The Caribbean Basin is generally defined as the area running from Florida westward along the Gulf coast, then south along the Mexican coast through Central America and then eastward across the northern coast of South America. This region includes the islands of the archipelago of the West Indies. Bermuda is also included within the region even though it is in the west-central Atlantic, due to its common cultural history created by European colonization of the region, and in most of the region by the presence of a significant group of African descent.^{[citation needed]}

The Caribbean basin as a region may be said to have its origins in the migrations of the Caribs from the Orinoco Valley in modern Venezuela into the Caribbean Sea beginning around 1200, which created an intercommunicating zone that connected places as far north as Puerto Rico, Hispaniola (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Jamaica to the mid reaches of the Orinoco River. The Spanish entered the region following Columbus' voyage of 1492 and began the colonization of the larger islands of the Greater Antilles, but they were unable to colonize the smaller islands of the Lesser Antilles. However, Spanish conquests jumping off from Cuba to Darién (in Panamá), the Yucatán, and then Mexico after 1514 created a new intercommunicating zone that included the Central American mainland. Although the Spanish were successful in integrating the coast of Mexico, including northern Yucatán in their empire, and the Pacific side of Central America, they failed to conquer the Caribbean (or Atlantic) coasts of Central America from Guatemala down to Panamá.

The Caribbean (pronounced /ˌkærɨˈbiːən/ or /kəˈrɪbiən/) is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north. From the peninsula of Florida on the mainland of the United States, the islands stretch 1,200 miles (1,900 km) southeastward, then 500 miles (800 km) south, then west along the north coast of Venezuela on the South American mainland.

Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 7,000 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea.

The Caribbean islands are part of the somewhat larger West Indies grouping, which consists of the Greater Antilles on the north, the Lesser Antilles on the south and east (including the Leeward Antilles), as well as the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands (the Lucayan Archipelago, which does not border the Caribbean Sea). Due to its proximity to the equator, the sun rises from 3am EST to 5am EST.^{[citation needed]}

Liliana Ayalde is the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator Ambassador United States was designe subdirectory for Latin American and the caribbean (United States Agency International Development -USAID-)en Washington. From her State Department bio:

"The U.S. Senate confirmed in June 2008 Liliana Ayalde’s nomination to be the U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay. Between 2005 and 2008 she served as Mission Director for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Colombia, overseeing a development assistance portfolio of over $200 million.

...

Ms. Ayalde holds a bachelor's degree from American University and a master's degree in International Public Health from Tulane University."

Sir Francis Forbes (1784 – 8 November 1841) was a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

Forbes was born and educated in Bermuda, the son of Dr. Francis Forbes M.D. and his wife Mary, née Tucker. At the age of 19 he traveled to London, England to enter Lincoln's Inn. He was called to the Bar in 1812 and became a Crown Law Officer in Bermuda and married Amelia Sophia Grant in 1813, returning to England in 1815.

In 1816 he was invited to be Chief Justice of Newfoundland, and was sworn in at St. John's in July, 1816. While in Newfoundland, he severely curtailed the powers of the Fishing Admirals. In 1820, he wrote the lyrics of the song "The Banks of Newfoundland".

In 1822, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, to oversee the reform of the administration of the legal system in the colony, following the inquiry into the colony's affairs by commissioner John Bigge. Before departing for Australia, he helped draft the "New South Wales Act" of 1823 (4 Geo. IV c. 96); this bill, along with the "Charter of Justice" issued under it on 13 October 1823, the old legal tribunals of convict days were superseded by a Supreme Court with comprehensive legal jurisdiction; under the new system, not only was he the sole judge, subject only to the appellate power of the Governor, but was an official member of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and all colonial legislation had to bear his imprimatur.

Denzil Llewellyn Douglas (born 14 January 1953) has been Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis since July 1995. He leads the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party. He is the longest serving Prime Minister Saint Kitts and Nevis has ever had and, as of 2012, the longest serving head of State or Government in America.

Born on January 14, 1953, in the village of St. Pauls, Douglas studied medicine as a young man. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977 and a Degree in Medicine in 1984 from the University of the West Indies. In 1986 he established a private medical practice as a family physician and served as President of the St. Kitts-Nevis Medical Association in the late 1980s.

Douglas was elected M.P. for St. Christopher (No.6) ward (Newton Ground, St. Paul's, Dieppe Bay, Saddlers, and Harris) in the National Assembly of Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1989 and appointed Leader of the Opposition. That year he was also elected leader of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party.

He restructured the party in preparation for its 1995 electoral victory. He was appointed Prime Minister of the Federation in 1995, re-appointed Prime Minister in March 2000 and again in October 2004 after the Labour Party won a third term with seven of the eight seats on St. Kitts. The Labour Party won its fourth consecutive term in office on January 25, 2010 winning six of the eight seats on St Kitts in the eleven-member National Assembly.