Category: CANA News

The Deputy Director for the Caribbean at the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Victoria Penson, will be among speakers addressing the opening of the Caribbean Sustainable Infrastructure Conference (CSIC) 2025 that gets underway here on Monday.

The SIC 2025 will bring together regional leaders, development partners and infrastructure practitioners to catalyse collaboration and action across four pillars, namely tackling climate risks, promoting equity and gender inclusion, advancing innovation-led economic development and fostering governance and institutional coherence. The two day event is being organised by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in partnership with the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Agence Francais de Developpment (AFD).

According to the organisers the event will spotlight the urgent need for sustainable infrastructure investments in the Caribbean, balancing economic growth, social inclusion, environmental resilience, and strong institutions.

It said that the participants highlight action points for building a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable Caribbean future.

Apart from Penson, other speakers on the opening day of the conference include H. Elizabeth Thompson, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Barbados with Responsibility for Climate Change, Small Island Developing States, and Law of the Sea, as well as Marc Dubernet, Regional Director, Agence Française de Développement.

The British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Simon Mustard and the CDB’s president, Daniel M. Best, will address the closing ceremony.

Suriname sprinter Issamade Asinga will have to serve a four-year ban imposed by World Athletics after his appeal was denied by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday.

The 20-year-old Asinga, who previously held the World Under-20 men’s 100 metre record of 9.89 seconds, was provisionally suspended in 2023 by the Athletics Integrity Unit after testing positive for the banned substance GW1516.

On May 27, 2024, he was officially banned for four years by World Athletics and all of his results since July 18, 2023, have been disqualified. Asinga, who will be eligible to compete in 2027, attributed his positive doping test to Gatorade products he had received after being named the Gatorade 2023 National Boys Track and Field Player of the Year in the United States.

The sprinter indicated that he had taken gummies, which were in Gatorade’s package as part of his selection, a week before the doping test.

Asinga sued Gatorade in 2024, but in April 2025, a U.S. District Judge dismissed the case.

In their ruling handed down, CAS rejected the request of the Surinamese sprinter to reduce or reverse his doping suspension.

‘After reviewing the evidence, the athlete has failed to demonstrate that it was more than likely that the gummies he had ingested before his anti-doping test were contaminated with GW1516.

‘Therefore, a lesser penalty for no guilt or negligence did not apply. The athlete also failed to demonstrate that his positive doping test was not intentional,’ CAS ruled.

Chairman of the Surinamese Athletics Federation (SAB), Dennis Mac Donald expressed his disappointment at the decision.

‘It is not pleasant news for the athlete and the federation. It’s a shame, but we have to move on. At least we had hoped for a reduction. We did not expect this,’ Mac Donald said.

Asinga introduced himself on the world stage with a breathtaking run of 9.89 seconds at the South American Championships, a World Under-20 record and Suriname national record at the time.

Bangladesh reached 150 in their 20 overs after electing to bat against West Indies in the third and final T20 International here on Friday at the Bir Sreshtho Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Stadium.

BANGLADESH 151 in 20 overs (Tanzid Hasan 89, Saif Hassan 23; Romario Shepherd 3-36, Khary Pierre 2-23, Jason Holder 2-32).

The United Nations Friday described as ‘extrajudicial killings’ as it strongly condemned the United States for striking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific allegedly carrying drug traffickers.

‘These attacks – and their mounting human cost – are unacceptable. The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them,’ the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said in a statement, in what is seen as the first condemnation from United Nations organisations over the strikes on the vessels. Last month, President Donald Trump ramped up US military presence in the Caribbean Sea ordering an amphibious squadron to the southern Caribbean as part of his effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels.

A nuclear-powered attack submarine, additional P8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, several destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser have also being allocated to US Southern Command as part of the mission.

The United States military has carried out deadly air strikes in Caribbean waters over the past few weeks against what Washington alleges are Caracas-backed drug traffickers. The Venezuelan government denies the charge, accusing the administration of being a threat to the peace and security of the whole region.

Trinidad and Tobago has come out in full support for the US action, with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar already indicating that the drug traffickers should be killed ‘violently’.

Earlier this week, Venezuela parliament passed a motion declaring her persona non grata and President Nicolas Maduro also announced the immediate’ suspension of energy agreements with Trinidad and Tobago.

