Tag: Carribean

Hispaniola: Caribbean Enigma

The violence that has plagued Haiti in the last month got me to thinking about the island nation….Haiti has been devastated by an earthquake…..the government (no matter who leads) is always hit with corruption……the people protest and the government reacts with violence and then it snowballs from there….it is a never ending cycle and the people of Haiti, the poorest in the region, always pay the price.

The so-called Core Group is made up of the head of UN Mission MINUJUSTH, Helen Meagher La Lime; and the UN ambassadors of Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, the United States, and the Special Representative of the Organization of American States.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/02/1032441

They took note of the demands expressed by demonstrators on Thursday, aimed at a worsening economic crisis that has led to a drop in living standards, inflation at around 15 per cent, a growing national deficit, and allegations of corruption levelled at President Jovenel Moise, before he took office.

As I read about the situation in Haiti…this one tried to explain the return of violence…..

It began with demonstrations last summer in July and August, re-emerged in November and December, and exploded again in the first two weeks of February when hundreds of thousands marched in all the major cities of the country, from the capital of Port-au-Prince to the northern city of Cap-Haïtien.

The demonstrators demanded an investigation into what happened to billions of dollars of funds from Venezuela, an end to austerity measures and price increases for basic goods, and the resignation of Moïse and his prime minister, Jean-Henry Céant.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/06/why-has-haiti-risen-up-once-again-2/

This got the grey matter fired up……Haiti shares an island with the Dominican Republic…….

Half of the island speaks a form of French and the other half speaks Spanish……Haiti is dirt poor and unstable the Dominican Republic is fairly prosperous and stable……

I short video can explain it better than my words plus most had rather watch than read…..

https://youtu.be/4WvKeYuwifc

It is amazing that there can be two so different nations just miles from each other…….and on the very same island.

The situation on the island is something that can keep us International Relations geeks busy looking for and then the explanations of how this development took place so close together without influencing one another. But research is what we do.

I will leave it there for “experts” in the region to offer their pronouncements…..I shall return to the Middle East where events are more predictable than on Hispaniola.

Will Grenada Be A Deja Vu Moment?

Does anyone remember 1983?  My daughter was 12 years old and I had returned from working in the Middle East……what else was there?

The US invades the tiny island of Grenada……

The situation on Grenada had been of concern to American officials since 1979, when the leftist Maurice Bishop seized power and began to develop close relations with Cuba. In 1983, another Marxist, Bernard Coard, had Bishop assassinated and took control of the government. Protesters clashed with the new government and violence escalated. Citing the danger to the U.S. citizens in Grenada, Reagan ordered nearly 2,000 U.S. troops into the island, where they soon found themselves facing opposition from Grenadan armed forces and groups of Cuban military engineers, in Grenada to repair and expand the island’s airport. Matters were not helped by the fact that U.S. forces had to rely on minimal intelligence about the situation. (The maps used by many of them were, in fact, old tourist maps of the island.) Reagan ordered in more troops, and by the time the fighting was done, nearly 6,000 U.S. troops were in Grenada. Nearly 20 of these troops were killed and over a hundred wounded; over 60 Grenadan and Cuban troops were killed. Coard’s government collapsed and was replaced by one acceptable to the United States.

(history.com)

Some say that the invasion was a distraction from the bombing in Beirut….why is this important to recall?

China is helping the government of Grenada prepare a national development plan 34 years after the Caribbean island nation was invaded by US-led forces due to concerns in Washington that its government was too close to the Soviet and Cuban communist regimes.

The country is best known for its spices and beaches, but if the Grenadian government accepts the multibillion US dollar plan it would become the first in the world to opt for the wholesale adoption of a Chinese development blueprint – increasing Beijing’s influence in the region.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2124925/china-set-move-united-states-backyard-national

WE have another Repub president….one that is a war hawk….one who has already thrown down the gauntlet to China…..will he invoke the Monroe Doctrine (considering he knows what it is and what it means)?

Could this become another distraction moment for Americans?

Bay Of Pigs: A History

Are you old enough to remember the the Bay Of Pigs?

If so then…it was an attempt by the US government to overthrow the Castro regime on Cuba……..

