Politics – International World Of Business

Venezuela: Sanctions Actions and Supporting Democracy

Press Room Team — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 16:29:55 +0000

Actions by Nicolas Maduro and his representatives in Venezuela, including the arrest of members of the democratic opposition and the barring of candidates from competing in this year’s presidential election, are inconsistent with the agreements signed in Barbados last October by representatives of Nicolas Maduro and the Unitary Platform.

In support of the Barbados Agreement, the United States issued General License 44, which provides relief to Venezuela’s oil and gas sector. Absent progress between Maduro and his representatives and the opposition Unitary Platform, particularly on allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s election, the United States will not renew the license when it expires on April 18, 2024. Additionally, the United States is revoking General License 43, which authorized transactions involving Minerven – the Venezuelan state-owned gold mining company. U.S. persons will have fourteen days to wind down any transactions that were previously authorized by that license.

The United States remains strongly committed to supporting dialogue between the parties and to the aspirations of the Venezuelan people for a democratic future. We will continue to work with the international community and all peaceful democratic actors across the political spectrum in Venezuela and leverage mechanisms at our disposal to encourage a return to the principles in the Barbados agreement.

The Barbados electoral roadmap agreement remains the most viable mechanism to resolving Venezuela’s longstanding political, economic, and humanitarian crisis and realizing competitive and inclusive elections in Venezuela, but that will require Maduro and his representatives upholding the roadmap’s principles and ensuring that opposition political actors have the right to select their candidates for the 2024 presidential election freely.

China speaks up for peace, justice at BRICS summit on Palestinian-Israeli issue

Press Room Team — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 14:44:31 +0000

BEIJING, Nov. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Leaders of BRICS countries gathered on Tuesday for an extraordinary virtual summit on the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

Speaking at the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for an immediate ceasefire as the first step to realizing lasting peace and security.

Prevent humanitarian disaster

The parties to the conflict must end hostilities and achieve a ceasefire immediately, stop all violence and attacks against civilians, as well as release civilians held captive, Xi underscored.

Humanitarian corridors must be kept secure and unimpeded, and more humanitarian assistance should be provided to the population in Gaza, Xi said.

The collective punishment of people in Gaza in the form of forced transfers or the deprivation of water, electricity and fuel must stop, said Xi.

He urged the international community to act with practical measures to prevent the conflict from spilling over and endangering stability in the Middle East.

To help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, China has provided $2 million of emergency humanitarian assistance through the Palestinian National Authority and United Nations (UN) agencies, and emergency humanitarian supplies worth 15 million yuan ($2.1 million), such as food and medicine, to the Gaza Strip with the help of Egypt.

China will provide more supplies and assistance according to the needs of the people in Gaza, Xi said at the summit.

China’s peace efforts

Since the outbreak of the latest Palestinian-Israeli conflict, China has been working actively to promote peace talks and a ceasefire, Xi said.

As the rotating president of the UN Security Council this month, China has taken active actions to build consensus and push the Security Council to take further meaningful action on the situation in Gaza.

On November 15, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2712, calling for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip “for a sufficient number of days.” The resolution was the first product of the Security Council on Gaza after the conflict escalated on October 7.

A joint delegation of foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia and Palestine, and the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, are on a two-day visit to China, which began on November 20.

The delegation has chosen China as the first leg of a tour to push for an end to hostilities between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

The foreign ministers of Arab and Islamic countries spoke highly of China’s long-standing just position on the question of Palestine and expect China to play a greater role in ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, resolving relevant issues and achieving fairness and justice.

“There can be no sustainable peace and security in the Middle East without a just solution to the question of Palestine,” Xi said on Tuesday.

