Caribbean Report 14-05-1990

Abstract

The Sunday Correspondent Newspaper in Britain provides details of the Antiguan connection in the purchase of arms from Israel which ended up in the hands of Columbia’s most notorious drug baron. The author of the article comments on alleged involvement of Vere Bird Junior and other Antiguan officials in the political scandal, the relationships with the arms agents and the upcoming judicial inquiry. Secondly, all the opinion polls leading up the next general elections in the Dominican Republic put Juan Bosch and the PLD party in the lead. However, President Balaguer and his party are optimistic on winning the elections after a massive turnout of support at their last public meeting and dismiss claims of election rigging. Following the Financial News, Professor Anthony Bryan, Director of the Institute of International Relations, UWI, St. Augustine laments on the pace of progress towards full regional integration in the Caribbean. With the looming single European market and the US, Canada and Mexico moving towards a free-trade area, many Caribbean leaders are only now seriously considering regional integration but are hesitant to give up their national sovereignty for the cause. In the final segment, scientists from the Caribbean and India are conducting a 45-day marine survey by visiting the exclusive economic zones of the countries participating in the survey. The information acquired from the survey will be made available to all the countries within the region for the management of the marine resources.