The stopwatch is running towards next Friday when T&T becomes the crossroads summit for the Americas and the rest of the hemisphere.
Trees along Lady Young Road Port of Spain near the Hilton - where US President Barack Obama’s 1,000 member delegation will stay - are freshly trimmed back. Less than a mile away, Kapok hotel is preparing for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s team, it was confirmed yesterday. Gallons of white paint enough to fill rowboats, have been splashed around roads and highways in and around Port of Spain. Rusty electric poles near the Port of Spain Lighthouse were baptised lily-white on Tuesday.

The sea around summit venue Hyatt hotel has been transformed from oily tanker-black to postcard -perfect Caribbean blue and aquamarine. (Works Minister Colm Imbert deems the clean seabed a fringe benefit of the $12 million harbour dredging to accommodate two summit cruise ships.) Several tall palmiste trees which were spotted travelling (fast) by trailer truck up the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway from south two Saturdays ago, are “catching” themselves in their new homes - large tubs on Hyatt grounds. Albeit, slightly threadbare from the windy trip.

This weekend, all the weather beaten vessels at Government jetties near the Hyatt will be removed to reduce security risks. But: there’s no word yet if the Meteorological Office has been co-opted to inform Government of high tides. (Such info may be required if Wrightson Road is used to take summit leaders to the Hyatt and they roll past the eyesore “Black Lagoon” near the Lighthouse.) And many citizens whose spectating prospects have been dead-ended, are scheduling an extra long Easter “holiday” weekend, cognisant of the fact that Obama and summit leaders are attending an event which merely happens to be located in Trinidad .

Not coming to visit “we”

Obama arriving from Mexico, is expected next Friday afternoon at latest just before the summit’s opening ceremony, a summit spokesman said. Preceding Obama is US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whose arrival on Thursday will give her slightly more time in T&T than Obama’s two night stay. Also arriving Thursday are Caricom’s 13 other leaders who will caucus their summit thrust on Friday morning, according to Caricom Ambassador Colin Granderson.

Cuba - deal with it

In the summit’s 15 years, the Organisation of American States’ traditional trade-based agenda will shift moorings via the upcoming Port of Spain declaration which encompasses broader world issues with the overriding aim of righting free flow of trade from its precarious global position. Following a meeting at Caricom’s Guyana head office on Wednesday night where the summit was discussed among issues, Granderson’s perspective on Caricom’s summit stance signals a strong Caribbean voice amid the “big guns” of the Americas, left of lapdog timbre.

However, several US articles on the summit hype it more as Obama’s introduction to “Latin leaders” with less emphasis on the Caribbean aspect. “Caricom does not see or sell itself as a victim but as a partner of equal social, political and economic development in the developing world,” Granderson said, noting positive trends for Caricom states in global indices and Caricom’s record of stability and democratic processes. T&T’s status as summit host particularly denotes the region’s rising role in hemispheric matters, Granderson added, noting Caricom represents a significant bloc—14 of the 34 member OAS. Caricom chairman Belize Prime Minister Dane Barrow is among speakers at Friday’s summit launch.

And one of the key issues which Caricom will monitor is the US’s future embargo treatment of Cuba, a close ally of Caribbean states in Cuban jefe Fidel Castro’s twilight year rule. This week’s visit of a US black caucus Congressional team to Castro signalled certain Stateside interest in Cuba. However Obama’s summit adviser Jeffrey Davidow and assistant secretary of state Tom Shannon have thrown different messages into the mix, signalling US reluctance to confront the 47 year old contentious issue as immediately as at next week’s summit. Davidow is reported as saying it would be “unfortunate if the summit’s principal theme turned out to be Cuba” (sic).

Shannon told regional reporters the US’s priority—the economic crisis which began Stateside—will be its summit focus “rather than any drive by hemispheric countries to get Cuba reinstated into the American system” (sic). Regional reporters—from the Guardian also—were invited to a Washington workshop last week on the US’s summit perspective. While America’s resistance continues to be telegraphed, the issue of Cuba will still cloud the summit table considering Caricom’s lobby for removal of US sanctions against Cuba and for its inclusion in the OAS, and the close ties between hemispheric leaders including summit chairman Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Castro.

