Guyana

DES MOINES — Officials put the leader of Iowa’s largest school district on administrative leave Saturday, a day after federal immigration agents arrested him because they said he was in the country illegally.

The Des Moines school board voted unanimously to place Supt. Ian Roberts on paid leave. The board said during a three-minute meeting that Roberts was not available to carry out his duties for the 30,000-student district and that officials would reassess his status after getting more information.

After the meeting, school board President Jackie Norris read a statement saying that word of Roberts’ arrest Friday made for a “jarring day,” but noting that board members still didn’t have all the facts.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said agents detained Roberts because he was in the country illegally, didn’t have authorization to work and was subject to a final removal order issued in 2024. ICE agents stopped Roberts while he was driving a school-issued vehicle, and the agency said he then fled into a wooded area before being apprehended with help from Iowa State Patrol officers.

He was held in the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City, in northwest Iowa, about 150 miles from Des Moines.

“I want to be clear, no one here was aware of any citizenship or immigration issues that Dr. Roberts may have been facing,” Norris said. “The accusations ICE had made against Dr. Roberts are very serious, and we are taking them very seriously.”

Norris said Roberts has retained a Des Moines law firm to represent him. Lawyer Alfredo Parrish confirmed his firm was representing Roberts, but declined to comment on his case.

Norris also repeated that the district had done a background check on Roberts before he was hired that didn’t indicate any problems and that he signed a form affirming he was a U.S. citizen. A company that aided in the search for a superintendent in 2023 also hired another firm to conduct “comprehensive criminal, credit and background checks” on Roberts that didn’t indicate any citizenship problems, Norris said.

Also Saturday, the Iowa Department of Education released a statement saying Roberts stated he was a U.S. citizen when he applied for an administrator license. The department said the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners conducted a criminal history check with state and federal authorities before issuing a license.

The department said it is reviewing the Des Moines district’s hiring procedures for ensuring people are authorized to work in the U.S.

Roberts had previously said he was born to immigrant parents from Guyana and spent much of his childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. He competed in the 2000 Olympics in track and field for Guyana.

ICE said he entered the U.S. on a student visa in 1999.

A former senior Guyanese police official on Saturday remembered Roberts as a middle-distance runner who could have risen through the ranks of the South American country’s police force had he not emigrated to the U.S. decades ago. Retired Assistant Guyana Police Force Commissioner Paul Slowe said Roberts entered the police force after graduating from the country’s standard military officers’ course.

“He served for a few years and then left. He was not dismissed or dishonorably discharged at all; he just moved on,” Slowe told the Associated Press. “He was a good, promising and disciplined man.”

McFetridge writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana, contributed to this report.

Centre-left 45-year-old politician gets new mandate to manage the South American nation’s newfound oil wealth.

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali has been re-elected for a second term, according to the country’s electoral body, after a vote that gave his party a mandate to manage the South American nation’s newfound oil riches amid a territorial dispute with Venezuela.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) said in a statement released late on Sunday night that Ali’s People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won the general election, held on September 1, securing 55 percent of the 65-seat parliament.

Ali’s re-election comes after the country of 800,000 people reaped a $7.5bn windfall from oil sales and royalties since ExxonMobil started pumping offshore oil in late 2019, making Guyana one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Ali’s government, which took power in 2020, has funnelled oil revenue into building roads, schools and hospitals, and made studying at the state university free. But he now faces a diplomatic challenge as he navigates the country’s territorial dispute with Venezuela.

Ali had already claimed victory in the elections on Wednesday.

Among the first world leaders who congratulated Ali for his victory was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wrote on X that he is looking forward to strengthening India-Guyana ties.

In remarks on Saturday, Ali replied on X that he also looks forward to working with Modi and India “to further build our already strong and cordial relations”.

In a statement on X, the British Embassy also congratulated Ali and Guyana “for a successful and peaceful election”.

Ali, a 45-year-old centre-left leader, also faces the challenge of ensuring that the benefits of Guyana’s vast oil wealth reach his constituents, more than half of whom still live in poverty despite the nation’s soaring gross domestic product (GDP).

Ali’s main rival, multi-millionaire populist Azruddin Mohamed, nicknamed the “Guyanese Trump”, and his newly formed We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party finished second with 24.8 percent of the vote.

The opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which represents much of the country’s Afro-Guyanese population, came third with 17.7 percent.

Ali, whose party draws much of its support from the Indo-Guyanese community, will assume a second five-year term at a time of rising tensions with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who claims sovereignty over the oil-rich Essequibo region and appointed authorities for that area in controversial elections held in May.

