As it was in colonial times, when Saint Lucia acquired her name Helen of the West, and as proved true during World Wars, the Cold War, and even in the Taiwanese hunt for UN recognition, Caribbean nations are once again placed in a tricky game of diplomatic chess. This time it’s to decide who will offer sovereign support to a petroleum-generous friend of developing Caribbean islands, or instead stand behind the powerhouse that is the United States of America.
Because of a special visit to the US, following an invitation from President Donald Trump, it has been deduced that some member states, including Saint Lucia, support Juan Guiado’s self-proclaimed presidency of Venezuela. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, once the richest country in South America and still the site of the largest oil reserves in the world, held elections in January that delivered to Nicolas Maduro his second six-year term as president. However, over fifty other countries in the world have now chosen not to recognize the latest elections, some accusing Maduro of rigging the whole process. They have decided, with the US leading the way, to recognize instead Juan Guiado as the interim President of Venezuela until fresh elections are called.
Although Saint Lucia had never officially denounced Maduro’s presidency, it is one of nineteen countries of the Organization of American States which voted to not recognize Maduro as leader after the general elections, a position contrary to CARICOM’s previous stance against outside interference in Venezuelan affairs.
CARICOM had requested a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which was cancelled days before it was scheduled to happen on March 6, leaving Trinidadian Prime Minister Keith Rowley to explain that he did not know why the meeting was no longer possible. By March 22, government leaders of the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Saint Lucia were instead invited to a special meeting with President Trump in Florida.
Prime Minister Allen Chastanet emphasized that Saint Lucia’s position on Venezuela is clear, even in the face of suggestions from outside that he had undermined CARICOM. “We believe at this point that in order for Venezuela to be able to get on with its life, it needs to have fresh elections,” Chastanet told reporters on his return from the Florida meeting. He said Saint Lucia “stands very strongly and very firmly in our belief that to resolve this problem, and not cause any further intervention into Venezuela’s affairs, President Maduro ought to agree to sit down and have a discussion on fresh elections”.
He said that CARICOM has been divided on many issues in the past, including Citizenship by Investment policies, and Chinese or Taiwanese support, but there has never been a problem of members working together. There clearly are some differences, he acknowledged. “There are groups of us who believe that the dialogue needs to take place without an agenda and that the two groups must be forced to sit down in order to be able to arrive by themselves on a way forward. There are those who believe enough time has gone by, enough damage has been done, that what we need is fresh elections. And what’s happening now is that the vast majority of countries in the world support fresh elections.”
In the telling of former foreign affairs minister Alva Baptiste, Saint Lucia should play the balancing role and a “good brother” to Venezuela. He said this week: “I do not believe it was a proper posture to assume being a member of CARICOM. If he [Chastanet] was chairman of CARICOM, he would find it inappropriate for a country or a small group of countries to just break away and decide to have their own meetings with third parties on very principled issues.”