But Trinidad and Tobago Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Sean Sobers PORT of Spain Government is ‘unbothered’ by the situation, insisting that the two countries enjoy good diplomatic relations.

The UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that Turk has called for an investigation into the strikes.

‘These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable,’ she told a UN briefing in Geneva.

Trk believed ‘airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.’

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the latest U.S. military strike in the campaign, against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people aboard were killed. It was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61.

The UN said that countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by ‘careful limits’ placed on the use of lethal force.

Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing ‘an imminent threat to life.

The strikes are taking place ‘outside the context’ of armed conflict or active hostilities, ghe UN noted.

The following is the CANANews and SPORTS Schedule for Friday, October 31, 2025.

PORT OF SPAIN – Tinidad Parliament debating further three month extension of state of emergecy (SoE).

HAMILTON – Hurricane Meilissa is quickly moving away from Bermuda on Friday after leaving a trial of death, damage and destruction in several Caribbean countries this week.

PORT-AU-PRINCE – Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, has expressed his ‘deepest sympathies’ to the families of the victims of Hurricane Melissa, whose passage near the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country earlier this week left 24 people dead and at least 13 others still missing.

KINGSTON – An 18-year-old pregnant woman is among the 19 people reportedly killed when Hurricane Melissa, the category 5 storm slammed into the island on Tuesday, the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper reported on Friday.

CASTRIES – The St. Lucia government says it will formalise new pathways for cooperation with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), marking what it termed ‘the start of a deeper partnership focused on unlocking investment and strengthening regional collaboration to advance St. Lucia’s national development agenda’.

SPORTS:

CHATTOGRAM – West Indies register series sweep against Bangladesh in their three-match T20 International series at the Bir Sreshtho Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Stadium on Friday.

A former Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court judge, has strongly condemned the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) handling of the departure of former Superintendent of Police, Tafawa Pierre, describing the move as an ‘overreaching’ breach of constitutional rights.

Speaking on the weekend podcast, The Bubb Report, James (Jimmy) Bristol K.C, a former attorney general, was critical of the PSC’s justification for forcing Pierre into retirement.

Pierre, who earlier appeared on another podcast, said he had been asked to tender his resignation on the grounds that the Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, who is also the National Security Minister, had lost confidence in his ability to execute his duties given that his wife, wife Emmalin Pierre is the leader of the main opposition New National Party (NNP) as well as the Opposition Leader in Parliament.

Pierre said the PSC chairperson, attorney Deborah St. Bernard, had also pointed to a conflict of interest in asking him to resign and take early retirement.

But Bristol told the podcast ‘there can be no conflict of interest situation there.

‘There can only be a conflict of interest if the leader of the opposition is accused of some offense and he has to investigate, then he recuses himself from the investigation. He doesn’t lose his job.’

Bristol said that Pierre, who had more than three decades of service to the Royal Grenada Police Force and a pristine record, was wrongly pressured out of office.

‘The documents I’ve seen indicate that Mr. Pierre was told, despite his exemplary service and commendations, that his services should come to an end because. his wife is the leader of the opposition, so they want him out. But that is a lot of hogwash,’ Bristol said.

According to Bristol, the Constitution provides safeguards for public officers, specifically under Section 84, whereby removal from office must be for disciplinary cause and according to proper procedures.

‘Removal in the Constitution from office can only mean removal for cause, and that’s been decided by the courts. You can’t just remove somebody,’ Bristol said, adding that the PSC was acting beyond its authority.

‘So the forced removal, by forcing him into retirement, is unconstitutional because of the protections afforded by Section 84 of the Constitution, which are there for a reason,’ Bristol argued, further calling the move ‘very underhand, overreaching, [and] unconstitutional.

‘There’s no conflict of interest. If the government perceives a conflict, it can only apply in a given situation where you will recuse yourself. He doesn’t lose his job,’ Bristol said, criticising criticized what he described as ‘political’ motivations.

‘It’s just on the basis that his wife is the leader of the opposition, and that’s a no-no. Okay? He was bullied into demitting office. They had no authority to do so.’

As a result, Bristol asserted, Pierre remains well within his rights to take legal action for vindicatory compensation.

‘You can still take action against the government for what are called vindicatory damages to vindicate him because of the overreaching by the Public Service Commission,’ he said, referencing precedents set in similar cases.

‘You cannot, as a matter of public policy, contract out of statutory rights which are there for your protection.’