Authorities from the Region Urge for Transforming and Humanizing Housing, Cities and Territories

Press Room Team — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 00:01:28 +0000

The XXXI General Assembly of the Forum of Ministers and Highest Authorities of Housing and Urbanism of Latin America and the Caribbean – MINURVI concluded today at ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

Ministers and the highest authorities of housing and urbanism of Latin America and the Caribbean – MINURVI urged for transforming and humanizing housing, cities and territories during the closing segment of this regional forum’s XXXI General Assembly, which concluded today at the central headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

In the Santiago Declaration, signed by 17 countries, the authorities committed themselves to ensuring that states play an active role in the implementation of planning and regulatory policies on housing and urbanism, and to promoting inclusive cities, with a gender approach that would address existing inequalities.

Furthermore, the government representatives agreed to promote best practices for capturing and sharing the land value increases arising from public investment, and to carry out public policies that would expand housing finance for sectors with fewer resources.

The regional intergovernmental forum – which promotes the equitable and sustainable development of human settlements, housing and cities – was inaugurated on Monday at ECLAC’s headquarters and brought together senior authorities from 17 countries, along with representatives of United Nations agencies and other intergovernmental organizations. The meeting’s closing session was led by Carlos Montes, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning of Chile.

In the resolution, the countries pledged to foster more sustainable human settlements, taking into account the effects of climate change that impact populations with fewer resources, and to strengthen coordination between local governments, intermediate and civil society.

Finally, the governments committed themselves to contributing to fulfillment of the targets of the 2030 Agenda and the proposals of the New Urban Agenda, as well as to promoting and deepening the Urban and Cities Platform of Latin America and the Caribbean, developed by ECLAC, as a tool for follow-up, exchanging experiences on and monitoring these goals.

The MINURVI Forum is the space for intergovernmental coordination and cooperation among the region’s countries in the area of sustainable development of human settlements.

It is made up of the Ministers of State and other government officials who have authority, in their respective countries, over matters related to housing and the sustainable development of human settlements. This entity was created in 1992 and its first declaration was made in the city of Santiago, Chile.

Measuring the Impact of Gender Quotas on Political Institutions

Press Room Team — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 11:21:48 +0000

Since Argentina adopted the world’s first gender quota for a national legislature in 1991, gender quotas have become the norm for legislative positions in virtually all of Latin America. Women, meanwhile, have gained political visibility. Today, the region holds five of the top ten countries globally in terms of female representation at the national legislative level, with women occupying just over half of the seats in the national parliaments of Cuba and Bolivia and just under half in those of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Mexico.

While gender quotas help redress political underrepresentation on paper, however, they don’t necessarily translate into the enactment of more pro-female agendas or even greater political power for women. Cultural, institutional and other factors, including the placement of women on party lists or the exclusion of women from top committee assignments, can hamper female influence and block female ascendance.

A New Version of an Important Database

Still, as revealed in the new version of the Database of Political Institutions (DPI), women have become far more numerically represented in the region’s legislatures. This can be seen in variables on gender quotas in the DPI, which illuminates broad institutional trends in 180 countries, including more than 100 variables relevant to government capacity.

Today, 121 countries have some form of gender quota at the legislative level, with only 29 of those – mostly in Western Europe — voluntary. The most common form requires a minimum number of female candidates on party ballots, a rule that is in place in 62 countries. This is particularly popular in Africa (18) and in Latin America (17). The most binding quota, which actually reserves seats for women in the national legislature, is in place in a total of 30 countries and particularly popular in Africa, where 15 countries currently employ it.

The Virtues of Gender Quotas

Do quotas work? They DOincrease the numbers of women in office across different political contexts—in various developing countries as well as in more established democracies such as Italy or Sweden. In part as a result of quotas, women now hold more than 30% of legislative seats in Latin America and the Caribbean, just as they do in Europe and North America. Quotas, moreover, can be especially effective when accompanied by mechanisms for implementation, and when they are required rather than voluntary.

