Cayman Islands
During his voyage to the Caribbean in 1503, Columbus
reached the Cayman Islands, which he christened "Las
Tortugas" (turtles) due to the presence of many turtles
on the islands. The archipelago consists of Gran Cayman,
Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, and is surrounded by
coral reefs.
A short time later the islands came into French
possession, or rather the French pirates' possession,
which a historian painterly called "the fathers of
French colonialism in the West Indies". Without
exaggeration, it can be found that the Cayman Islands
were the most important base of the southern pirates in
the Caribbean for most of the 17th century.
The first permanent colonial settlement was
established on the island of Gran Cayman, and the
majority of its residents came from Jamaica. It was not
until 1833 that the residents began to take an interest
in the other two islands. The conflicts between the
European powers also affected the Caribbean and
especially the Cayman Islands. As Jamaica was therefore
entrusted with the British crown under the Madrid Treaty
in 1670, it was decided that Cayman should be part of
Jamaica. This dependency relationship was maintained
until 1959, when the archipelago became an independent
British territory.
In 1972, a new constitution came into force, which
conferred local autonomy on the islands. The governor is
appointed by the British Crown and is responsible for
defense, foreign relations, internal security and some
social arrangements. There is also a local government
and 12 members of the Legislative Assembly.
The Cayman Islands only have few natural resources,
besides the beaches and the sea which are highly valued
by the tourists. Besides the breeding of turtles, local
industry and agriculture meet only the domestic needs.
Cayman's residents are skilled sailors, and the country
has an important source of income in the money the
sailors send home.
Tax exemption has resulted in a large number of banks
and management companies setting up offices in the
country. In 1987, 515 banks were registered in the
Cayman Islands which is a country located in Central
America According to
Countryaah.
A quarter of the economically active population works
in tourism. The archipelago's hotels have a total of
5,200 beds. The increase in the number of visitors has
attracted a significant emigration, which in 1988 made
up 35% of the population. In 1989, the archipelago was
visited by 618,000 tourists. On the other hand, the
fishing industry suffered a severe setback this decade,
which it has not yet recovered from. In the islands,
turtles have begun to breed instead of capturing them
before.
The Cayman Islands are firmly on the agenda of the UN
Decolonization Commission, which protects the peoples'
right to self-determination and independence.
Nevertheless, there is no stronger demand for changes in
the agreements with the British krone in the country.
When the Malvinas War broke out in 1982, the islands
contributed $ 1 million to finance Britain's war on
Argentina.
In August 1991, McKeeva established Bush as an
adjunct member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
- the first political party in the country in decades.
The DPP wants changes to the country's legal status. It
is currently considered as dependent territory of the
United Kingdom. DPP is working for a change to the
Constitution that will entail:
- a multi-party system is created
- increase in the number of government members
- the introduction of a prime ministerial post
- increase in the number of members of the
legislative assembly to 15
- the governor gets the title of president of the
extended government
The BCCI banking scandal in 1991 highlighted the
conditions of banking and financial speculation from the
islands. In the same year, 5 countries initiated efforts
to close the BCCI due to the bank's systematic fraud
activities. The bank's two main offices in Luxembourg
and the Cayman Islands were subject to tax exemption and
an extensive banking secret.
In January 1996, a major Mexican drug dealer was
arrested. He controlled the third most important supply
channel for cocaine for the United States. The arrest
revealed the banks in Cayman's participation in the
laundering of drug dollars from Texas during their
journey to banks in Switzerland.
In 1997, the government was forced to abandon the
printing of additional taxes otherwise budgeted. This
was due to strong pressure from public opinion.
In January 1998, the government denied 910 gay
tourists - predominantly from the United States - from
boarding their cruise ship. The rationale was that they
"did not meet the necessary conditions for conduct". The
British Government understood that it did not share this
"discriminatory" practice.
On May 5, 1999, 47-year-old Peter Smith took over as
governor.
In June 2000, Cayman was put by the OECD on the black
list of countries that do not do enough to prevent money
laundering. The country was only removed a year later
when it had tightened its control over financial flows
in and out of the country.
In February 2002, it was discovered that the North
American energy group Enron used about 700 companies
registered in Cayman to avoid paying taxes to the United
States federal government. In April, the Cayman
government signed an agreement with the United States on
the exchange of tax information, with a view to
unveiling the tax-dodging North American businesses.
In 2003, Cayman was embroiled in the Italian Parmalat
scandal, which was missing $ 4 billion. euro in its
accounting. It became the biggest financial scandal in
Cayman this year. Bank of America declared a Parmalat
document false. The document claimed there were $ 3.95
billion US $ on an account of Bonlat Financing Corp
registered in Cayman.
In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan hit Cayman Island
hard before continuing toward Cuba. The hurricane was a
category 4 hurricane and extremely dangerous. It cut off
the water and electricity supply on large parts of the
island, and the stores were subsequently closed.
The hurricane also caused the parliamentary elections
to be postponed to May 2005. By this, the opposition
party got the Progressive People's Movement (PPM) 9 out
of 15 seats in parliament, the government party 5 and
the last seat fell to an independent candidate. Three
out of five sitting ministers lose their seats in
parliament. The ruling party suffered its staggering
defeat after waging a highly personal-oriented election
campaign, rather than focusing on the issues the people
were interested in: security, the economy and education.
PPM chairman, Kurt Tibbetts, was appointed as the head
of government.
In July 2007, Head of Government Kurt Tibbets
published the results of a study of the former
government's financial activities. Acc. Tibbets required
some of the previous administration's agreements and
contracts to be investigated by the legal authorities.
The Cayman Islands have continued to be tax havens,
and in May 2009, US President Barack Obama specifically
referred to the island as a tax haven and that the
United States would work to get that kind of closure.
Also in May 2009, a referendum was passed that
adopted a new constitution that gave the island more
extensive self-government in relation to Britain. The
November parliamentary election was won by the
opposition whose leader, McKeeva Bush took over as prime
minister.
The UDP government fell in December 2012 when it lost
a vote of confidence. A new interim government was
formed consisting of UDP members and UDP outbreakers who
had formed the Peoples National Alliance (PNA). In the
May 2013 parliamentary elections, the UDP suffered a
staggering defeat, declining from 9 to 3, while Peoples
Progressive Movement (PPM) rose from 5 to 9. Therefore,
PPM could form a new government with its leader Alden
McLaughlin as prime minister. Former Prime Minister
Julianna O'Connor-Connolly used the election to change
party to the new government party, which gained a
majority.
Cayman remains one of the world's most important
financial centers, whose primary purpose is to act as a
tax haven and as a center for money laundering from
criminal operations. Cayman is only surpassed by
Switzerland. |
