Mahogany CoConut Blog

One Caribbean Nation. Guest Editorial Godfrey Martin We owe a debt of gratitude to the government and people of Cuba who have been consistent in their unflinching support for our Caribbean region and all oppressed peoples throughout the globe. Cuba has opened its doors to many, even though it is a developing country savaged by the inhumane economic blockade implemented by the United States of America for 65 years. Added to this is the increased oil embargo recently imposed on Cuba over the past weeks. This has deprived Cuba of receiving much-needed oil necessary for energy and everyday living. These actions have been condemned by international lawyers as a crime against humanity. Cuba’s crime was to throw off the yoke of Yankee imperialism and seek a socialist path for the development of its people and resources. Cuba’s crime was also to reject the path of becoming a vassal and neocolonial state of the USA and Western imperialism. It chose the path of defending its sovereignty. ...

One Caribbean Nation. by  Sir Ronald Sanders The war in Iran is already at Caribbean doors. The attacks in Iran and the Gulf are being justified by some on the grounds that Iran's record on terrorism, nuclear ambition, and regional meddling leaves the "free world" with no choice but to act militarily. The Caribbean has every reason to take that record seriously. But for small, import‐dependent states in this hemisphere, an additional set of questions demands urgent attention: who is paying the economic and social price for this war, and what is it doing to the rules that are meant to protect small states? A war fought there, a bill paid here The conflict has already pushed up oil prices, freight rates, and insurance premiums for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical corridors for oil and liquefied natural gas. For Caribbean countries that import most of what they consume, every additional dollar on a barrel of oil, and every extra c...

One Caribbean Nation. By William Skinner The Caribbean is facing both regional and Global challenges that threaten all the gains made as the perpetual struggle to totally free itself from an inhumane past , engineered by the debilitating slave trade and colonial domination. Having struggled successfully to forge the unique Caribbean civilization by becoming independent nations and abandoning the British empire , the region now stands almost flat footed because of the erratic machinations of the   United States of America as it seeks to influence the region and place demands as to what friends and allegiances it should have. The message from Washington is blunt and clear : support us or you would face vicious and serious challenges. The quick capitulation of some regional leaders in matters relation to Venezuela and the capture of President Maduro and its desire to use Caribbean islands as surveillance tools for the American military expeditions are causing frustrating fract...

One Caribbean Nation. The new pirates of the Caribbean Today’s Editorial The seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker by US President Donald Trump’s administration and the accompanying threats of ground attacks, are ominous signs of a return to a dark era of the Caribbean and Latin America thought long behind us. This latest act of intimidation and outright piracy revives the heavy hand of the United States’ late 19th- and early 20th-century foreign policy, the age of gunboat diplomacy, military occupations, and the casual violation of sovereignty in the name of hemispheric “stability.” This escalation bears chilling resemblance to the early 20th century’s Caribbean interventions, when Marines landed in Haiti, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic under the flimsy banner of protecting US interests. Then as now, high-minded talk of “security” masked simpler motives: the control of trade routes, natural resources (this time, oil and gas in the world’s largest reserve), and regime change. Tod...

One Caribbean Nation. Maduro halts energy deals with Trinidad VENEZUELA Venezuela on Monday suspended energy agreements with Trinidad and Tobago, over what officials have described as "hostile" actions by the island nation. Trinidad is now hosting one of the US warships involved in a controversial campaign to destroy Venezuelan speedboats allegedly carrying drugs to the United States. During his weekly television show on Monday night, President Nicolas Maduro accused Trinidad of acting as the "aircraft carrier of the US empire" and said that he was left with no choice but to pull out of treaties signed with Trinidad ten years ago. The announcement came hours after the nation's vice president, who is also Venezuela's minister of hydrocarbons, had suggested the agreements should be cancelled. On Sunday, the USS Gravely, a destroyer fitted with guided missiles, arrived in Trinidad to conduct joint exercises with Trinidad's navy. Venezuelan authorities des...

One Caribbean Nation. A New World Order – or the formal admission of the Old? The world has long spoken of a "rulesbased 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. We all knew what the Order was, even when we hoped for better. We knew it in World Trade Organisation negotiations when our cries for special and differential treatment for small states in trade relations fell on deaf ears. We knew it in climate change negotiations when our pleas for a loss and damage fund evinced a sop, not a solution. From the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 to the Charter of the United Nations in 1945, the international system has proclaimed the sovereign equality of states. In practice, this has always been more aspiration than achievement. Legal sovereignty -...

One Caribbean Nation. US grants Trinidad permission to negotiate -Venezuela gas deal  TRINIDAD The US has granted Trinidad and Tobago permission to negotiate a gas deal with neighbouring Venezuela without facing any US sanctions, the Caribbean nation's attorney general said Thursday. The US Treasury Department granted an Office of Foreign Assets Control licence on Wednesday that allows parties to engage in a transaction that would otherwise be prohibited, according to the agency. With Venezuela hit by US sanctions, Trinidad and Tobago needed the licence to pursue the development of a gas field located in Venezuelan waters. The licence was granted following a request that Trinidad and Tobago made in May, according to Attorney General John Jeremie. "We have six months to negotiate, within parameters," Jeremie said at a news conference. "You have to hit targets, with respect to the US and their posture with Venezuela." He said US companies have certain commercial...

One Caribbean Nation Barbados Today , Editorial Friday, September 19th., 2025 Why the Caribbean cannot ignore erased histori es and silenced voices in the US Freedom of speech, civil rights, and the dignity of Black lives are under siege—not only in the United States, but across the diaspora, with ripple effects already reaching the Caribbean. From freedom of speech to erasing our history, it's all in jeopardy. The First Amendment, long celebrated as a cornerstone of American democracy, is under strain. The consequences are not abstract. Jimmy Kimmel was suspended this week after remarks about the death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, widely seen as an example of political pressure shaping entertainment. Stephen Colbert's late-night show was cancelled after sharp criticism of Donald Trump's political comeback, and CNN parted ways with Don Lemon and Brian Stelter, both outspoken critics of Trump's disinformation. Since 2021, at least 22 US states have passed laws ...

One Caribbean Nation. Rear Admiral Antonette Wemyss Gorman Chief of Defense, The Jamaica Defense Force.The only Female army boss in the world. Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson First Black woman to sit on the  US, Supreme Court The Mahogany Coconut Group is pleased to highlight, celebrate and congratulate, two extraordinary Black women from the great Caribbean and Afro American Nations. As the Mighty Stalin reminds us: we took the same trip on the same ship. MCG, with great pride hails the achievements of : Rear Admiral Antonette Wemyss Gorman of Jamaica, on becoming the only woman leading an army in the world and Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to sit on the US Supreme Court. Our women have always been in the vanguard, of the struggle for equality, justice and all forms of Black enfranchisement. They have always been the leaders who allowed our men to lead ,and the protectors, who encouraged and taught our men to be guardians. In highlighting these two bri...

One Caribbean Nation. Derrick Scott/Gleaner Writer WASHINGTON D.C.: Jamaica-born Winsome Earle-Sears is the new lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Earle-Sears is the first woman to serve as a lieutenant governor and the first black woman to hold a statewide office in the Commonwealth. The lieutenant governor officially serves as president of the Senate and presides over it and also serves as a member of several state boards, commissions and councils. Her oath of office was administered on the steps of the State Capitol building in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday by retired judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, Richard D. Taylor, Jr.  Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks is proud of Earle-Sears' elevation. "You have done so with uncommon grace and have in the process drawn renewed, decidedly positive attention as an exemplar of Jamaicans here, representing respected models of responsible citizenship and as able, contributing ...

One Caribbean Nation. Political pundit ANCHOR WITH TRINBAGO ROOTS CREATING STIR CNN’s rising star Abby Phillip is getting a chance to shine on her own. The CNN recently announced the network’s new Washington-based anchor roles. Within that release came the news that Phillip has been promoted to senior political correspondent and will be taking the reins of Inside Politics Sunday from John King. So, CNN viewers will now be able to tune into Phillip every Sunday morning from 8 to 9 a.m. starting January 24th. Fans of the show will note that Phillip is no stranger to the Inside Politics set, having been a member of the show’s roundtable in 2015 and even filling in for King last month— perhaps as an undisclosed opportunity for Phillip to test drive the anchor role. Phillip was born in Virginia to parents June and Dr Carlos Phillip. Her parents are originally from Sangre Grande. They migrated to the US in 1985 and returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1988 when she was a few months old. She ...

One Caribbean Nation. VP-Elect Kamala Harris CaribPR Wire, NEW YORK, NY, Sun. Jan. 17, 2021 : U.S. VP-Elect Kamala Harris on Sunday night delivered a special message to thousands of Caribbean Americans gathered virtually globally, at a star-studded virtual global Caribbean inauguration celebration in her honor, conceptualized and executed by Caribbean American entrepreneur and advocate, Felicia J. Persaud, and presented by Invest Caribbean and the Caribbean American Action Network, (CAAN). “Thank you for the efforts that so many of you have made throughout the course of the campaign to get us to this moment. … You did the work. You helped lay the groundwork for this historic occasion,” VP-elect Harris said. “Now, because of you and so many others, our country is on a path to heal and rebuild.” She also recognized the contributions of Caribbean Americans to the United States, which she said are woven “throughout the fabric of our country.” “Those contributions are reflected in the liv...

One Caribbean Nation. By Moses Nagamootoo The siege of the Capitol Building Moses V. Nagamootoo FOR THOSE OF us who shared the shame of what was described as “the crime of the century”, United States President Donald Trump reminded us of Jim Jones, on the eve of the “Jonestown Massacre” – the ghastly 1978 mass murder-suicide in Guyana. The evidence captured live on television on Wednesday, January 6, is compelling like a giant freight-truck in our face that the charge given by Trump to his far-right zealots to march on Capitol Hill was like a lethal Kool-Aid cocktail. The attackers, described by president-elect Joe Biden and many other American leaders as “thugs” and “mob”, invaded and occupied the Capitol. It was momentarily a palace coup. As vice-president Mike Pence was being whisked away to a secure location, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other terrified members of Congress and their staff were seen frantically diving for cover. The rag-tag militias were invariably hailed as “pa...

One Caribbean Nation. by Sir Ron Saunders America’s battered democracy Sir  Ron Saunders Recent events in Washington, the revered capital of the United States of America, have shaken the moral authority of that country to lecture, threaten and coerce other countries in the name of democracy, rule of law and human rights. The disgraceful scenes of Americans storming their own sacred Capitol Building – the long-claimed sanctuary for democracy – was bad enough, but what preceded it was worse. A mob, mobilised to be lawless and violent, was deplorable. What was despicable were the actions of Republican Congresspersons, who do know better, to wilfully and shamelessly try to overturn the will of the people to change the government through a democratic process that was confirmed by state and federal courts and by the Supreme Court itself. A sitting President of the United States, Donald Trump, openly encouraged a mob to be lawless and to do precisely what they did – attack the bastion o...