US conference on the Caribbean

I am really amused by the reaction of Caribbean leaders to the recent US Conference on the Caribbean. The highlight of the three day gathering was undoubtedly the summit with President Bush, all three hours of it, or was it longer? The leaders were outdoing each other with superlatives to describe the success they think it was. Many of them were proud to tell the media that they stood their ground on their relationships with Cuba and Venezuela. According to Dr. Timothy Harris of St.Kitts, the President understood their stance.{{more}} He understood that they are sovereign states. What were we expecting? The fact that Bush was able to sit with them and listened to them had vast meaning to them. But was there enough to get us all excited and carried away? This is not the first summit between a US President and Caribbean Leaders. There was also a lot of excitement a few years ago when a summit was held with President Clinton. What followed did not really live up to the high expectations it generated. Now we have a lame duck President, embattled, low in the opinion polls and having to deal with a Democratic Congress. The Caribbean is not really high on Bush’s list of priorities but it was necessary for him to meet with leaders from the region. The relationship that has developed with Venezuela and Cuba is an embarrassment to him and goes against everything he stands for.

The joint statement issued speaks to matters of security and prosperity in the region, reiterated their commitment to democratic norms and values, the strengthening of existing trade agreements, cooperation in health, science and technology, the usual things one expects to find. Of interest is the president’s pledge to work with Congress to extend and update the Carib Basin Trade Promotion Act and the 1991 Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. President Bush is still President of the USA and still the most powerful man in the world but he is a lame duck President and has to deal with a Congress that has a majority of Democrats. The President is fighting to lift his profile in what we can consider his last months, but the areas that will make or break him are Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East generally. We have always been low on his list of priorities and as yet there is little to show that this will change. Two things that show some promise are the pledge by Thomas Shanman, Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere to visit the region in the coming months and the meeting with Charles Rangel, Chairman of the US House of Ways and Means Committee. Rangel’s visit is probably more important. Shanman like Bush is on his way out. Rangel comes from the party that currently controls Congress and one with whom the President will have to negotiate.

It is of no surprise that the Caribbean’s relationship with Cuba and Venezuela was raised by the President. According to the Kittian Dr. Harris, “The question of our alliance with Cuba and Venezuela arose and President Bush told us frankly, that he is not pleased with our relationships with those two countries as he considers them to be undemocratic and he was morally outraged by their systems of government”. All of that is typically Bush and it is good that Caribbean leaders including our Prime Minister were able to remind him that we are sovereign countries. But even in doing so they found it necessary to go out of their way to explain to Bush the basis of the relationship. President Jagdeo of Guyana spoke of the need for doctors and Cuba’s role in this, also of the cost of fuel and other related matters and assured the President that there was no link between Petro Caribe and support for any foreign policy initiatives.

Prime Minister Gonsalves said that Bush raised the Cuba-Venezuela issue but “not in a contentious manner and not in a manner indicating any dictation in the region.” This might be so and who would have expected Bush to adopt any different approach, but as all of us know, he has an extreme and bitter attitude toward Cuba and Venezuela and what Harris said about him would not have been changed by the Caribbean’s defence of their sovereign rights. But power is what is at play. President Bush is in a quest to undermine the influence of Cuba and Venezuela. Whether this translates itself into any thing of meaning to the region is any one’s guess. All of this is not to say that the meeting with Bush was not significant and meaningful. It is always important to keep the dialogue going and of course there are areas of agreement that are non- threatening. I still believe that the revelation of the so-called JFK plot was timed to demonstrate to the Caribbean leaders that they cannot divorce themselves from issues of terrorism and have to be part of common security arrangements as defined by their powerful neighbour.

Meetings were also held with Nancy Pelosi, Leader of the House of Representatives and with the Black Caucus. Although the media, and the Leaders have naturally paid a great deal of attention to the meeting with Bush, the other engagements should also have been of major importance. The effort to engage with the Caribbean Diaspora is critical even though it is not a unified sector. Allies have to be built in Congress since that body has an important role to play especially as it relates to trade matters. The Caribbean Diaspora is playing an increasingly important part in politics in the US. Not only are they important as voters in some political districts but Caribbean people are playing significant roles as politicians at different levels of government. We have to continue to use them to bring before the public and the political establishment issues that are of concern to the region.

If positive action is to follow last week’s talks, follow up arrangements are going to be critical. Caribbean leaders will have to be pushing the agenda and the meeting to be held with Charles Rangel when he visits the region next month is a good start. It has often been said by analysts that the Caribbean tends to benefit more in the area of trade and economic development from the Republicans than from the Democrats. There is perhaps evidence to support this given their different positions on economic issues. Our links with the Democrats would therefore be of critical importance and we have to ensure that the engagement with the US and the Caribbean is not just a once in a while occasion. We can try to make it an annual affair if that is not asking too much given our level of importance.

But there are other issues at stake particularly while Bush remains President even as lame duck as he is. He is an extreme right wing ideologue with a pathological hatred of Castro and in a Cold War relationship with Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. He knows only power and expects subservience to America which he has convinced himself is divinely ordained to lead the rest of the world. While he remains President our relationship with Cuba and Venezuela will always be a problem because sovereignty means little to him. Remember he has decided what is best for Iraq and the Middle East. The Monroe Doctrine, of course, still has deep meaning for him.