Dear Editor,
In 2014 at its second summit in Havana Cuba, the Community of Latin America and Caribbean states (CELAC) proclaimed Latin America and the Caribbean a ZONE OF PEACE. This proclamation represents a commitment to resolving conflicts through peaceful means, respecting sovereignty and non-intervention, upholding the right to self-determination and equal rights for all peoples. Reaffirming that the Caribbean Sea must be preserved as a Zone of cooperation, development and peaceful coexistence.
President Donald Ramotar who led the Guyanese delegation to the Summit said, “It’s in all of the Region’s interest; moreover, it is building on solidarity if we all commit ourselves to peaceful development, without peace you cannot have economic and social development. It is necessary for Latin America and the Caribbean to progress; peace is essential,” he asserted.
In this letter, I would like to introduce Guyanese sociology professor Dennis Canterbury celebrated book “Caribbean Development in the New Multipolar World Order”. The book examines capitalism and the role of the United States, the European Union, China and Russia in attempting to dominate natural resources and markets. It includes the idea of development alternatives in the new multipolar world order, the current global realignment of economic power taking place and CARICOM (Caribbean Community Realignment.)
Stating that the CARICOM states are in the political independence state of their historical evolution from being colonies of imperial European. They have had a half of a century to transcend the neocolonial trap set for them at the time of their political independence. But in many of those 50 years, their economic policies were constrained by a United States led unipolar global order.
The two obvious stumbling blocks for the CARICOM are the Region’s historic ties with Europe and its geographic proximity to the United States which considers the Caribbean and Latin America as its backyard.
The United States embroiled in an effort to maintain their hegemony over the region, “exercises its military and economic power and leverage to rein in recalcitrant CARICOM states” the resort to America’s gun boat politics.
Canterbury states in his conclusive remarks that “CARICOM countries does not have to be apologetic in declaring its intent to pursue appropriate strategies of global realignment of economic power, the right to self-determination.
Brazilian President Lula speaking in Belem do Para said that US military movement could trigger a humanitarian crisis that would affect the entire region. Already the Brazilian state of Roraima is flooded by thousands of Venezuelans. He reiterated that diplomacy must take precedence over coercion.
President Lula argued that South America must address its own security issues collectively, through cooperation, independently of external forces. He outlines The South American Peace Initiative which he shared with Caracas and Georgetown. Most South American countries are receptive to the Peace Initiative.
Trinidadians have picketed the US Embassy in Trinidad, expressing their displeasure of the US military operation in the Caribbean Sea that has claimed the lives of two Trinidadian fishermen and seventy others whom the Trump administration claimed were narcotraficantes.
Coming 42 years after the invasion of Grenada and subsequently Panama which claimed the lives of scores of civilians, the likely invasion of Venezuela and Colombia is likely to spread to other parts of the region and beyond…
The cost-of-living in Trinidad has already increased tremendously, as merchant vessels are hesitant to enter the Caribbean Sea. We in Guyana are already faced with the daily escalation of prices. War cry would be devastating, not only does it create instability, it scares away potential investment…at the end of the day who are the benefactors of war? Surely not us or the people of the region.
Other Guyanese and I who are committed to a Zone of Peace will be keeping a Vigil from 11 am – 1 pm on Friday 14th November in front of the CARICOM Secretariat, in support of CARICOM declaration of the Caribbean, ‘A Zone of Peace’.