At the same time, the downstream effects of quotas on women’s representation in politics are unclear. Research in India, for example, suggests that quotas for village council positions boost female leadership and reduce discrimination and have led to greater investment in things women care about, like water, sanitation, education and health. In Latin America, voters increasingly choose women as mayors and city council members, and women increasingly ascend to the cabinet and presidency (six female presidents since 1990). Legislative quotas — and the greater visibility of women on the national stage — could possibly be helping to erase some of the old prejudices.

Even so, the increases in the number of women holding legislative seats don’t automatically boost women’s political power and influence. A study in Catalonia, shows that even quotas within political parties don’t necessarily translate into real power. And another in Argentina reveals that women must collaborate to overcome barriers blocking them from important appointments and leadership posts in legislative committees. Indeed, while the numerical increase in female representation in Latin American legislatures and the rise to power of female presidents can encourage more women to enter politics and has resulted in some important advances, like the passage of domestic violence legislation, there is much work to be done.

The new gender quota variable in the latest Database of Political Institutions is a good point of departure. It shows not only how quotas differ in form, but also the variations and patterns in the administration of quotas in different regions. These reflect different efforts to make political spaces more inclusive and provide a first step to understanding the effects of these rules in changing the political landscape.

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

Press Room Team — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 00:39:53 +0000

The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political “leaders” like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm. McConnell’s dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from Majority Leader to Minority Leader, and it will only get worse. The Democrats and Chuck Schumer play McConnell like a fiddle—they’ve never had it so good—and they want to keep it that way! We know our America First agenda is a winner, not McConnell’s Beltway First agenda or Biden’s America Last.

In 2020, I received the most votes of any sitting President in history, almost 75,000,000. Every incumbent House Republican won for the first time in decades, and we flipped 15 seats, almost costing Nancy Pelosi her job. Republicans won majorities in at least 59 of the 98 partisan legislative chambers, and the Democrats failed to flip a single legislative chamber from red to blue. And in “Mitch’s Senate,” over the last two election cycles, I single-handedly saved at least 12 Senate seats, more than eight in the 2020 cycle alone—and then came the Georgia disaster, where we should have won both U.S. Senate seats, but McConnell matched the Democrat offer of $2,000 stimulus checks with $600. How does that work? It became the Democrats’ principal advertisement, and a big winner for them it was. McConnell then put himself, one of the most unpopular politicians in the United States, into the advertisements. Many Republicans in Georgia voted Democrat, or just didn’t vote, because of their anguish at their inept Governor, Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and the Republican Party, for not doing its job on Election Integrity during the 2020 Presidential race.

It was a complete election disaster in Georgia, and certain other swing states. McConnell did nothing, and will never do what needs to be done in order to secure a fair and just electoral system into the future. He doesn’t have what it takes, never did, and never will.

My only regret is that McConnell “begged” for my strong support and endorsement before the great people of Kentucky in the 2020 election, and I gave it to him. He went from one point down to 20 points up, and won. How quickly he forgets. Without my endorsement, McConnell would have lost, and lost badly. Now, his numbers are lower than ever before, he is destroying the Republican side of the Senate, and in so doing, seriously hurting our Country.

Likewise, McConnell has no credibility on China because of his family’s substantial Chinese business holdings. He does nothing on this tremendous economic and military threat.

Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again. He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First. We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership.

Prior to the pandemic, we produced the greatest economy and jobs numbers in the history of our Country, and likewise, our economic recovery after Covid was the best in the world. We cut taxes and regulations, rebuilt our military, took care of our Vets, became energy independent, built the wall and stopped the massive inflow of illegals into our Country, and so much more. And now, illegals are pouring in, pipelines are being stopped, taxes will be going up, and we will no longer be energy independent.

This is a big moment for our country, and we cannot let it pass by using third rate “leaders” to dictate our future!

