Black Immigrant Daily News

Un gran jurado federal emitió, una acusación contra el ex ayudante de maestro Josualis Carrasquillo Ramos, de 21 años, de explotación sexual de un menor, según lo anunció el jueves el fiscal federal W. Stephen Muldrowco.

“El acusado usó su puesto de confianza para aprovecharse de un menor, convirtiéndolo en víctima de explotación infantil. Si usted es una víctima o conoce a otra víctima de este individuo, por favor acérquese; comuníquese con las autoridades para que podamos protegerlo a usted y a otros de estos delitos. Queremos que la comunidad sepa que la Oficina del Fiscal Federal y el Departamento de Justicia, junto con nuestros socios federales, estatales y locales, están comprometidos a proteger a los niños de estos delincuentes”, dijo el fiscal federal Muldrow en declaraciones escritas.

El arresto sigue a una investigación realizada por Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional (HSI) del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de los Estados Unidos (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) con la asistencia del Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico y la Oficina del Fiscal Federal para el Distrito de Puerto Rico.

Según la acusación, en octubre y noviembre de 2021, Carrasquillo Ramos persuadió, indujo, sedujo y coaccionó a sabiendas a una persona que no había cumplido los dieciocho años para participar en una actividad sexual por la cual cualquier persona puede ser acusada de un delito.

“La explotación sexual de menores, en todas sus formas, es un delito despreciable y muy grave. HSI investigará ferozmente estos delitos para identificar al presunto perpetrador, arrestarlo y obtener pruebas sólidas que prevalecerán en los tribunales”, dijo Iván Arvelo, agente especial a cargo (SAC) de HSI San Juan. “Para aquellos que contemplan perpetrar este crimen, continuaremos trabajando con nuestros socios locales y federales y utilizando todos los recursos disponibles y autoridades de investigación sólidas para identificarlos, arrestarlos y enjuiciarlos”, añadió.

El viernes, Carrasquillo Ramos tuvo su audiencia inicial ante el juez federal Camile Velez-Rive. Fue trasladado al Centro de Detención Metropolitano de Guaynabo a la espera de un nuevo proceso judicial. Si es declarado culpable, Carrasquillo Ramos enfrenta una pena mínima obligatoria de 10 años de prisión.

La fiscal federal adjunta Ginette Milanés, de la Unidad de Inmigración y Explotación Infantil, está procesando el caso.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

En la madrugada de hoy jueves, a eso de las 3:45 de la madrugada, las autoridades atendieron una querella de detonaciones por arma de fuego, frente al edificio #17 del residencial El Carmen en Mayagüez.

Según la información, personal adscrito a la División de Strike Forces, en unión a Operaciones Tácticas de Mayagüez, hallaron un vehículo marca Jeep Grand Cherokee, color negro, del año 2014, con sangre, impactos y casquillos de bala.

Posteriormente, en la carretera #102, debajo del puente del barrio El Seco, en el mencionado municipio, se halló el cuerpo sin vida de un hombre. El occiso fue identificado como Richard J. Vega Lugo, de 43 años, residente en Hormigueros, cartero de profesión y militar retirado (veterano). Este fue encontrado envuelto en una sábana y con varios impactos de bala. El hombre fue identificado en la escena de los hechos por su esposa.

Presuntamente, el asesinato de este hombre, puede guardar relación con el vehículo encontrado en el Residencial El Carmen.

Al lugar se personó el agente Eduardo Quiñones de Servicios Técnicos y el agente Wilkins Vélez de la División de Homicidios de Mayagüez, en unión a la fiscal Vanessa Rivera, quienes se hicieron cargo de la correspondiente investigación.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

PARAMARIBO — Als onderdeel van een grotere donatie via fondsen beschikbaar gesteld door de Amerikaanse regering heeft de Pan-Amerikaanse Gezondheidsorganisatie

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Students from Althea Scatliffe Primary School will be relocated to other schools when they return to class for the fall semester, according to Education, Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Sharie De Castro.

Officials closed the school on June 17 due to structural issues.

“This immediate action was in response to concerns expressed by the staff, faculty and parents about the many structural issues plaguing the school,” Ms. De Castro said in a July 29 statement. “These complaints included the fact that sections of the roof had already caved in, other portions were breaking more frequently, and the teachers were uneasy every day in the building.”

After the closure, officials in her ministry started planning how best to relocate students while the building is out of commission, and they came up with two options, according to the minister.

