CARICOM leaders to attend OAS summit

SOURCE: CMC: Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders are on Monday heading off to the United States to attend the ninth Summit of the Americas amidst call for a boycott of the event over the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Belize Prime Minister, and chairman of the 15-member CARICOM grouping, said that he had been informed by the CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett, that seven countries had already given a commitment to attend the week-long Summit, which gets underway on Tuesday in Los Angeles.

“Belize have, we have agreed that Belize will attend the Summit,” Briceno said, joining Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, whose leaders have publicly announced their attendance at the summit that will be held under the theme Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future for the hemisphere.

The remaining CARICOM countries scheduled to attend have not been disclosed.

Washington has said that “as Chair and Host” it will “work with the region’s stakeholders toward securing leader-level commitments and concrete actions that dramatically improve pandemic response and resilience, promote a green and equitable recovery, build strong and inclusive democracies, and address the root causes of irregular migration”.

Briceno said several issues must be  addressed during the summit, noting “we need to talk about the level of debt that countries especially developing countries like ours have been incurring because of the pandemic and what kind of support can we get from the developed countries so there are pressing issues that we need to discuss. Migration is another one and so many countries believe that it is in our interest to be able to attend.”

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, is the only CARICOM leader, who has publicly announced that he nor any other government minister will be attending the summit in protest over Washington’s decision not to invite the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

“I’m not going because I don’t see what is to be gained from going. And as presently advised, as I say, I’m not supporting or sending anybody,” Gonsalves told a radio audience in his country last Wednesday, adding “because if you invite me to come to your house and I say, as a matter of principle I ain’t coming, because you shouldn’t be excluding people, how could I then send somebody else?”

Gonsalves had written to CARICOM leaders urging them to boycott the event, but Briceno said that “after long discussions ….we’ve decided to allow countries who want to participate to attend this Summit of the Americas”.

Among the other regional leaders not likely to attend the event are Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, who is in the heat of a campaign for the June 23 general election and Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, whose father died over the weekend and will be buried later this week.

Other countries in the Americas, including Mexico, have also raised concerns regarding their participation at the deliberations, insisting that the summit should be inclusive and not exclusive.

Last Wednesday, the United States said it was still formulating the invitation list indicating nonetheless that the four–day event will be a success.

“We are still looking though the invitations, we are continuing to engage in conversations with different countries and once we make the final decision we will make an announcement, “said Juan Gonzalez, National Security Council Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere.

Briceno told reporters that Nicaragua has said out rightly, they have no interest in attending this summit. He noted that it appeared that  Venezuela and Cuba have  not be invited.

CARICOM leaders had objected to an invitation being extended to Venezuelan Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó to lead a Venezuelan delegation to the event. (CMC)