Authorities Recognize the Role of Statistics in the Development of Public Policies for Mitigating the COVID-19

Press Room Team — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:32:52 +0000

Authorities from the national statistical offices of Latin America and the Caribbean recognized today the role of official statistics in the development of public policies for mitigating the effects of the health emergency prompted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) and in the post-pandemic economic reactivation, on the final day of the Nineteenth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The gathering, which was inaugurated on Tuesday, August 25, drew the participation of 39 delegations from ECLAC’s Member States and 11 associate members.

During the meeting, the countries commended national statistical offices and other agencies producing official statistics for the various actions taken to provide continuity in statistical production during the pandemic, and encouraged them to identify innovations and good practices implemented during this period that can be adopted on a permanent basis to strengthen the efficiency of statistical operations and the quality of official statistics.

Furthermore, they underscored the importance of continuing to make progress on the work of disaggregating data by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability and geographic location, or other characteristics, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, so as to leave no one behind.

In the closing ceremony, Juan Daniel Oviedo, Director-General of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) of Colombia, in his capacity as Chair of SCA-ECLAC, highlighted the recent work of statistical offices to provide information at this time of uncertainty and difficulty.

“We have to exert and evaluate how we are going to develop our institutional capacity to act as data stewards, to be able to ensure data governance systems that facilitate information exchange but that above all enable the information we produce to get to subnational levels, and to citizens,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Rolando Ocampo, Director of ECLAC’s Statistics Division, thanked the participating countries and described the meeting as “very enriching.” He also praised the Chair’s role in ensuring the success of the Nineteenth Executive Committee of the SCA.

“The agreements approved today deeply reflect the meaning and importance of the activity that we have been conducting in the statistical arena in recent months,” he affirmed.

In the meeting’s final resolution, unanimously approved by the countries present, the participants warned about how the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the postponement of, among other things, implementation of the 2020 round of population censuses in several countries of Latin America and especially in the Caribbean, as well as about the growing uncertainties regarding the development of census projects.

In that sense, they underscored the importance for the SCA’s member countries, through each government’s efforts, of providing the financial and human resources needed to guarantee the proper conduct of censuses, which are a source of essential information for public policymaking, as well as an indispensable input for the proper implementation of a large number of statistical operations.

In its resolution, the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas also called upon ECLAC’s Member States to develop metrics that would allow for calculating the achievement of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and it recommended that these metrics be considered within national development plans.

At the same time, the countries welcomed the creation of the Regional Knowledge Platform on the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean (SDG Gateway), which was implemented by ECLAC in conjunction with the United Nations agencies, funds and programs in the region and which has the aim of serving as a meeting and reference point for all information related to the SDGs, including activities, informational resources, statistics, regional data, specific analytical instruments and knowledge products developed and made available by the United Nations in response to member countries’ needs.

Finally, the authorities from the region expressed their commitment to addressing the discussions on the production of urban statistics and on the link between statistical production and the challenges of development in transition as part of the SCA’s upcoming activities.

The main mandates of the Statistical Conference of the Americas, a subsidiary body of ECLAC, are to promote the development and improvement of national statistics and their international comparability, as well as international, regional and bilateral cooperation among national statistical offices and international and regional agencies.

The SCA’s Executive Committee is currently presided over by Colombia and made up of Canada, Chile, Grenada, Italy, Jamaica and Mexico.

President Trump Announces Presidential Delegation to the Dominican Republic to Attend the Inauguration of His Excellency Luis Abinader

Press Room Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 15:21:27 +0000

President Donald J. Trump today announced the designation of a Presidential Delegation to the Dominican Republic to attend the Inauguration of His Excellency Luis Abinader on August 16, 2020, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The Honorable Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State, will lead the delegation.

Members of the Presidential Delegation:

The Honorable Robin S. Bernstein, United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic

The Honorable Michael G. Kozak, Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Department of State

How Latin American Political Discourse Is Dominated by the Left

Press Room Team — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:16:02 +0000

We have been living in deceit for the last century. We have been led to believe that humanity has been split into a struggle between the left and the right when the truth is that except the United States, the world has been dominated almost entirely by the international left and its meta-narratives.

Socialism has won and continues to win in different places because its discourse has permeated deeply, and socialists have managed to manipulate the world narrative with their role as victims in a heroic struggle against “malevolent capitalism.” None of this has been by happenstance. Schools of thought, the media, universities, celebrities, intrusion into all the cultural arenas of life, and many interest groups are responsible for this.

The left of today is far from that left that opposed the extreme monarchical powers of late 18th century France. In fact, if I had been born at that time, I would have been of the left because that left was the one that opposed the absolutism of monarchs and aristocracies, the tyrannies, and the conditions of no social leverage that were dominated by what was then called the conservative right.

Today, the roles have been completely reversed. The left wants to dominate each and every aspect of individual life. Its collectivism and absolute domination of all the means of production is not at all different from the monarchies of centuries ago when all power was in the hands of a small group of aristocrats, and all other human beings had to kneel before them without the possibility of progress. Today, the liberal right is proposing that the state’s role should be limited and its powers restricted; the means of production should be democratized through the advancement of private enterprise and the possibilities of development and progress for all individuals. However, the socialist doctrine has persistently imposed itself, and as we have warned, nothing has been by happenstance.

Throughout history, these thought laboratories have even managed to distort collectivist totalitarianism to the right of the ideological equation, further encouraging their discourse as victims. Thus, they turned Hitler’s National Socialism and Mussolini’s fascism into “right-wing” movements when in reality, both were extreme socialists. Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf, established that his movement was aimed at capturing the youth of the extreme left. In fact, according to Hitler, he was the true socialist, and Marx was no more than an instrument of international Jewish capitalism. And Mussolini was a member of the Italian Socialist Party for 15 years before being expelled for calling for participation in the war, which was when he formed the Fascist militias with which he would later confront his former party colleagues.

State Senators From Puerto Rico And The Usvi In D.C. Amidst Hurricane Disaster To Secure Relief And Recovery

Press Room Team — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 15:40:58 +0000

WASHINGTON, DC –Senate Majority Leader Carmelo Rios and Senate Minority Leader Eduardo Bhatia, from Puerto Rico, along with Senator Janette Millin-Young, from the US Virgin State Senators From Puerto Rico And The Usvi In D.C. Amidst Hurricane Disaster To Secure Relief And RecoveryIslands, are all members of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL), which represents the interests of over 400 Latino state legislators from both parties in state capitols across the country.

On September 29th, NHCSL wrote a letter to President Donald Trump asking for a more robust federal response to the disaster relief and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and María. The letter was sent to the White House at 6:42PM that Friday, well after close of business. At exactly 7:37PM, just 55 minutes after the e-mail went out, NHCSL got a response from the White House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

NHCSL’s Executive Director Kenneth Romero had just stepped out of his office. Before he even had time to notice that there was a White House email sitting in his inbox, he received a call on his cellphone from DHS Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary John Barsa to schedule a meeting along with top-level officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), prior to President Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico the following Tuesday.

The next day, Mr. Romero asked DHS if they would agree to bringing a select delegation of elected officials from Puerto Rico to DC, to make the meeting face-to-face and have the senators speak authoritatively on the disaster, with the most current facts on the ground and begin working with the Administration on specific policy recommendations. Once NHCSL got the green light, its staff quickly put together a high-level bipartisan delegation from Puerto Rico. Aware of the devastation in the USVI and knowing that one of their member senators from the Virgin Islands was in San Juan to advocate for more federal resources, NHCSL asked her to join the delegation.

After an ordeal to secure airline tickets for the delegation, on Saturday afternoon, NHCSL emailed schedulers of the Leadership and key Members of Congress to alert them that the delegation would be in Washington, but only for two days. After watching Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin state, on NBC’s Meet the Press, that “the entire administration and the entire cabinet are very much focused on this… working with Secretary Perry on the electrical system,” Mr. Romero quickly realized that, beyond immediate relief, Washington’s focus was on target: energy and the electric grid are the key to the islands’ long-term recovery. So, NHCSL immediately contacted the Secretary of Energy’s office.

