Caribbean Brief: Jamaica Counting Hurricane Damage, T&T Gets a US List, and Sandals Is Spending Big
March 24, 2026 • 6 min readCaribbean Brief
Regional News
🌴 THE CARIBBEAN DAILY BRIEF 🌴
Your 5-Minute Regional News Digest
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Good morning from across the archipelago, where Jamaica is doing budget math, Trinidad and Tobago just received a very uncomfortable list from Washington, and Sandals is spending $200 million on resorts that a hurricane knocked down.
Also: Caribbean AIDS deaths fell 60%. That’s the rare piece of news that’s just straightforwardly good.
📊 REGIONAL NUMBERS
| Country | Story | Number |
|---|---|---|
| Jamaica | Hurricane Melissa damage | US$8.8 billion (40% of GDP) |
| Jamaica | New taxes being introduced | JA$29.5 billion target |
| Sandals | Jamaica resort reinvestment | US$200 million |
| Caribbean | AIDS-related deaths decline | Down 60% |
| Trinidad | US persons-of-interest list | Received, unnamed |
🇯🇲 JAMAICA: HURRICANE MATH IS UGLY
Finance Minister Fayval Williams is scheduled to open Jamaica’s 2026–2027 budget debate this month, outlining how the government plans to address a gap in the JA$1.4 trillion national budget.
Read More →