SUMMITRY POLITICS IN PORT-OF-SPAIN    
THE FIFTH Summit of the Americas is ending this afternoon in Port-of-Spain with a significant political victory with Cuba–the sole absent hemispheric nation of 35–dominating much of the discussions in plenary sessions and informal bilateral encounters. 

This is in sharp contrast to what US President Barack Obama and his political strategists and White House advisers for the three-day summit had hoped to avoid.

In the end, with a mix of fervent, passionate pleas from various Latin American and Caribbean delegations, as well as some swift and prudent diplomatic footworks by President Obama, the summit is heading for closure this afternoon with a visible mood for change in relations between Washington and Havana.   

Expectations and enthusiasm must, nevertheless, be carefully managed in the absence of a specific commitment to end either America’s almost half a century punitive trade and economic embargo against Cuba or that Caribbean nation’s re-admission as a member of the 35-nation Organisation of American States (OAS).

Obama’s own capacity to remain cool and encourage affability to hostility in a challenging political environment would have contributed to a new mood at the summit:

That is of Washington’s preparedness, finally, to face up to the growing demands across Latin America and the Caribbean to end America’s very unpopular, anachronistic and failed policy to isolate Cuba and to see the backs of its revolutionary leadership.     One such display of Obama’s personal diplomacy was his surprising handshake gesture with President Hugo Chavez–following the Venezuelan leader’s angry warning to vote against the summit’s official “Declaration of Commitment” in protest at its failure to address the burning issue of the US embargo on Cuba and its continuing exclusion from hemispheric events.

There was also his response to President Raoul Castro’s earlier firm statment of Cuba’s willingness to engage with Washington, any time, on any issue of concern, with a view to normalising relations.

“Let me be clear”, Obama stressed at the official, ceremonial  opening of the April 17-19 summit in Port-of-Spain, “I am not interested in talking for the sake of talking. But I do believe that we can move US-Cuban relations in a new direction…”

By yesterday the French news agency, AFP, was reporting that “the speed with which the United States and Cuba appeared to be ready to thaw an enmity held over since the Cold War, was startling…”

That may be so. But let it also be noted that the consistency with which Cuba, under its legendary leader Fidel Castro, and now with his brother Raoul as President, has been pushing for civilised engagement with the USA, contrasted with the arrogance and contempt that greeted such overtures by successive administrations in Washington.

‘Recognition’ politics  
Now, some time this afternoon, Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago  is expected to give an important “recognition” nod on Cuba as a “family member” of the Caribbean-Latin America region.

It will come in the form of a “Chairman’s Statement” and stands in sharp contrast with the total silence on Cuba in the official “Declaration of Commitment” adopted by the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

This stand in favour of healing a “fracture” in the “hemispheric family” that occured 47 years ago with the United States trade and economic embargo against that Caribbean nation, will be reflected in Manning’s summary statement as chairman following  a retreat.at the Prime Minister’s Diplomatic Centre.

As summit host and chairman, Manning will avoid any “undiplomatic gestures” in his summary of deliberations and decisions of the summit.

However, according to informed insider sources, the Prime Minister’s “statement” will be designed to reflect the strongly expressed sentiments of the “great majority” of summit participants for termination of the US embargo and Cuba’s readmission to the OAS.

Manning’s chairman’s statement is also expected to cover some other significant issues not specifically outlined in the “Declaration of Commitment”.

These could include the negative consequences of the international economic crisis, the origin of which cannot be blamed on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Absence of any reference in the “Declaration of Commitmernt” to America’s continuing trade and economic embargo on Cuba and its exclusion from the OAS was a major issue for delegates from many of the 34 participating nations.

And overhanging yesterday’s plenary sessions, which followed a series of bilateral encounters, was the open threat on Friday by President Chavez to deliver a symbolic “no” vote against the official adoption of the “Declaration of Commitment” as lacking “consensus”. 

Other delegations to also vote against the ‘Declaration’ are likely to include Nicaragua and Bolivia, and possibly Dominica as part of the Caracas-based ALBA group of countries.

At a special ALBA Summit in Venezuela held within two days of the 5th Summit of the Americas, the participating countries said it would be a falsehood to pretend that the ‘Declaration” was a consensual document of the Americas when there continues to be exclusion of Cuba and in the face of growing opposition to America’s embargo against that country. 

For its part, CARICOM is expected to release a separate statement on the summit that will reflect some of the “encouraging signals” it is reported to have received in bilateral meetings held, particularly with President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The range of issues discussed included trade and economic development, energy. climate change and security with support for an end to the US economic embargo against Cuba being among political matters of importance to the Caribbean region. 

President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana was chosen as mandated chief spokesman of CARICOM for the bilateral meeting with President Obama on Friday night.

The Guyanese Head of State is to host CARICOM’s next regular annual summit in July. 

For yesterday’s meeting with Prime Minister Harper, CARICOM’s lead spokesman was the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, who is chairman of the Community’s Prime Ministerial Subcommittee on External Trade Negotiations.