Reps. Nydia Velazquez (NY) and Luis Gutierrez (IL) had already expressed an interest to meet with the delegation, but NHCSL knew that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s involvement would be the real game changer. The next morning, at exactly 8:27AM, Senator McConnell’s office reached out to Mr. Romero and informed him that, despite a very full schedule, the Majority Leader could meet with the Senators the next day at 11:00AM.

This is their story.

After days without taking a hot shower, the three Senators arrived on a late-night flight on Sunday. The next morning, they met with Barsa, along with FEMA’s Deputy Director for Intergovernmental Affairs, Robert Nadeau, and its Assistant Administrator for Recovery, Alex Amparo.

Romero told federal officials that “Lt. General Jeffrey Buchanan, who’s in charge of the federal response in Puerto Rico, described the devastation as the worst he’s ever seen. Our message to the federal government is that the worst disaster, requires the best response with the most resources.” Before concluding the meeting, Barsa promised to meet with Senators Rios and Bhatia again in Puerto Rico, immediately upon his arrival to the Island this week. During the meeting, FEMA agreed to extend its claims deadline so that it would not be an issue for victims who cannot access the Internet to file their claims.

Later that day, they were joined by NHCSL President and Pennsylvania State Representative Ángel Cruz, who led the delegation to meet with Congresswoman Velazquez to discuss their four-point plan. “In addition to resources for immediate relief, and on behalf of the 3.5 million American citizens that live in the Islands, we are requesting full funding for reconstruction, parity in Medicaid funding and all federal health care programs for Puerto Rico, and an extension of the 10-day waiver of the Jones Act for at least a year, to facilitate shipping vital goods to Puerto Rico,” said Cruz as requested in NHCSL’s letter to the President. The letter also makes the point that any supplemental spending measure for the recovery effort in the USVI and Puerto Rico needs to include economic development measures for the islands, as the only path to a true recovery.

The next morning, Senator McConnell hosted the delegation in his office. “The key point we conveyed to Senator McConnell is that Congress needs to enact a new Marshall Plan for Puerto Rico. This was not a run of the mill hurricane that requires an average federal response. María’s damage in Puerto Rico and the USVI is only comparable to that of a war zone and needs to be addressed as such. Our delegation brought the perspective from the ground and told them the real necessities our constituents have. I shared with him the situation facing a community in Toa Baja, a city in my district, that lost 290 out of 325 homes. We told him of the need for flexibility in the use of federal funds so that our government does not run out of money and essential services can be met,” said Senator Ríos.

Romero added that “Senator McConnell expressed his personal connection to both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and how important they are to him and to all Americans.” He described the meeting as ‘hopeful’ and stated that Senator McConnell welcomed the delegation “in a manner that only the Senate Majority Leader can pull off, accompanied by three of his key advisers and with no sense of time constraint, even though we knew there was one”.

Once the meeting ended, the delegation rushed to Senator Schumer’s office and met with senior staffers, while they reworked his entire schedule so that the Democratic Leader could meet with the delegation three hours later. Senator Millin Young (USVI), who lost the roof of her home and all her belongings in the storm, said “the American citizens of the US Virgin Islands need a robust federal assistance package from Congress to ensure that our fragile infrastructure is restored and that our people can get the emergency relief assistance they need in the short-term. We had a very productive meeting with Senator Schumer. He heard from us that the conditions on the ground in our islands is desperate and the need for rescue and relief efforts is urgent. Through NHCSL we will continue to follow up so that hand in hand, Puerto Ricans and Virgin Islanders can continue to advocate for the recovery efforts to be conducted in the most thorough and thoughtful way possible.”

