Saturday, April 18, 2009
Dominica backs Venezuela in slamming Obama America’s Summit
The Dominican.net Newsdesk
Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skeritt was one of the five Heads of State of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) who slammed this weekend’s America’s summit for excluding Cuba and not resolving the region's economic woes.
The ALBA summit in the fishing Venezuelan town of Cumana was held to coincide with the two-day Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago that includes US President Barack Obama, and other Caribbean and Latin American leaders with the exception of Cuba.
The Dominican Prime Minister along with the presidents of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia dismissed the Summit of the America's draft final statement calling it "insufficient and unacceptable" for failing to mention the region's near unanimous rejection of the US economic blockade of Cuba.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega called the US embargo "a real genocide" and dismissed the Summit of the Americas as useless. "You can't call that summit 'of the Americas' because Cuba and Puerto Rico are missing," Ortega said.
Chavez read out loud from the ALBA text saying that the Americas summit statement also fails "to address the issues of the global economic crisis."
In that regard, the ALBA grouping stressed the responsibility of the economies of developed countries and their economic policies for the origin and depth of the crisis.
The group also reasserted their readiness to search for solutions from and for developing countries, “ which take into account the special and differential treatment deserved by the most vulnerable economies and the impact of the crisis on the downtrodden.”
According to Chavez, "We contend there's no consensus for adopting that draft statement and we propose an exhaustive debate." In keeping with ALBA's leftist charter, Chavez said the first order of discussion in the debate should be how "capitalism is bringing about the end of humanity and the planet."
Although Cuba is not included among the 34 countries meeting at the Summit of the Americas, and is also excluded from the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS), there are signs that this may soon change.
OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza announced at the Americas summit on Friday that he will ask the OAS General Assembly meeting in June to revoke the OAS resolution excluding Cuba.
Cuban president Raul Castro recently announced that he was prepared to talk to the US on all issues including human rights, prisoners and other matters.
His comments come only days after Obama lifted travel and money transfer restrictions for Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba, and only hours before the summit of the Americas opened US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said 50 years of US policy on Cuba had "failed."
Despite these new developments, Chavez at the ALBA summit, referring to Obama, said "we must demand that he abide by United Nations resolutions" and lift the 47-year economic embargo on Cuba.
The leaders present at Cumana included host Hugo Chavez; Bolivia’s Evo Morales; Cuba’s Raul Castro; Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega; Manuel Zelaya, Honduras and Dominica PM Roosevelt Skerrit.
Read Draft ALBA Declaration
 ALBA leaders met recently in Venezuela. |
Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skeritt was one of the five Heads of State of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) who slammed this weekend’s America’s summit for excluding Cuba and not resolving the region's economic woes.
The ALBA summit in the fishing Venezuelan town of Cumana was held to coincide with the two-day Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago that includes US President Barack Obama, and other Caribbean and Latin American leaders with the exception of Cuba.
The Dominican Prime Minister along with the presidents of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia dismissed the Summit of the America's draft final statement calling it "insufficient and unacceptable" for failing to mention the region's near unanimous rejection of the US economic blockade of Cuba.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega called the US embargo "a real genocide" and dismissed the Summit of the Americas as useless. "You can't call that summit 'of the Americas' because Cuba and Puerto Rico are missing," Ortega said.
Chavez read out loud from the ALBA text saying that the Americas summit statement also fails "to address the issues of the global economic crisis."
In that regard, the ALBA grouping stressed the responsibility of the economies of developed countries and their economic policies for the origin and depth of the crisis.
The group also reasserted their readiness to search for solutions from and for developing countries, “ which take into account the special and differential treatment deserved by the most vulnerable economies and the impact of the crisis on the downtrodden.”
According to Chavez, "We contend there's no consensus for adopting that draft statement and we propose an exhaustive debate." In keeping with ALBA's leftist charter, Chavez said the first order of discussion in the debate should be how "capitalism is bringing about the end of humanity and the planet."
Although Cuba is not included among the 34 countries meeting at the Summit of the Americas, and is also excluded from the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS), there are signs that this may soon change.
OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza announced at the Americas summit on Friday that he will ask the OAS General Assembly meeting in June to revoke the OAS resolution excluding Cuba.
Cuban president Raul Castro recently announced that he was prepared to talk to the US on all issues including human rights, prisoners and other matters.
His comments come only days after Obama lifted travel and money transfer restrictions for Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba, and only hours before the summit of the Americas opened US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said 50 years of US policy on Cuba had "failed."
Despite these new developments, Chavez at the ALBA summit, referring to Obama, said "we must demand that he abide by United Nations resolutions" and lift the 47-year economic embargo on Cuba.
The leaders present at Cumana included host Hugo Chavez; Bolivia’s Evo Morales; Cuba’s Raul Castro; Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega; Manuel Zelaya, Honduras and Dominica PM Roosevelt Skerrit.
