Tag Archives: Caribbean

Michael Lavers reports at the Washington Blade: The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court has declared provisions of the St. Lucia penal code that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations unconstitutional. Saint Lucia, along with Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and Montserrat fall under the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court’s …

USA Today reports: Tropical Storm Rafael strengthened Tuesday on its path toward the Cayman Islands and Cuba as weather officials in the U.S. monitored the storm for potential impacts to the Gulf Coast. Rafael swiped Jamaica on Tuesday and is forecast to intensify into a hurricane near the Cayman Islands and gain more steam ahead of its expected landfall in …

The Pensacola News-Journal reports: The National Hurricane Center has increased the chances of a tropical disturbance furthering development in the southwestern Caribbean Sea over the next seven days. A tropical depression could develop over the weekend or early next week as the system drifts into the central or western Caribbean, where conditions will likely be conducive for further strengthening. Tropical …

Bloomberg reports: Electricity went out across the entirety of Cuba after the island’s main power plant failed and the government throttled key industries in an effort to save fuel. In a post on X, the Ministry of Energy and Mines said the unexpected failure of the 330-megawatt capacity CTE Antonio Guiteras plant at about 11 a.m. Friday had caused a …

The Weather Channel reports: T​ropical Storm Ernesto has formed and will spread heavy rain, winds and some coastal flooding across the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico through Wednesday, before it turns north and intensifies into a hurricane. Ernesto became the fifth storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season late Monday afternoon after a Hurricane Hunter mission found a small, closed …

USA Today reports: All of Jamaica was about to feel the power of Hurricane Beryl on Wednesday as the eye of the Category 4 storm reached the island of 3 million people, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its 5 p.m. ET advisory. The hurricane’s outer bands had lashed Jamaica earlier Wednesday after hurtling across warm waters in the …

CNN reports: Hurricane Beryl roared across the Windward Islands on Monday as an extremely dangerous Category 4, delivering catastrophic winds, intense rainfall and life-threatening storm surge. Beryl made landfall shortly after 11:00 a.m. EDT on Grenada’s Carriacou Island in the Caribbean Sea with max winds of 150 mph. It is the strongest known hurricane to pass through the Grenadines, according …

Axios reports: Hurricane Beryl, which formed Saturday evening, rapidly intensified into a major Category 4 storm Sunday, and is nearing the Windward Islands Monday morning as a Category 3 major hurricane. The storm is rewriting hurricane history. Its early formation, rapid intensification and location are all record-breaking. Hurricane Beryl is expected to bring “Potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds” and “a life-threatening …

CNN reports: Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, intensified into a “very dangerous” Category 3 storm on Sunday morning as it churned toward Barbados and the Windward Islands, promising destructive hurricane-force winds and life-threatening storm surge, according to the National Hurricane Center. The National Hurricane Center says Beryl is expected to be an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 …

USA Today reports: Tropical Storm Beryl formed Friday evening in the Atlantic east of the Windward Islands and could become Hurricane Beryl by Sunday as it moves westward, the National Hurricane Center said. It becomes the second named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, formally turning into a tropical storm about 1,100 miles southeast of the Windward Islands at …

The Associated Press reports: A top court in the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica has struck down colonial-era laws criminalizing gay sex. It’s the latest nation to repeal such laws in the socially conservative region, joining Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. While the laws stemmed from the British colonial period, they were strengthened …

The Associated Press reports: A top court in St. Vincent and the Grenadines upheld laws on Friday that criminalize gay sex, a blow to activists who have long decried the violence the LGBTQ+ community has faced on the conservative Caribbean archipelago. The ruling by St. Vincent’s High Court stems from a 2019 case filed by two gay men from St. …

From the US Embassy in Jamaica: The State Department has recently changed the Travel Advisory for Jamaica. Reconsider travel to Jamaica due to crime and medical services. U.S. government personnel under Chief of Mission (COM) security responsibility are prohibited from traveling to many areas due to increased risk. Violent crimes, such as home invasions, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and homicides, …

Reuters reports: The U.S. State Department on Thursday ordered non-emergency government personnel and family members to leave Haiti as soon as possible, citing “kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure.” The State Department said U.S. citizens not working for the government should also leave Haiti as soon as possible “by commercial or other privately available transportation options.” “Kidnapping …

Pink News reports: On Monday, 12 December, the High Court of Barbados further undid its colonial-era homosexuality laws by scrapping Sections 9 and 12 of the Barbados Sexual Offences Act. Also known as “buggery” and “serious indecency” laws, which criminalised consensual same-sex intimacy, punishment ranged from life imprisonment under Section 9, and up to 10 years in jail under Section …

The Associated Press reports: Serious, standing upright and dressed in long gala dresses – despite the midday Cuban heat – Lisset and Liusba quietly walk up the ten steps of the notary office, their hands clenched and shaking. Less than a few feet ahead walk their two young daughters. Nearly an hour later, when they walked out of the doors, …

The BBC reports: Cuba has voted to legalise same-sex marriage in a national referendum. About two-thirds of the population voted to approve reforms in a new Family Code, which will also allow surrogate pregnancies and give gay couples the right to adopt children. It marks a big moment for Cuba, which saw gay people persecuted and sent to work camps …

Reuters reports: Cubans will cast ballots this Sunday on whether to approve a new ‘family code’ that would legalize gay marriage and boost women’s rights, with the government urging citizens to vote “yes” despite anger over the worst economic crisis in decades. The Communist-run government – long the vanguard of Latin America’s left – has in the last week flooded …

CNN reports: Power has gone out across all of the US territory of Puerto Rico on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us, as Hurricane Fiona bears down on the islands, which are already grappling with the threat of flooding and mudslides stemming from the Category 1 storm. “Puerto Rico is 100% without power due to a transmission grid failure from Hurricane Fiona,” …

Reuters reports: A Caribbean regional court has ruled that a Saint Kitts and Nevis prohibition on gay sex is unconstitutional because it violates the right to privacy, striking down one of a handful of bans on same-sex intercourse that still exist in the region. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ruled against two portions of the Offences Against the Person Act, …