FIND THE LATEST NEWS UPDATED EVERY DAY AT CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM
Vol. 31, Issue 28 BROOKLYN EDITION July 10-16, 2020
TRINI
VOTERS
NEXT
Brace for more general
elections in CARICOM
By Bert Wilkinson
General elections weary
CARICOM, is preparing for
yet another poll with voters
in oil and gas-rich Trinidad
and Tobago being next in line
to face the polls in the wake
of those held in Guyana, Suriname,
St. Kitts and Anguilla so
far this year.
Prime Minister Keith Rowley,
who was just last week
forced to cope with street riots
and protests in the wake of
the police killing of three men
in one of his governing party’s
city political strongholds,
announced the Aug. 10 date
during the last sitting of the
island’s parliament at the weekend.
The year 2020 has been one
of the busiest in the 47-year
history of the 15-nation integration
grouping with a slew of
governments bidding for consecutive
terms in office.
In the next few days, Suriname’s
51-member parliament
will meet to elect a president
and vice president following the
ouster of National Democratic
Party (NDP) party government
of former army strongman Desi
Bouterse at the May 25 general
elections. In St. Kitts, the
incumbent Team Unity won a
second five year term on June
5 by defeating the St. Kitts and
Nevis Labor Party of former PM
Denzil Douglas. Douglas had
been head of government from
1995 to 2015.
On June 29, voters in the
CARICOM affiliate nation and
British dependency of Anguilla
picked the opposition Anguilla
Progressive Movement of medical
doctor Ellis Webster over
the Anguilla United Front, giving
it seven of the 11 seats in
the assembly.
Meanwhile, Suriname’s
Bouterse and the NDP had
been vying for a third consecutive
five year term, but dire
economic times, a steep rise in
the cost of living, the Covid-19
pandemic and a sharp weaken-
Congressional Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-NY, speaking at a news conference, in New York.
Associated Press / Bebeto Matthews, File
Clarke condemns Trump’s student threat
By Nelson A. King
Brooklyn Democratic Congresswoman
Yvette D. Clarke
on Wednesday strongly condemned
the Trump administration’s
threat to deport international
students, including
Caribbean nationals, whose
universities transition to
online-only learning amid the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
On Monday, the United
States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) agency
announced that nonimmigrant
Caribbean and other
students must leave the US if
their colleges go fully online.
ICE said that its Student
and Exchange Visitor Program
(SEVP) announced modifications
to temporary exemptions
for nonimmigrant Caribbean
and other students taking
online classes, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, for the
fall 2020 semester.
The US Department of
Homeland Security plans to
publish the procedures and
responsibilities in the Federal
Register as a “Temporary Final
Rule,” ICE said.
“The recent decision by ICE
and the White House do not
prioritize public health nor the
education of our next generation
of leaders,” Clarke, the
daughter of Jamaican immigrants,
told Caribbean Life on
Wednesday. “Instead it is just
another naked attempt to callously
force students to return
Continued on Page 12 Continued on Page 12
/CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM