PHILIPSBURG – According to Venezuelans in St. Maarten, corruption at home prevents Venezuelan emigrants from gaining legal status abroad. Many have requested necessary documents from Venezuela without success. “The sad thing is that it is our own people in Venezuela who abuse the situation in our country in all sorts of ways.” In order to receive these “documentos apostillados” (copy of a marriage certificate, birth certificate, proof of good conduct), payment must be made in dollars under the table. “Millions of Venezuelans are currently living abroad illegally. Requests for documents are piling up in Venezuela, you may have to wait…
Author: The Publisher
GREAT BAY, Sint Maarten (DCOMM) – National Disaster Coordinator/Fire Chief Clive Richardson said on Sunday, that due to the continued earthquake activity along the southern coast of the island of Puerto Rico, the aforementioned is causing some anxiety throughout the community here at home. The U.S. National Weather Service Pacific Tsunami Warning Center EWA Beach, Hawaii, on Saturday, issued a ‘Tsunami Information Statement’ on Saturday morning related to a 5.9 magnitude earthquake. The statement stated: Based on all available data…there is no significant tsunami threat from this earthquake, however, there is a very small possibility of tsunami waves along coasts…
The FORMATION should take into ACCOUNT: 1) the FACTS! 2) the FIGURES! 3) the FEARS! 4) the FAITH! 5) the FUTURE! A) FACTS and FIGURES: This simply means the outcome of the snap election regarding the seats awarded to the parties that won seats in the new PARLIAMENT! B) FEARS: History will REVEAL and REMIND us that we will still have to GAMBLE and GUESS on the CREDIBILITY, HONESTY and SINCERITY of political parties at the bargaining table when negotiating to form the next government! FEARS is what we knew of the PAST and hope not to RELIVE it again…
PHILIPSBURG — The National Alliance and United People’s Party on Saturday, January 11, 2020, signed a coalition agreement to form the next government of St. Maarten. The agreement will see the two largest parties coming out of the January 9 Parliamentary election form a solid majority in the next Parliament of St. Maarten, and, most importantly, a stable government for the next four years. Under the coalition agreement the National Alliance will appoint the Minister of General Affairs and Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Education, Minister of VROMI, Minister of Justice, Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Prime Minister, Vice Chair…
By Hilbert Haar Based on results, issues like integrity and transparency do not appeal to our electorate. The United Democrats and the St. Maarten Christian Party campaigned on these issues and look where it got them. The SMCP lost its seat and the UD barely managed to hang on to its lone seat in parliament. But, as the saying goes, the people have spoken and they will now get the government they deserve. The coalition of the National Alliance with the United People’s party looks on the surface stable enough: together they occupy ten seats in our fifteen-seat parliament. That’s…
PHILIPSBURG – Former Member of Parliament Silvio Matser has found no reprieve at the Supreme Court in The Hague where he contested his 2017 conviction for tax fraud. The Supreme Court judges – Willem van Schendel, Matthias Borgers and Annelies Röttgering – upheld the ruling of the common Court of Justice though it slightly lowered the punishment because it took more than two years for the court to publish its ruling. Matser is now irrevocably convicted to 21 months and two weeks of imprisonment with 18 months suspended, three years of probation and a fine of 15,000 guilders. In 2017,…
PHILIPSBURG – Hardly two days after the elections, winner National Alliance (NA) has signed a rather surprising coalition agreement with the United People’s party (UP). In the new government, the NA has five ministers, the UP two. Together, the two parties have ten seats in the new parliament, a seemingly solid majority. But there are indications that NA-MP Christophe Emmanuel is not happy with his party’s choice for the UP; he did not sign the coalition agreement. Reportedly, Emmanuel would have preferred a coalition with the United St. Maarten party (USp) to work together with MP-elect Claudius Buncamper on his…
GREAT BAY — While another earthquake may rattle Puerto Rico’s southwestern coast even more, the risk of tsunamis hitting the Leeward Islands is very slim. Earthquakes below 7.5 or 7.0 usually do not trigger tsunamis. The last time a major tsunami hit the Caribbean region was in 1946, after an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. Over the past 500 years, the Caribbean region may have been exposed to approximately 100 tsunamis. The North Panama Deformed Belt has the largest number of tsunami records within the Caribbean. Puerto Rico sits at the edge of the…
PHILIPSBURG — The Sint Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) would like to thank the voters of Sint Maarten for going out and exercising their democratic right and voting in the next parliament. The election took place peacefully and orderly. As we know, the ballot is the way the people speak and certainly the people have spoken today. SMCP certainly respects the voice and the decision of the people. For this reason SMCP would like to congratulate all the winning parties, the NA, UPP, USP, PFP and the UD. Also congratulations to the elected parliamentarians. SMCP wishes you much success. The people…
PHILIPSBURG – Interim Minister of Justice Jurendy Doran, candidate number 5 on the list of the National Alliance leads the top-ten of vote getters in Thursday’s parliamentary elections. Doran improved his score from the 2018 elections by 157 percent, from 278 to 843 votes. Behind Doran are two other NA-candidates: interim Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs whose voter support dropped from 896 in 2018 to 753 this time around and MP Christophe Emmanuel, who improved from 571 to 687 votes. UP-candidate number four Grisha Heyliger-Marten rode on the wings of her husband Theo to fourth place with 656 votes. Party for…
