Netherlands Antilles and Aruba
The Netherlands Antilles and Aruba consists of six islands in two widely separated groups located in the Caribbean Sea. All six islands are well-known to North Americans and Europeans as tourist destinations. Although internally self-governing, all are officially subdivisions of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands Antilles consists of Curacao, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius. Aruba obtained full internal governmental autonomy when it separated from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986.
Curaçao, Bonaire, and neighboring Aruba are located in the southern Caribbean, near the northwestern coast of Venezuela, outside the Caribbean hurricane zone. Sint Maarten occupies the southern part of the island called St. Martin in English—the other part of the island is St. Martin, a French territory. Saint Maarten and its tiny neighbors, Saba and Sint Eustatius, are located in the eastern Caribbean, due east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
(MAP BY MARYLAND CARTOGRAPHICS/THE GALE GROUP)The five islands of the Netherlands Antilles have a total area of 940 square kilometers (363 square miles; five times the area of Washington, D.C.) and a total population of 218,126 in July 2004. A majority of the population of the five islands lives on Curaçao. Aruba, a flat sandy island known for its brilliant white beaches, has a total area of 193 square kilometers (75 square miles; about the size of Washington, D.C.) and a July 2004 population of 71,218. The islands of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are heavily dependent on tourism, but because of their proximity to Venezuela, the economies of Curaçao and Bonaire also have components dedicated to the oil service industries. The per capita income of the Netherlands Antilles in 2003 was estimated at $11,400. The per capita income of Aruba, estimated at $28,000 in 2002, was considerably higher.
Because the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are officially parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, that nation is responsible for their external security and diplomatic relations and its Queen Beatrix (b. 1938), represented by appointed governors-general, is their official chief of state. Internally, the government of the Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy with a twenty-two seat legislature with at least one seat allocated to each constituent island. Prime Minister Etienne Ys (b. 1962), who was serving in early 2005, headed a coalition government formed in June 2004. Sint Maarten voted to become a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2000, but, as of the early twenty-first century, this had not happened.
Aruba is a parliamentary democracy with a twenty-one seat legislature. Its chief of government, Prime Minister Nelson O. Oduber (b. 1947), was elected on October 30, 2001 for a four-year term. Its judiciary consists of a Joint High Court of Justice, appointed by the queen.
The judicial systems of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba consist of courts of first instance located in the capitals of Curaçao and Aruba. The Curaçao court has jurisdiction over the other four islands of the Netherlands Antilles. A joint court of appeal hears appeals from the courts of first instance of both the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. Appeals from this court may be taken to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.
Caribbean Region.
Bibliography
"Aruba." CIA World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2005. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicat ions/factbook/geos/aa.html>.
"Aruba." In Nations of the World: A Political, Economic & Business Handbook, 5th ed. Millerton, NY: Grey House Publishing, 2004.
Munneke, H. J., and A. J. Dekker. "Netherlands Antilles and Aruba." In Legal Systems of the World: A Political, Social, and Cultural Encyclopedia (Vol. 3, pp. 1122–1127), ed. Herbert M. Kritzer. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002.
"Netherlands Antilles." CIA World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2004. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicat ions/factbook/geos/nt.html>.
"Netherlands Antilles." In Nations of the World 2005 (pp. 1077–1080). 5th ed. Millerton, NY: Grey House Publishing, 2004.
This is the complete article, containing 618 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