The former attorney general cautioned that practices like these undermine the principles of good governance and warned that adherence to constitutional rules is essential for Grenada’s democratic health.

‘The Constitution guarantees freedom of association. it’s up to us as citizens to ensure the country is run properly. It’s not up to the government,’ said Bristol, who served as attorney general under a previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

‘How could people who are so well-read in the law run afoul of the law? But it happens all the time. It’s sad.’

President of the Grenada Public Service Commission and the Caribbean Public Service Association (CPSA), Daisy Hazzard, who was also on the podcast, expressed concern over the reported forced retirement of Pierre, focusing on principles of fairness, due process, and the need for the PSC to act independently and in accordance with the Constitution.

She said that her involvement came as CPSA president and not just the Grenada Public Workers Union (GPWU), after receiving correspondence from Pierre about his ‘forced retirement’ and the alleged undermining of PSC independence.

Hazzard said she could not speak to whether Pierre retired voluntarily, but noted ‘I can speak to the letter that is before me,’ noting that officers above the rank of inspector fall under PSC authority, and are ‘managed by the rules and regulations of the Public Service Commission. according to the Grenada Constitution’.

On whether Pierre’s rights were violated, Hazzard explained the established grounds and procedures for PSC-mandated retirement, including the right to representation and proper notice.

‘There is ambit, and there is hope for the PSC to retire an officer, even if the officer has not attained the age of majority. where an officer is accused of misconduct, he has a right to representation. He has a right to know what he’s accused of. there are remedies set out within the scope of the PSC rules and regulations.’

Hazzard stressed that, according to her research, there was ‘nothing which speaks to conflict of interest because of who your partner or your spouse is.’

She said that the cited reason does not constitute grounds for dismissal, and that the union’s research found ‘no allegation of wrongdoing’ in the official documents.

She also highlighted the need for the PSC to be an inviolable and impartial body, ‘there to protect workers from excesses, especially of politicians,’ and emphasized continual dialogue with the PSC’s union representative given concerns about this case.

‘If he was violated, if he was not given a fair hearing procedurally, so then that was not correct at all.’

Hazzard suggested that if Pierre believed his rights were violated, he should consider seeking formal redress beyond the media.

‘If you really believe that your rights are violated, you’ve done a round of the media, then take it to where you can get redress, because public media will only give you moral satisfaction, but that’s a matter for him to decide.’

The leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, Azruddin Mohamed, Friday said he feared for his life after police officers ‘in six or seven vehicles and more than 30 gunmen in mask’ arrested him outside the office of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

‘I thought they wanted to kill me there or execute me there, and I asked what was the problem because these are the same guys, that follow my move every day, these same Special Branch guys’, Mohamed told reporters after he emerged from a Magistrate’s Court where he was granted GUY$150,000 (One Guyana dollar=US$0.008 cents) bail. The 38-year-old politician along with his 73-year-old billionaire father, Nazar Mohamed, had been arrested following a warrant issued by a Magistrate of the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court in response to an extradition request made by the United States.

The matter has been adjourned to November 10 this year and the Mohameds are to report daily to a police station from November 7

The Mohameds are the subject of an indictment unsealed on October 6, 2025, by a United States Grand Jury sitting in the Southern District of Florida, which charges them with multiple offences including wire fraud, mail fraud, money-laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting and customs-related violations connected to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax evasion scheme.

The indictment alleges that between 2017 and June 2024, the accused conspired to defraud the Guyana government by evading export taxes and royalties on over 10,000 kilograms of gold, using falsified customs declarations and re-used export seals to disguise unpaid duties. The indictment further references the attempted shipment of US$5.3 million in undeclared gold seized at Miami International Airport, and the alleged under-invoicing of a luxury vehicle valued at over US$680,000.

According to the indictment, the alleged fraudulent scheme operated ‘from in or about 2017’ through June 2024.

In June 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Mohameds and their company, Mohamed’s Enterprise, citing allegations of tax evasion, trade-based money-laundering, and gold smuggling.

The young Mohamed, who led the WIN party to securing the second majority of seats in the National Assembly during the September 1 regional and general elections, is due to be sworn in as the Opposition Leader when the Parliament meets for the first time on Monday next week.

