UNITED NATIONS – Up to illegal 500,000 weapons raging from handguns to battlefield-grade semi-automatic rifles are thought to be in the hands of gangs in Haiti, even though the Caribbean country has been under a UN arms embargo for the last three years.

WASHINGTON, DC – On September 23, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump used his address to the 80th session of the UN General Assembly to question the Organization’s purpose. He is not alone; leaders worldwide have asked the same question. “The UN has such tremendous potential,” he said, but it is “not even coming close,” and “empty words don’t solve war.” On that point, many would agree.

WASHINGTON, DC - On 10 September, all 32 active member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) signed a joint statement on Haiti. 

WASHINGTON, DC – The world has long spoken of a “rules-based order,” as though the law itself held dominion over power. Yet, behind the diplomatic courtesies and the fine print of charters, it was power that wrote the rules and altered them at will. The difference today is that the altering is done in full view and only a few feign surprise.

Remember the evil queen from the fairy tale who would constantly gaze at her mirror and ask the question, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”

WASHINGTON, DC - Mental health is no longer hidden in the margins of public life, whether in Europe, North America, or the Caribbean. It is a growing global reality that costs lives and livelihoods, and prevents social cohesion and economic inclusion.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Dominican Republic (DR) is hosting the 2025 Summit of the Americas – a gathering of the Heads of State and Government of 32 countries of the Western Hemisphere.

WASHINGTON, DC – I return to a focus on Haiti because it is too easy for the world to discard the situation in that beleaguered country. In part, it is precisely because insufficient attention has been paid to Haiti in a holistic way that its circumstances worsen and its people continue to suffer.

In any ordered society there are rules that must be followed. This is something that maybe easily observed in nature. Why humans resist this natural order I cannot explain or excuse! If there are winners, then there must be losers. There are Alphas and Betas just as there are Yings and Yangs. In a beehive there is a Queen Bee and everyone else works for her. There are haves and have nots. Nowhere in these examples is there room for a middle!

Everywhere I go lately, people whisper the same question: are we sliding into another blacklist era? They point to what happened to Stephen Colbert. They point to what happened to Jimmy Kimmel. They point to other entertainers whose shows, jokes, or politics suddenly seemed to cost them work.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Just a few years ago, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of families in Latin America and the Caribbean(LAC) did not know whether they would have enough food for the next day.

WASHINGTON, DC – I am a diplomat with over 40 years of experience. My first instinct is always dialogue: bringing adversaries to a table and building mechanisms that find compromises with which everyone can live. But there are moments when “dialogue” is deliberately prolonged for the advantage of one side, resulting in increased dissatisfaction and greater conflict.