WHEN Secretary of State Colin Powell announces, as is expected, that he will not be serving in another Bush administration - should there be one after the coming November presidential poll - a proper assessment may have to be made of the cooperation and support he actually provided the Caribbean Community (Caricom) during his term in office.

For all the spins out of Washington and expedient verbal gloss that occasionally flow from some Caricom capitals - including Kingston, Georgetown, Bridgetown and Port of Spain - an objective assessment may well establish that tensions in USA-Caribbean relations and the squeeze on some Community states by Washington on specific issues, have never been as severe as under the current Republican administration of George W Bush.
Do not expect governments in even Guyana or Jamaica - militant as they often appear - to officially and openly concur with my assumption, given the reality of economic and other forms of assistance they have already received from Washington, or that may be in the pipeline.

However, whether we are talking about the "Washington squeeze" resulting from disagreements over Caricom's original collective stand against the US-led preemptive war on Iraq; the forced interruption of constitutional governance in Haiti, in which the USA played a key role; or in defence of efforts to undermine this region's principled support for the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), we are dealing with tension in relations between 'Uncle Sam' and its so-called 'third border' cousins of this region.

As far as Mr Powell is concerned, precious few have been at the scheduled, structured meetings with Caricom leaders or at Foreign Ministers level, other than the one that briefly took place in the Bahamas during a bristling session.
There have, of course, been the occasional informal bilateral talks or meetings on the "margins" of hemispheric/international fora between Powell and Caricom ministers and ambassadors.

We are small and we know our place when it comes to big-league politics. Yet, in geo-political terms, we are also conscious that the important bridge we comprise as a small region between the two Americas remains very relevant for hemispheric security, especially in these days of international terrorism.
We also remain a region that places high priority on sustained good relations with the American people and whichever administration functions on their behalf in Washington.

However, in the language of diplomacy, one often has to read and re-read more than what is between the lines, especially when it involves relations between a group of small nations like ours and the world's sole superpower.
Therefore, when I received a press statement from the Caribbean Community Secretariat on June 8, titled "Fruitful talks between Caribbean Foreign Ministers and US Secretary of State", I was quite anxious to learn what new and positive development had taken place, knowing how unhelpful Secretary Powell has been to our Community.

The eight-paragraph statement made mention of a meeting on "the margins" of the 34th General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) that concluded in Quito, Ecuador on June 7.
A meeting on 'the margins" of any such international event is, at best, informal and not structured for any serious dialogue. There was no joint statement, and the Caricom Secretariat press release is rather economical when it comes to shedding light on what really could be identified as being "fruitful" or productive, from the Community's perspective.

Perhaps either the chairperson of Caricom's Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), Foreign Minister Billie Miller of Barbados, or current Caricom chairman, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda - having been briefed by his own foreign minister (Harold Lovell) - could help us to appreciate how really "fruitful" the meeting with Powell was, assuming it was more than a photo opportunity.

On two very sensitive issues - the interruption of constitutional governance in Haiti while Jean-Bertrand Aristide was president, and the extradition exemption demanded by Washington for US nationals who may be wanted to face prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes committed - Secretary Powell is not known to have done anything to help ease the constant pressures that a number of Caricom governments have had to endure from the Bush administration.
When he became the first Black American to be US Secretary of State, the entire Caribbean region and the Caribbean Diaspora shared the historic moment for this American son of Jamaican roots.

He was to prove unhelpful to Caricom in a short time after the initial happy, back-slapping and hands-pumping meetings and photo opportunities. A notable example would be his virtual somersault on a Caricom initiative on the Haitian crisis while Aristide was still in office.
Having endorsed the initiative that included firm demands on both Aristide and the opposition forces, as well as sending a peace-keeping military force to Haiti, the US administration, with Powell very much on board, walked away from it. The US went in favour of a plan that kept Caricom in the dark, right up to the sudden departure by Aristide from power on February 29, that coincided with a US-led military force being rushed to Haiti.

Nor is Powell known to have helped, when needed, in getting his boss to extend a "presidential national interest waiver" to Caricom states in relation to Article 98 of the ICC on extradition of US nationals when required to face prosecution.
On July 1, 2003, president Bush enforced his ultimatum that required six Caricom states to sign on to Article 98, or be cut off from any US military assistance.

Three of those six countries - Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Dominica - have since been pressured into jumping ship. Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago continue, so far, to stand firm.
Some other member states, including Jamaica, have either signed, but not ratified the Rome Treaty governing the jurisdiction of the ICC, while a few have neither signed nor ratified the Treaty. Consequently, it is of academic interest whether they may or may not sign the "non-surrender" Article 98, as the Bush administration wants. Guyana has already signalled its intention to sign.

In relation to Caricom's initiative to get the OAS to probe the forced interruption of constitutional governance in Haiti, and chart the way forward for democratic elections under an interim regime in Port-au-Prince, the US State Department, under Powell's leadership, fought to the last minute in Ecuador last week to dilute the original draft resolution seeking to invoke Article 20 of the OAS Democratic Charter.

Finally, after suffering serious language brutality through "amendments", an 18-point resolution was approved by "consensus" (sic). It is now being defended in some regional quarters as the "best that could be achieved in the circumstances".
Is Mr Powell pleased with himself for getting some to genuflect at the OAS General Assembly?

In the interest of knowing what we have really gained as a Community - after three months of efforts for an independent investigation into the circumstances of Aristide's sudden departure from office - it may well be necessary for a comparison to be made between the Caricom resolution on the Haitian crisis situation, as adopted by the OAS Permanent Council in Washington on February 26, and that approved at last week's General Assembly in Quito.

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