Prime Minister Mia Mottley has suggested that real food security for Barbados must include trading with coastal countries in South and Central America.
Mottley set down her position at a high-level forum on reparations at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) on Thursday night as she reflected on the earlier roundtable discussion on reparatory justice involving current and former legendary political leaders from the region and Africa.
Prime Minister Mottley declared: “There can be no serious conversation about food security in a climate crisis environment that does not include, not just the islands of the Caribbean, but coastal Latin America.”
She pinpointed such countries as Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, Cayenne, Colombia “and even Central America”.
The premier then provided her reasons why she believes this country and others in the region need to trade with those nations to achieve meaningful food security, especially in a climate crisis.
“If a hurricane hits Miami this hurricane season, and then it hits the western coast of Florida, the food supply for the entire Caribbean region is compromised for at least four to six weeks. And if you doubted it, ask anybody for the footage of what happened to the supermarket shelves of the US. It looks worse than a Third World country every time a hurricane hits in Florida,” the prime minister contended.
“We would be foolish, therefore, not to work with our brothers and sisters in this region and with Africa not to have the contingency planning for food security because we are 48 to 72 hours away from that moment at any time now from May to December.”
Mottley also broached the vexing issue of trade discrimination by some large nations against developing countries.
She told the forum: “You cannot tell us that it is okay for some to be able to trade with those who have sanctions [against them] and others to be precluded. As we speak, [American multinational oil corporation] Chevron would have paid Venezuela over $260 million last month for oil. Oil goes to the European Union under the Exceptional Access [Programme] that the same Chevron got from the Treasury of the United States of America. But St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados from [Venezuela’s] Petro Caribe 2.0, and the Dominican Republic all want to benefit.”
The US Treasury Department is allowing Chevron to resume “limited” energy production in Venezuela after years of sanctions that have dramatically curtailed oil and gas profits that have flowed to President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
In 2014, following widespread political protests and subsequent reports of abuse by Venezuelan police forces, the US Congress authorized then-president Barack Obama to impose sanctions on individuals involved in human rights violations.
“The Petro Caribe 2.0 is to give us a 35 per cent discount on prices at a time when oil prices have gone through the roof and remain volatile and with the clear signal from OPEC [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] that the cut in production should lead to further increases. So how can it be fair for those who are far (and) away to benefit from that and those of us who are in the immediate vicinity cannot have regional energy security?” the Prime Minister queried.
She argued that whenever the Caribbean region has found itself in the midst of an international oil crisis since independence, it has had to have a stabilizing mechanism.
“In the 1970s Mexico and Venezuela came and gave us the San Jose Agreement. In the late 90s, early 2000s, it was Petro Caribe 1.0 under [former] President [Hugo] Chavez, and now it is 2.0. It is a difficult conversation for those who have the benefit of only seeing black and white. But in today’s world, there is a hell of a lot of grey,” she asserted.
Mottley, who also chairs the CARICOM Reparations Commission, said the conversation for reparations with the Netherlands must take place as equal partners and not as recipients….from a third country.
“And that has to be done,” she urged, “in a mature way, and it has to be done with respect…and I think that the maturity and the respect that both sides bring. You can no longer say that the State cannot bear responsibility for these things [slavery].”
According to the Barbadian political leader, the bottom line is that the Caribbean suffers from the consequences of colonialism because there was no development compact at independence other than for one country, which was Suriname.
“And those consequences of colonialism will continue to haunt us as long as we are unable to turn the development wheel the full spectrum and bring true and full development [to our countries],” the chair of the CARICOM Reparations Committee emphasized.
The discussion, with cabinet ministers, other top officials from the public and private sectors, and foreign dignitaries in the audience, involved the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J Patterson, and ex-president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, on the theme: “Three Legends, Three Perspectives, One Conversation: Reparations and Beyond.” (EJ)
