Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/2740/-1/133/
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HEARTICALLY YOURS: The Legacy Of El Libertador by Ijahnya Christian
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Simon Bolivar is not among the familiar names of the history I was taught in school and I have to confess, though not with pride, then when I first encountered the name somewhere during my school days, I read it with the English pronunciation and somehow managed to think of a poem that my mother used to recite about a Young Lochinvar who came out of the west on a steed that was the best.
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Ijahnya Christian
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Oh what imagery and oh what ignorance! Today, I am inspired to write this piece on learning that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is about to mark the legacy of Simon Bolivar on September 6th the date, in 1815, of his now famous Letter from Jamaica. In that now famous letter the young man born in Venezuela in 1783, developed his treatise for the unity of Latin American unity under republican government.
Bolivar had been making arguments for Spanish American independence even in his teenage years and between 1813 and 1824 fought battles to secure the liberation of Venezuela, Columbia, Panama, Ecuador and Peru. After several of these battles, he fled to Jamaica in 1815 where he wrote the letter that was really a reply to a Jamaican gentleman who had expressed sympathy with the cause for South American liberation and a desire to learn more about that continent. In December of that same year Bolivar travelled to Haiti where he gained tangible and moral support of Haitian President Petion who made only one request of the Liberator. The request was that he freed all the slaves in the countries he intended to liberate. Bolivar met that request to the extent possible but once he began to proclaim general freedom for all slaves he incurred the wrath of the slave owners, military commanders and the powers of the day who made his life so hot that he was forced to flee again to Haiti with whose help combined with that of British and Irish mercenaries, he defeated the Spanish Imperial Army to liberate Columbia. In 1822, Upper Peru became a separate state which earned its independence in 1824 and was named Bolivia in honour of Bolivar. Venezuela also bears his name as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the basic monetary unit of that country is the Bolivar. Today, in Jamaica’s Heroes Circle in Kingston, there resides a proud statue of Simon Bolivar that was a gift to Jamaica from the people and Government of Venezuela.
21st Century Caribbean relations have rekindled the legacy of Simon Bolivar and at the helm of what has become known as the Bolivarian Alternative or the Bolivian Alternative is none other than Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. Just last week, American tele-evangelist Pat Robinson called for Chavez’s head (read assassination) and the furore continues as we speak. The Bush administration hastened to divorce itself from the remarks, the ABC Family cable channel rushed to change its disclaimer to separate itself from the remarks made on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) telecast, the Rev. Jesse Jackson did not miss a beat at the diplomatic opportunity to ease tensions and Chavez himself glowing with that fuel to his fire, expressed the possibility of having Robertson extradited for the terrorist act of urging the assassination of a duly elected head of state. I cannot help thinking that Robertson’s sentiments are still shared by some who dare not express them and the reasons for wanting to thwart Chavez are clear.
Apart from Cuba’s Fidel Castro, who is his close friend and mentor, Chavez is the only leader in the countries washed by the Caribbean Sea, who has the desire and the means to challenge the USA’s hegemony in this region. Before the age of terrorism and in the absence of our economic and military might, US foreign policy regarding CARICOM would have been based almost solely on our geographic location. More now than ever, that superpower cannot ignore Venezuela’s growing influence for if the Caribbean is in the USA’s backyard, we are Venezuela’s front garden and the socio-economic plants of CARICOM are heavily dependent on oil. It was therefore easy for 14 Caribbean countries with the exception of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, to sign Chavez’s Petrocaribe Agreement in July this year, to access fuel at much lower costs than afforded by present arrangements. The Petrocaribe Agreement has been described as “a body aimed at facilitating the development of energy policies and plans for the integration of the nations of the Caribbean through the sovereign use of natural energy resources to directly benefit their peoples. Petrocaribe will be responsible for coordinating and managing all issues associated with the energy related links between the signatory countries…Petrocaribe is seen as the core of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), an unveiled Chavez response to FTAA and current moves by the USA to enter bilateral and regional trade pacts with selected countries.”
It is not oil alone either. The Castro-Chavez alliance in the “Miracle Mission” initiative started by President Castro during his visit to Venezuela for the Petrocaribe meeting, is a health initiative that extends to the CARICOM countries, Cuba’s medical services which have been restoring sight to persons who have been blind for decades and treating persons suffering from serious ophthalmological diseases including those that would involve lens surgery and the complications of diabetes as well as retinal problems and glaucoma. In its proposal which is being favourably considered by St. Kitts and Nevis, the costs of the airfare to Cuba, the surgical or medical treatment and accommodation in Cuba will be jointly financed by the Governments of Cuba and Venezuela. Guyana has already accepted Cuba’s offer. Even more than oil and health, it is the resurgence of socialist and communist ideologies in this part of the world that makes the US so nervous. Before we understood how the propaganda machine works, those economic and social systems were actually touted as being of the devil, while capitalism was and still is treated as being synonymous with democracy. CARICOM, known for the strength of its democracy, is in this instance showing a great deal of pragmatism in building regional alliances that are to its advantage in this era of free trade, no matter what Uncle Sam thinks.
Does the legacy of Simon Bolivar have any significance for Anguilla? I do not know.
Do you?