Denise Oliver Velez

Although it’s public knowledge that the former governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vázquez Garced, and some of her cronies have been under investigation for corruption, Puerto Ricans woke up Thursday morning to the surprising news that she had been arrested by the FBI, along with two other unidentified people.

Ironically enough, prior to being appointed governor in August 2019, Vázquez served as the island’s Secretary of Justice.

Back in November 2021, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan embarked on a Journey to Justice tour of historically marginalized communities in the southern United States. In July of this year, he took the latest leg of the tour to Puerto Rico. There, he met with community groups and environmental activists and visited areas of the island still struggling to recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria.

It’s always heartening to see environmental activists celebrate a win in the long battle against the depredations of developers, corporate interests, and governmental cronyism. July 4 in Puerto Rico was one of those days. These activists had a celebration that had nothing to do with American independence (after all, Puerto Rico is still a colony).

People of the Caribbean diaspora, whether in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, or even further afield, have a long history of outmigration—when people leave one place, permanently, to live in another—for primarily economic reasons.

It has become a Daily Kos tradition for me to republish this Memorial Day story I first wrote in 2014. I have ancestors, Black and white, who fought for the Union during the Civil War. This is posted in their honor. —DOV

A pencil drawing and a grainy photo in the Library of Congress are all that is left of the cemetery where 257 Union soldiers were buried after the Civil War, on what had been a race course in Charleston, South Carolina.

The British royals, Duke of Cambridge Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, ended their week-long Caribbean “Charm” tour on March 27, returning home to Merry Olde England, leaving a trail of dissent, resentments, and calls for reparations behind them. While U.S.

While most of our focus here in the U.S. has been on events in Ukraine and on President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, key figures in the Caribbean were gathered for the 33rd session of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), held in Belize on March 1-2. No matter how far away from Europe, events taking place there will have a global impact, and the Caribbean is no exception.

That does not mean that Ukraine was a primary focus of the gathering.

The month of February marks both the birth and passing of Stuart Hall, one of the key architects of cultural studies, explorations on race and the diaspora, and the globalization of culture. We’re facing Republican attacks on multiculturalism, as well as right-wing supremacist zealots across the U.S. foaming at the mouth around the term critical race theory (CRT)—not that they even know what it was or is.

Puerto Rico has recently made headlines for stories that may seem unconnected; they are related, however. The common factor? Puerto Rico’s status as a colony—first under Spanish rule, and now as a “territory” of the United States. 

King Felipe VI of Spain arrived in Puerto Rico on Monday to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the founding of San Juan.

As we mark the anniversary of the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010—a natural disaster from which the island nation has never recovered—Haitians are now confronting more issues that will continue to destabilize them. These shockwaves emanate not from geology, but from the increasingly disastrous realm of politics.

While Jan. 6 is now known as the date of the failed coup attempt in the United States, throughout the Caribbean, in both Spanish- and French-speaking nations, it is the feast of the Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day, Dia de los Reyes, or Le Jour des Rois. Here in the U.S., communities of the Caribbean diaspora celebrate, too. For example, Epiphany kicks off the beginning of Carnival in New Orleans, which ends on Mardi Gras, when folks will be eating king cake.

When winter cold sweeps through parts of the United States, the desire for warmer weather has always sent Americans to places like the Caribbean. Even during this pandemic, U.S. tourists long to go somewhere, no matter the possible risks to their health or to the health of the people who call their holiday destinations home.

Though many tourists arrive by air, pleasure cruising to the Caribbean has a long history.

While applauding Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s announcement of the establishment of a memorial and archive of slavery in Barbados, which was featured in last week’s Caribbean Matters, it got me thinking about right-wing forces here in the U.S. pushing to abolish or whitewash what we learn about our enslavement history.

In a dramatic overnight ceremony and celebration in Barbados, which began Monday, Nov. 29, and continued into Tuesday, Nov. 30, the sun set on Barbados’ status as a colony of the British Empire, with Queen Elizabeth as its titular head of state. Barbados is now a parliamentary republic and though it will retain membership in the commonwealth, after close to 400 years of being a colony, the island will no longer bow to royalty.

Mia Amor Mottley is not a household name here in the United States, though she should be. Since her rise to become the first female prime minister of Barbados in 2018, Mottley has become a voice for her nation, the Caribbean, and countries worldwide facing the global challenges of climate change, COVID-19, economic inequality, colonialism, racism, and militarism.

