It began as a group of former British colonies, led by four of the Caribbean’s fiercest and most independent-thinking leaders of their day when it came to foreign policy.
Realizing, however, that their strength as small states lay in their unity, especially during the Cold War, the four pioneers of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, joined forces to create the framework for a common market and what integrationists hoped would be a political union to determine the policy of the region.
Fifty years later, that alliance, led at the time by prime ministers Errol Barrow of Barbados, Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Norman Manley of Jamaica and Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, is today a regional political and economic grouping of 15 Caribbean countries that includes French-speaking Haiti and Dutch-speaking Suriname. All but one, Montserrat, a British dependent territory in the eastern Caribbean, are independent. The other five British dependent territories of the Caribbean region are associate members.
“Those early steps taken in Chaguaramas have led us far beyond what the naysayers and doomsayers were certain would have been a short lifespan and another disastrous shattering. But here we are, 50 years on, side by side in mutual solidarity,” Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley said Monday as he recalled the signing of the treaty on July 4, 1973, in the Trinidadian city that laid the foundation for CARICOM. “We have faced challenges and we have risen to overcome them.”
Speaking inside a packed ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Rowley welcomed CARICOM’s heads of government to their regular July meeting, which will also serve as the celebration of its Golden Jubilee in the place where it all began.
Going through a list of the Caribbean institutions that have been established through the community’s regional integration, he acknowledged “the arduous journey” that has marked the regional cooperation movement. But the community, he said, will continue to chart its own destiny as it prepares to face new challenges from climate change and poverty to rising gun crimes and violence, to transnational migration issues to and the ongoing crisis in its most populated member state, Haiti.
“Throughout all of this, the majority of the people of our region have proven themselves to be resilient, resourceful, determined and dignified,” Rowley said. “We must continue to have boundless faith in our destiny.”
Similar to the European Union, CARICOM was formed to promote regional economic integration. But unlike the EU, it has lagged behind the creation of a single currency, the removal of trade barriers and the movement of people and skills across member states.
Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, the current chair of the community, challenged his fellow leaders to making these goals a reality.
“The movement of people and goods are the backbones of a successful integration movement,” he said. “We have done all of the studies.”
Still, many in the Caribbean remain dismissive and question the value of the Caribbean Community. This has not been lost on the bloc, which has struggled to promote its message and its benefits.
“Within our own space, we have established critical institutions that are high functioning and highly regarded,” Carla Barnett, the secretary-general of CARICOM, said.
“Yes, we do have our challenges and there are areas crying out for improvement,” Barnett acknowledged, but said the community at 50 years old is stronger today and has “a solid foundation to build on.”
“Despite the global crises, the deleterious effect of climate change and natural disasters, and the ongoing threats to the security of our people, the achievements of the past five decades are proof that vision and concerted action are critical to achieving sustainable prosperity and security for our region,” she added. “Time and again, despite changing global realities, our community has demonstrated that resolve and resilience necessary to maintain the course of integration.”
The celebration and meeting in Trinidad has attracted a number of high-level dignitaries and leaders including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo, who were in the audience during the opening ceremony. Rwanda President Paul Kagame and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken are also scheduled to arrive in Port-of-Spain on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Addressing leaders, Guterres began his speech by talking about the dire situation in Haiti, which was highlighted by all of the leaders in their address.
“The security situation is appalling, humanitarian needs are soaring, and there is not yet the political solution in sight,” he said, noting that he visited the country on Saturday. “But I came with hope and optimism.
“It is impossible to look at the crisis without seeing the long shadow of centuries of colonial exploitation, extortion, dictatorship and other screaming injustices,” Guterres said to applause. “We must ease the suffering of the Haitian people.”
He recognized the “critical efforts of CARICOM leaders” to extend their expertise to help mediate the crisis with the recent meeting of Haitian leaders in Jamaica.
“I will continue to push for a robust international force authorized by the Security Council to be able to help the Haitian national police to defeat and dismantle the gangs,” Guterres said.
The challenges in Haiti require greater engagement and greater solidarity, which are precisely the founding spirit of CARICOM, the secretary-general said, noting the regions’ cooperation in areas of economic and social development, combating non-communicable diseases and championing climate protection.
“The United Nations relies on Caribbean expertise and leadership,” he said, adding that the anniversary is a time for “critical reflection on the enormous challenges facing the Caribbean.”
“COVID-19 has destroyed lives and livelihoods, independently of our extraordinary response,” he said. “Tourism and export receipts temporarily collapsed. Prices for fuel and food skyrocketed. Debt burdens grew heavier, liquidity dried up and access to global capital markets worsened dramatically. All the while the climate emergency continues to escalate, threatening the very existence of small island and low-lying states.”
These challenges, said Patricia Scotland, the secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations, a grouping of former British colonies, are why “CARICOM has never been more relevant.”
“If you think about the challenges that the region has had in the last 50 years, it’s very difficult to think how these individual islands would have fared if they hadn’t expressed their solidarity in terms of coming together in CARICOM,” Scotland told the Miami Herald ahead of the opening ceremony.
Antigua and Barbuda’s. ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders agreed. Sanders, who writes a popular column that is distributed throughout the region, reflected recently on the bloc’s many missed opportunities as a result of leaders’ choosing to act separately by allying themselves with other countries for short-term national gain, and not with the majority of CARICOM.
Despite such shortcomings, Sanders said there’s still hope for broader success and the people of the Caribbean are better off due to the group’s existence.
CARICOM is “the only vehicle through which Caribbean people can assert a Caribbean identity in the world and through which Caribbean governments can achieve global attention,” Sanders said. “Absent CARICOM, what’s left is 15 countries which, individually, lack the critical mass, the financial capacity and the human resources to command any attention in the world. In the international community, CARICOM countries when they act together represent 14 votes. Those collective votes make a difference.”