Ali has the support of the United States, which is also fomenting escalating tensions with Venezuela following the deployment of warships in the Caribbean for anti-drug operations.

Maduro has recently said the US military build-up in the Caribbean is aimed at overthrowing his government, and he was ready to “declare a republic in arms” if attacked by US forces.

The dispute over the Essequibo region is centuries old, but it intensified in 2015 after the discovery of enormous oil resources.

Guyana currently has the largest oil reserves per capita in the world, expected to reach production of one million barrels per day by 2030, compared with the current 650,000.

The oil wealth has allowed the state budget to quadruple in five years to $6.7bn in 2025, with a world-beating economic growth of 43.6 percent in 2024.

Guyana appealed to the International Court of Justice in 2018 to ratify an 1899 award that established its current borders, but Venezuela rejects the court’s jurisdiction and asserts the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which establishes the basis for a negotiated settlement.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An unusual request from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about Cuban medical brigades that operate worldwide and provide much needed help has roiled countries in the Caribbean and the Americas.

In a letter obtained by the Associated Press, the commission asks members of the Organization of American States, OAS, for details including whether they have an agreement with Cuba for medical missions, whether those workers have labor and union rights and information about any labor complaints.

“This was an unprecedented move,” said Francesca Emanuele, senior international policy associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “It’s deeply troubling.”

Cuba has more than 22,000 doctors working in more than 50 countries, including in the Caribbean and the Americas, according to its government. A breakdown for the region was not available, but many impoverished nations in the Caribbean rely heavily on those medical professionals.

The commission, an independent body of the OAS, which is heavily funded by the U.S., said it plans to analyze the data collected as well as offer recommendations “given the persistence of reports of rights violations.”

A spokesperson for the commission declined comment, saying the letter is private.

The letter was sent after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions in late February for Cuban or foreign government officials accused of involvement in Cuba’s medical missions, which he called “forced labor.”

“The timing is really suspicious,” Emanuele said, noting that the information requested “falls squarely” within the member states’ sovereign decision-making. “The role of this organization should not be distorted.”

In June, the administration of U.S. President Trump slapped several unidentified officials from Central America with visa restrictions.

A deadline looms

Silence has prevailed since the human rights commission issued its May 24 letter giving OAS member states 30 days to respond.

“I’m awaiting a regional approach,” said Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

He said in a phone interview that he would raise the issue next week during a meeting of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States as chairman.

“There are no human rights issues involved here,” he said, noting that St. Vincent is party to several international and labor conventions. “They have not been breached and will not be breached.”

Gonsalves said Cuban doctors run the sole hemodialysis center in St. Vincent that provides free care to 64 patients at a rate of $5 million a year.

“Without the Cubans, that dialysis center will close,” he said.

When asked if he worried about potential visa restrictions, Gonsalves said he met earlier this year with Rubio and provided a lengthy letter that he declined to share detailing the work of Cuban medical professionals in St. Vincent.

“We didn’t scrimp on any of the details,” he said. “I didn’t walk away from that meeting thinking that there was any possibility or threat of sanctions.”

A divided region

Guyana’s foreign minister, Hugh Todd, told the Associated Press on Friday that the government plans to amend its payment and recruitment system involving Cuban medical professionals.

He said their main concern “is to make sure we are compliant with international labor laws.” Todd did not say whether the planned amendments are related to concerns over U.S. visa restrictions.

Late Thursday, Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said the government wants to ensure that “the conditions of work here don’t run afoul of the requirements set by the United States of America.”

Guyana depends heavily on the U.S. for support, especially given an ongoing and bitter border dispute with neighboring Venezuela.

Some Caribbean leaders have said they would risk losing a U.S. visa, noting that Cuban medical professionals provide much needed help in the region.

“If we cannot reach a sensible agreement on this matter… if the cost of it is the loss of my visa to the U.S., then so be it,” Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley told Parliament in March as legislators pounded a table in support.

No Cuban medical workers are currently in Barbados.

Echoing Mottley’s sentiment was Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley.

“I just came back from California, and if I never go back there again in my life, I will ensure that the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago is known to its people and respected by all,” he said in March.

In April, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel criticized what he described as a campaign against the Caribbean country.

“There is no doubt that that desperate campaign to block Cuban cooperation has two clear objectives: to close off any avenue of income for the country, even in an activity as noble and necessary to other nations as healthcare services,” he said.

“The other reason is political and ideological: They want to sweep Cuba away as an example. And they resort to methods as immoral as threatening any foreign official involved in that activity,” he added.

Rubio has defended visa restrictions, saying they promote accountability.

Coto writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana, and Andrea Rodríguez in Havana contributed to this report.