From the US Capitol, the delegation sped to the US Department of Energy. They were not able to meet with Secretary Perry, who was in Puerto Rico that day accompanying President Trump. There they held productive conversations with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy Douglas Little and several DOE senior officials. Senator Bhatia, who has spent years focusing on the islands’ energy issues, was encouraged by the meeting. “My colleagues and I conveyed our desire to partner with our federal counterparts so that the relief efforts can help the most vulnerable and worst affected citizens in our jurisdictions. I especially stressed the need for a new energy grid in Puerto Rico. We cannot merely patch up the old and outdated grid. We must have a modern grid with a renewable energy portfolio that is up to 21st Century standards. General Buchanan himself said that there are ‘some parts that we’re going to have to start from scratch.’ Obviously, the electric grid is at the top of that list,” he said.

At Senator Bhatia’s behest, DOE officials agreed that infrastructure in Puerto Rico and the USVI should be rebuilt with state-of-the-art technology, with the priorities being robustness and price, particularly an emphasis on solar energy and microgrids. Regarding the short-term relief phase, DOE expects to make good progress clearing the debris that is interrupting energy distribution by the end of this week. In addition, Assistant Secretary Little committed to offering greater detail and a preliminary plan on all fronts within the week, after he and his staff brief Secretary Perry.

From DOE, they quickly returned to the US Capitol to meet with Senate Assistant Democratic Leader, Dick Durbin, his Chief of Staff, Patrick Souders, and several key staffers. Senator Ríos seized the opportunity to convey that “Puerto Ricans from all over the US mainland and the Island are united in one voice: our government, the federal government, needs to do a better job of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. These are US citizens and it is unacceptable that two weeks after Hurricane María, 95% of Puerto Rico is still without power, 88% of cell sites are down, and 55% of Island residents don’t have drinking water. In the USVI, most of the 55,000 US Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) customers also do not have electricity and two of the three health care facilities there were destroyed.”

The next morning, just before boarding a plane back to Puerto Rico, the delegation met with senior staff from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Office, led by her Chief of Staff, Robert Edmonson, to make sure that both houses were on the same page regarding the required Plan for relief and recovery. Mr. Edmonson underscored Leader Pelosi’s commitment to robust relief and recovery and stressed the need to continue working together with NHCSL and the senators in the upcoming weeks and months.

“At NHCSL, we are proud that, in addition to advocating for important Hispanic issues such as immigration reform, Latina entrepreneurship, apprenticeships and college graduation rates, we could put together this delegation from Puerto Rico and the USVI at this critical time. It is also our responsibility to advocate on their behalf before federal officials and in the media,” concluded NHCSL Executive Director Romero.

Leon County Holiday Closures and Service Changes For Labor Day

Press Room Team — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 15:33:26 +0000

The following holiday closures and service changes will occur in observance of Labor Day.

Closed Monday, September 4
• Leon County offices
• Leon County libraries (main and all branches)
• Leon County community centers
• Leon County Animal Control
• Leon County Solid Waste and Rural Waste Service Centers

Remain Open for the Holiday
• Leon County Parks and Recreation facilities (parks and boat landings)

The LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library System’s main library will close at 6 p.m. on Sunday, September 3. The Leon County Main Library (downtown) will reopen at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, September 5, and branch libraries will reopen at 11 a.m.

The Leon County Solid Management Facility will be closed on Monday, September 4 and re-open on Tuesday, September 5. The Leon County Rural Waste Service Centers will continue normal operating hours. For more information, call the Solid Waste Management Division at (850) 606-1800.

In the event of an animal-related emergency, service is available by calling the Consolidated Dispatch Agency at (850) 606-5800. Leon County Animal Control encourages residents to only use this service to report dangerous or aggressive dogs, sick or injured domestic animals and animal cruelty. Injured wildlife calls will be forwarded to the St. Francis Wildlife Association at (850) 627- 4151.

For more information, please contact Mathieu Cavell, Community and Media Relations, at (850) 606-5300 or cmr@LeonCountyFL.gov .