4 Gov’t mulls legal action as 27,000 students still missing from classroom GOV’T CONSIDERS legal action as 27,000 students still missing from classroom After months of searching via its Yard to Yard Find The Child initiative for thousands of students missing from the classroom, the Government is considering legal action against negligent parents and guardians to get the minors back in school. Figures from the Ministry of Education and Youth estimated that some 120,000 students were unaccounted for during the height of COVID-19 school closures that forced teaching and learning online for two years. The latest statistics provided by the education and youth ministry to The Sunday Gleaner revealed that approximately 27,000 of them have not returned to in-person learning since it was resumed earlier this year. “As guided by the Child Care and Protection Act, every child has a right to an education. If moral suasion fails and it is proven that parents/ guardians are being neglectful in ensuring that their children are in school, then such cases will be referred to CPFSA (Child Protection and Family Services Agency) for its intervention, which, of course, has legal implications,” Richard Troupe, acting director of the safety and security unit in the Ministry of Education and Youth told The Sunday Gleaner. Jamaicans among 19 held in cocaine, money-laundering ring with Colombians TWO JAMAICANS who reportedly acted as money couriers in a“sophisticated”international scam that laundered more than US$6 million in drug-trafficking proceeds from Colombian cartels are to be extradited to the United States (US), while a third Jamaican implicated in the scheme, Seivright Affleck, was arrested. All three were arrested last Tuesday, but St Devon Anthony Cover, of Manchester, and Dennis Rowe, of Kingston – who were first held – both waived their rights to an extradition hearing when they appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court. They have all been indicted in the US on charges of laundering of monetary instruments and aiding and abetting. The Jamaicans are among 19 people who have so far been hit with a range of criminal charges for their alleged involvement in the scheme, which had been under investigation since 2016 by law enforcers in Jamaica, the US and Colombia, among others. Cover is alleged to have delivered US$268,000 to undercover police or a confidential informer. Rowe is said to have handed over US$606,000, while Afflick, of Portmore, reportedly delivered US$650,000. Each of the defendants played different roles – money couriers, money brokers, drug-trafficking organisation (DTO) suppliers, and business owners. Four freed in landmark gang trial AFTER SPENDING five years and five months in prison in connection with his alleged involvement in the Clansman-One Don Gang, Damaine Elliston’s main wish as a free man is to reunite with his six-year-old daughter. The 26-year-old livestock farmer was among four defendants who, last Thursday, were found not guilty of breaches of the anti-gang legislation after the prosecution conceded that there was insufficient evidence. The other three equally elated exonerees were Owen Ormsby, Rivaldo Hylton, and Roshane Williams. The four men were among 32 males, including alleged gang leader Andre‘Blackman’Bryan, and a female, Stephanie Christie, who were charged on an indictment with 25 counts under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organizations) Act and the Firearms Act for crimes allegedly committed between 2015 and 2019. The offences for which they are charged include leadership of a criminal organisation, being part of a criminal organisation, illegal possession of firearm, and illegal possession of ammunition and facilitating the commission of murder, conspiracy to murder and arson. [NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED] “I think we have roughly between twenty-five and twenty seven thousand children who we have still not been able to re-engage”: Richard Troupe, acting director of the safety and security unit in the Ministry of Education and Youth. FILE Spain to provide scholarships, exchange programmes to Creole Academy PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI, CMC: THE GOVERNMENT of Spain has announced that it will be providing scholarships and exchange programmes to the Haitian Creole Academy in a move to help integrate the country’s mother tongue into professional settings. The announcement was made by Spain’s Ambassador to the French speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country, Estime Sergo Cuesta, who was speaking at a forum on Kreyol, recently. “Literacy in the mother tongue is needed to ensure the academic success of children,” Sergo Cuesta said in French during the event, titled“The Kreyòl, a scientific language.” The Spanish Embassy organized the conference in collaboration with University State of Haiti, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Initiative MIT-Ayiti), Basque Agency Cooperation and the Haitian Creole Academy. The event is part of the Edukayiti project of the European Union