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Americas summit

posted on Apr 12, 2009 03:50AM

Americas summit is a big deal in Trinidad and Tobago
During the three-day summit, Brazil and the United States will patrol the international waters surrounding this nation of 1.3 million people, while neighboring Caribbean countries will patrol the country's territorial waters.

Oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago prepares to host its biggest event ever.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- Crews in this Caribbean capital are cleaning the streets, spiffing up hotels and corralling the homeless into shelters -- out of sight of visiting dignitaries who will arrive this week in advance of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, which starts Friday.

It is the hemisphere's largest and most important gathering of democratically elected leaders in years, and President Barack Obama's introduction to the region in a climate of global economic crisis. He will share the stage with 33 of his counterparts.

That makes it a very big deal for the region, but an even bigger deal for the host country.

Trinidad is accustomed to moving massive crowds at its annual carnival, the Caribbean's largest, but it is new to the logical challenge of welcoming 34 world leaders and their entourages, all vying for equal attention.

There will be at least twice as many visitors as hotel rooms to hold them.

In preparation for the spotlight, even the downtown skyline has received a $500 million face lift. Three new government-financed towers, including a 428-bed Hyatt Regency hotel and conference center, now grace a transformed waterfront adorned with newly painted murals of Caribbean life, palm trees and a brick-layered walkway.

OBAMA'S ROLE

Obama will become the first American president to visit the English-speaking Caribbean since Bill Clinton sat down with leaders of the Caribbean Community in Barbados in 1997.

This is the first hemispheric summit to be held in the Caribbean. Miami hosted the first Summit of the Americas in 1994.

''We're very, very summit-focused,'' Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Schoon told The Miami Herald. ``At this stage, we are formulating the meetings, scripting them.''

With the global financial crisis and the country's lush hills as backdrops, the leaders are expected to tackle topics as diverse as the decades-old U.S. economic embargo against Cuba and how to build a common defense against drug trafficking to protecting vulnerable habitats.

''It's a chance for true engagement of the entire Western Hemisphere,'' Gopee-Schoon said. ``It's the opportunity to face, as a group, the common challenges that are before us and the common solutions toward them -- especially at a time when the world is faced with various crises in the areas of food security, energy security, economic and financial stability.''

But putting on an event of this magnitude in a country the size of Delaware -- a country that consists of Trinidad and its sister island, Tobago -- is a huge undertaking.

There are only three roads in and out of this tiny capital from Piarco International Airport, limiting the options for transporting hemispheric leaders. The country has only 1,700 hotel beds, and it is expecting between 4,000 and 6,000 visitors.

The American delegation alone is about 1,000 strong, followed by Venezuela's, about 200.

BEDS AFLOAT

One detail that has been taken care of is providing additional sleeping accommodations. Two cruise ships have been chartered and will anchor in the nearby harbor to house delegates and 1,200 journalists.

Another detail still being worked on is security.

In recent weeks, local police and military personnel have beefed up patrols in volatile communities in the hope of stemming the country's escalating rate of murder and other crimes. Scores of security cameras have been installed along the east-west corridor between the airport and the summit's oceanfront venue. Exclusive security zones have been established, with residents required to get passes to access roads leading to their homes and businesses.

And while marine patrols guard the Gulf of Paria, surveillance blimps and helicopters will survey the country by air. About 600 military personnel and police officers from several Caribbean nations have been flown in to help guard convoys as they travel through the streets, and to handle protesters who are threatening to disrupt the gathering.

For every route that has been approved, there is a backup, say officials, who are mum on whether Obama will be transported by car or helicopter.

''From a security perspective, we are not saying what we are going to do,'' Browne said. ``We will bring people in on the road, but we will also use a mix of transportation options. We are not going to declare who is taking what option and when.''

SECURITY FALLOUT

The ramped-up security has already created traffic gridlock and disrupted businesses in the downtown area. Some are considering closing during the summit, while others have criticized the $100 million that the government has set aside to host the summit, as well as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in November in this former British colony. The star attraction at the November event will be Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

''It's a historic moment, but I don't think there will be much benefit to the people of Trinidad and Tobago,'' physician Philip Franco, 48, said of the summit. ``They've cleaned up the place a little bit, put up some walls to hide the slums . . , but that is the only benefit, really, and it's going to cost a lot of money.''

Waitress Afiya Vee, 27, disagreed. ''More exposure for Trinidad is always a good thing,'' she said.

Getting the public to understand the benefits of hosting such an event has not been easy.

''Our challenge has been to educate the population about what the return on the investment is,'' said Felipe Noguera, the spokesman for the government's national secretariat for the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

At least two individuals and one group have applied for permits to protest during the summit, police say. Among them is David Abdulah, general secretary of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union and organizer of the rival ''People's Summit of the Americas'' taking place Tuesday through Saturday at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad.

Abdulah says the Summit of the Americas doesn't go far enough to address the needs of the people in the hemisphere.

''Workers are losing their jobs, ordinary folks are losing their homes, they are not able to afford the education for their children and so on; they cannot afford healthcare,'' said Abdulah, whose group plans to demonstrate near the summit site on Saturday.

Since Trinidad and Tobago won the right to host the summit on behalf of the Caribbean Community three years ago at the last summit in Argentina, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and others have argued that the prestige will not just shine the international spotlight on the Caribbean's most industrialized nation, but will also help pave the way for a different kind of tourism in a nation that has focused more on oil, liquefied natural gas and ammonia exports than on its sun-drenched beaches.

TRADE PROSPECTS

Leaders also argue that by showing that it can successfully host such a huge and complex gathering, Trinidad and Tobago will move closer to its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2020. ''This summit is about talking, and it is about creating spheres of influence,'' said Browne, the country's trade minister. ``And it is also about creating the possibility for trading links, because essentially foreign policy and trade are very closely related.''

As for the country's ability to put on a spectacular show other than carnival:

''I want them to know we are fun-loving but industrious,'' Browne said. ``We are competent, we are capable, we are open for business; that we are not only about oil and gas, but we can do other things.''

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