Regional News

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexican security forces said yesterday they had made the largest fentanyl seizure in the country’s history, impounding 1,100 kilograms of the synthetic opioid in the state of Sinaloa.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuba’s national electrical system collapsed early this morning after the country’s largest power plant failed, the government said, the latest of several such failures as the island’s grid falls into disarray amid fuel shortages, natural disaster and economic crisis.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Holness administration says it will be taking “other steps” to foster cross-party dialogue on Jamaica’s push to become a republic amid further confirmation that deadlock between the country’s two main political parties could derail another attempt to replace the British monarch as Jamaica’s head of state.

(Trinidad Guardian) The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is expected to announce today that the Barbadian candidate, Daniel Best, will be the new president of the Bridgetown, Barbados-based regional development bank.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) –  Venezuela’s government is planning a budget of $22.7 billion for next year, the country’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez told lawmakers at the government-allied National Assembly on Tuesday, up nearly 11% from spending this year of $20.5 billion.

(Reuters) – Venezuela’s oil exports jumped last month on higher sales to its mainstay Asia customers, and approached 1 million barrels per day (bpd), a level not seen since early 2020, according to ship monitoring data.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexican lower house lawmakers yesterday overwhelmingly passed a proposal to alter the constitution to include a ban on e-cigarettes and vaping devices as well as a crackdown on synthetic drugs such as fentanyl.

(Barbados Nation) Barbados has fought through adversity but the best is yet to come, Prime Minster Mia Amor Mottley told the nation during Sunday’s Ceremonial Parade and National Honours Ceremony at Kensington Oval to mark the country’s 58th anniversary of Independence.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Residents of Roaring River, Westmoreland, on Monday unearthed what is believed to be the body of 64-year-old Dawn Anderson, a Jamaica-born British woman who went missing shortly after arriving in the island last week.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Barbados has completed what it calls the world’s first ‘debt-for-climate resilience’ swap which will see it invest $165 million in water infrastructure, food security and environmental protection to help the Caribbean island adapt to the damaging effects of climate change.

BOGOTA,  (Reuters) –  Colombia’s majority state-owned energy company Ecopetrol ECO.CN plans to build a new green hydrogen plant at its refinery in the Caribbean city of Cartagena for some $28.5 million, it said in a statement yesterday.

JACAREACANGA, Brazil, (Reuters) – The involvement of Indigenous people in illegal gold hunting, lured by the prospect of easy money due to record prices, has made Brazil’s task of cracking down on wildcat mining in the Amazon far harder, environmental agents and police say.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Barbados has completed the world’s first ‘debt-for-climate’ swap aimed at raising money to help the Caribbean island build resilience in its water systems to the damaging effects of climate change.

(Trinidad Guardian) Former Massy Holdings executive vice president, Angélique Parisot-Potter, is threatening to seek the intervention of the High Court to compel Massy Holdings Ltd to circulate a shareholder proposal she submitted for inclusion in the group’s management proxy circular, which has been sent to shareholders of the group in preparation for its 101st annual meeting.

(Trinidad Express) Security, economic and climate goals for the US and Caricom were among the issues discussed when Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and regional leaders met with a bipartisan US Congressional delegation yesterday in Bridgetown, Barbados.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Trade Winds Citrus Limited (TWCL) has responded to public discourse regarding the agreement it struck with the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) for discontinuation of a case against it for an oil spill in the Rio Cobre last December, saying “there is nothing secret or controversial about this agreement”.

(Trinidad Guardian) Under heavy downpour, scores of angry workers marched outside the Prime Minister’s residence last evening, demanding he call the general election and put an end to what they believe is a ‘self-serving’ salary hike.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Weldon Maddan, the chairman of board of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), has resigned over the agency’s withdrawal of the court case against Trade Winds Citrus Limited in relation to an oil spill in the Rio Cobre last December.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Two senior police officers were arrested in Brazil on suspicion that they took bribes and provided security for illegal gold mining activity in the Amazon, according to a court document seen by Reuters yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) A Claxton Bay man and his girlfriend were shot and killed in their house, and their infant child was spared by a lone killer on Thursday night.