Cover Profile: Caribbean Caricom to Bush: Don’t Forget Us by Larry Luxner When it comes to regional blocs, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) isn’t exactly a heavy hitter. Twelve of Caricom’s 15 member nations have populations of under 1 million, and five of them—Grenada, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Montserrat—are home to fewer than 100,000 people each. Together, these five microstates could fit neatly into Montgomery County, Md., with plenty of room to spare. In terms of economic influence, Caricom’s total gross domestic product of $64 billion pales in comparison to that of the North American Free Trade Agreement ($15 trillion), the European Union ($12 trillion), the African Union ($2 trillion) and even the Central American Common Market ($159 billion). For many decision-makers in the Washington establishment, these tropical islands don’t even show up on the radar screen—except perhaps as a vacation getaway—and frankly, their ambassadors are getting tired of being pushed around or simply ignored. Hence the upcoming Conference on the Caribbean, a three-day extravaganza in Washington set for June 19 to 21 featuring a series of events in five locations, including an unprecedented meeting between President Bush and all Caricom heads of state. The event is expected to draw more than 1,000 people to its separate forums on private-sector initiatives and the Caribbean Diaspora. Its chief organizer is Ambassador Ellsworth John, whose 150 square-mile country—St. Vincent and the Grenadines—currently occupies the rotating six-month presidency of Caricom. “It is noteworthy that the U.S. has agreed to this conference on the Caribbean,” John told The Washington Diplomat. “Not only will the president be available to meet with us, but also the secretary of state, education and homeland security, and the U.S. trade representative, so that we can establish lines of communication and start focusing on how the Caribbean and the United States can collaborate toward a common vision for the region. “We are all working together to ensure that this conference is successful,” John adds, explaining that the event “came out of a dialogue we had in the Bahamas last year with Secretary of State [Condoleezza] Rice.” John, 50, has been in Washington for 14 years—the last six as St. Vincent’s ambassador to both the United States and the Organization of American States. He also serves concurrently as ambassador to Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua. The diplomat did undergraduate work at New York’s Baruch College, has a master’s degree in information systems, and is now completing another master’s in public policy through the University of London. “Despite our small size and population, the Caribbean is establishing itself as an economic union through the [Caricom] Single Market and Economy, in order to make ourselves competitive in this global environment,” John says. “Our message to any American company looking for a home is: The Caribbean is the place for you.” Formed in 1973 by the four English-speaking nations of Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, Caricom eventually expanded to include Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and St. Kitts and Nevis. The group has become somewhat multilingual with the recent entry of Dutch-speaking Suriname—located in northern South America—as well as Haiti, whose French- and Creole-speaking inhabitants occupy the western third of the island of Hispaniola. In fact, Haiti’s 8.7 million inhabitants account for well over half of Caricom’s total population of 14.6 million, far eclipsing that of more prosperous Jamaica (population 2.8 million) and Trinidad and Tobago (1.1 million). Besides Suriname, Caricom’s non-island members include Belize, the only English-speaking nation in Central America, and Guyana, the only English-speaking nation in South America—and home of Caricom’s headquarters. Caricom also has five associate members, all of them very wealthy British colonies: Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Yet its membership roster does not include Spanish-speaking Cuba (population 11.8 million), Puerto Rico (4 million) or the Dominican Republic (9.3 million). During our interview, John took pains to emphasize the region’s historic ties with Washington, yet he couldn’t hide the numerous disputes that have lately stained the U.S. relationship. “The United States is the country where most of our citizens migrate to. Therefore, we have a bond with this country that is unbreakable,” says John, estimating there are at least 5 million Jamaicans, Haitians, Trinidadians and other Caribbean nationals living on the U.S. mainland. “Regardless of what governments we have in the various islands or who controls Congress, we are natural friends with the United States.” Nevertheless, he admits: “We have had differences on several issues including Iraq, Haiti and other things which have negatively affected our relationship.” Not a single Caricom member state sent troops to Iraq, John points out. “None of them felt there was enough justification to go to war in Iraq, and we were not among the ‘coalition of the willing.’ The climate in Washington was that if you’re not with us, then you’re against us. So the tendency was to strengthen relationships with countries that supported the war in Iraq. Subsequent events have supported our position.” Haiti has proven to be even more contentious, with several Caribbean heads of state still fuming over the Bush administration’s role in ousting former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office in late 2004. “On the issue of Haiti, we had proposed a series of events to take place that would lead to completion of Aristide’s term in office, in which power would be shared,” explains John. “We were willing to work with the United States and Haiti’s friends to see if we could tone down the temperature in Haiti. But the way Aristide was removed from office—although it’s stated that he resigned—made us nervous, because he was an elected leader, and no one in the Caribbean wanted to see an elected leader removed from office. Next Page

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