By Earl Bousquet

Caribbean citizens also observed those events, but were more concerned with home-grown problems like the latest and largest sargassum seaweed invasion of the Caribbean Sea, messages from an unprecedented ‘mini-tornado’ that hit Guadeloupe -and how their governments planned to shield them from effects of the impending global trade war.
Islands with Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programs experienced public concern over whether they will be punished by the UK and USA for selling passports cheaper; and analysts speculated over the future of the twin-island republic after last month’s regime change in Trinidad & Tobago.
Election Fever continued spreading in several nations: Guyana, Jamaica, Surinam and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) are officially due to go to the polls his year, while The Bahamas and Saint Lucia are due in 2026 and Barbados by January 2027.
Indeed, campaigning is already fully underway in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Saint Lucia -and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
But even as seven Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders gathered in Washington to discuss the state of US-Caribbean ties with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Caribbean citizens remained focused on domestic issues -from Crime and Food Security, to preparedness for welcoming undocumented immigrants deported from the USA.
On May 7, Rubio met leaders of the six member-states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and The Bahamas, for high-level discussions on regional security, energy resilience, economic development, and migration. The meeting discussed energy security, during which the Caribbean leaders expressed “urgent need to reduce high electricity costs, expand renewable energy investments and modernize critical infrastructure.”
According to a report by the St. Kitts & Nevis Information Service (SKNIS), the leaders “emphasized that affordable, sustainable energy is not only a development necessity, but a foundation for economic transformation, job creation, and youth opportunity.” It said Rubio “acknowledged these concerns and signaled US.support for initiatives that enhance energy resilience, while cautioning against overdependence on partnerships that may present long-term vulnerabilities.”
Noting “the geographical proximity” of US territories in Caribbean waters (like Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands,) the region’s leaders also “called for a deeper partnership with the US that reflects the strategic neighborhood the Caribbean represents and the enduring relationship with the US prior to and post the formalization of diplomatic ties forged.”
The meeting also discussed transnational crime and border security, with both sides “advocating for stronger intelligence-sharing and regional coordination to combat gun trafficking and organized criminal networks.”
The Caribbean leaders sought “closer cooperation on climate resilience, food and health security, migration protocols and more-equitable US visa and repatriation policies.” They also advocated for “stronger US collaboration with regional institutions such as the OECS, the Regional Security System (RSS) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Authority (CDEMA).
Rubio “reaffirmed the US commitment to foreign assistance that aligns with local priorities” and the meeting ended “with a shared resolve to advance a forward-looking partnership that addresses both long-standing issues and emerging challenges across the Americas.”
The meeting with Rubio was the next-best-thing to meeting President Trump, the Cuban-American being the first Latino of Caribbean origin to hold the top foreign affairs post in Washington -and also having inherited responsibility for the $40 Billion budget of the scrapped US Agency for International Development (USAID).
However, none of that seemed to matter for many in Guyana, for example, where the death of an 11-year-old girl is now a hot presidential and parliamentary elections campaign potato; or in Saint Lucia, where the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) hurriedly observed the centenary of the birth of its late founder, Sir John Compton -but without informing or inviting his wife and family.
Barbados is also in elections mode, the two major parties already selecting and registering candidates for an election expected by December -but without record-breaking Prime Minister Mia Mottley. The island’s first woman Prime Minister and Leader of the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is expected to instead seek election as the next United Nations (UN) Secretary General -and all bets are on as to who’ll replace her as the new BLP leader.
Meanwhile, even with elections in the air, the opening of the 2025 Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival on April 30 attracted over-10,000 paying patrons, as islanders continue bubbling ahead of the Carnival and Calypso season in June and July, leading to Emancipation Month from July 31 to August 31. Saint Lucia and Dominica are also preparing for Kweyol Heritage Month in October, which sets the stage for the indigenous and international cultural mixes between Christmas and New Year Holidays.
Not that Caribbean people don’t care about tomorrow… But this is also a region where people have accepted there are ‘some things’ they feel they ‘just can’t change’ -like imported inflation and increasingly visible effects of accelerated Climate Change.
With no choice, many simply ensure they ‘Enjoy every day!’, as, according to native Caribbean wisdom, ‘Tomorrow belongs to no one!’
But try telling that to the region’s Presidents and Prime Ministers, who daily live sleepless nights pondering on how to wake-up tomorrow with solutions to the ever-present problems of leadership and governance. For them, there’s always a tomorrow, but usually with normalized hangovers.