The Bahamas

Sheer and Associates has been doing a considerable amount of work in The Bahamas in 2009.  Since the beginning of the year we’ve worked on a number of projects there with Senior Consultant Jerry Forrester.  Jerry, a former FBI Special Agent, served for more than twenty years as Supervisor of the Bureau's Caribbean Liaison Office.  Since retiring from the FBI, he has spent more than a decade in private security and risk management, operating out of The Bahamas and Miami.  Jerry has developed a unique understanding of how different Caribbean governments operate, especially concerning judiciaries and law enforcement.  We look forward to doing more work with Jerry in the region.  Please contact us if you have any investigative, security or government relations consulting needs in The Bahamas or the Caribbean Basin at large.

According to the State Department:  “The Bahamas is a developed, English-speaking Caribbean nation composed of hundreds of islands covering a territory approximately the size of California.  Tourism and financial services comprise the two largest sectors of the economy.  Independent from the United Kingdom since 1973, The Bahamas is a Commonwealth nation with more than a century-old democratic tradition.  The capital, Nassau, is located on New Providence Island.”

The Bahamas is very close, geographically, to the US.  The distance from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Nassau is a little more than 180 miles.  However there are many islands that lie much closer to the US.  For example, the Bahamian island of Bimini is only 61 miles from Fort Lauderdale.

The State Department has issued no recent travel advisories or travel warnings for The Bahamas.  Though the department does caution visitors about the nation’s high crime rate.  Jerry Forrester agrees with the State Department’s assessment, saying that street crime in The Bahamas is at an all time high. 

For more information about The Bahamas visit the US Embassy website.  The State Department Inspector General conducted a limited scope audit of the Embassy in 2007 and published its report in 2008.

Finally, The Bahamas’ tourism site also has a good deal of useful information for anyone planning on visiting.

Miami Herald's Coverage of the Americas

The Miami Herald, not surprisingly, has good coverage of the Americas, although it’s a little heavy, understandably, on Cuba and Haiti. This Sunday most of the news however is about Honduras and its elections.  Here are some highlights of what you’ll find in the Herald's Americas section on November 29: 

LATEST NEWS

Ex-rebel likely to be Uruguay presidential winner 

Honduras hopes to move past coup with election 

Venezuela turns to cloud-seeding to battle drought 



Raul Castro praises Cuban army as well prepared 


Lima apologizes to Afro-Peruvians for abuses

Political Coverage in The Economist

One thing we're struck by here at Sheer and Associates is how difficult it is to find good coverage of politics in the Americas here in the US.  The Economist does a very good job of keeping us up-to-date on what's going on in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.  Each week, we'll post their political news digests.  The Economist's website, www.economist.com, is accessible by subscription only.

Here are the items from the November 21st edition:

Repositioning

The two sides in the political stand-off in Honduras moved further apart. Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president, said he would not accept any deal to restore him to office if this happened after an election due on November 29th. But the head of the country’s Congress said it would not vote on whether or not to reinstate Mr Zelaya until December.

Peru’s president, Alan García, cancelled a meeting with his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, after his government said it had arrested one of its own air force subalterns on suspicion of spying for Chile. The two countries are at odds over their maritime boundary.

Brazil’s Supreme Court found that Cesare Battisti, a former member of a far-left group, could be extradited to Italy where he was convicted of murder. But the court said the final decision lay with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who last year granted him refugee status.

The Dominican Republic

One of the things Sheer and Associates is going to use this blog for is to take a look at the some of the areas of the world where we offer services.

We’re going to start with the Dominican Republic.  We’ve done a fair amount of work there over the last few years, most of it due diligence for Las Vegas-based gaming concerns that want to do business there.  Sheer and Associates has an investigator based in the capital, Santo Domingo.  Thomas Sheer is well acquainted with the country, having spearheaded a number of charitable projects there during his years with the Knights of Malta.

The Dominican Republic (DR) covers the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.  It shares the island with Haiti; Hispaniola lies roughly 70 miles west of Puerto Rico.  The Dominican Republic is the second-largest Caribbean country after Cuba by population and area.  Santo Domingo is located on the south coast of the island.  The DR is a popular tourist destination and facilities there vary according to price and location.  Spanish is the official language.  Though English is widely spoken in major cities and tourist areas, it is much less common outside these areas.  There is a large Dominican population in the United States; in the last census 1.6 million people identified themselves as Dominican.  Most immigrants from the DR to the US settle in the Northeast, with half of those living in New York City.

The State Department has issued no travel warnings for the Dominican Republic.  Click:  http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1103.html for the latest on Department Travel Warnings.

The State Department does however warn about street crime there, saying it is especially a problem for tourists.  For more on crime in the DR click:  http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1103.html#crime .  The State Department also cautions visitors to the Dominican Republic against overland travel to neighboring Haiti.

For more information on the Dominican Republic, please visit the US Embassy website:  http://santodomingo.usembassy.gov/.  For an interesting look at the inner workings of the embassy read the State Department’s Inspector General’s report:  http://oig.state.gov/lbry/reporthighlights/54105.htm.  For tourism information visit the official Dominican tourism website:  http://www.godominicanrepublic.com/.