Black Immigrant Daily News

El secretario del Departamento de Asuntos del Consumidor (DACO), Edan Rivera Rodríguez, anunció que, por dos días consecutivos, los mercados de referencia de la gasolina y el diésel han cerrado a la baja, lo que ha significado una reducción de un 7 por ciento respecto a lo que fueron los precios del lunes.

“Los mercados de referencia se mantienen volátiles, pero llevamos alrededor de dos semanas con cierta tendencia a la baja que se ha reflejado tanto en los precios de venta al por mayor como al detal.  En Puerto Rico, estamos viendo bajas incluso más notables que las reportadas en Europa y los Estados Unidos”, dijo el secretario en declaraciones escritas.

Rivera explicó que la entrada de la Resolución Conjunta que dio luz verde a la exención en “la crudita” ha sido un elemento importante, pues “obliga a mantener en vigor la congelación de márgenes de ganancias del DACO, y eso ha permitido asegurar que el alivio llegue directo al precio en bomba que paga el consumidor”.

Sobre el tema, Héctor Román Maldonado, director de la División de Estudios Económicos del DACO, detalló que “los precios más altos se reportaron el 10 de junio, cuando la gasolina regular llegó a comercializarse en $1,38, mientras que en estos días hemos tenido estaciones que han bajado hasta $1,01 para ese tipo de producto”.

Según Román Maldonado, “las bajas del mercado, unidas a la exención tributaria se ha traducido en precios en bomba que no se veían desde el 22 de abril”.

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HURST REPORTS ON CABINET of Wednesday 13 July, 2022

The Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda commenced its meeting at about 10:30 am and concluded at approximately 6:00 pm, all members were present. The Cabinet engaged the pastor, following prayers, on the question of the recent High Court decision declaring laws criminalizing buggery as unconstitutional. The members asked for spiritual advice that will help the executive to determine how the Government ought to respond. He advised that the spiritual and secular ought to be separate; and everything ought to be done to ensure that there is no discrimination of any Antiguan and Barbudan.

i The Cabinet held a discussion on developments in Barbuda. The members determined that the largest project in Barbuda is causing many skilled tradesmen to engage in work there, since the project pays a whole lot more than equivalent projects in Antigua. Skilled tradesmen in Antigua are in demand.
The Cabinet repeated its determination to ensure that all households in Barbuda, in existence before Hurricane Irma, will receive their plot of land on which their houses exist for $1.00 in consideration. The Cabinet further decided that it would provide every adult Barbudan, resident on Barbuda before the hurricane, with one acre of land to ensure that the Barbudans are treated as a priority.
An investment group from Jamaica has decided to create an entertainment and amusement centre at one of the many Forts that continue to exist after nearly three hundred years. The group will spend up to $5 million USD to make the old fort reflect history, as well as to allow for exploration of caves and other natural assets, including the use of a beach and a large rock which separates it from the Fort. The group has been around for more than 35 years and has developed many tourism sites in Barbados, Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. The group has been very successful and plans to arrange their site so that it attracts several generations of visitors.
The Cabinet invited the Director of Institute of Applied Science and Research, to address the issue of pesticide use around Antigua and Barbuda. In cases of infants born in Antigua and Barbuda with malformed organs and retardation, it is likely the result of ingestion of mother’s milk that may contain remnants of flame retardants found in cars, baby seats, Teflon-coded cooking utensils, and other sources that the population utilizes. The Fire Department and West Indies Oil Company utilize firefighting foams that are a source of the retardants. Mercury is a carcinogen that is found throughout the region in hair samples, makeup, fish, bleaching creams. More research is being done to identify alternatives. Heavy metals which are found in many products, including cellular phones, are disposed of in a manner that causes the spread of the chemicals and subsequent diseases.

Sargassum is also filled with heavy metals; although, some of it which gets to our shores has been shipped to Finland. However, new methods of disposal are being considered, especially trying to capture the abundant seaweed before it gets to the shoreline, rots and releases toxins.

The Cabinet is persuaded that the vaccine mandate which compelled Government Workers, Students and Teachers to vaccinate against Covid-19 account for the very high passes in the Common Entrance Exams. While Antigua and Barbuda received 89% passes, another Caribbean country that did not compel mandates received 39% pass. There was no outbreak in any school and young students had more contact time with Teachers. The timing of the decisions governing Covid had evidently been very well-thought-out, the Cabinet concluded. Today the number of Covid-infected persons is relatively small and hospitalizations are at a bare minimum.
The brewing of beer in Antigua and Barbuda is drawing closer as the three partners involved have moved to a more clearly agreed contractual arrangements among themselves. The Antigua Distillery Limited will be the major shareholder controlling 60% of the shares at Crabbs; Brewtech a German firm whose expertise in brewing beer is well established will own 15%; and, NAMCO will claim the remaining shares. The lease of the Crabbs Brewery will count as NAMCO’s contribution. The first bottles of beer will likely be brewed for consumption by Carnival 2023.
The Cabinet was informed by the Minister of Housing that three more houses to be constructed at Paynters will cause the National Housing to complete the project at that site. Olivers, just off All Saints Road to the back of LICS Ltd, will likely be the next site for more than 100 houses. Other building sites will also see action by the National Housing and CHAPA as they continue to provide new homes to the families of the nation and to meet the demand for more resilient and affordable homes.
The Cabinet was informed that the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre (SLBMC) now has a full time cardiologist. That professional joins a full-time ophthalmologist, who has served the Medical Center for more than a year. Six kidney transplants have been undertaken thus far in Antigua, and more kidney transplants are likely to take place. Transplants are cheaper than dialysis but identifying suitable donors has proven to be a challenge. A cardiology unit will be placed where the dialysis unit now occupies, and the Renal Unit will be moved to the refurbished Edward Ward at the Old Holberton Hospital.
i. Today the 14th of July, 2022, marks the 80th Birthday of Sir John E. St. Luce. The Cabinet paid tribute to Sir John for having played many important roles in the governance of Antigua from 1971 up to 2004; 28 years were as an elected Member of Parliament and Minister of Government. He retired undefeated.
Pastor John Farrell celebrates 60 years of Ministering and providing spiritual upliftment to several communities in Antigua and Barbuda. In recognition of his Church’s Ministry that many years, the Cabinet pledges a small contribution towards his continued Ministry.
The only Family Court within the OECS will be dedicated tomorrow, July 14, 2022, by the Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. The large room which previously served as the Law Library in the High Court, has been transformed into a court room to serve exclusively as the Family Court. Antigua and Barbuda is the only OECS jurisdiction to create a court exclusively to hear family matters.

