound the unwitting visitor. Yet this "paradise" of holiday brochures is just as often derided as a criminal backwater.

With an annual murder rate of around 1,500, Jamaica is one of the world's most violent countries, on a par with South Africa and Colombia. A recent report by Amnesty International, "Let Them Kill Each Other" (April 2008), depicted a nation in tragic disorder. Stories of child labour, domestic violence and murder clog the national press. Kingston, the capital, remains locked in cycles of political and gangland violence; to live there today calls for special qualities of endurance.

Havana | May 1

Latin America Herald Tribune - Cuba’s foreign minister on Thursday rejected the inclusion of Cuba on the U.S. State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and denounced the United States as an “international criminal.”

“One cannot acknowledge the U.S. to have the least moral authority and I frankly believe that nobody takes note of or reads those documents,” Bruno Rodriguez told reporters in reaction to Washington’s annual report on international terrorism.

The foreign minister said that on the subject of terrorism, the United States “historically has had a long file of actions of state terrorism not only against Cuba.”

He accused Washington of protecting anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles, who stands accused by Cuba and Venezuela of blowing up a jet in 1976 with 73 people on board, and of protecting the “state crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people and the Arab peoples.”

“Never has Cuban territory been used to finance or execute terrorist acts against the United States of America. The State Department, which issues those reports, cannot say the same,” Rodriguez said.

Washington | Apr 27

AFP - US President Barack Obama's administration is hoping to relaunch communication channels with Cuba after 50 years of adversarial relations, US media reported on Sunday.

"Informal meetings" were being planned between the US State Department and Cuban diplomats in the United States "to determine whether the two governments could open formal talks on a variety of issues," The New York Times said.

The wide-ranging talks would cover topics such as drug trafficking and migration. More cultural and academic exchanges were also being considered, the Times said, citing White House and State Department officials who declined to be named.

The talks would serve to "test the waters" to determine whether the United States and Cuba could engage in a "serious, civil, open relationship", a senior administration official said.

Washington was "ready to talk about a series of issues", the official said, cautioning that "this thing with Cuba is going to take a lot of time, and it may not work".

Mark S Smith | Port-Of-Spain, Trinindad | Apr 18

AP - President Barack Obama extended a friendly hand to America's hemispheric neighbors on Saturday at a summit in the Caribbean where he offered a new beginning for U.S.-Cuba relations and sought out Venezuela's fiery, leftist president for a quick grip and grin.

At the Summit of the Americas in this island capital, Obama signaled he was ready to accept Cuban President Raul Castro's proposal of talks on issues once off-limits for Havana, including the scores of political prisoners held by the communist government. Obama shook the hand of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, a leader who once likened his predecessor to the devil, and casually exclaimed, "Como estas?"

Responding to the overture, Chavez walked over to Obama at a meeting, patted the president on the shoulder and handed him the book, "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Eduardo Galeano, an essay that argues against U.S. and European economic and political interference in the region. much more

Washington | Apr 4

AFP - US President Barack Obama plans to ease economic sanctions on Cuba, allowing Cuban-Americans to visit families as often as they like and send them unlimited financial aid, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Citing an unnamed senior administration official, the newspaper said the new rules, which the president can introduce without seeking congressional approval, will affect an estimated 1.5 million Americans who have family members in Cuba.

The report came as eight US lawmakers - all Democrats from the US Congressional Black Caucus - arrived in Havana to discuss relations.

William E. Gibson | Washington | Apr 1

LA Times - A bipartisan group of senators says Congress is ready to pass legislation to allow all Americans to visit Cuba. Supporters say the move would create thousands of jobs.

A bipartisan group of senators predicted Tuesday that Congress was ready to pass legislation to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba.

Removing the travel ban would produce a burst of tourism, create thousands of jobs and generate as much as $1.6 billion in business a year, an independent research group said.

A Senate news conference Tuesday and one in the House set for Thursday reflect new attempts to lift the travel ban, a key part of the U.S. trade embargo imposed after Fidel Castro took power in Havana in 1959. The broader trade embargo would remain in place.

Sponsors said the bill would free Americans to travel to the one place in the world they can't go and encourage Cubans to push for democratic reforms by exposing them to new people and information.

"Punishing the American people in our effort to somehow deal a blow to the Castro government has not made any sense at all," said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.). "At long last, this policy, which has been in place for 50 years and has not worked, will finally be removed."

Ellen Barry | Moscow | Mar 15

NYT - A top Russian Air Force official said that the government was weighing whether to base strategic bombers out of Cuban territory or on a Venezuelan island that has been offered by President Hugo Chávez, according to the Interfax news service.

