BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
The inaugural summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) opened in Port of Spain, Trinidad, August 17 with sharp political differences between the governments of Cuba and the United States taking center stage.
"I was asked by the organizers of this conference, whose celebration Cuba deeply enjoys, to address it on behalf of the three countries in the Greater Antilles represented here, given the painful absence of our brother country Puerto Rico," said Cuban president Fidel Castro, addressing the opening ceremony. The three countries Castro referred to were Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, which are among the 25 Caribbean and Latin American nations making up the organization.
Castro criticized Washington for prohibiting its colonial possessions - Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands - from joining the newly founded group because Cuba is a member. "We used to be no more than other countries' naval and military bases, attacked, defended, captured, retaken, repossessed, bartered, donated," he said. The Cuban president hailed the new formation as an expression of Caribbean sovereignty.
Some 500 people participated in the summit, including the heads of 30 Caribbean countries and colonies.
The event marked the largest gathering of heads of state in the hemisphere since the Summit of the Americas held in Miami last December. Castro was the only national leader in the hemisphere excluded from that meeting, which was hosted by U.S. president Bill Clinton.
The ACS conference reflected an important opening for Cuba, as almost all member nations supported Cuba's membership, despite Washington's objections. The ACS registers the first time both Cuba and Haiti have been invited to join a regional trade bloc. Many countries in the Caribbean have called for an end to Washington's 35- year economic embargo against Cuba.
Referring to the U.S. embargo and lauding the concept of a united Caribbean, Castro said, "We are doing it at a time when the world is dividing into large commercial blocs and ferocious wars over markets break out.
"And the gap continues to grow between the rich countries with access to advanced technologies and the poor countries overwhelmed by the burden of their debts and their insoluble social problems," he added.
The ACS is made up of the states of the Caribbean Community plus Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the countries of Central America, Mexico, Columbia, and Venezuela. The treaty establishing the ACS was signed in Cartegena, Colombia, last year, after a commission recommended expanding the 13-nation Caribbean Community to include all countries around the Caribbean basin. Officials participating in the summit agreed to establish the ACS headquarters in Trinidad and appointed Simon Molina Duarte of Venezuela as its first secretary-general.
The new group has a total trade volume of some $180 billion a year, but less than 10 percent is estimated to be between member states. Much to the dismay of Washington, Havana has forged links or normalized relations with almost all the nations in the Caribbean.
The ACS gathering discussed working toward closer ties in tourism, transportation, and trade. No concrete pact was reached, however.
Meanwhile, Cuban foreign trade minister Ricardo Cabrisas announced August 15 that Havana plans to open an embassy in Trinidad and Tobago. Cabrisas invited Trinidad and Tobago's industry and trade minister, Kenneth Valley, to attend an international trade fair in Havana this year.