SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Former Puerto Rico senator Hector Martinez Maldonado and Juan Bravo Fernandez, the former president of one of the largest private security companies in Puerto Rico, have been convicted of bribery following a four-week trial in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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Beauty isn’t seasonal.

So when you’re planning your summer vacation for 2017, you need to be thinking Caribbean. Because, contrary to the views of some, the Caribbean is just as wonderful a place to visit in the summer as it is the rest of the year.

You’ll find fewer crowds, often significantly better hotel rates and, yes, tropical breezes that will make your stay more than comfortable, with none of the things you love about the Caribbean — the beaches, the rum, the food, changing at all.

Yes, the Caribbean is a full-fledged summer destination, and we have you covered with some of the best islands to visit over the next few months, whether you’re looking for a romantic getaway or a trip with the whole family.

Barbados This is one of the Caribbean’s luxury capitals, but it’s also a place to let your hair down, making it the perfect cocktail for a proper summer getaway. Whether you’re on the island’s rum trail at distilleries like Foursquare and Mount Gay to checking out the squalls in the lovable surf town of Bathsheba, there’s something for everyone on the Caribbean’s easternmost isle. Hotels to Check Out: Colony Club, The House, The Waves, Atlantis Hotel.

The post The Best Caribbean Summer Destinations for 2017 appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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A major new solar energy project has broken ground in Aruba.

The Sunrise Solar Park has gotten a green light for initiation, a project that will become one of the largest solar projects in the Caribbean region.

Sir Richard Branson was on hand for the ceremony, joined by Aruba Prime Minister Mike Eman, Tourism Minister Mike de Meza and President of the Board of Rocky Mountain Institute and Carbon War Room, José María Figueres, among others.

The 5.9 MW project is set on a 990,000-square-foot area in San Nicolas, with a construction time frame of eight months.

“We’re confident that in approximately 8 months the San Nicolas community and the entire island will exhibit a gem of a project,” said Francis Ras, division manager for technical affairs at WEB Aruba. “This groundbreaking is absolutely an historic event, for WEB, for San Nicolas and Aruba.”

“The solar park is going to be something that many of our youth will look up to and also be able to carry this vision for the next generation to come,” de Meza said.

The just under $9 million USD project will help Aruba in its goal of becoming 100 percent reliant on green energy by 2020.

It’s the latest undertaken by WEB Aruba, which is partnering with Spanish company ISOTRON to make the park a reality.

WEB has completed several solar photovoltaic projects on the island in recent years, highlighted by a 3.4 MW solar park at Aruba’s Reina Beatrix Airport.

“We have focused since last year to target the Caribbean zone, due to the potential in terms of solar irradiation and also due to the Aruba’s Government desires to ensure the independence, preservation of the environment and also diversify the energy resources,” said Manuel Ocariz of ISOTRON.

— Caribbean Journal staff

The post New $8.9 Million Solar Project Launches in Aruba appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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BY ALEXANDER BRITELL

The impossibly-white sands of Grace Bay Beach in Providenciales are lined with myriad resorts and hotels, each offering a gateway to one of the world’s greatest stretches of sand.

But one is different.

The Sands at Grace Bay is one of Turks and Caicos’ venerable resorts, an institution of the tourism product on the island. And there’s a reason for that.

The 114-studio-and-suite resort has distilled the art of the beach hideaway, thanks to that remarkable alchemy that turns a great beach into a great beach resort.

This pool is lined with waterfalls and little nooks perfect for relaxation.

There’s a level of overarching calm here you simply won’t find at many other places on the island or the Caribbean; an extremely quiet, almost meditatively relaxed atmosphere that is delivered without pretension or arrogance, a rarity these days.

Here, the formula is simple: spend the morning in your oversized studio or suite; take a lap at one of two pools (the second happily lined with small waterfalls); head for the mini-palapas on Grace Bay and then order some drinks at Hemingway’s, the resort’s on-site restaurant that’s one of Provo’s best beach eateries.

Hemingway’s, a popular spot for guests, locals and travelers on the island, has some of Provo’s best seafood.

While The Sands has long been one of the best places to stay in Turks and Caicos, it’s recently gotten even better, thanks to a $4.5 million resort upgrade project that transformed much of the property, from the rooms to Hemingway’s.

Plainly, this is a special resort — it’s a place offering the true Caribbean vacation experience, the one without noise and crowds and the inauthentic.

Here, it’s all about quiet enjoyment of a beautiful place. And that’s the way it should be.

See more in the video at the top.

The post Why You Need to Visit The Sands at Grace Bay, Turks and Caicos appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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Antigua and Barbuda has launched a major new effort to ramp up foreign direct investment to the twin-island country, specifically in the services sector, according to Investment and Tourism Minister Asot Michael.

The announcement came during Michael’s recent presentation at the opening of Invest Caribbean, a conference aimed at highlighting the advantages of investing in the Citizenship by Investment Program in Antigua and Barbuda.

“As the economy is largely services based, and given the government’s commitment to diversification into sectors which do not compel as intensive brick and mortar investments as does tourism, consideration must also be given to encoding relevant incentives into the investment framework that will attract services investments,” Michael said.

He added that a greater push must be made towards improving the ease of doing business within the twin island state, and that already the government has implemented several regulatory and legislative interventions he said will set it on the path to improved rankings on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index.

The steps taken in this direction include changes to the Customs Control and Management Act, which eliminated the need for importers to produce Certificate of Good Standing; the launch of the ASYCUDA World Manifest module, which permits electronic filing of ship manifests pre-arrival of vessels; and the launch of the Public Access Module by the Land Registry, which encourages further facilitation of the search for land records and relevant ownership information through online platforms.

“Every effort has to be made to explain the genuine purposes of the CIP — to show to those who fear it the benefits that it brings, and to assure those who question it of its integrity and safety,” Michael said.

Michael noted the importance to the overall success of the country’s CIP is the government’s thrust towards continuously safeguarding its integrity and sustainability.

“The CIP is not about ‘selling passports’ as its detractors proclaim. To deserve citizenship and a passport, applicants have to satisfy very high standards of behavior– behavior that is closely examined by professional bodies schooled in investigations that leave no stone unturned,” Michael said. “The reason that this scrutiny is so intense and the investigation so penetrative is precisely because we place the utmost value on our citizenship and passport.”

— Dana Niland, CJ Contributor

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