In comments made at an awards ceremony on Friday night, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of staff for Russia’s long-distance aviation division, told reporters that either option would be practical.

“There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us,” he said. “If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there.”

He confirmed that Mr. Chávez had offered the use of a military airfield on La Orchila island. “If a relevant political decision is made, this is possible,” he said.

Washington | Mar 11

AFP - The US Senate late Tuesday passed a 410-billion-dollar package that pays for government operations until October 1 and eases Cold War-inspired restrictions on Cuba.

Senators voted 62-35 to end bitter debate on the measure, then approved the legislation by voice vote two weeks after the House of Representatives passed it, sending it to US President Barack Obama for his signature.

The bill's chiefly Democratic supporters beat back a series of amendments on a range of issues, including an effort by foes of Cuba's government to block measures seen as lifting pressure on Havana.

Obama has said he supports easing travel to the island and cash remittances from relatives working in the United States to loved ones in Cuba, but has resisted calls to lift the entire decades-old US embargo.

Ron Brynaert | San Juan | Mar 4

Reuters - Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuno said on Tuesday he would slash 30,000 jobs, freeze salaries of government workers and raise some taxes, as he warned the U.S. Caribbean territory must confront "the reality of a bankrupt government."

Fortuno said in a televised address that he would implement a series of temporary tax hikes on both businesses and individuals aimed at stabilizing the government's finances and avoiding a credit downgrade.

A Republican who took office in January, Fortuno said his administration aimed to cut government spending by $2 billion annually. The island's current deficit is $3.2 billion and could reach $4 billion the end of this fiscal year, June 30.

He also announced plans to jump-start the economy, which has been in recession for three years, by increased infrastructure investment, providing guarantees for loans to small- and medium-sized businesses and incentives to home buyers.

"We all must confront the reality of a bankrupt government," Fortuno said. "The moment for action is now. It's up to all of us to put our house in order."

Mar 3

BBC - Cuban leader Raul Castro has announced a major cabinet reshuffle that includes the removal of two of the country's most prominent politicians.

State television said Cabinet Secretary Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque are among 10 officials who are stepping down.

It said the move was in line with the president's plan to improve efficiency.

It is the first big reshuffle since Mr Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother, Fidel, last year.

Correspondents say Mr Castro is putting his personal stamp on a government that still bears the mark of his brother.

Many of those dismissed were Fidel loyalists - including Mr Lage and Mr Perez Roque, who had both been seen as possible future candidates for the presidency.

Read The Official Announcement at Granma's

Jacqueline Charles | Port-au-Prince | Mar 2

Miami Herald - Five years after Haiti plunged into anarchy, exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has reemerged as a political force in the nation -- even from 7,000 miles away.

Five years after he fled into exile amid a bloody revolt, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is continuing to cast a long shadow over Haiti's political landscape.

His reemergence as a central figure in Haiti's political future comes as the once all-powerful Fanmi Lavalas political party seems to be imploding amid an internal power struggle over which competing faction has the right to lead in Aristide's absence.

The internal dispute boiled over into Haiti's larger political debate last month when Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council -- presented with two competing slates of Lavalas candidates for the upcoming April 19 parliamentary elections -- disqualified all 16 office-seekers from across the country who had registered for the 12 senate seats under the Lavalas banner.

The electoral council's explanation for the disqualifications: According to Lavalas bylaws, the party's national representative -- Aristide -- must sanction candidates.

Washington | Feb 25

Miami Herald - The 1,128-page budget bill that will begin to work its way through Congress this week contains key paragraphs that alter the shape of U.S.-Cuba policy and ease Cuba family travel restrictions by not funding enforcement.

The provisions were written when the bill was drafted last year -- and faced the threat of a veto by President George W. Bush. But Washington's new White House resident, President Barack Obama, campaigned promising to lift the family restrictions, so the proposed changes are unlikely to meet much resistance by the administration, which is conducting its own review of Cuba policy.

The bill, which is expected to be voted on by the House on Wednesday, already has Cuban-American lawmakers balking.

The 2009 budget bill would:

• Prevent the U.S. government from spending any of its budget enforcing 2004 rules that keep Cuban Americans from visiting their homeland more than once every three years.

• Create a general travel license for Americans who sell food and medical supplies to Cuba.

• Let Cuba pay for the American produce it buys when the products arrive in Havana. Current law forces Cuba to pay up front before products leave U.S. ports.

• Require the U.S. Treasury Department to issue a report showing how much of its staff and funding is spent on enforcing the ban on travel to Cuba.