Read Draft ALBA Declaration
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// posted by TheDominican.net @ 12:02 AM
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I have read with interest Dominica following blindly after Chavez. However, I noticed that inspite of being a member, Dominica will NOT benefit from an AGRICULTURAL FUND set up by ALBA. What was Skeritt doing???
"FOR THIRTEEN MILLION TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND AND NINETY-FOUR US DOLLARS (US$ 13,026,094.00) TO BE EXPENDED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEN AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS IN HONDURAS, SURINAME, GUYANA, JAMAICA, SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES, NICARAGUA AND BELIZE."
"FOR THIRTEEN MILLION TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND AND NINETY-FOUR US DOLLARS (US$ 13,026,094.00) TO BE EXPENDED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEN AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS IN HONDURAS, SURINAME, GUYANA, JAMAICA, SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES, NICARAGUA AND BELIZE."
# posted by 
: April 18, 2009 12:52 AM
: April 18, 2009 12:52 AM
Until the day when the Caribbean can agree on/at firstly a summit of the Caribbean; CARIFORUM, CARICOM, OECS, CSME, until such day, we will only be pawns in other people’s games as we will be at this Summit! America and Cuba are already working towards a resolution. However, because it suits certain Caribbean and Latin American politicians to go on and on about this, we are quickly seeing a summit dominated by discussions on that American/Cuban relationship.
The fact of the matter is that by the end of Obama’s presidency America and Cuba would have normalised relations and this summit would have had nothing to do with it. Wake up my people, the world is moving quickly! Our leaders should be articulating the more urgent regional priorities. Just look, not too far back, on our handling of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, not a very brilliant Caribbean performance.
Now let’s turn to the Americas long running dispute (between Caribbean and Latin America with USA interest) of import tariff on the region’s bananas entering the EU. That dispute is actually one of the Americas which has been left to the EU to resolve. Why can’t we resolve these issues amongst ourselves? Why are we fighting each other at the WTO and waiting for Europeans to resolve our problems?
Then there are the border issues, for example Venezuela’s encroachment on other countries sovereignty; the long running territorial disputes with Guyana and Venezuela’s claim to Dominica’s Bird Island. Then we have the Caribbean stuck between the drug games of Latin America and the USA with neither of these blocks truly appreciating and paying up for the detrimental impact that their drug business is having on Caribbean lives, instead we seem to get blamed by the Americans and totally ignored by Latin America on this issue.
Therefore until the Summit of the Americans can reach the level of maturity whereby we can resolve such issues ourselves then its resolutions remain insubstantial with no binding and lasting impacts.
We now know that the resolve from the recently concluded London G20 will impact negatively on several of our sectors, with the most direct impact being on the Financial Sector i.e. Off –Shore Banking; therefore we have gone into reactionary mode – trying to out the fire after the spread! But months prior to the London G20 we knew the G20 Agenda – but how much did we do to influence the outcome and have a positive result for our region? Nothing! Several of our members at the Summit of the America’s are members of the G20; Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the USA. So what did we in the Americas do prior to the G20 to influence the decisions there?
Gerald La Touche JP (Magistrate UK)
The fact of the matter is that by the end of Obama’s presidency America and Cuba would have normalised relations and this summit would have had nothing to do with it. Wake up my people, the world is moving quickly! Our leaders should be articulating the more urgent regional priorities. Just look, not too far back, on our handling of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, not a very brilliant Caribbean performance.
Now let’s turn to the Americas long running dispute (between Caribbean and Latin America with USA interest) of import tariff on the region’s bananas entering the EU. That dispute is actually one of the Americas which has been left to the EU to resolve. Why can’t we resolve these issues amongst ourselves? Why are we fighting each other at the WTO and waiting for Europeans to resolve our problems?
Then there are the border issues, for example Venezuela’s encroachment on other countries sovereignty; the long running territorial disputes with Guyana and Venezuela’s claim to Dominica’s Bird Island. Then we have the Caribbean stuck between the drug games of Latin America and the USA with neither of these blocks truly appreciating and paying up for the detrimental impact that their drug business is having on Caribbean lives, instead we seem to get blamed by the Americans and totally ignored by Latin America on this issue.
Therefore until the Summit of the Americans can reach the level of maturity whereby we can resolve such issues ourselves then its resolutions remain insubstantial with no binding and lasting impacts.
We now know that the resolve from the recently concluded London G20 will impact negatively on several of our sectors, with the most direct impact being on the Financial Sector i.e. Off –Shore Banking; therefore we have gone into reactionary mode – trying to out the fire after the spread! But months prior to the London G20 we knew the G20 Agenda – but how much did we do to influence the outcome and have a positive result for our region? Nothing! Several of our members at the Summit of the America’s are members of the G20; Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the USA. So what did we in the Americas do prior to the G20 to influence the decisions there?
