The Big Stick drops again! OECS in a bind

News broke Wednesday that the United States of America’s State Department has put on pause the processing of visas to seventy five nations around the world. This list which applied to permanent visa applications included, not surprisingly, most CARICOM States, with the notable exceptions of Trinidad and Tobago,Guyana ,and Suriname.

While this comes as surprising news, it is hardly shocking, given the trend we have been noticing recently as the Trump Administration continues to exercise its new “big stick” policy toward nations which have dared to criticize its policies, and its declaration of Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’. Can this exclusion of Trinidad and Tobago be considered a reward of sorts for the twin island republic’s support for Trump’s Venezuela adventure? If so, Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissesar, could well be smiling even as this leaves CARICOM more fractured than it has lately been appearing to be.

The January 3 brazen Venezuela oil grab which resulted in the kidnapping of President Nicholas Maduro who was then flown to New York and brought before a judge charged with drug trafficking occurred with CARICOM issuing a very muted response.

This is not the same body which once would have been very vocal in condemning such a blatant violation of the sovereignty of a fellow nation of the United Nations family.

This is but the latest in a salvo of actions by the Trump regime which further puts Caribbean nations under psychological pressure to accept measures that do not serve the best interests of our small and vulnerable nations. Several months ago, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and his obsession with punishing the land of his parents and the Cuban Revolution, began criticizing the Cuban Medical Aid programme to which most of the CARICOM nations subscribed, much to their benefit. He labelled the presence of Cuban medical personnel human trafficking.

One by one, CARICOM governments were made to justify their use of well qualified Cuban medical personnel in maintaining the standards of health care at our hospitals and health institutions. It is a well accepted fact that the presence of Cuba’s health workers provide a very valuable service to the healthcare systems in most of the region. It is a response to the continued brain drain our modest economies suffer when our own home-grown health workers migrate, attracted by the pull of higher salaries in the developed nations. However, one by one, governments were put under severe pressure to end the beneficial medical collaborations. Rubio never came with a programme of similar assistance for any of our countries.

First to bend was the Bahamas which announced that it was going to end the arrangement their government had with the Cuban Medical Services. Then we saw the Andrew Holness administration which was due to face a crucial re-election bid, vacillate before negotiating a way out and sticking with the Cuban medical services.

Here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, then Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said he had met with, and written to the US authorities and given them assurances that the framework within which the Cubans in SVG work and are remunerated did not constitute human trafficking. So that issue seemed to have been accepted. But the issue remains an elephant in the room for the new administration led by first-time Prime Minister Dr. Goodwin Friday. A ticking time bomb.

But just as the responses to the Rubio pressure had been individualized, so have we seen where, one by one, CARICOM governments which once bravely touted the successes of their engagement with the Cuban health programme, were squeezed into acquiescence. Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, always a strong voice on the issue, suddenly made an about face. Not only did we learn in the news that his country was going to end its cooperation in health with Cuba, but worse, that his country was to accept deportees from the USA. St Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt, also has became meek as his Commonwealth of Dominica announced that it too was to accept deportees, an issue which suddenly seemed to have come as a surprise. Then , there was Guyana, which even with its oil boom, could not resist the US deportee imposition.

And if one were to consider that our neighbours were being punished because of the existence of Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programmes, the inclusion of Guyana as a nation apparently forced to sign on to the deportees dictate gave the lie to that. St. Lucia’s Phillip J Pierre’s re-election is being rewarded with the burden of being forced also to accept US deportees as well. So these are new times; this is the renewed supremacy of the United States’ Big Stick, as the Monroe Doctrine is being pushed on steroids by a president whose Supreme Court tells him he can do no wrong.

Small nations like ours are to Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, but mere inconveniences in their march to domination.

But where does this leave the smallest members of the CARICOM family? We learn that the Heads of Government of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States held a meeting on Tuesday to address “Urgent Regional and Geopolitical Matters” hosted by Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre in St Lucia, and under the chairmanship of SVG’s Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday in his inaugural Heads of Government meeting. This is indeed a baptism of fire for Dr. Friday as he chaired this urgent forum. As was to be expected the forum discussed inter alia:

* “the ongoing developments between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the United States and the potential implications for the Eastern Caribbean.” These include impacts on economic stability, regional security, energy security, migration flows, and diplomatic relations.

* requests by the United States to OECS Member States, including Grenada, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Kitts and Nevis to accept Third Country Nationals (TCN) from the United States.

* Citizenship by Investment Programmes (CIPs) in the five relevant OECS jurisdictions, their commitment to ongoing improvements and best practices in the CIPs, noting the significant efforts undertaken over the past nine months toward establishing an independent regional regulatory authority, together with proposed legislative reforms to the CIP frameworks, ​ and the need for continued engagement with partners, including the European Union.

Faced with the multiple challenges confronting the OECS, as one would expect, there were no earth shattering conclusions except a commitment to “continuing to enhance public communications with citizens.” This is going to take a lot of skill but leaders of the OECS who are caught at this time totally between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The honeymoon for Dr Friday and his inexperienced team is ending even before a budget can be presented and discussed before our nation’s Parliament.

The year ahead is going to be, to say the least, beyond challenging.