At first, they tried to find a space large enough to accommodate everyone together. That includes about 375 students, 40 staff members, 15 students with special needs enrolled with the Eslyn Henley Richez Learning Centre, and six additional staff members, Ms. De Castro said.

“This search included exploring available commercial spaces or erecting temporary spaces,” she added.

The search, however, ultimately wasn’t successful, and so officials decided instead to place students and staff in existing schools around the territory, according to the minister.

Relocation

Enis Adams Primary will take students from grades five and six, as well as their siblings. Francis Lettsome Primary will take students from grades three and four; Enid Scatliffe Pre-primary will accommodate 24 to 30 students from grade two; and any remaining grade two students will be placed in schools closest to their residence, Ms. De Castro explained.

“Where space is available, students residing in outlying communities may be accommodated at the school nearest them,” she added.

Ms. De Castro also said that her ministry would cover the cost of transportation to assigned schools as needed, and students would be allowed to continue wearing their ASPS uniforms if they choose.

“We are working assiduously to ensure that the Enis Adams Primary School and Francis Lettsome Primary School are ready to accommodate the temporary changes to facilitate the increase in numbers at the respective learning institutions,” Ms. De Castro said.

Torn down?

Meanwhile, ASPS will either get major repairs or be torn down, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley said during a press conference on July 1.

He added that the company Systems Engineering inspected the building and found serious spalling issues, where steel in the roof was expanding and pushing off the concrete. He attributed this problem in part to the use of porous construction materials like beach sand when the school was built.

“At this particular stage, you have chunks of concrete falling from the roof,” he said.

Last November, a classroom ceiling caved in while the school was empty during a weekend.

If the school isn’t demolished, the premier said, faulty concrete would need to be chipped off the roof and other parts of the building.

“What I think is clear to everyone is that the school … either needs to be renovated or demolished and rebuilt,” Dr. Wheatley said.

Ms. De Castro said on July 29 that further assessments are being carried out to decide which option to pursue.

In an Aug. 8 press conference, Dr. Wheatley said a decision would come from Ms. De Castro “in the next couple of months.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

“It’s a black eye for the PNP (People’s National Party), and they’re going to feel the political fallout from it.”

That is the reaction of Professor of Culture, Gender and Society at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Donna Hope, to the shock announcement by Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern Lisa Hanna that she is walking away from representational politics.

The four-term MP and former Minister of Youth and Culture told PNP President and Opposition Leader Mark Golding in a lengthy letter on Tuesday that she will not be contesting the next general election that is constitutionally due in 2025.

Among other things, Hanna, who turns 47 later this month and who first won the safe St Ann seat in 2007, said she is making way for future generations.

However, Hope is not buying that argument.

“There are people on social media I see who are actually trying to run with that, but we have geriatrics in the Parliament who are in their 70s and 80s,” said the professor.

She said that, as a woman, she’s not surprised by Hanna’s decision to quit.

“When you’re working in Jamaica as a woman, a professional or otherwise, there’s a point where you get to where that patriarchal glass ceiling becomes unbearable, and I understand where Lisa is probably making some decisions in that regard,” she said.

Continuing, Hope said: “The truth is that her future in leadership in the PNP is slim to none. There are a lot of men there jostling for the positions of primacy, and that’s just what it is. So while the people of Jamaica, and people like myself, see her as one of the potential leaders and one of the better fit-for-leadership type, especially in the current era, the PNP apparently does not see it that way.”

“And, I don’t think they see her the way they saw a Portia Simpson Miller’s ‘winnability’ for the party and, therefore, allowed Portia the opportunity to go ahead because they wanted Portia to provide them with the win,” Hope added about the former PNP President and Prime Minister.

She congratulated Hanna for waiting until a lot of the discomfort and discord had died down around the party’s massive defeat in the 2020 General Election and in-fighting around leadership challenges before making her announcement.

“She waited very carefully as a good communicator and as a person who understands marketing. She waited until things calmed down and had settled, and then she decided to move on from politics.

“If it was done during the carryings on and the chaos, it would have looked bad on Lisa. But now that she has waited until everything has calmed down, the leadership races, the general election and the ‘cas cas’, everything is very calm, right after Independence and everybody feel happy, and she sneaks her move… she will come out smelling like roses…the PNP is suffering another black eye for this,” said Hope.

Lisa Hanna, Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern

Hope argued that the PNP is losing one of its trump cards.

“She is well recognised internationally. She has a lot of favours among the Jamaican people. She’s a beautiful woman. She’s graceful and very savvy politically, with a lot of time ahead of her to make a mark in any area that she chooses because she’s at the peak of her career, and she’s now going to continue to move forward. The PNP has lost a trump card.”

