Caribbean & Central America - July 2017 (ISSN 1741-4458)

For a brief moment in May, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) was able to congratulate itself on unaccustomed unity, over the Venezuela question. This unity broke down very publicly at the Organisation of American States (OAS) summit in Mexico in June, where Caricom was unable to agree a unified position on Venezuela. There was no sign of a return to unity at the 4-6 July Caricom heads of government summit in Grenada, although on this occasion it was not Venezuela that caused the ructions.

The split at the 20 June OAS foreign ministers’ summit was precipitated by Suriname and St Vincent & the Grenadines, who said they could not support a declaration on Venezuela that suggested interference in a member states’ internal affairs. The agreed statement at the end of the July Caricom summit avoided this transgression by “reaffirming…the guiding principles of adherence to the rule of law, respect for human rights and democracy” at the same time as reiterating adherence to “the fundamental principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of states”. The best that Caricom could offer was a call for renewed dialogue and an offer of “good offices” by the Caricom heads of government “to facilitate this dialogue”.

There was nothing there that would have troubled Caracas, although it would have been less happy with the strong support given to Guyana over its territorial dispute with Venezuela. The final communique said that “Heads of Government reiterated the firm and unequivocal support of the Caribbean Community for the maintenance and preservation of Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

The outgoing Caricom chairman, President David Granger of Guyana, used his valedictory speech to urge further progress on the development of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). He emphasised his belief that the CSME is the best vehicle to allow the small states of Caricom to compete in the global economy. He said: “Small internal markets consign states to high dependence on external trade. Intraregional trade, therefore, is important. The Caribbean Common Market was established to ensure markets for regional production, inter alia. Intraregional trade provides a basis for increasing national production, augmenting investment, and generating employment.”

The heads of government approved the Implementation Plan for the CSME 2017-19, and they commanded that the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP), which was defined in the communique “as a critical Organ” in advancing the CSME, “must be more active”.

Where disunity was openly on display was over the regional airline Liat, and over cricket. The new chairman of the grouping, Prime Minister Keith Mitchell of Grenada, was outspokenly critical of Liat, which is owned by the governments of Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, and St Vincent & the Grenadines.

Mitchell said: “I have long held that political presence on the board of airlines, such as Liat, is not helpful to its proper management and efficiency. How could Liat thrive when, for example, a few months ago, literally overnight, Liat cancelled one of its most lucrative routes to and from Grenada, without any consultation with the citizens or leadership of Grenada? It was all based on politics.”

Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua, left the summit early, angry with Mitchell’s criticism of Liat, but also cross over Mitchell’s support for the dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), now known as Cricket West Indies (CWI), as was recommended by the Caricom sub-committee on cricket in late 2015. Trinidad’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley sided with Mitchell and warned that “the subject has become one that threatens our very unity”.

Obviously aiming his remarks at Browne, Rowley said: “The current arrangement in West Indies cricket is not just destroying cricket as a game…what is happening at the level of heads at Caricom should make it clear to the other people that the game is now and the management and the situation is threatening to destroy Caricom itself. Because when one leader who is hosting, the others could walk away because of something he said about what is going on in cricket and…what is happening with a particular country that is apparently benefiting from the current arrangement, all kinds of issues arise.”

Browne’s response was to say Caricom should not interfere “in the internal affairs of institutions and governments”, and he accused Mitchell of having a “flawed opinion” about CWI and nurturing a “compulsive, obsessive desire to dissolve the board”.

Rowley had the final word on the spat, when he warned: “The more of what you saw happening in Grenada this week, where one prime minister offends another prime minister and walks out of the meeting, la la la that is likely to become the future”. He offered to serve as a member of the Caricom subcommittee on cricket, but he added that he was not optimistic about a solution to the West Indies cricket crisis being found during 2017.