-Puzzling explanation, a sharp rejection
Analysis by Rickey Singh
THE WASHINGTON administration of President Barack Obama got it badly wrong in thinking it could deal a diplomatic ‘black eye’ to the host government and its allies for last week’s Fourth Triennial CARICOM/Cuba Summit in Port-of-Spain, and escape a stinging rebuke from the 15-member Community.
And it all had to do with the presence in Port-of-Spain of an official delegation from Cuba, headed by President Raoul Castro — the reason for the for the two-day summit — in the very CARICOM nation that had hosted President Obama and all other leaders of the hemisphere for  the 5th Summit of the Americas last year.
It was a pathetic display of misuse of power by the world’s superpower, compounded by  a clumsy explanation — via its embassy in Port-of-Spain — why a required and sought licence could not have been forthcoming in time from the US Treasury for the CARICOM/Cuba summit to take place, as originally scheduled for  December 7-8, at the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre. 
That unexpected development compelled an embarrassed  host government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to hurriedly make arrangements for alternative hotel accommodation and conference venue, which was hardly a problem, given the very impressive options available in this CARICOM partner state. 
And all because of a lingering  historical bitterness on the part  of successive governments of superpower USA to dislodge for half a century the revolutionary government in  a comparatively small Caribbean nation some 90 miles off  Florida.
To think that in the final days of the second decade of the 21st Century mighty “Uncle Sam” could resort to engaging in a political  game to frustrate a scheduled, triennial CARICOM/Cuba summit from taking place at a planned venue, is disturbing for CARICOM/USA relations as it must be for their allies in the rest of the western hemisphere.                

New arrangements

The switch in alternative arrangements was hurriedly pursued when it became  clear that the wholly government-owned Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre  — part of the US-based hotel chain of ‘Hilton Worldwide’ — had been blocked from the holding of the event there in the context of America’s anti-Cuba legislation which forbids  doing business with that Caribbean nation.              
That draconian legislation, rooted in America’s half-century of a most punishing trade and economic embargo against Cuba, is  known as the Helms-Burton Act of 1996. It prevents American corporations from doing any business with Cuba without first obtaining a licence from the US Treasury.               
That’s the official explanation. The devil is in the details, and expose more than a slap in the face for the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago. According to varying responses from the US embassy in Port-of-Spain, and management of the Trinidad Hilton,  prior request for US Treasury approval of a licence to host the summit at the hotel was made, but “apparently too late.”
Nevertheless, the explanation has revealed that the Hilton’s application was dated on November 23, but that the US Treasury claimed to have received it on November 28; and that given the “complexity” of Cuba’s official involvement, the processing would “take time to resolve…”               
Well, give me a break, Uncle Sam! In this era of breathtaking communications technology, what  insurmountable hurdles really faced the relevant decision makers of the world’s superpower in facilitating that application involving a very friendly host government and its wholly-owned hotel and international conference centre that required no financial expenditure by Cuba?
Even accepting the claim that it was “received” five days after it was forwarded, why could it not have been conclusively processed over almost a week while the government in  Port-of-Spain remained engaged with arrangements for its summit guests, among them President Raoul Castro?
Even customary expedient claims about “bureaucratic inefficiencies” on the part of either the Trinidad Hilton or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not seem to wash in this case.                             

Humiliating effort

Rather, it appears to be a well choreographed act with the effect of humiliating both host and its Community partners for whom the triennial summit has evolved as an institutionalised event in Cuba-CARICOM relations.
The summit, inaugurated in Havana and last of which was held in Havana in 2008, stands as an expression of official Cuban appreciation for the significant role played by CARIC0M — first  by the quartet of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago — in breaking US diplomatic isolation of the revolutionary Caribbean state.
It was a bold, unprecedented pioneering initiative in the conduct of international relations.              
Of course, the host government has already dismissed any idea of a “too-late” application as alluded to by a low-level officer of the US embassy in Port-of-Spain, and for his part, President Castro took it all in characteristic stride, hardened by the traditional bullish behaviour of administrations in Washington towards the government in Havana they simply love to hate.              
However, with the conclusion of the two-day summit came a strong  rebuke for the USA from CARICOM on behalf of the Community and its longstanding fraternal ally, Cuba, in a statement declaring:
“We, the Heads of Government of CARICOM and Cuba, gathered  for this Fourth Summit, are affronted by the intrusion of the United States against the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago. This is a unilateral and unwarranted extra-territorial application of the United States Helms-Burton Law which  is contrary to the United Nations Charter and to international law…
“It also flies in the face of the annual overwhelming rejection of this policy by  the United Nations General Assembly. We (therefore), reject the intervention of the US authorities which prevented the hosting of the CARICOM-Cuba Summit at the Hilton Hotel…”