Karen DeYoung | Feb 23

WaPo - Restrictive U.S. policies toward Cuba are ineffective, have failed to achieve their stated purpose of promoting democracy and should be reevaluated to take advantage of recent political changes on the island, according to the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The views of Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) are appended to a report by minority committee staffers that calls for lifting Bush administration restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba, reinstituting formal bilateral cooperation on drug interdiction and migration, and allowing Cuba to buy U.S. agricultural products on credit. Scheduled for release Monday, the report stops short of proposing that the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba be lifted.

A bipartisan congressional majority has long favored easing at least some of the restrictions but was repeatedly thwarted by the Bush White House and the Republican leadership. President Obama pledged during the campaign to lift the travel and remittance restraints, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in written responses to Senate confirmation questions that the administration planned an overall "review" of Cuba policy.

An administration official said yesterday that it was "not unreasonable" to expect that Obama would ease constraints on family travel and remittances to Cuba before he attends the mid-April Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. Latin America and U.S. allies in Europe maintain both diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba.

Havana | Feb 19

DPA - Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom 'officially' apologized to Cuba for his country's involvement in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion sponsored by the US government.

On the final day of a state visit to the island, Colom also decorated Fidel Castro with Guatemala's highest award, and condemned the continuing US economic embargo against Cuba.

'I would like to apologize for having lent our country, our territory, for the preparation of the invasion against Cuba. It wasn't us, but it was our territory,' Colom said in an address at the University of Havana.

Guatemala permitted the installation of training camps for the anti-Castro exiles recruited by the US Central Intelligence Agency for the failed invasion, as did Nicaragua and Puerto Rico.

Angelique Chrisafis | Paris | original post Feb 12

The Guardian -

France is struggling to quell revolts on its Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, amid fears that strikes and street protests could spread to other French overseas departments.

Guadeloupe has been paralysed by three weeks of general strikes over low wages and the high cost of living. Tens of thousands have joined demonstrations led by the Collective against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), an umbrella group of unions and associations demanding aid for poor workers struggling to survive on an island famous for its tourist luxury.

Petrol stations and the port have been closed and barricaded, supermarkets, schools, banks and government offices have shut and the strikes have caused power cuts, limited water supplies and left the island's half-a-million residents facing food shortages.

At the peak of the island's tourist season - a driving force of the local economy - hotels have closed and charter flights have been cancelled. About 15,000 French tourists have cancelled their holiday plans and Club Méditerranée has shut its main hotel. The nearby island of Martinique has joined forces and staged a week of protests, with demonstrators storming supermarkets and forcing them to close.

Feb 19: France sends troops to Guadeloupe

Feb 13

The Guardian - A hoard of banking files from the Caymans – one of the most secretive British tax havens – are being supplied to the US authorities by a whistleblower who claims they detail worldwide tax avoidance.

The Cayman Islands – Caribbean territories under ultimate UK control – are currently the target of reformers. Alastair Darling was yesterday challenged in the Commons over allegations that UK banks have been using the Caymans for massive tax avoidance schemes. Barack Obama, before he reached the White House, was one of the senators who singled out the islands as a blot on the US fiscal landscape which ought to be investigated.

The whistleblower's documents have been seen by the Guardian. They record the names and transactions of hundreds of companies, trusts, funds and wealthy individuals - information protected by local and Swiss secrecy laws.

Some of the paperwork concerns legal tax avoidance structures. Other files are alleged to point to potential illegal tax evasion by individuals around the globe.

The thousands of pages come from Rudolf Elmer, chief operating officer for the Julius Baer Swiss bank office in Grand Cayman until he was sacked in December 2002. Elmer, 53, and the bank have been involved in a long dispute. The bank accused him of forging documents and making violent threats. Elmer has accused the bank of hiring private investigators to harass him.

Elmer says his documents include all the back-up data held on Julius Baer's computer server in the Caymans at the time he was sacked, including accounts, correspondence, memos and resolutions dealing with 114 trusts, 80 companies, 60 funds and 1,330 individuals

* Rare glimpse into offshore world of big money
* Full coverage of the tax gap investigation

Feb 11

AFP - Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have introduced a bill to permit US citizens unrestricted travel to Cuba, according to the Library of Congress website.

The "Freedom To Travel to Cuba Act," which would overturn the 46-year-old US policy strictly limiting travel to the Caribbean island, will be subject to debate after being referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The bill, introduced by Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt and backed by eight other lawmakers, states that "the President may not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents."

Currently US nationals are supposed to request Treasury Department permission to visit Cuba. They are not routinely allowed to spend money in Cuba -- the Americas' only one-party communist state -- creating an effective travel ban.