If Caricom has anything to do with it, T&T could go down in hemispheric history as the location where rapprochement on the issue gets going. Ambassador Granderson said: “Inevitably, the issue of Cuba will arise. All the countries except the US believe it is time for a change in relations and it’s encouraging that there are similar US signs also.” Granderson believes Cuba may figure in opening statements and at leaders’ private retreat. Whether Cuban Ambassador to T&T Oliva Guerra is among those members of T&T’s diplomatic corps invited to Friday’s ceremony —or accepts an invitation—remains to be seen. (The PM’s office responsible for issuing invitations, stated invites were not sent out yet.) Regardless, the question of Cuba’s OAS status—on which Manning has expressed optimism —and thereby future summit participation, could continue when the OAS caucuses in June.

Middle road on Chavez

Caricom however, is shaping up towards a middle-of-the -road stance on the contentions of its controversial neighbour - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez whom the US regards warily to say the least. Apart from Cuba, agenda discussions on energy security may bring the thorny issue of US-Venezuela relations to the fore. However Caricom can also own up to an un-coordinated stance in at least one area where Chavez is concerned: his Petrocaribe initiative which most Caribbean states supported, though T&T and Barbados did not. “The region may not see Chavez as either an antagonist or protagonist, “Granderson said, noting recent pre-summit shifts in Chavez’s hardline anti-US position.

While Chavez has moved from “artillery preparation” (sic) mode for T&T’s summit to hoping to “reset” US relations there, he continues to argue Cuba’s case against the US position. The summit of Latino leaders - including Cuban and Dominican representatives which Chavez hosts April 14-15 prior to T&T’s summit will consolidate support on issues among such leaders whose recent trade agreements for instance, hardly leave room for resurrection of regional proposals such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas.(FTAA)

Caricom - rectify US deportee issue

Security, a key agenda item ,will also provide Caricom with an opportunity to zero in an issue which has plagued the region since 1997 when Caricom states signed the US’s Shiprider agreement: US deportees as a contributory factor to rising regional crime. Ambassador Granderson said, “Certainly this will arise since it is a concern shared by Latin American and Caribbean states.” “Caricom has repeatedly stressed to the US that a Memorandum of Understanding is needed on this.

We have empirical evidence to bolster our position. Caricom has done many studies on the situation,” he added. Discussions on crime and drug trafficking which Caricom may broach with the US will likely also include the gang phenomenon whose contagion effect has also overflowed regionally from the US. Hilton - (US)$55m and counting. On return to Washington, Obama, America’s poster boy for “Change” should have an adequate assessment of his country’s global comrades, challenges and its chores, in the post-Bush era. T&T’s summit is among final stops on Obama’s world tour whose latest destination was Iraq.

If Obama made it through a surprise visit there, then T&T’s summit security—in turbo drive verging on overkill—will hopefully be adequate.
(And in their fierce bid to get it right, security agencies would hopefully not get it wrong.) While Obama’s local transport needs will be met by the three helicopters, and three identical armoured Cadillac limousines which US leaders traditionally use, his delegation will enjoy the ambience of state-owned Hilton’s (US) $55 million plus upgrade.
E-Teck, supervising the three phase project, last September estimated costs at (US)$55 million (TT $330m) hiked by inflation from (US)$45m.
Three hundred rooms were promised for the summit. Phase 1 was completed while Phase 2 (involving Presidential suites) will be ready by tomorrow, Hilton management confirmed Wednesday.

Former E-Teck president Khalid Hassanali in 2008 projected the upgrade would increase beyond (US)$55 million since summit delegations needed “special things” - security systems and “more sprucing up.” E-Teck communications division yesterday stated it would be fair to say costs by now have risen above (US)$55m. There were no projections on a final figure following Phase 3. completion. Suffice to say that upgrade alone may end up costing about half the $605 million which Government budgeted for the summit and November’s Commonwealth leaders’ conference. Chavez’s team chose the 94 room privately owned Kapok, Government confirmed.

“Legacy expenditure”?

Prime Minister Patrick Manning did not use opportunities offered on Wednesday by various functions to confirm or deny that summit costs have passed $1 billion as businessman Emile Elias -a supporter of sacked Government Minister Keith Rowley—claims. The preparations team however deny that figure. Costs will be given post-summit, they confirmed. Works Minister Colm Imbert yesterday spun costs of Government’s extensive summit upgrades as “legacy expenditure” which he said would help T&T to remain competitive.

What’s coming

• Caricom to lobby against US deportees

• Rapprochment on Cuba begins at summit

• Middle road stance on Chavez from Caricom.

• Mixed messages from US.

• Latin partners consolidate.