Gerald La Touche JP (Magistrate UK)
I really takes "cojones" to decry the evils of capitalism when one travels in luxury, frequents the Dorchester in London and has a mercedes S500 in the stable. Was it really necessary to have five comrades attend the Port of Spain summit in support of Cuba when obviously the latter are quite capable of cutting their own deal with the U.S.A. without our help? And there were we thinking all the while that we are a sovereign nation, having a presence at this meeting in order to foster our own, sovereign interests.
# posted by : April 18, 2009 7:18 PM
: April 18, 2009 7:18 PM
Stopping the embargo on Cuba ? why not...providing at first, Cuba stops it's 50 years communist dictatureship ; reestablish democracy and organize free elections, authorises opposition parties and medias, respect human's rights ; frees political prisonners ;
You see what I mean ?
You see what I mean ?
# posted by : April 19, 2009 6:07 AM
: April 19, 2009 6:07 AM
Skeritt was at the ALBA summit for a "hand Out" from Chavez. Sadly Chavez's oil prices are under $50 per barrel and the citizens of his country are very upset that he is giving 3 to 4 billion dollars of oil to other countries such as Cuba and Dominica. This money should go to his people. I thought Barrack Hussein Obama made a masterful entry and performance at the Summit of the Americas. I hope Skeritt will follow one of our own and not Chavez!
# posted by : April 19, 2009 1:14 PM
: April 19, 2009 1:14 PM
Our Prime Minister must at all times remember that Dominicans do not seek Venezuelian visas to migrate there, but rather US visas to migrate to the United States of America to seek the American Dream. P. M Skerrit went to the USA and not Venezuela or Cuba for his University education. P. M Skerrit please remember these important things before you speak and make it difficult for the young up and coming Dominicans.
# posted by : April 19, 2009 8:09 PM
: April 19, 2009 8:09 PM
Chavez says jump and then Skerrit asks how high. it very sad to see the manner in which I county is being run. I particular concur with e comment made regarding all the other issues that need to be resolved in the Region i.e. border disputes and the banana dispute. Even under ALBA the oil may seem relatively cheap now but this money has to be paid back at some point.
Dominica's Foreign policy seems to consist of Venezuela, China and Cuba while I acknowledge the devlopments of all these countries..its says a lot about the leadership of Dominica. IF ALBA was such a fantastic deal why is it that only Dominica has joined...perhaps Chavez is unable to influence more experienced leaders in the same way. Stop and think..what does Chavez really want from Dominica? I am sure will will pay one day for this relationship.
Dominica's Foreign policy seems to consist of Venezuela, China and Cuba while I acknowledge the devlopments of all these countries..its says a lot about the leadership of Dominica. IF ALBA was such a fantastic deal why is it that only Dominica has joined...perhaps Chavez is unable to influence more experienced leaders in the same way. Stop and think..what does Chavez really want from Dominica? I am sure will will pay one day for this relationship.
# posted by : April 21, 2009 6:08 AM
: April 21, 2009 6:08 AM
If PM Skerritt, believes that siding with Chavez is going to be beneficial to the economic security of Dominica, then he is a bigger fool than I thought. The US and Cuba relationship has been diminshed for over four decades, and if Mr. Obama who has only been commander and chief for less than a 100 day, why should their be a sudden change in policy toward Cuba and why is this a problem for Skerrit. He needs to "mind his own buz waz". Dominica has enough issues of its own; for one we are in desperate need of an international airport. why has Skerritt chosen this figure (Chavez) as his role model. I guess, the old saying hold true, if you lay with dogs, you might end up with flees. I am afraid that with Skerritt association, Dominica has become a haven for terrorist.
# posted by : April 22, 2009 9:48 PM
: April 22, 2009 9:48 PM
What has capitalism done for Dominica for the last 30 years. We spent 15 years jumping for America and what did Dominica achieve during those 15 yrs. So now Skettit is trying another approach let us see if Dominica will end up better or worse for it. But I am in agreement with Magistrate Latouche. The caribbean region is too reactive and not proactive enough about the issues which concern it. They are allowing others to define them rather than defining themselves. The rich West is crippling the region, first America took away our Banana industry via the EU, now they are taking away the off shore banking, that leaves us as a region totally dependent on the West, and economic slaves forever, always begging and needing American, Canadia visas to go and work.These are the real issues.
# posted by : April 23, 2009 11:47 AM
: April 23, 2009 11:47 AM
Obama can't change things that fast. He is opening things up with Cuba.
Give him some time. Do you really want Americans to stop coming to
your country?
Two time visitor who would like to come back but want to be sure I am welcome.
Give him some time. Do you really want Americans to stop coming to
your country?
Two time visitor who would like to come back but want to be sure I am welcome.
# posted by : April 27, 2009 11:54 AM
: April 27, 2009 11:54 AM Links to this post:
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