but was carried out by the Spanish cooperation in order to strengthen Creole in education. Dominica hopes construction of world’s longest cable car project to begin in November ROSEAU, DOMINICA, CMC : THE DOMINICA government says the construction of the multi-million dollar world’s longest cable car project is expected to begin later this year. TourismMinister Denise Charles said the US$54 million project involving a length of Detachable Monocable Cable Car 6.6 kilometres long will provide a safe and quick passage to the Boiling Lake, the second-largest of its kind in the world, situated in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park, a World Heritage Site, east of the capital. “This project is very critical, because as you know Dominica has the second largest boiling lake in the world or the first largest in the western hemisphere. So this project will certainly feature Dominica as major tourism destination as many people will be excited to come and visit the second largest boiling lake in the world,”said Charles. When completed, Dominica will surpass, Vietnam, which holds the title of the world’s longest cable car with its 5.8 km of the ropeway. ST. Vincent PM urges regional leaders to boycott Summit of the Americas BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS, CMC: ST. VINCENT and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is urging Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders“not to attend” next month’s Summit of the Americas to be held in the United States. “I realise it is a difficult decision, but our American friends have left us with no other credible, principled, and practical choice. We may yet persuade them to alter their posture,”Gonsalves wrote in a letter to all the CARICOM leaders and copied to the CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett. Caribbean leaders are still undecided as to whether or not they will boycott the June 6-10 summit if Washington goes ahead with its plans not to invite the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to the event. In addition, the regional leaders had also expressed their opposition to Venezuelan Opposition Leader, Juan Guaidó leading a Venezuelan delegation to the event. CARICOM chairman and Belize Prime Minister, John Briceño had confirmed that Washington is lobbying for CARICOM to change its position and not boycott the summit that the United States said is expected to focus on “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future” for the hemisphere. In his May 11 letter, a copy of which has been seen by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), Gonsalves, one of the longest serving leaders in the 15-member regional integration movement, wrote he is “very aware that CARICOM governments’ good relations with the USA are of paramount importance. “However, are relations are too close, and our self-interests too tightly inter connected for there to be any lasting rapture, certainly not more than a temporary dissonance. Our friendship has to be grounded elemental respect, and the truth be told, we have been profoundly disrespected and disregarded by our American friends on this matter. “Certainly, they are pulling out all the stops to persuade us to accept their ignoble stance; it is not a genuine dialogue as to what is best for our Americas,”Gonsalves wrote in the five-page letter to the regional leaders. He warned that CARICOM“is in danger of finding itself in an uneasy position given the public declarations of several Latin American governments of their non-attendance of the summit wither at the presidential level or at all. Gonsalves said he had held out hope that Cuba “may endorse CARICOM’s attendance even in its absence,” but that “is more unlikely to happen. “The Cubans have principle and practicality on their side. We are at this sorry pass because of the decision of the US government,”Gonsalves wrote, adding “so the option of attending the Summit and protest strongly in our own language regarding the non-invitation to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua is, in my view not viable in both principle and practice”. In his letter, the 75-year-old Gonsalves wrote that he has been giving the matter “mature consideration” and following discussions with various people, including representatives of the United States government and leaders of civil society across the Caribbean, he has “arrived at the conclusion that CARICOM leaders ought not to attend the Summit in Los Angeles…unless the US government alters its position” regarding Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. In outlining what he described as “the basic reasons”driving his conclusion, Gonsalves wrote that CARICOM leaders at their inter-sessional summit in Belize in March had“declared publicly that CARICOM will not attend the Summit if Cuba were excluded and /or if a Mr. Guaidó was invited, preposterously, to represent Venezuela. REGIONAL Gonsalves FILE THE MONTHLY GLEANER | JUNE 2 - 30, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS
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