A historic moment for Caribbean sports and diplomacy!

These are exciting and historic times for Caribbean sports and diplomacy.

Leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) opened August 2024 to begin the commemorations of Liberation Day (August 1) and conclude the much-delayed 51st Summit in Grenada to discuss (among many other important topics): the region’s leadership in the global quest for universal recognition and acceptance of people of African descent; the disturbing trends that have emerged since the official announcement of the results of the peaceful presidential election in Venezuela on July 28; and Caribbean citizens around the world watching with pride and joy every victory of all Caribbean athletes in Paris.

Saint Lucia’s Julianne Alfred won her country’s first Olympic gold medal – she is the fastest female athlete from the world’s smallest nation, having won the 2024 Olympic women’s 100m title.

But her victory was also a lifetime achievement for the Caribbean (just as Usain Bolt is still revered as “the fastest man in the world” by Caribbean citizens around the world).

Dominica also won its first Olympic gold medal, while Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines celebrated having cracked the winning code more broadly.

The Olympics are still taking place in Paris and medals are still up for grabs, but it’s already clear that 2024 is going to be a historic year for Caribbean athletes.

The quiet effectiveness of CARICOM diplomacy also stood out in silence as CARICOM leaders responded to the latest developments in Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela.

CARICOM is made up of 14 mainly English-speaking countries, including six independent members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), which coexist with their Latin American neighbors at the United Nations in New York and the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington.

They also engage with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our Americas-Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP).

The unanimity clause, which means that any joint CARICOM decision requires the support of all 14 member states, ensures that regional leaders will not see eye to eye on the issue of Haiti, CARICOM’s oldest country and its newest member.

But under Guyana’s chairmanship, CARICOM was able to walk a tightrope almost without poles or steps over broken bottles, ensuring that the course of Haiti from February 29, 2024 to the present day did not lead to another widely expected military invasion by external armed forces waving the Caribbean fig leaf.

Any honest analysis of CARICOM’s position on Haiti, including criticisms, cannot but lead to the conclusion that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not act entirely in accordance with Washington’s wishes and that Caribbean leaders were simply unwilling to fully support earlier plans for direct imperialist intervention and occupation.

However, the leaders of the CARICOM countries soon began to consider whether to unite and ask Washington to unilaterally publish a so-called “list” of countries that “support terrorism” worldwide.

CARICOM is also in trouble under the fierce attack from Venezuela.

Guyana — which is at loggerheads with its neighbors over their claims to more than two-thirds of its territory and which also holds the current chairmanship of the Caribbean Communist Party — has shown the diplomatic and political maturity to not fight back when its adversaries are losing.

Mindful of its own experience in 2020, when the ruling party and its allies lost but refused to step down, Georgetown University has quietly joined the chorus of countries calling for further verification of Venezuela’s election results.

And President Dr. Irfaan Ali, in his capacity as Chairman of CARICOM and Commander-in-Chief of the Guyana Defence Force, has not joined the ranks of imperialists advocating and supporting external intervention in Venezuela.

Instead, CARICOM governments have chosen to engage in quiet diplomacy on the Venezuelan issue, with their abstention and absence effectively blocking a vote recently hastily requested by Venezuela’s political enemies in the OAS’ “New Lima Group”, which would have been designed to accelerate external intervention in a country that is no longer a member, rather than mediation, with Caracas having initiated the formal withdrawal process since 1999.

One possible factor behind the reaction of some CARICOM members is the fear of avoidable political retaliation from Washington for supporting Maduro.

But CARICOM leaders also know that they cannot be seen as ungrateful for the substantial assistance provided to them by Caracas over the past 25 years.

The Caribbean Petroleum Trade Mission has benefited most CARICOM countries through preferential energy and trade agreements, including barter arrangements (such as rice for oil), and free trade mechanisms that work for all.

The Venezuelan PetroCaribe program also benefited other South American countries and effectively promoted the Caribbean region as a peace zone, but later it was severely affected by hundreds of sanctions led by the United States, and Venezuela could no longer sell oil and gas or trade in US dollars.

Venezuela and Cuba also took the lead in calling for the establishment of a common Latin American currency, a call reiterated by member states of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States at their last major summit in 2023.

The wider regional health care Milagro (Miracle) eye care project – also funded by Venezuela and carried out jointly with Cuba – still benefits millions of citizens in the Caribbean and the Americas.

St. Lucia and the Dominican Republic received new bridges from Venezuela to replace old ones destroyed by hurricanes, and Caracas provided helicopter services to small islands in the eastern Caribbean that are being hit by hurricanes more and more frequently as climate change accelerates.

St. Lucia and other islands benefit from thousands of laptops provided by Venezuela to bring information technology into the classroom, and receive scholarships in academics and sports every year.

Venezuela also supports music through collaborations between local music schools and the national symphony orchestra; Caracas has recently held more sports and cultural exchanges with member states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.

Historically, the modern Chávez-Maduro era has deepened the process of Venezuela’s integration with the Eastern Caribbean, a process that began two centuries ago with the sacred and enduring alliance that Simón Bolívar forged with Saint Lucian sailor Jean Baptiste Bido, who eventually became Bolívar’s trusted naval captain and at one point saved the “Liberator’s” life.

Bolívar and Bido fought side by side for Venezuela’s independence, and the St. Lucian shipbuilder built sailboats that also transported secret Caribbean freedom fighters from Trinidad and Tobago to Venezuela.

After the defeat of the Spanish army, Bido eventually served as Governor-General of Eastern Venezuela – this Saint Lucian hero of Venezuelan independence died in the battle of Casa Fuerte (Cold Fort) in 1807 to protect, defend and preserve the first Bolivarian Republic.

In 2017, Bidaud’s remains were moved to the National Heroes Cemetery in Caracas to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death.

Meanwhile, today, while CARICOM could not speak with one voice on Venezuela, the Secretariat of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States in Saint Lucia did so on behalf of its six independent member States – Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

“We congratulate President Nicolás Maduro Moros on his victory in his third term as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and urge that all efforts be made to achieve national reconciliation,” the OECS statement said.

“The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States further expresses its gratitude to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for its priceless solidarity and friendship in its continued growth over the past two decades…”

The maturity of Caribbean diplomacy is once again quietly on display on the regional and global stage, in ways and methods that will never satisfy the usual perceptions of its usual critics, but the region’s leaders are wisely choosing to sail in calm waters and avoid rough seas, except when faced with overwhelming winds and adverse tides and currents.

Meanwhile, as security forces take control of Caracas, the new Maduro government called on all political parties that uphold the republic’s constitution to begin a post-election political dialogue and pledged to hold proper national legislative elections.