Many Cubans welcomed Fidel Castro’s 1959 overthrow of the dictatorial President Fulgencio Batista, yet the new order on the island just about 100 miles from the United States made American officials nervous. Batista had been a corrupt and repressive dictator, but he was considered to be pro-American and was an ally to U.S. companies. At that time, American corporations and wealthy individuals owned almost half of Cuba’s sugar plantations and the majority of its cattle ranches, mines and utilities

In May 1960, Castro established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and the United States responded by prohibiting the importation of Cuban sugar. To prevent the Cuban economy from collapsing–sugar exports to the United States comprised 80 percent of the country’s total–the USSR agreed to buy the sugar.

In January 1961, the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and stepped up its preparations for an invasion. Some State Department and other advisors to the new American president, John F. Kennedy, maintained that Castro posed no real threat to America, but the new president believed that masterminding the Cuban leader’s removal would show Russia, China and skeptical Americans that he was serious about winning the Cold War.

Lots has been said and written about this policy failure by the US…..but until recently the “real” story has never been told mostly we have had suppositions….but the CIA has released the history of what actually happened…..

The CIA today released the long-contested Volume V of its official history of the Bay of Pigs invasion, which it had successfully concealed until now by claiming that it was a “draft” and could be withheld from the public under the FOIA’s “deliberative process” privilege. The National Security Archive fought the agency for years in court to release the historically significant volume, only to have the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2014 uphold the CIA’s overly-broad interpretation of the “deliberative process” privilege. Special credit for today’s release goes to the champions of the 2016 FOIA amendments, which set a 25-year sunset for the exemption:  Senators John Cornyn, Patrick Leahy, and Chuck Grassley, and Representatives Jason Chaffetz, Elijah Cummings, and Darrell Issa.

Source: CIA Releases Controversial Bay of Pigs History

Until now the story about the aftermath has been an “official” BS story……

Although not considered as significant a U.S. foreign policy failure and embarrassment as the Bay of Pigs invasion, Operation Mongoose failed to achieve its most important goals. Meanwhile, throughout the spring and summer of 1962, U.S. intelligence reports indicated expanded arms shipments from the Soviet Union to Cuba. Amidst growing concern in Washington over whether the Soviet weapons being introduced into Cuba included ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, in October 1962 the Kennedy administration suspended Operation Mongoose in the face of this far more serious threat—one that resulted in the most dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

As always I am willing to force feed history to my readers….you are welcome….

Puerto Rico: Trouble In Paradise?

If you have never been to Puerto Rice then get off your ass and visit……it is the tropics, gorgeous beaches, friendly people and you do NOT need passport……..BTW it is a girl watchers paradise….just saying……

But what brought me out to post on Puerto Rico?  It seems they are having a bit of a monetary problem…..

There’s something about Puerto Rico that has caused many commentators to describe it as “America’s Greece,” and it definitely isn’t yogurt. Instead, it’s the terrible state of the US commonwealth’s economy, which has caused Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla to admit that its $72 billion debt is “not payable,” the New York Times reports. “This is not politics, this is math,” he says. The island’s rate of debt to GDP is higher than that of any US state, and its government could run out of cash as soon as July, triggering a government shutdown and other measures, reports the Wall Street Journal, which notes that Puerto Rico’s deep recession began after corporate tax breaks expired in 2006 and manufacturers started to leave the island.

The governor says Puerto Ricans are already struggling with issues such as government austerity, rising crime, and high unemployment and that it’s time for creditors to share the pain by deferring repayments. “If they don’t come to the table, it will be bad for them,” he tells the Times. “What will happen is that our economy will get into a worse situation and we’ll have less money to pay them. They will be shooting themselves in the foot.” Some 24% of Puerto Rico’s bonds are held by so-called “vulture funds” that specialize in high-risk efforts and have opposed efforts to restructure the debt, the Guardian reports. The Times notes, though, that many Americans may have Puerto Rican investments tied up in mutual funds and not be aware of it.

Wait a minute!  Is Puerto Rico a US “territory”?

This country can force feed our cash and stuff to Israel but it cannot find a way to help to help out in Puerto Rico?  Wassup with that?  We accepted this “territory” after the Spanish American War so we are responsible for its upkeep and security.

Time for this country to start acting like the country we were promised back in 1776 and stop helping only those countries that think killing is the only answer……or cut them loose and let them be their own nation.