IT’S become habitual for critics and cynics from the left, right and centre to always expect and even predict the worst every time Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders plan and talk for the best; the latest being the Caribbean’s participation in last week’s the 9th Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.

Many regional analysts at home and in the Diaspora wrongly read the tea leaves regarding CARICOM leaders’ indication back in March that they were prepared to boycott the summit if Washington decided to exercise its right as host to decide who to invite.

Up to the day the June 6-10 summit started, it was being predicted that CARICOM leaders would not ‘boycott’ the meeting and concluded that attendance by any regional leader would somehow amount to evidence of the mistaken view that regional leaders cannot unite – on anything.

As it turned out, some Caribbean leaders attended and some didn’t, but the Heads of Government and CARICOM got across their overall messages about inclusion and exclusion in more mature ways than their Caribbean critics credited them for.

CARICOM Chair, Prime Minister of Belize John Briceno, spoke for all and individual Caribbean leaders each addressed separate crucial regional issues not directly on the summit’s agenda, but needing to have been.

Leaders with lead responsibility for agenda issues communicated regional positions and CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr Carla Barnett addressed the multilateral issues affecting the region that also needed the summit’s attention.

As it turned out, it was a win-win situation for all sides: the US had its way; and the Caribbean and Latin American leaders also had their clear say, including those who stayed away.

Aware of its growing and widening responsibility as the region’s most-stable and the hemisphere’s fastest-growing economy, Guyana looked beyond its boundaries and borders and called for leaders of North, South & Central America and the Caribbean to “put political and ideological differences aside” and have “frank and fact-based discussions” to uplift the people of the hemisphere to a position of prosperity and to resolve systemic issues.

President, Dr Irfaan Ali, on an important futuristic note, indicated that the region “has the potential to be fully energy secure, bring prosperity to every home, have the greatest access to natural resources, abundant land and access to water resources to ensure food security” and “enough rain forests and technology to make a meaningful contribution to climate change and enough access to finances to bridge inequality and support sustainable development for all.”

With Guyana’s economy projected to double in size within two years, President Ali said the nation belongs to the family of humanity and stands ready to make its contribution to its well-being, but he also forewarned that “We cannot be reckless and we will not be irresponsible in managing these resources in the interest of the world and in the interest of this region.”

The President envisioned that Guyana’s resources, along with the potential of Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and possibilities of investment in gas exploration in Barbados, “the region can be made energy secure.”

As such, he urged the Hemisphere’s leaders to “have the conversation that defines a pathway to energy security for the region” because “not only does the potential exist, but all available tools and assets are also available and can and should be used in order to reach the potential.”

He called for the conference to “define a pathway for integration of infrastructure, people and economies”—as well as for “that conversation on how we’re going to integrate our people, our economy and our infrastructure.”

Better words are hard to come by!