“At last month’s two-day “unity summit” of Latin American and Caribbean Heads of State and Government in Cancun, Mexico, there was an encouraging ‘Declaration’ to “construct a common space” to expand the political, economic, social and cultural integration of our region…”

In a rapidly changing global environment, currently plagued with bloody conflicts, acts of aggression and, of course, the lingering financial and economic crisis, this pledge to build a ‘common space’ is all the more reassuring by the stated reaffirmation of the assembled leaders’ in the United Nations as “the best forum for the promotion of peace, human rights and international cooperation”.

Taken at face value, the “unity summit”, therefore, augers well for the fostering a new dispensation in our hemispheric relations, even as some clarifications on aspects of the seven-point Declaration seem necessary.

For instance, the summit’s confirmation of “support of Argentina’s “legitimate rights in the sovereignty dispute” with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands issue. As would be recalled, it had led to war between the two countries following the military invasion launched by the Argentinians in April 1982, and eventually forced by the British to retreat.

Sovereignty rights over the Falklands (also known as the ‘Malvinas’) have remained a burning issue with successive administrations in Buenos Aires maintaining a diplomatic offensive to garner international support.

Without dealing at this time with the merit, or otherwise, of Argentina’s “sovereignty rights” position, what struck independent observers as being quite surprising was the absence of any reference in the ‘declaration’ to also recognise the need for sustain negotiations to peacefully resolve two other age-old territorial claims in the hemisphere:
In South America, the dispute relates to Venezuela’s claim to most of Guyana’s internationally recognised borders, as determined by an international tribunal in Paris to be a “full, perfect and final settlement”.
In Central America, another former British colony, Belize, continues to uneasily exist with the claim of a significant portion of its territory by border neighbour Guatemala.

Since the hemispheric and international allies of Guyana and Belize would be aware of their anxieties for peaceful resolutions to the respective territorial claims of Venezuela and Guatemala, (inherited at independence from the UK), questions have arisen about the absence of any reference to what the Guyanese and Belizeans also firmly regard as their “legitimate sovereign rights” that should be addressed by sustained negotiations in a peaceful environment.”

(`This Editorial was published in yesterday’s edition of the Barbados Nation and is being reprinted here with the kind compliments of that newspaper)