Dear Editor,
Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas commits the 15 Member States of our Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to “enhanced coordination of Member States’ foreign and foreign economic policies” and to “the achievement of a greater measure of…… effectiveness in dealing with third States, groups of States and entities of any description.”
Well, if our Caribbean Community (CARICOM) ever needed a unified and collective foreign policy, the time is now!
Recently – on the 10th of January 2019 – we had an embarrassing spectacle at the Organization of American States (OAS), when, on having to deal with a Resolution that purported to delegitimize the inauguration of Nicolas Maduro as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, our CARICOM member states found themselves divided on the issue, with some of them voting for the Resolution, others voting against, and some abstaining.
And now, an additional Venezuela-related foreign policy challenge has come our way, in the form of one Juan Guaido – the recently appointed President of Venezuela’s National Assembly – unilaterally (and in the absence of his participation in any relevant electoral process) declaring himself President of Venezuela and having the Donald Trump administration of the United States of America purporting to recognize him as Venezuela’s interim President.
In light of the foregoing, it behoves us to spend some time reflecting on the genesis of CARICOM’s aspiration to a collective foreign policy, and on the ideals and principles that would have guided the four major architects of that aspiration – the late Prime Ministers Errol Barrow, Eric Williams, Forbes Burnham, and Michael Manley.
And so, let us commence our story at the very beginning:
It was at the historic Seventh Commonwealth Caribbean Heads of Government Conference held at Chaguaramas in Trinidad that the idea of converting the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) into a Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), as well as the associated idea of equipping the new CARICOM with a collective foreign policy were born.
The date was October 1972, and at that time there were only four independent Commonwealth Caribbean nations: namely, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Barbados, and these newly independent states were led by Michael Manley, Eric Williams, Forbes Burnham, and Errol Barrow respectively.
It was a time of great tension in the affairs of the world – the United States of America (USA) was ablaze with anti-Vietnam war protests; the Black Power and anti-colonial challenges to national and international structures of domination were going strong; and the so-called “Cold War” between the USA and the Soviet Union was still at a dangerous peak.
Indeed, by 1972, the Caribbean had come to be regarded as one of the primary theatres of the “Cold War”, with the USA making every conceivable effort to isolate the revolutionary Fidel Castro-led government of Cuba.
We need to recall that when—in 1959—the Cuban Revolution triumphed, that the new revolutionary Cuban government entered a Western hemisphere environment that was organized around the OAS—a multi-lateral organization dominated by the USA and dedicated to a USA inspired anti-Communist mission.
Furthermore, in 1954, at the instigation of a USA steeped in Mc Carthy era anti-Communism, the OAS had issued the “Declaration of Caracas” which declared that all Marxist revolutionary ideology was intrinsically alien to the Western Hemisphere, and that Marxist revolutionary movements were to be treated as foreign invasions of the Hemisphere.
It was not surprising therefore that as early as June 1959, the USA began pressing the OAS to take punitive actions against Cuba—a founder member of the OAS, but now led by a revolutionary socialist Government.
In August 1960, the USA not only orchestrated a condemnation of Cuba at the OAS on the ground of Cuba’s acceptance of economic assistance from the Soviet Union, but also urged Latin American states to break off diplomatic relations with Cuba – an urging that Venezuela and Colombia adhered to in 1961.
And then the “coup de grace” came in January 1962 when, at the 8th Consultative Meeting of OAS Foreign Ministers in Uruguay, the OAS suspended Cuba’s membership, thereby effectively expelling Cuba from the OAS!
This was then followed by the US compiling a so-called “black list” of all countries still trading with Cuba and threatening to cut off US economic and military assistance to them.
But even this was seemingly not enough for the anti-Cuba forces, and during the 9th Consultative Meeting of Foreign Ministers held in Washington DC in July 1964, a resolution was passed urging all governments of the Western Hemisphere to break diplomatic relations with Cuba.
And—sad to say—in the following years, every single Western Hemisphere nation except Mexico and Canada fell in line with the OAS stipulation and either broke diplomatic relations with Cuba or refused to recognize the revolutionary Republic of Cuba!
This then was the scenario facing the four independent Commonwealth Caribbean countries—three of them being newly installed members of the OAS—in October 1972!
And, needless-to-say, the leadership of the OAS was insisting that the new Caribbean member states adhere to the- by then – well established, USA supported, policy of non-recognition and isolation of revolutionary Cuba.
The magnificent response of these four visionary Commonwealth Caribbean leaders—Barrow, Manley, Williams and Burnham—was to issue the following historic Declaration:-
“The Prime Ministers of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, meeting together during the Heads of Government Conference at Chaguaramas, have considered the state of their relations with the Government of Cuba and the obligations which the OAS has sought to impose upon its members in regard to relations with that Government; and make the following statement:
(1) The independent English-speaking Caribbean states, exercising their sovereign right to enter into relations with any other sovereign state and pursuing their determination to seek regional solidarity and to achieve meaningful and comprehensive economic cooperation amongst all Caribbean countries will seek the early establishment of relations with Cuba, whether economic, diplomatic or both.
(2) To this end, the independent English-speaking Caribbean states will act together on the basis of agreed principles.”
Here then were the four smallest and youngest states of the entire Western hemisphere standing on principle; courageously speaking “truth to power”; and setting a noble and principled example for all the other nations of the hemisphere to follow!
And so, the lesson taught to us by these architects of our Caribbean integration movement– Errol Barrow, Eric Williams, Forbes Burnham and Michael Manley – is absolutely clear: namely, that our Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is a much more effective, powerful, principled, and respected organization when it operates on the basis of a unified, collective Foreign Policy!
Surely this is a lesson that we all need to take to heart in these troubled and vexed times.
Yours faithfully,
David Comissiong,
Barbados Ambassador to Caricom