10. The Parliamentary Subcommittee of the Sex Registry will convene on Monday 26th July, to be chaired by the Attorney General. It will take place at the Parliament Building and the

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GLOBAL VOICES-Written byJanine Mendes-Franco

Like many other Caribbean nations, Antigua and Barbuda still retains a colonial-era law criminalising consensual same-sex acts, but bit by bit, those laws are being challenged.

In The Bahamas, private same-sex acts were decriminalised in 1991 by an amendment to the Sexual Offences Act. On August 10, 2016, Belize’s Chief Justice struck down Section 53 of the country’s Criminal Code, which made anal sex — for both men and women — punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment. On April 12, 2018, Trinidad and Tobago followed suit when the High Court ruled that certain similar sections of the country’s Sexual Offences Act were “unconstitutional.”

Now, Antigua and Barbuda has joined the list of regional territories that have been forced to reconsider these outdated laws. On July 5, the country’s High Court ruled that clauses in the Sexual Offences Act, which criminalise homosexual sex and threaten a 15-year jail term, were in contravention of citizens’ constitutional rights to both privacy and freedom of expression.

As they were in both Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, the court case in Antigua and Barbuda was brought by a gay man. His efforts were supported by two activist groups, Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE), and Women Against Rape, whose president, Alexandrina Wong, said in an interview with the BBC:

We are very much hoping the Antigua ruling will prompt other legal systems in the Caribbean to review their laws and policies, and how they impact on vulnerable populations.

Meanwhile, ECADE hopes that other constitutional challenges, currently underway in Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia, will reach determinations by the end of 2022. There has also been a legal challenge to the laws in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to which the government has been resistant.

Despite the fact that the region’s anti-same-sex intimacy laws are rarely enforced, many LGBTQ+ groups maintain that the mere fact they are still on the books colours public perception, increases marginalisation of such minority communities, and helps to rationalise discrimination and even violence against them, essentially contributing to the homophobic atmosphere that is palpable in several Caribbean territories.

According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), which publishes an annual “State-sponsored Homophobia” report, part of the problem is that regional media houses tend to use terms like “sodomy” to report “on cases involving consenting adults and rapists alike.”

Additionally, according to the ILGA’s most recent downloadable report and map of sexual orientation laws, as many as eight Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states still retain statutes that criminalise, to various extents, same-sex intimacy: Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, (all 10 years’ imprisonment), St. Kitts and Nevis (10 years with possible hard labour), Dominica (10 years with possible admission to a psychiatric hospital), Barbados and Guyana (both life imprisonment).

Conversely, conservative countries like Barbados, and religious countries like Trinidad and Tobago, have seen Pride celebrations go off without a hitch, signalling a level of tolerance and respect for human dignity that exists even in the face of having such discriminatory laws still on the books, and suggesting that overturning such laws may well be the first step to greater understanding and acceptance.

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El patrullero de la Guardia Costera Donald Horsley repatrió el miércoles a 14 dominicanos a una embarcación de la Armada de la República Dominicana, luego de la interdicción de una embarcación de viaje ilegal en aguas del Paso Mona cerca de Puerto Rico.

“Las aguas alrededor de Puerto Rico son tremendamente peligrosas, y las personas que participan en viajes ilegales se están poniendo a merced de los patrones climáticos impredecibles del Caribe Oriental. Estos viajes se realizan con mayor frecuencia a bordo de embarcaciones improvisadas que a menudo están muy sobrecargadas, son inestables y están mal equipadas para el viaje a Puerto Rico, lo que pone en gran peligro la vida de todos a bordo”, dijo el teniente Charles Chavtur, oficial al mando del guardacostas Donald Horsley en comunicación escrita.

La interdicción es el resultado de los esfuerzos continuos de varias agencias locales y federales en apoyo del Grupo Interagencial de la Frontera del Caribe CBIG.

El patrullero de la Guardia Costera Donald Horsley interceptó una embarcación improvisada de 25 pies el martes por la tarde, después de que la tripulación de una aeronave polivalente de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza Aérea y Marina detectara la embarcación en aguas al noroeste de Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Luego de la interdicción, la tripulación del cúter embarcó de manera segura a 12 hombres y dos mujeres de la embarcación improvisada.

El Cutter Donald Horsley se reunió con un buque de la Armada de la República Dominicana en las aguas del Pasaje de la Mona, cerca de Punta Cana, República Dominicana, y transfirió al grupo interceptado para su regreso a la República Dominicana.

Desde el 1 de octubre de 2021 hasta el 30 de junio de 2022, la Guardia Costera ha llevado a cabo 72 interdicciones de viajes ilegales en el Pasaje de Mona y aguas cercanas a Puerto Rico. Interdictos durante este período son 1.919 ciudadanos no estadounidenses, incluidos 1.414 dominicanos, 404 haitianos, 01 cubano, 1 ecuatoriano, 52 venezolano, 12 uzbeko y 35 de nacionalidad desconocida.

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