He told reporters that there is no doubt that the charges were as a result of the Guyana government’s involvement in the matter noting that the sanction document that was handed down against him last year made reference to government officials also being involved.

‘I am innocent, this business, this gold business, the exportation of gold is not my business, it is my father’s business.I am a gold miner, but they used this hoping to get a sanction.All I have to say is that the government is fully behind the sanctions and it has agents working in the United States of America that they are in talks with,’ Mohamed told reporters.

One of his attorneys, Roysdale Forde, speaking to reporters outside the Magistrate’s Court, said there would be making several challenges with regards to the extradition request.

‘We are no where close to even beginning .there will be a number of significant challenges all the way to the CCJ (Caribbean Court of Justice). I can assure and members of the public that this is a significant issue.

‘I believe it was not lost on the court .that on Monday Mr. Mohamed is to be elected . as the Opposition Leader. It is not lost on the court at this last hour such a proceedings would have been filed.

‘It is clearly an effort, we believe to prevent that from happening,’ he said, adding that other efforts would be made by the state to prevent that happening.

‘What we have is a string of unsubstantiated statements.you cannot make such a serious accusation bordering on treason and come to the court and simply make a statement. These things were allegedly happening for months and the state of Guyana is armed not only with extradition facilities, they are armed under the law with the right to put a citizen into preventative detention.

‘If you know .that the person is likely to be the leader of the opposition.you could go to the High Court and get an order. But they have done nothing and come today and raise these red herrings to prevent the grant of bail,’ Forde added.

The St. Lucia government says it will formalise new pathways for cooperation with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), marking what it termed ‘the start of a deeper partnership focused on unlocking investment and strengthening regional collaboration to advance St. Lucia’s national development agenda’. A government statement said that as part of the new engagement, ‘concrete’ steps have been taken to finalise St. Lucia’s incorporation as a shareholder country of CAF and that ‘sttrategic discussions on key development priorities, from infrastructure and tourism to renewable energy, agriculture, and social development’ have taken place.

It said that these initiatives represent another step toward sustainable financing, energy transition, and regional growth, advancing the Government’s vision of a resilient and inclusive St. Lucia.

Meanwhile, CAF is inviting Caribbean countries to attend on Friday, the virtual launch of the ‘International Economic Forum Latin America and the Caribbean 2026: How to position the region on the global stage?’

It said that the forum will take place on January 28 and 29, next year in Panama City and that ‘this high-level event will be a meeting point for business leaders, influential leaders, and decision-makers to address pressing issues in Latin America and the Caribbean and discuss joint actions to drive growth, inclusion, and competitiveness in the region’.

It said that the topics discussed will focus on the 2026 macroeconomic outlook, trade and investment flows, the private sector as a driver of growth, airport infrastructure, air connectivity, and tourism; artificial intelligence for development; clean energy and energy transition; sustainable mining; and other topics of vital importance to the region’s development.

Billionaire businessmen, Nazar Mohamed and his son and Azruddin, have been arrested following an extradition request from the United States.

The younger Mohamed, the leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party that won the second most seats in the National Assembly following the September 3 regional and general elections, was arrested outside the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) office on Friday. He was handcuffed and arrested after being surrounded two van loads of police officers, with some of them wearing face masks.

The arrest comes a few weeks after the Mohemeds were indicted by the United States government on charges of gold smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering.

The WIN leader was due to appear before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court this afternoon in connection with a local tax evasion case involving the GRA.

The Mohameds,well-known through their company Mohamed’s Enterprise, were indicted earlier in October in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The indictment outlines 11 charges combined against the father and son, including gold smuggling, wire fraud, and money laundering, each carrying a potential maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

In 2024, both men were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for alleged involvement in corrupt practices and illicit gold trading activities.

Billionaire businessmen, Nazar Mohamed and his son and Azruddin, have been arrested following an extradition request from the United States.

The younger Mohamed, the leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party that won the second most seats in the National Assembly following the September 3 regional and general elections, was arrested outside the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) office on Friday.

He was expected to have been sworn in as Opposition Leader when the Parliament meets for the first time on Monday following the elections.

He was handcuffed and arrested after being surrounded two van loads of police officers, with some of them wearing face masks.

The arrest comes a few weeks after the Mohemeds were indicted by the United States government on charges of gold smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering.

The WIN leader was due to appear before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court this afternoon in connection with a local tax evasion case involving the GRA.