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US-LATAM: We Can't Be Trapped by History
By Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN (IPS) - President Barack
Obama had promised that his administration
would be different. His, he said, would be a
listening, caring one, even though like
previous United States leaders, he came to
the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad
and Tobago bearing gifts - no doubt hoping
for support for his new initiatives.
On Friday night that new policy was tested.
Obama and the 32 other hemispheric leaders
sat for almost one hour getting a history in
U.S.-Latin American relations from none
other than Nicaraguan President Daniel
Ortega, a former revolutionary, even though
the host, Prime Minister Patrick Manning,
urged that the forum not be used to allow
"any one issue to dominate our
deliberations."
For Manning, the summit, which the Caribbean
is hosting for the first time ever, should
be used to provide the "new approach that
heralds in the western hemisphere, the dawn
of a newer and better day."
Obama himself had indicated a new form of
relationship in which there would be "no
senior or junior partner," and that he did
not come here to debate the past.
"I came here to deal with the future," he
said to loud applause at the ceremonial
opening, adding that while it was important
to learn from history "we can’t be trapped
by it.
"As neighbours we have a responsibility to
each other and to our citizens and by
working together we can take important steps
forward to advance prosperity and security
and liberty and that’s the 21st century
agenda that we come together to enact."
But Nicaragua’s Sandinista leader, while
acknowledging that the U.S. president was
promoting a new agenda, was seeking to
ensure that Obama did not fall back into
what he called the old habit of his
predecessors – intervening in the internal
affairs of Latin America, which caused, in
the case of Nicaragua, many deaths as a
result of the 1980s civil war involving the
U.S.-armed "contra" fighters.
Obama sat and listened as Ortega punctuated
his address with references to the changing
Americas, in which "all countries big and
small would have the same rights." He was
also convinced that Latin America as well as
the English-speaking Caribbean would soon be
a force to reckon with, as a result of the
integration initiatives being promoted by
Venezuela and Cuba.
Cuba is the only hemispheric country not
represented at the three-day summit, but
Havana would be pleased that Venezuela and
its allies within the Bolivarian Alternative
for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA),
which also includes Nicaragua, have vowed
not to sign the "Declaration of Port of
Spain", in solidarity with Cuba.
In fact, the new U.S. leader heard calls
from his Argentine counterpart, Cristina
Fernández, as well as his Caribbean hosts
that he should not waste the opportunity for
improving relations with the hemisphere’s
only communist country.
Ortega said Cuba’s exclusion was due solely
to the fact "that its crime has been one of
independence and fighting for the
sovereignty of its people." And to show his
solidarity with Havana, he refused to call
the forum "the Summit of the Americas".
"I don’t feel comfortable attending it. I
simply refuse to call it Summit of the
Americas. The summit is still subjected to
colonising policies," Ortega said, convinced
that "the day will come when Cuba will be
incorporated into the affairs of this
hemisphere."
For the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the
summit provided yet another avenue to
reiterate its support for Havana.
"We have made it clear at every summit that
the formal inclusion of Cuba into the
mainstream of hemispheric affairs remains a
priority for us. We are convinced now that
the new U.S. administration fully
understands the need for new approaches in a
new era which will lead to changes including
the lifting of the embargo," said CARICOM
chairman Dean Barrow, the prime minister of
Belize.
"We in CARICOM stand ready to assist in the
promotion of the dialogue between our two
neighbours in the complex process of
building a relationship and reversing 50
years of non-engagement," he added.
And even as Obama was announcing a number of
new multi-million dollar initiatives to help
countries, including those in the Caribbean,
to deal with the ongoing global economic
crisis, climate change and the illegal drug
trade, Washington was being reminded that
the decision of the G20 industrialised and
emerging powers to provide billions of
dollars to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) to assist both developed and
developing countries overcome the financial
crisis must not be at the expense of small
vulnerable states.
In addition, Obama announced that Congress
had approved a 448 million dollar aid
package to help countries severely affected
by the global financial crisis.
"This is not charity. Let me be clear,
together we can play a broader foundation of
prosperity that builds new markets and
powers new growth in the hemisphere because
our economies are intertwined," he said.
The Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has also warned
that the worsening economic crisis is
dampening expectations of a quick return to
normalcy, and is also predicting an increase
in unemployment and lower investment rates
in the Americas.
In a report providing an overview of the
policy measures adopted by governments of
the Americas up to Mar. 31, ECLAC said
"there can be little doubt that the world is
facing its worst crisis since the 1930s."
It said that the long build-up in
uncertainty is preventing the credit markets
from returning to normality, despite the
efforts of monetary authorities to inject
liquidity.
"Against this background, the recession is
slowly worsening as a result of huge losses
of both financial and non-financial wealth,
particularly in developed countries but in
emerging economies as well.
"The extreme negative picture is dampening
expectations, and this, in turn is giving
rise to a slump in labour markets and to
lower investment and consumption levels,"
ECLAC said in the report titled "The
Reactions of Governments of the Americas to
the International Crisis".
But even as they welcomed the new
initiatives by the G20 countries to revive
the world economies, the western hemisphere
leaders were urging fuller involvement in
the process.
"It is not ethical that it is left to the
G20 countries to determine the future of our
people. We should leave it up to the G192
countries, that would include everyone at
the United Nations," Ortega said.
CARICOM chairman Barrow and Manning also
reiterated the regional grouping’s support
for Havana.
"For us in the Caribbean the fallout from
the global situation has presented severe
challenges, and its consequences are being
felt in the financial sector...and our
social sector," warned Barrow, adding that
while the Caribbean has been proactive in
dealing with effects of the global financial
crisis "the old sore remains true that it is
an ill wind that blows no good.
"Thus we in the Caribbean look forward to at
least one positive development from the
international crisis - the opportunity for a
reform of the global architecture," he said,
noting however that "even more critical is
that emerging and developing economies,
including the poorest, must have greater
voice and representation" on the reformation
of the international financial institutions.
The Caribbean has also voiced its concerns
about the decision of the international
community to crack down on the tax havens,
with Barrow saying there was need for a
better understanding of the off-shore
jurisdictions in small developing countries
that were forced upon them since the onset
of globalisation.
"The financial crisis that has now enveloped
us all occurred from...reasons that had
nothing to do with Caribbean jurisdictions.
Surely then the way forward now is to insist
on and expand the modalities for effective
exchange of tax information.
"It is not to precipitate a pylon effect in
our small countries by destroying a critical
component of the very service area into
which we were encouraged to diversify," he
said.
He told the forum that the Inter American
Development Bank (IDB) has been the major
source of funding for projects in the
region, and that since 1995, the bank’s
yearly lending volume has been increasing by
an average 75 per cent.
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