WASHINGTON, DC – The United States and Canada on Friday welcomed the “commitments and participation” made at the December 9 Haiti Force Generation Conference for the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), convened on behalf of the Standing Group of Partners.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The executive secretary of the Economic Commission forLatin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Jose Manuel Salazar Xirinachs, Tuesday called on countries in the Caribbean region modernise their statistical legislation and governance systems to foster a culture of independence, access to administrative data, and improve data protection.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Guyana-based Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat Tuesday congratulated Suriname on its 50th anniversary of political independence from the Netherlands.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – The government of the Dominican Republic has authorized several U.S. military aircraft to land in the country in the coming days as part of an operational support deployment in the Caribbean. 

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti – President pro tempore and Coordinator of the Transition Council, Laurent Saint-Cyr, has welcomed the latest batch of Kenyan troops who will reinforce the Gang Repression Force (FRG) in Haiti.

CASTRIES, St. Lucia – The St. Lucia-based Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission says it has initiated discussions with two financial institutions towards establishing a Regional Operation for Advancing Housing Resilience in the Caribbean.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Guyana Wednesday night said the oil tanker seized by the United States earlier during the day “was falsely flying the Guyana flag” and is not registered here.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Forty-one Guyana Defence Force (GDF) soldiers departed for Jamaica to support reconstruction efforts following the devastation of sections of the island by Hurricane Melissa.

WASHINGTON, DC - The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, Tuesday called on Venezuela and the United States to use other means than warfare to settle their differences, insisting that the hemisphere must remain a zone of peace.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Planning, Economic Affairs and Development, Kennedy Swaratsingh, Monday said some of the main structural vulnerabilities persistently facing the Caribbean have restricted the region’s fiscal spaces and slowing down productivity growth among other challenges.

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations says a record seizure of cocaine off the coast of Haiti has underlined the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country’s “pivotal role in trafficking routes linking South America, the Caribbean and the United States of America”.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness has stressed that global partnerships will be essential to the recovery of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), from external shocks, such as Hurricane Melissa, which devastated Jamaica.