In Suriname, President Desi Bouterse dismissed calls to step down following the arrest of his son by United State law enforcement officials on drug trafficking and terrorist related charges.
But during the year, President Bouterse fired his finance minister, Adelien Wijnerman, because of the slow progress achieved in clearing Government's payment arrears. Since coming to office in 2010, Bouterse has replaced 10 ministers. His record is perhaps matched in the Caribbean only by Prime Minister Persad Bissessar, who accepted the resignation of her embattled national security minister Austin Jack Warner, only to see him successfully defend the Chaguanas West seat in a by-election and form his own political party.
In Belize, Prime Minister Dean Barrow sacked his junior minister of immigration, Elvin Penner based on the fact that he "did not discharge his responsibilities with either the due judgment and balance, or the scrupulous regard for appearances, which the Prime Minister demands for all his Ministers".
Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit continued to enjoy his honeymoon and birth of his new born son by taunting the Opposition, which elected a new leader in Lennox Linton, with the possibility of an early general election.
Andrew Holness, meanwhile survived a challenge to his leadership of the main Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), but his former prime ministerial colleague, Stephenson King, was not so fortunate in St Lucia, bowing out to his former tourism minister Allen Chastanet.
A Brazilian court gave the green light for former Turks and Caicos Islands Premier Michael Misick to be extradited to his homeland to face charges arising from a Commission of Inquiry into alleged corruption and maladministration during his tenure in office.
Yet politics did not dominate events in the Caribbean in 2013, economics did.
St Lucia's Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony summed up the economic situation perfectly when he said some Caribbean countries were refusing to face up to the impact of the global economic crisis on their countries.
Murders continued to be a major headache for countries like Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and Belize.
Death continued to stalk the Caribbean as the year came to a close. In St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia, heavy rains and winds associated with a slow moving low level trough was blamed for at least 14 deaths in the two islands.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that St Vincent and the Grenadines would need "hundreds of millions of dollars" to fund the reconstruction effort, while in Dominica, which was also affected by the weather system, Prime Minister Skerrit put the cost at EC$45 million.
Prime Minister Anthony described the situation in St Lucia as a "humanitarian crisis" and that the cost of reconstruction would run into "tens of millions".
No comments:
Post a Comment