Several thousand people took to the streets of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti's second largest city and the capital of North department, on Sept. 21 to protest a rise in the cost of basic foods and what they perceived as corruption and nepotism in the government of President Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky") and Prime Minister Laurent Salvador Lamothe. The day of protests was called by various grassroots organizations and local opposition politicians, notably Senator Moïse Jean-Charles of the Unity party of former president René Préval (1996-2001, 2006-2011).

Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has confirmed an oil spill reported by Curaçao authorities on August 17 at the autonomous Dutch territory's Isle refinery, which is operated by the Venezuelan parastatal. PDVSA said Aug. 30 that is has been working with local authorities  to contain the spill. But local environmental organizations charge that PDVSA responded late to the emergency. Peter van Leeuwen, chair of Clean Environment on Curaçao (SMOC), asserted that neither PDVSA nor the territory's government had contingency plans in place for such a disaster, and stated that the island's Jan Kok nature preserve, a critical flamingo habitat, has been impacted. "This is probably the biggest disaster in Curaçao," he said. "The whole area of Jan Kok is black. The birds are black. The crabs are black. The plants are black. Everything is draped in oil." (El Universal, Caracas, Aug. 30; AP, Aug. 27)

The case of a pregnant 16-year-old Dominican with leukemia has reignited controversy over the amended 2010 Constitution's Article 37, which holds "that the right to life is inviolable from conception until death." The anti-abortion amendment was part of a series of constitutional changes pushed by rightwing forces; other amendments in the 2010 document ban same-sex marriage and limit citizenship to people with Dominican parents, in effect leaving many Dominicans of Haitian descent stateless.

Police agents stopped a group of Dominican youths of Haitian descent from marching on Aug. 13 in Monte Plata, in the central province of the same name, to demand that the government respect their rights as citizens. The protesters, members of the youth movement Reconoci.do, were trying to march from the city's central part to the local Civil Status office, the registry for identification documents. According to the group's spokesperson, Ana María Belique, the protesters applied for a permit from the Monte Plata government but were turned down on the grounds that they weren't Dominicans and had no right to demonstrate. When they attempted to march without a permit, a police contingent commanded by a Col. Antígua dispersed them with tear gas, arresting eight protesters. Three of those arrested were beaten by an agent from the robbery unit identified only as "Papo," who told them to hold their demonstrations in "their country."

Residents of the area around the city of Cotuí, the capital of the Dominican Republic's central province of Sánchez Ramírez, held a protest against the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation on Aug. 8, charging that the company's giant Pueblo Viejo gold mine was contaminating drinking water and affecting residents' health and their crops. The residents also complained that the company's trucks had been causing accidents. Pueblo Viejo, constructed on the site of a state-owned mine shut down in 1999, is scheduled to open this month. Barrick Gold is the largest open-pit gold mining company in the world; it maintains 27 mines, in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Tanzania and the US. (Adital, Brazil, Aug. 8, from TeleSUR; Prensa Latina, Aug. 8)

On July 30 Puerto Rican governor Luis Fortuño signed into law a new Penal Code that he and legislators said would counter a recent rise in crime by imposing much stiffer prison sentences for a wide range of crimes. The new law, which replaces the Penal Code of 2004, also defines the seduction of minors through the internet as a criminal offense and gives the government the power to fire any public employee who commits a crime while carrying out a public function. "We're not going to let the criminals take over Puerto Rico," Fortuño said at the signing ceremony.

The Pueblo Viejo gold mine in Cotuí in the Dominican Republic's central province of Sánchez Ramírez is starting operations this August, Jamie Sokalsky, CEO of the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation, told investors on July 26. The new mine, on a site abandoned by the state enterprise Rosario Dominicana in 1999, will produce up to 125,000 ounces of gold this year and reach full capacity during 2013, Sokalsky said.

The first plant in a giant "free trade zone" (FTZ) being built with international aid near Caracol in Haiti’s Northeast department went into operation at the beginning of July, with about 400 workers assembling apparel for a company identified only as "S & H Global S.A." The Parc Industriel de Caracol (Caracol Industrial Park, PIC, previously called the Parc Industriel du Nord) is expected to employ 1,200 workers by the end of the year, and its promoters project that 50,000 Haitians will eventually find jobs there. The main producer at the FTZ will be South Korea's leading apparel manufacturer, Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd.