-Caricom urges Obama
At a historic gathering in Cuba, Caricom leaders yesterday called for the lifting of a decades-old US economic embargo on Havana, piling early pressure on President-elect Barack Obama.
Meeting in the city of Santiago de Cuba, the Caricom leaders including Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo, also called for greater accommodation for vulnerable small states in the international framework for managing debt.
Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of Caricom and Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer delivered the charge as the third Caricom-Cuba Summit opened in the Cuban city.
“As vulnerable small states, the countries of the Caribbean Commu-nity are calling for orienting the international financial framework for managing debt towards greater accommodation of economies susceptible to external shocks and dislocations especially small vulnerable economies that are classified as Highly Indebted Middle Income Countries”, he stated in the presence of his host President Raul Castro. He added that Caricom is confident of Cuba’s support in this regard.
Meantime, Spencer, noting the changes in the international system said that it is the view of Caricom that there is need for systemic changes in the global financial system including greater democratization and regulation of those institutions. He declared that the United Nations must be given primacy over global economic management matters. “There is also need to consider moving to a genuine international reserve currency system and away from dependence on national currencies in which to hold country reserves”, he asserted in the backdrop of the stunning crisis which has gripped the global financial system.
Spencer noted that yesterday was the anniversary of the ground-breaking establishment of diplomatic ties between Cuba and several Caricom countries including Guyana. Spencer pointed out that since the 1970’s the world had changed and he reiterated Caricom’s call for the ending of the economic, commercial and financial United States embargo against Cuba.
“The Caribbean Community hopes that the transformational change which is underway in the United States will finally regulate that measure to history”, a clear reference to Obama’s victory in the US elections.
The Prime Minister also said that it had been hoped that the Doha Development round of multi-lateral trade negotiations would have been resumed and agreements that would have benefitted small and vulnerable states concretized. He declared that what progress the countries had made in social development is likely to be jeopardized and even reversed by current developments in the international arena, noting that the Doha negotiations are yet to be completed. He also referred to other challenges including the global financial crisis and climate change.
First non-national
Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon Cuba’s former President and strongman, Fidel Castro was conferred with the Honorary Order of the Caribbean Community. In bestowing the award, Spencer said that the Order is the highest award which can be bestowed by Caricom and is one that very few possess as it is conferred only on those who have served the Caribbean Community with distinction and whose contribution to the region has been exceptional.
“These qualities have been exemplified by our friend and brother, Fidel Castro, who is the first non-national of the Caribbean Community to whom this award is granted”, the Prime Minister stated. He noted that over the years Castro cultivated and nurtured a strong relationship with Caricom pointing to the provision of medical aid, scholarships, training programmes and technical cooperation projects in a wide range of areas.
Guyana is in the midst of a programme with Cuba in which hundreds of local students are being trained in medicine, engineering and other fields. Cuba is also treating hundreds of patients for eye ailments.
Raul Castro told the Caricom leaders, according to Reuters, “These projects… are not based on the rules of neoliberalism, which today are collapsing like a house of cards… They do not chase after comparative advantage or maximum profit, they promote development, justice, equality and well being.”
Meanwhile, the Reuters report noted that Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, pledged he would ease restrictions on Cuban Americans traveling to the island and sending money there, but says he wants to maintain the embargo to press for changes in the Communist-run country.
Reuters also noted that Fidel Castro, and his brother, President Raul Castro, have both said recently they are open to dialogue with the United States to end the dispute stretching across the Florida Straits.
Reuters noted that Obama has not commented on the remarks from the Castro brothers who have recently strengthened ties with the E.U., Russia and China. But U.S. businesses recently asked him to lift the sanctions.
The Reuters report said that the new U.S. president may ease restrictions and increase cooperation with Cuba on issues such as counter-drug and migration operations, but a meeting between Obama and Raul Castro appears unlikely to happen soon, analysts say.
Meanwhile a BBC report said that the fact that so many Caricom heads of state attended indicates that Caribbean co-operation is increasingly crossing political boundaries, as everyone struggles to cope in the harsh economic times.