Caribbean Matters is a new series, launched as part of an effort to increase coverage of events, politics, and cultures of the Caribbean and the Caribbean basin. Read the first installment here.

When I see the Caribbean mentioned in U.S. headlines, it is most often brought up in passing in weather forecasts about storms forming in the Atlantic Ocean and heading towards the mainland U.S., or when there is a natural disaster, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, or last spring’s eruption of the La Soufriere volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

I will never forget the time in 2018 when California Democratic Representative Maxine Waters said “If you shoot me, you better shoot straight,” after repeatedly receiving death threats from the Trump Klan—threats that continue in 2021. No matter the danger to herself, she continues to serve her  district and the nation and will be celebrating her 83rd birthday on Sunday.

Dr. Chris Jones, physicist, nuclear engineer, urban planner, and pastor, has launched his campaign to become the next governor of Arkansas with a powerful ad. He is the second Black man to do so in over 100 years; the first was businessman Josiah Homer Blount, in 1920, and another Black Democratic candidate, Anthony Bland, is formally announcing his run on Wednesday.

It has become a Daily Kos tradition for me to republish this Memorial Day story I wrote in 2016. I have ancestors, Black and white, who fought for the Union during the Civil War. This is posted in their honor. —DOV

A pencil drawing and a grainy photo in the Library of Congress are all that is left of the cemetery where 257 Union soldiers were buried after the Civil War, on what had been a race course in Charleston, South Carolina.

After a 3-year-old boy died this week in Vieques, Puerto Rico, angry residents say the death could have been prevented if the island had a functional hospital.

The Junta, (the islanders’ name for the unelected Fiscal Control Board that governs the island’s finances) has finally decided to authorize $7 million dollars requested by newly elected Gov. Pedro Pierluisi to combat what has been declared a state of emergency.

That state of emergency declaration on gender violence was formally issued by Pierluisi in January, after years of pressure from island activists.

On Wednesday, April 14, the House Committee on Natural Resources, chaired by Arizona Democrat Raúl M. Grijalva, will hold a full committee hearing on two pieces of legislation which take oppositional positions on the future status of Puerto Rico. They are H.R.1522, “To provide for the admission of the State of Puerto Rico into the Union,” and H.R.

Ongoing mainland mainstream media coverage of Puerto Rico, other than dealing with the statehood issue, has been sporadic at its best and abysmal at its worst. You can double the negatives when it comes to Vieques and Culebra, two island municipalities of Puerto Rico.

It takes a pendejo to be drawn to another pendejo. Robert Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods, spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday, Feb. 28, and doubled down on stupid by proclaiming that Donald Trump is “the real, the legitimate, and the still actual president of the United States.

When we celebrate Black History Month, we should also ensure that we don’t erase its ugly underbelly. Watching the television news shows this weekend as a host of Republican white supremacy supporters and insurrectionists got interviewed, and continued to spew lies, I was thinking about this portrait. 

Do you know this family? My guess would be probably you don’t—because so much of Black folks’ history gets erased.

This was a year when a host of musicians transitioned. As we ring out the old year and bring in the new, I’d like to honor some of them who shaped my musical tastes over the years spanning multiple genres.

For those folks who believe in heaven, the choir up above is certainly rocking, the jazz band has St. Peter swingin’, and there are soulful serenades harmonizing with angel’s harps. I like to think about it that way.

Is a new ad posted to Twitter by Kamala Harris an epic 51 seconds of shade in response to the recent nasty diss of Harris by Republican columnist Peggy Noonan?

The Harris-supporting Twitterati seemed to think so, because as soon as the tweet dropped, it was being forwarded to Peggy Noonan, who, in a Wall Street Journal column, described Harris as “giddy,” “insubstantial,” and “frivolous.

There are moments in time that speak to sheer joy. In a world filled with dire upswings in COVID-19, an epic economic crisis, the rise of white supremacy, children in cages, and a lunatic in the White House, we need hope, inspiration, and an uplift for our spirits.

As the number of deaths due to COVID-19 continue to grow on Donald Trump’s watch, and outrage over his culpability escalates, let us not forget that he showed us who he is back in 2017 when he attempted to ignore and minimize the death toll in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria’s devastation of the island. Remember that in 2018, Trump claimed Democrats made up death toll numbers to make him look bad. He even gave himself a “10,” for his response.