Seven boats have been blasted in the water, 33 people have been killed, two survivors have been incarcerated in third country prisons.
Two T&T citizens have been killed. The CIA has established and officially acknowledged presence in Venezuela, military might is established on Venezuela’s coast and is flying across Venezuelan skies. The intent is clearly intimidation, application of pressure and display of power.
For all the big talk of Nicolas Maduro, the US and Venezuela are way too unequal adversaries. Just as military conflict between Venezuela and T&T would be unequal in the extreme. But these tensions in the region are also setting a dangerous precedent, as have the Russian invasion of Ukraine and recent developments in the Middle East.
Because if Russia can invade Ukraine without consequence; and if Israel can go after the elimination of Hamas and decimate Gaza and its people in the process, and execute Hamas negotiators in Qatar, and the US can just bomb away Iranian nuclear facilities, and can invade Venezuela (it has not done so yet, although it has engaged in provocative and intimidatory tactics), what will then prevent China from invading Taiwan if it decides to and what will be the likely response?
What do these things mean for over 180 observer nations and the six billion-plus people who live in them, who have no say in war and war mongering? Whose world is it? And is sheer power the new diplomacy that rules the world?
Leadership in the world is becoming too reckless and arbitrary everywhere, in big countries and small ones, and we are playing with fire and courting annihilation of the human race.
Loss of life is of no consequence anymore. Causalities of war are simply numbers reported by the press—so many dead, so many others wounded.
But what now prevents the use of technology to eliminate a president, prime minister or other high official, in his office or in his sleep, if countries pursue self-interest so recklessly and military intervention knows no boundaries, no rules, cannot be governed and depends only on the capacity for rationality and restraint of a single individual and perhaps, a handful of advisors or the oligarchy of bilateralism, or a limited multilateralism where the impact of such decisions far exceeds the singular interest of negotiators at the table or in electronic communication.
The territory we are in and the domains that we are headed for are too horrible to contemplate.
Whatever the world that emerges over which we may have little or no input and certainly, no final say, the Caribbean and Caricom, notwithstanding whatever differences, constraints and limitations, have to find a way to cooperate, to collaborate, to survive, and ultimately to navigate and thrive.
Caricom not only needs to stick together, but it would make sense for the Caribbean and Latin America to strengthen neighbourhood relations.
Four OECS countries recently agreed on the movement of people and skills. Sounds nice, looks nice. However, we need to accelerate the single market and economy, as well as expand the economic space, through collaboration and cooperation to Central America and with the rest of Latin America, beginning with the coastal and border states.
The name of the game is trade, investment, technology, self-sufficiency as far as possible, and development. We should strive to achieve this nationally, regionally and in the wider neighbourhood.
It can happen. It can be done.
We must begin to mine and activate our trade and investment relations with the US, including enhancing CBI and possibly eliminating the recently imposed tariffs. CARIB-CAN has been recently deepened and widened and we should look seriously at EU possibilities and at what we can do via Belt and Road with China. India Prime Minister Mody’s visit yielded signed memoranda and opportunities for beneficial arrangements through what seems like an open door.
And we should insist on our freedom to pursue trade, investment and development relations with all countries with whom Caricom member countries have diplomatic relations. That is a simple, but deep and abiding principle which needs to be respected.
Since the US President is so committed to eradicating gangs, drugs and terrorism in the Southern Caribbean region, he should be prepared to engage in a serious discussion to agree on solutions to address the flow of guns, the presence and movement of gangs, the spread of drugs, the containment of crime in the region and the entire range of security issues the region faces. That should set the stage for discussion of a meaningful Zone of Peace.
If the Caribbean wants a Zone of Peace, and it should advance this principle, it cannot be a declaration or a hope. It must be negotiated as a hemispheric agreement and an agreement with the big powers here, present in this hemisphere - USA, Europe, China, Russia at least.
The current Zone of Peace idea seems focused on US intervention, but we need a Zone of Peace that takes into account both aggressive and potentially aggressive hemispheric players, as well as the major geopolitical players now present in the western hemisphere. And Latin America and the Caribbean should do this together.
Caricom should take the initiative. T&T is in a good place to lead this effort.
