News

San Juan, Dec 3 (EFE).- Guyana is seen as the most corrupt English-speaking country in the Caribbean Community, according to the Corruption Perception Index of 2014, published Wednesday by watchdog organization Transparency International.“The ranking of Guyana on the 2014 CPI is just another international indicator which, taken together with the local reality, simply increases the public perception that corruption remains ...

Havana, Dec 3 (EFE).- The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, or CCDHRN, said Wednesday that in November there were 398 political arrests on the communist-ruled island, the lowest monthly figure so far this year, but the dissident group expressed its concern over recent violence against opposition leaders.According to a communique released by the CCDHRN, headed by Elizardo ...

San Juan, Dec 3 (EFE).- The St. Lucia Ministry of Sustainable Development launched “the largest project ever negotiated” by the government with the World Bank to reduce the Caribbean island’s vulnerability to natural disasters and to the impacts of climate change.The Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project aims to strengthen critical local infrastructure and improve the national capacity to repair damaged infrastructure, ...

Heavily armed security personnel are guarding Dominica’s two airports, in the wake of concerns by Leader of the Opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Lennox Linton that the incumbent Dominica Labour Party (DLP) was flying in persons to vote in next Monday’s general election. The UWP has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s DLP of planning to rig the December 8 ...

San Juan, Dec 2 (EFE).- The Venezuelan-led Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, known as ALBA, gave the government of St. Lucia a $10 million grant to support an employment initiative for the next two years.The new grant from the ALBA Bank will help continue the work of the National Initiative to Create Employment, or NICE, the St. ...

Miami, Dec 2 (EFE).- A Miami judge fined a Venezuelan traveler $89,000 for joking last October that he was carrying explosives in his luggage, for which the authorities declared a security alert at two terminals at the city’s international airport, a court announced Tuesday.Most of the money that Manuel Alberto Alvarado, 60, must pay will serve to defray the cost ...

Santiago, Dec 2 (EFE).- Economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean this year will come in at a modest 1.1 percent, but is set to rebound to 2.2 percent in 2015, the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC, said Tuesday.The U.N. panel said in a preliminary evaluation that 2014 has seen the weakest median ...

San Juan, Dec 2 (EFE).- The president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno is scheduled to visit Jamaica on Dec. 18 to celebrate the IDB’s 45 years of partnership with the Caribbean country.The government of Jamaica announced Tuesday that Moreno will visit IDB-funded projects as well as participate in a ceremony at the construction site of the new ...

Sao Paulo, Dec 2 (EFE).- The Brazilian Federal Police on Tuesday broke up an international drug trafficking and money laundering ring that smuggled drugs from Peru and Bolivia into Brazil for later shipment to Europe, officials said. More than 180 officers participated in “Operation Denarius,” serving 13 arrest warrants and 39 search warrants in 16 cities in Parana, Sao Paulo, ...

Washington, Dec 2 (EFE).- Democrats in the House of Representatives on Tuesday urged anyone who might benefit from the recent executive action on immigration to present their applications, saying that the Republicans “have no moral authority” to try and overturn it if they are not offering any alternative.At a press conference held in the Capitol, along with members of the ...