Venezuelan authorities detained the acting president of Citgo

ORANJESTAD – A soon to be installed government work group must find ways to correct the current Dutch language dilema Aruba students currently face when taking their final high school exams. A recent article published in the Dutch newspaper Amigoe, illustrated the inconveniente realities Aruba students face when taking their finals. The writer, Dutch teacher Arnoud Kuijpers, gave his personal account on his one-year experience teaching in Aruba. He noticed that Aruban students face an almost impossible uphill battle during exams. “All these exams are made in the Netherlands, refer to Dutch issues, not Aruba issues” Kuijpers said Monday morning during a press conference. He referred to his recent article, and called the situation ‘unfair’. These students only speak Dutch when in his class, and nowhere else. The Dutch language therefore is a ‘dead’ language’, the teacher stated. 

DEN HAAG – In a prelude to the IPKO meetings this week in the Netherlands, the island delegations of Aruba, Curacao and St Martin met Monday morning to discuss the issues at hand. The dispute resolution, constitutional court, education and the Venezuelan volatile situation were amongst discussed topics.

ORANJESTAD – Financial irregularities discovered in the daily handling of the popular educational work program ‘Enseñansa pa Empleo’ had the minister responsible for the department, Rudy Lampe, revoke all signing privileges for the current director and its members. An investigacion by the Central Accounting Department brought the irregularities to light. “I will personally be in charge of this department until further notice” Lampe told press members during a Monday morning press conference. The extend of the financial irregularities were not disclosed.

ORANJESTAD – The criminal case where a former Aruba Labor minister Paul Croes is the main suspect, took shape Wednesday morning in an Aruban court. The fact that is was merely a procedural case, did not make it less popular. And it was obvious, as this was the first indication of what was to be expected of the case and more important, the legal future of the former minister. A procedural case is where all parties come together and fine tune pending issues, tie up loose ends, and set a date for the case to be treated.

ORANJESTAD – The Aruba government wants the Caribbean based DUCAPRO to ‘hold on’ on the june 1st introduction of royalties payments by local radiostations. Aruba justice minister Andin Bikker and Aruba Finance minister Xiomara Ruiz Maduro suggested the change and also considered the Ducapro move as ‘not elegant and rather intimidating’. Ducapro, the Caribbean affiliated royalties company acting on behalf of Canadian SoCan, plans to charge local Aruba radiostations royalties for music played. Radiostations protested against the idea, and where one even threatened to change its format into a ‘talk radio’. Both ministers plan to approach local attorney David Kock, the local DucaPro liaison, and ask for several clarifications. They meanwhile want Kock to hold on with the introduction next month.  

ORANJESTAD - “ The Dutch Kingdom will evaluate the Venezuela election outcome, and decide then if they will recognize it or not”. This was the first reaction of the Aruba prime minister Evelyn Wever to NoticiaCla on the recent Venezuelan presidential election results. She merely mirrored the Dutch oficial reaction as foreign relations is a Kingdom issue, and is treated as such. Wever also confirmed that if investigations reveal election irregularities, the Dutch Kingdom would not recognize the results. On a more local level, Wever said that the Venezuela and Aruba are close neighbors and are far too important, for which she’d rather stay out of the internal Venezuelan affairs.