(BBC) Forget Barbados and Guyana or St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia.
The Caribbean Community’s (Caricom’s) newest public spat is between Jamaica and Haiti.
The dispute – on the eve of a regional summit in Grenada – has led to the unprecedented public burning of the Caricom flag in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
Also highly unusual was the Haitian government’s decision to recall its representative in Jamaica over the forced withdrawal of Haiti’s Under-17 team from a hemispheric football tournament on the island.
Jamaica said it took the decision last week to recommend Haiti’s ejection from the Concacaf competition after at least three members of its squad tested positive for malaria.
Foreign Minister Kenneth Baugh said the government had to act “in order to safeguard public health”.
“An outrage”
His Haitian counterpart Marie Michele Rey was quoted by a local radio station as saying “this behaviour which could affect the good ties between both countries” would be reported to Caricom.
Hundreds of outraged Haitians took the streets on Saturday to vent their frustration at the Jamaicans – and they also demonstrated in front to the Caricom office in Port-au-Prince.
There they sang the Haitian national anthem.
“I could not believe that a fellow Caribbean country would have this attitude toward us,” marcher Marguerite Rigaud, a restaurateur, said.
“This is an outrage. They think that all Haitians are diseased,” said Yves Jean Bart, president of the Haitian Football Federation.
Haitian and Jamaican officials have been meeting to try to reach some sort of understanding over the case, which has left a sour taste in the mouths of the young players, some of whom had left Haiti for the first time.
Call for boycott
Jamaica spearheaded the Caricom response to last year’s devastating earthquake – but has not itself escaped criticism for expelling illegal Haitian migrants since then.
For its part, Caricom has struggled to gain visibility among Haitians and this incident is likely to harm its image.
Former government minister Alix Jean-Baptiste was among the marchers, who comprised a wide cross-section of Haitian society.
“We should stand up and say enough is enough,” he said.
Post-earthquake recovery is a concern of Caricom
Mr Jean-Baptiste and Magalie Comeau Denis, one of the organisers of the rally and special adviser to Haiti’s Ministry of Culture, also called for Haitians to boycott Jamaican products.
With Haiti preparing for elections next month, it is unclear whether the country will have high-level representation at the Grenada summit – or whether the matter will even be discussed.
Lethargic Caricom
Post-earthquake development in Haiti is, however, one of the main topics before the leaders.
Caricom is represented on the Bill Clinton-led board of the recovery commission overseeing project approvals but implementation has lagged frustratingly.
Caricom has its own credibility problems – as many critics have questioned its modern-day relevancy.
Even the St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has said he hopes that the summit could prove “a possible moment for us to collectively prod Caricom out of its lethargy.”
Other topics for the St George’s conference include crime and security, a governance structure for Caricom, and financial stability linked to the collapse more than two years ago of one of the region’s largest business groups, CL Financial.
