PHILIPSBURG — In a significant ruling on February 1, 2024, the Court of First Instance of Sint Maarten ordered the immediate release of Mr. R.J., a Haitian national residing in St. Maarten, marking a pivotal moment in the country’s legal history regarding alien detention and removal orders. R.J. who had been residing unlawfully in St. Maarten since his visa expired in August 2022, was detained on January 3, 2024, by the Minister of Justice of St. Maarten, deeming him an undesirable alien and initiating removal proceedings. This decision was challenged in court by his attorney Mr Remco Stomp,, citing the…
Author: The Publisher
~ It is highly anticipated that the country will surpass the 2016 record in the coming years ~ By Hilbert Haar Our tourism industry is not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. This appears from data provided by the Department of Statistics. The nature of the explanation with the numbers is jubilant but that is only because the researchers compare the 2023 numbers with those of the previous two years. And for sure, there is a positive trend but the numbers do not come even close to the pre-hurricane years of 2016. The Department of Statistics…
ST. PETERS — VidMedia Solutions, the video production company behind the groundbreaking ‘Election Watch: St. Maarten Decides’ coverage for the 2024 Parliamentary elections, concluded its final evaluation meeting following the successful live stream of the election results on January 11th, 2024. The project started in September, Mr. Reginald Richardson, Project Manager for VidMedia Solutions, explained. “It was very challenging to find the perfect combination of team members. Despite the hurdles, a team was assembled, and each member diligently tackled their respective roles.” At the concluding evaluation meeting, team members deliberated over the challenges encountered during the broadcast, proposed enhancements for…
StMaartenNews.com and SXMCommunityTV Launch News Cafe: A Weekly Intellectual Debate Show about St. Maarten news and developments St. Maarten, January 31, 2024 — StMaartenNews.com and SXMCommunityTV are excited to announce the launch of the new news debate show, News Cafe, airing every Thursday night at 8 pm. The inaugural episode is set for Thursday, February 8, 2024, with the intriguing topic of “The Political Reality in St. Maarten.” About News Cafe: News Cafe, hosted by Terrance Rey, owner, publisher, and editor of StMaartenNews.com, in collaboration with SXMCommunityTV, is a platform designed for thought-provoking news, views, reviews and interviews on critical…
PHILIPSBURG — CANTO, the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Operators, focused its attention on big tech companies that earn major revenue and contribute nothing to the IC infrastructure in the Caribbean during its Connect and 40th GM Celebration at the Hyatt Regency in Trinidad and Tobago this week. Lisa Agard, the newly appointed chair of C9, addressed the issue during a panel discussion about Fair Share. Members of C9 are ATN International, Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL), Cable Bahamas, Digicel, Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), Liberty Latin America, Telesur, The Cable in St. Kitts, and Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and…
How we describe our political reality in St. Martin by Fabian A. Badejo GREAT BAY, St. Martin (January 28, 2024)—Long before the southern or Dutch part of St. Martin obtained an adjusted autonomous status as a territory of the Netherlands kingdom on October 10, 2010 (nicknamed “10-10-10”), politicians and others, both on the island and beyond, have used language that is inaccurate and often misleading to mask their own fears and shortcomings and create an obviously confusing narrative. We cannot ascribe this to ignorance. To the contrary, I think many of them have a pretty good grasp of what the…
~ Vox populi, vox Dei! ~ By Fabian A. Badejo GREAT BAY, St. Martin (January 23, 2024)—That Latin aphorism, “Vox populi, vox Dei” simply means “the voice of the people (is) the voice of God.” In our own parlance in St. Martin, we would say, “the people have spoken.” But what did the people really say with the results of the last parliamentary elections held in the southern part of our island on January 11, 2024? Here are 12 points that stood out for me: Six out of the eight lists got seats in the new Parliament? That’s 75% of…
PHILIPSBURG — Financial supervisor CFT projects a much higher positive result for St. Maarten’s 2023 budget than the government. According to the ministry of finance the result for 2023 will be a surplus of 1 million guilders ($558,659), but the CFT expects it to be between 20 and 30 million guilders ($11.1 to 16.7 million). This appears from the CFT’s advice about the 2023 budget amendment. The budget amendment contains, in line with CFT-advice, multi-annual surpluses and multi-annual estimates for the capital budget. Because the budgetary year is over, the CFT suggests involving its current advice in the 2024 budget.…
PHILIPSBURG — Former parliamentarian and founder of the United St. Maarten party (USp) Frans Richardson was sentenced by the Court of Appeal to 19 months of imprisonment and ordered to pay 192,690 guilders ($666,307) into St. Maarten’s crime fund for corruption, bribery and conflict of interest in the so-called Aquamarine case. The court also took away Richardson’s right to be elected for five years. The Aquamarine-case has to do with the construction of the building for Bureau Telecommunication and Post (BTP) and its maintenance contract, the public prosecutor’s office states in a press release. Richardson’s business partner, Anthony Carty was…
PHILIPSBURG — The police force does not have the necessary financial and material resources to adequately set up, manage and guarantee the deployment of the arrest team. This appears from an inspection by the Law Enforcement Council into the organization and the deployment of the arrest team. On the other hand, the Council praises the quality of the training of the team-members and the commitment of individual police officers “which is characterized by dedication, creativity and expertise.” The Law Enforcement Council report describes in great detail the legal framework that underpins the functioning of the arrest team. That framework is…