Yet, Hope noted that with Hanna winning her seat by a mere 31 votes in the last general election, it “means that her political career in South East St Ann is very weak”.

Additionally, Hope said the PNP has not made great strides as a political Opposition to set itself up for a general election that is at most three years away.

“It’s not a lot of time for a general election, and we’ll soon start to see winds of it, and I believe she’s assessing all of that and decided to make her move. Whatever that move is, we don’t know, but this thing about making way for another generation, Lisa is 47 this year, she’s not yet 50 and there are people in Parliament who are like nearly twice her age and who haven’t given any indication that they’re going to allow a younger generation to get an opportunity to sit in those seats.

“So, Lisa using that line. I think it is a part of her, perhaps, understanding that it would ring a bell in the minds of people because ‘it’s young people time now’ has been a part of the rallying cry for a couple of the general elections that have gone on”.

Meanwhile, Public and Social Commentator, Dennis Chung, said the people speculating about why Hanna has decided to walk should be reminded that it is difficult to be in politics and public life, generally.

“I know it must be difficult for her because I just sit as the chairman at NSWMA (National Solid Waste Management Authority) and some of the things that you hear people say about us being at the trough and all of that, they don’t realise that it’s a personal sacrifice because it actually cost you more to be there, but these things are (in) service (to country),” he said.

Nevertheless, Chung argued that in looking at the letter Hanna wrote to Golding stating her decision to quit, “it’s obvious there was some discontent”.

“I don’t know if the discontent alone would’ve been enough to walk away from politics if she still had a passion for it, so it could suggest that, based on what’s happening, she’s really just tired and wants to leave it or it could also mean that there’s some disagreement, which doesn’t necessarily have to mean that she has a problem with Golding as people are saying but rather a problem with the direction of the policies and how the party is moving, which is a separate thing,” Chung reasoned.

He said he would not want to cast a shadow on Golding because of that.

“The best thing to do is really understand, from her point of view, but it certainly requires more understanding in terms of what happened,” he said.

According to Chung, “When you look at the current political landscape, the general feeling out there is that the Opposition is still trailing in the polls.

“And when I think about what Hanna says that we have to think about new ways of doing things…and the call (by Golding) for $40 billion more to be spent on social welfare, it betrays our knowledge or memory of what happened in terms of the fiscal irresponsibility years when we were constantly putting on new taxes and borrowing money and the country almost dropped off a cliff,” he said.

Chung said: “I don’t want to cast any aspersions on what she has said or her intent, but certainly there is more to look at. In terms of what drove her there, it must have been some personal reason because you just don’t walk away from something that you love like that if you still feel the fire burning and you feel you can still do something about it.”

For his part, Public Commentator, Kevin O’Brien Chang said: “Lisa Hanna is a mixed bag. She has her good side and her bad side.”

On the good side, O’Brien Chang noted that many women in Hanna’s privileged position would not bother to show the level of commitment to country that she has shown.

“She could easily be travelling the world, but she has, instead, devoted a lot of time and energy to her country and being in politics is not an easy thing. You have to give her credit for sticking with it for 15 years. She has tried to give back to her country though she could be living a Kim Kardashian lifestyle,” O’Brien Chang stated.

He noted further that not many even think about serving or giving back to the country.

“They’re not interested; they just want to live life. It’s a small pool who are willing to go through the hassle, go into the system, and try and help to run the affairs of the country,” he said.

The commentator added: “Every time we lose somebody prominent and intelligent enough, it’s a setback for the country. Every time we lose somebody who’s prominent and has the respect of the people, and the attention and the qualifications, the pool shrinks a bit.

“It’s a bit worrying that the pool may shrink one day to nothing, or the PNP might shrink to nothing,” he said.

On the negative side, O’Brien Chang said it is obvious that Hanna is not the best people person in the world, based on the numerous public spats she has had with her councillors over the years.

He also highlighted that she has taken the seat, which she first won in 2007 with a majority of more than 2,700 votes, shrinking the margin to just a 31-vote majority in the last election.

In the context of the PNP, he said the prospects for party leadership look bleak.

“If Golding loses the next election and the people say, ‘Let us get fresh blood’, where’s that going to come from?” O’Brien Chang questioned.

He also said the PNP seem to have a problem with women.

“It’s not a good thing for the country; the talent pool is shrinking, the PNP is shrinking. Hopefully, maybe she can reconsider and come back and use her obvious appeal to contribute more to nation building,” said O’Brien Chang.

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