Addressing the IX Summit of the Americas with US President Biden and his Vice President Harris in the audience (among 21 other leaders of the Hemisphere, or their representatives) Caricom Chairman, Belizean PM John Briceño, hammered the United States over its exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. He called the American embargo against Havana – which has been in place since 1960 – “an affront to humanity”. He pointed to Cuba’s massive and long-running assistance in the medical field to Caricom and beyond, and he praised Venezuela for their cheap ALBA oil. But evidently he couldn’t find any redeeming feature to defend Nicaragua – where Ortega and his wife have been running the Sandinista Government since 1979 as President and Vice President! And have banned as many democratic institutions as have Cuba and Venezuela. So maybe he understands Biden on Nicaragua??
Now, all of what the Caricom Chair said may or may not be true, but did he clear his comments with the rest of the Caricom leaders? After all, Dr Ralph Gonsalves also felt the same way, but he decided to stay away from the Summit – which your Eyewitness feels is the way to go when you’re on your own. He hopes this point will be clarified, since all of Caricom would be painted with the same brush.
But what took your Eyewitness’s breath away was that Briceño took time to (snarkily) inform Biden and Harris (and the rest of the gathering) that “it is geography, and not politics, that defines the Americas”!! Really? Now, when you want to be snarky, you’d better be standing on firm ground!! So will Briceño soon be telling us and the world where he got that particular principle of International Relations!?!
Only recently, your Eyewitness had expatiated on what 2500 years ago was described in the “Melian Dialogue” between the superpower Athens and puny Melos during the former’s war with the other superpower, Sparta. Melos took time to chastise Athens for asking them to take their side. This is the gist of the Spartans’ reply:
“But you (Melians) and we (Athenians) should say what we really think, and aim only at what is possible, for we both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the question of justice only enters where the pressure of necessity is equal, and that the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.” One wants to know exactly what Briceno thought he was achieving on behalf of Caricom?
Or he just wanted a personal “feel-good” moment??
…at realpolitik
Your Eyewitness substituted Caricom and the US in the end of the Melian dialogue to make the US’ argument simple and, hopefully, more comprehensible for Briceno. Caricom (CC) is us!!
US: And we will now endeavour to show that we have come in the interests of our empire, and that in what we are about to say we are only seeking the preservation of your city. For we want to make you ours with the least trouble to ourselves, and it is for the interests of us both that you should not be destroyed.
CC: It may be your interest to be our masters, but how can it be ours to be your slaves?
US: To you, the gain will be that by submission you will avert the worst; and we shall be all the richer for your preservation.
CC: But must we be your enemies? Will you not receive us as friends if we are neutral and remain at peace with you?
US: No, your enmity is not half so mischievous to us as your friendship; for the one is in the eyes of our subjects an argument of our power, the other of our weakness.
…in Ukraine
While your Eyewitness is far from Ukraine, he’s feeling the pinch in his wallet, so he has a vested interest in the war ending. Since no one’s gonna conquer the other, can they start negotiating soon??
