Editorial | Former leaders right

Their intervention is unlikely to alter Donald Trump’s increasingly militaristic posture in the area. However, last week’s insistence by 10 former CARICOM leaders that the Caribbean be respected as a zone of peace is a critical assertion of the region’s sovereignty, and of its sense of itself.

Indeed, the declaration, signed by two former Jamaican prime ministers, P. J. Patterson and Bruce Golding, adds weight to the recent re-assertion by the community’s current heads of government – except for Trinidad and Tobago’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar – of this long-standing principle, as well their call for disputes to be settled by negotiations and diplomacy and the context of law.

Further, the cross-party status of the signatories – as reflected by Messrs Patterson and Golding, as well as Belize’s Said Musa and Dean Barrow – underscores that peace, security, and the rule of law are foundational elements of sovereignty, which oughtn’t to be bartered away on a hope of securing partisan, and usually, short-lived, political advantage. That is a short-cut to national vassalhood.

Mr Golding led the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), while Mr Patterson, who still holds the record as Jamaica’s longest-serving prime minister, was president of the People’s National Party (PNP). In Belize, Mr Musa led the People’s United Party (PUP) and Mr Barrow, the United Democratic Party (UDP).

The Gleaner’s disappointment, though, is at the absence of the names of other former leaders from the document, whose past unflinching pursuance of Caribbean sovereignty, commitment to regional integration, and affirmation of a Caribbean civilisation won the respect not only of this newspaper, but of the region generally.

Notable among this group is Keith Rowley, recently the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Perry Christie of The Bahamas, who with Mr Golding, and Kenny Anthony of St Lucia, another signatory, formed CARICOM’s Eminent Persons Group that cajoled Haiti’s disparate political players to the creative arrangement that it is the basis for that country’s current transitional government. We are surprised, too, at the absence of David Granger of Guyana, especially for the fact that his presidency was rooted in the People’s National Congress (PNC), Forbes Burnham’s party, that once had a reputation for asserting Caribbean sovereignty and regional integration.

VALID EXPLANATIONS

There are perhaps valid explanations why these personalities are not associated with the statement, which they may possibly disclose.

Nonetheless, the former leaders highlight real threats, which Caribbean citizens should be concerned about, including the likelihood of their region becoming a theatre of war.

Indeed, on Friday US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that America’s largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R Ford, and its supporting warships, had been ordered to head from the Adriatic Sea, off Croatia, to waters off Latin America. Exactly where the carrier, with its 75 aircraft and 5,000 sailors will patrol wasn’t said.

This, however, represents a major escalation of America’s military presence in the Western Hemisphere. The Gerald R Ford will join several warships – supported by fighter jets and thousands and troops stationed in Puerto Rico – that have, for weeks, patrolled the southern Caribbean Sea, mostly off the coast of Venezuela.

Ostensibly, their presence is to deter drug carters from smuggling narcotics to the United States. President Trump, though, has designated drug smugglers illegal combatants, subject to the engagements faced by soldiers in the battlefield, rather than criminal law. With that framing, the US has used missiles and drones to destroy several small vessels, killing over 40 people, by declaring, without showing evidence, that they were narcotics smugglers.

Many legal experts have said the US action is illegal, in breach of international and US domestic law.

OVERTHROW MADURO

While targeting drug smugglers may be part of the plan, it is widely believed that President Trump’s ultimate aim is to overthrow Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, who the Americans brand as an illegitimate president, running a narco-state. It is also felt that the mission has also morphed into an intimidation of Colombia’s leftwing leader, Gustavo Petro, with whom Mr Trump has quarrelled.

In noting the escalating US military presence in the Caribbean, the former CARICOM leaders noted that since becoming independent countries “Caribbean states have consistently refrained from permitting the hosting of military assets, which have the potential to lure the region into conflicts which are not of our own making”.

“We urge adherence to this exercise of our collective sovereignty to avoid endangering our citizens in any crossfire or suffering collateral damage and economic harm,” they said.

While agreeing that the Caribbean’s geographic location made the region attractive to narco-traffickers, gun-runners and human smugglers, the former leaders stressed that regional governments “have sought, and responded positively, to collaborative agreements to combat these nefarious activities but consistent with our sovereignty, international law and intrinsic rights”.

Neither Colombia nor Venezuela could prevail in any conflict with the United States. But it is also unlikely that any hostility between them, especially between the US and Venezuela, would be contained to the declared combatants. Some of Venezuela’s neighbours would probably quickly become collateral, or even intended, damage.

And even if they were not drawn directly into the conflict, the Caribbean, with its open economies and dependence on tourism, would pay a dear price. Who wants to be on cruise, sailing past warships blowing small boats the smithereens? Or to holiday in places that seem to be constantly on edge?

The Caribbean is also a major cargo shipping route, the upset of which would disrupt global supply chains.

Other areas of the world also have a stake in maintaining the Caribbean a zone of peace, rather than a sea of instability. They should tell Mr Trump and advise him to accept the Caribbean’s offer to be peacemakers with those in the area with whom he has quarrels.