GUYANA – As Guyanese and independent global organizations continue to call on government to implement a ring-fencing provision, to allow the country to enjoy the early proceeds from the petroleum sector, the former President and Prime Minister of Guyana, Samuel Hinds has said that the lack of this key clause works in favor of the nation. Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States in a letter to the editor Kaieteur News continued the conversation on an article that was published by the newspaper indicating that Guyana should have received US$10B (Guyanese Dollars) to date but has only received US$4.4B.

Hinds said he believes that the additional money Guyana should have received was affected by taxes and ring-fencing. After explaining that governments usually accept royalty and profit payments in the place of taxes, he shifted his attention to ring-fencing. Ring-fencing in the petroleum sector would simply require each project to pay its own development costs. Guyana did not implement such a provision, leaving Exxon to use the revenues from projects producing oil to invest in other developments. In this manner, the proceeds available as profits are significantly reduced.

Hinds is adamant that this current arrangement not only works in favor of the oil companies, but the government of Guyana as well. The former President wrote: “One should also note that the lack of ring fencing (if ring fencing was unilaterally enforceable) facilitates further rapid exploration and development of the field. Yes, it may be argued that it is like us financing further and faster exploration and development of the Stabroek block.  That benefits Exxon and benefits us too.” With oil prices likely to drop in the future as the world transitions to cleaner energy sources, Guyanese have been relentless in urging government to ring-fence the projects for Guyana to see the flow of greater deposits into the Natural Resource Fund or the oil account.

Ambassador Hinds however explained that: “As long as there is a certain level of continuing discovery and development, today’s foregone payments would in time be received by us. True, there is the issue of “delayed” payments and the time value of money. Certainly, these considerations quickly become complex and complicated – where lawyers and accountants make their money; but after all of that, a judgement has to be made on what would turn out better for us.” (Kaieteur News)

Photo: Former President, Prime Minister and Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States, Samuel Hinds. (Kaieteur News)  

MEXICO CITY – The decapitated bodies of five men have been found on a road in central Mexico, in an area controlled by the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Police were called to a road near the town of Ojuelos, in Jalisco state, on Sunday morning, after plastic bags containing the remains were spotted by drivers.

Forensic experts have been trying to identify the victims, officials said. The brutality of the murders and the disposal of the bodies in a public place are clear indications of drug cartel involvement.

National guard troops also attended the scene and found the remains wrapped in black plastic bags, the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office said in a statement. None of the victims’ ages could be determined yet and an investigation has been launched, it added.

In Jalisco this year, official figures show that 1,415 people were murdered between January and September. More than 30,000 people are killed every year in Mexico, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates. Last week, the mayor of a Mexican city plagued by drug violence was murdered less than a week after taking office.

Alejandro Arcos was killed in Chilpancingo, a city of around 280,000 people in the southwestern state of Guerrero. President Claudia Sheinbaum, who was sworn in last week, has ruled out a return to the war on drugs of previous administrations. She said her security plan would focus on gathering intelligence on cartels and addressing the social causes of violence – a strategy referred to as “hugs not bullets” by her predecessor in office, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

But the opposition is calling for tougher action against the gangs.

Since the government first began to use the Mexican military against the cartels in 2006, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and tens of thousands more gone missing. (BBC)

Photo: Mexican army soldiers stand guard in Jalisco. (Getty Images) …[+]

GAZA  –  An Israeli attack on a school used to shelter displaced Palestinians has killed at least 22 people, including 15 children, in central Gaza, officials say.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency said the site in Nuseirat camp was struck by a volley of artillery on Sunday, killing entire families and wounding dozens more. The Israel Defence Forces said it was looking into the reports.

Earlier, five children were reportedly killed by a drone strike while playing on a street corner in northern Gaza. A civil defence spokesman said the attack on al-Mufti school, where hundreds of displaced people from around Gaza were sheltering, had injured at least 80 people and more than a dozen were killed.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said the school-turned-shelter was meant to be used to administer polio vaccines. Monday’s rollout is the second stage in the UN’s polio campaign in central Gaza, which is where most residents are now living and where the first case of polio in two decades was recently discovered in an unvaccinated baby.

In a separate Israeli strike, four people were killed and dozens more injured at the al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza. Israel said it carried out a “precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a command and control centre” inside a site previously used as a hospital.

The main areas of conflict in Gaza in recent days have been in the north, where Israeli forces have been intensifying attacks for over a week as part of a major ground operation. Hundreds have since been killed, Gazan authorities have reported.

Residents of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya have reported being cut off from nearby Gaza City, while Israeli tanks have been seen on the outskirts of the territory’s largest city. Hospitals in the area are running out of supplies, although the World Health Organization said a joint operation with the Red Cross had resupplied two of them -after nine days of attempts.

The five children in northern Gaza were reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike while playing on a street corner in al-Shati camp. Graphic images from the scene in the aftermath show the bloodied bodies of what appeared to be young teenage boys. One of them looked to be clutching several glass marbles in his hand.

According to a report from the scene, told to a BBC correspondent, a drone strike hit a person walking down the street, which killed the children and injured seven other people. Later images showed the bodies of the five boys wrapped in white shrouds and laid out on the floor side-by-side. (BBC)

Photo: An injured Palestinian. (Getty Images) …[+]