PHILIPSBURG — Vier maanden vóór de invoering van de geplande visumplicht voor Venezolanen in de voormalige Nederlandse Antillen is meer dan de helft van de illegale Venezolanen op St. Maarten op eigen initiatief teruggekeerd naar Venezuela. Op dit moment bevinden zich naar schatting nog driehonderd ongedocumenteerde Venezolaanse mannen op het eiland. Santiago (41) is een van de weinige illegale Venezolanen die twee keer op de luchthaven Grand Case-Espérance in het Franse deel van het eiland landde; de eerste keer in 2017 en de tweede keer in oktober vorig jaar. Hij keerde net op tijd terug, vlak voordat de regering van…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG/WILLEMSTAD – Ruim 27.000 gedupeerde rekeninghouders bij de insolvabele Girobank NV in Curaçao kunnen alleen uitzien naar uitkering van eventuele resttegoeden als Nederland te hulp schiet. Dat blijkt uit een relaas van Etienne Ys, voorzitter van de Raad van Commissarissen bij de Centrale Bank van Curaçao en St. Maarten. De voorzitter van het toezichthoudend orgaan van de Centrale Bank van Curaçao en St. Maarten (CBCS) die sinds 16 december 2013 de leiding over de Girobank heeft, zette vanochtend tegenover de pers uiteen dat er drie mogelijke oplossingen zijn: 1) Nederland schiet te hulp, alsook de overheid van Curacao en St.…
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…
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…
