The Tribune

Tribune Chief Reporter Ava Turnquest hears from US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Mari Carmen Aponte on her first mission to the Bahamas and the last bilateral meeting between the two countries under the Obama administration.

“Elections in the US are usually tough and very competitive,” says Mari Carmen Aponte, US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Ms Aponte was acknowledging the high saturation of US election coverage in the country as she spoke to The Tribune in the American corner of the Harry C Moore Library at the soon-to-be University of the Bahamas.

“This election is very special,” she continued. “There is a lot at stake and I think the candidates are going at it with passion and knowing that there is a lot at stake, and each defending their own position. For me, I view it as a great exercise in democracy and a great opportunity for all Americans to participate. If there ever was an opportunity to do it, this is it.”

She added: “I’m glad to know and have already seen and heard from most Bahamians that I speak to how passionately they feel about one candidate or another. They feel as though it is their candidate.”

Ms Aponte had just concluded a spate of meetings with various NGOs and civil society bodies across a wide array of interest groups, such as HIV/AIDS, human rights, juvenile justice reform, voter registration, and LGBT rights. The final item on her two-day mission to The Bahamas was to assess hurricane recovery efforts and meet with senior government officials on a range of bilateral and regional issues.

Formerly the ambassador to El Salvador, Ms Aponte was appointed to the post in May. Notwithstanding the gruelling and intensely divisive campaign season, she believes that the change of administration will loosen the “logjam” that has seen the ambassador post in Nassau remain empty since 2011.

“I also see that in the relationship with The Bahamas it is such a strong relationship that it does not matter who wins,” she said. “I think The Bahamas is too important, it will not be ignored. I think one of the first things we will see in a new administration is the nomination of an ambassador. I would like to make it clear to your readers that the reason why there has not been an ambassador is not because of The Bahamas at all.

“That relationship is and continues to be strong,” she said. “It really has to do with our political system and the way that ambassadors have to be approved by a very, very political body that sometimes operates based on politics and not on qualifications. I think those kind of logjams are gonna be broken with a transition and that has happened not only in The Bahamas but in other multilateral bodies and in other countries. It is not because of the Bahamas, it’s really because of us.”

Her country visit on October 28 follows a mission to Haiti, where the death toll from Hurricane Matthew has topped 1,000 lives and severely undercut the country’s efforts at staging its own electoral process. Ms Aponte said interim president Jocelerme Privert has committed to staging those critical presidential elections on November 20.

“In southwestern Haiti out of every 100 houses, one had a roof,” she said. “The conditions are devastating but notwithstanding that [Acting president Privert] feels very committed and is pushing ahead. So far he has demonstrated and the election commission actions demonstrate that they have a goal of holding those elections.

“They have support of the United Nations, and he has said even if we have to put up special tents to have people come in and vote, we will do whatever we need to do to hold that election.”

During her visit, Ms Aponte engaged in bilateral talks with Prime Minister Perry Christie, Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, National Security minister Dr Bernard Nottage and Hurricane Matthew ‘czar’ Shane Gibson.

Of those talks, she said: “Of course there are other things that occur in the ordinary course of bilateral relationships between the two countries, improving relationships that we already have, or making sure they get better or are amplified. So we have been engaged in those types of discussions with the government while I have been here.

“Security is an area where we have been very active. The Bahamian government has done very well in areas of trafficking in persons, it is really a model for the region and should be very proud of the way the government handles that issue. Support for those ongoing programmes was another aspect of my visit and I do take with me a very good impression.”

Last month, the London-based Privy Council upheld the Court of Appeal’s ruling to quash the conviction in The Bahamas’ first tried human trafficking case. It said that Parliament should amend the law if it wants the Attorney General to have the power to fast-track human trafficking cases to the Supreme Court for trial.

Ms Aponte also considered the issue of travel warnings that arose in July when the US embassy issued its second advisory for the year, underscoring that armed robberies and violent crime remained a primary criminal threat. It noted that officials received reports of a significant increase in armed robberies throughout New Providence over the past six months.

The advisory conflicted with the government’s narrative that overall crime in The Bahamas had dropped by 29 per cent from January 1 to June 14 compared to the same period in 2015. And Dr Nottage told reporters that the embassy was “wrong”, and that the assertions were “not true”.

It was speculated that the US advisory was a political response to a travel warning issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs less than a week earlier, that warned Bahamians, specifically young men, to comply and be extremely cautious when interacting with police in the US. It was due to heightened tensions over recent fatal police shootings in America of black men.

“We always are working with all the countries in making sure that we can either support or somehow help in their security problems,” Ms Aponte said. “We do give out these travel warnings; they have nothing to do with the bilateral relationship. It has to do with the duty that the Department of State has to its citizens to warn them that they need to take care of themselves and their surroundings. It is something that we work on in the bilateral relationship and we have excellent co-operation.

“I think getting a handle on the security of the country is a process. It’s a process that takes a while, and it’s a process that needs to be worked at constantly and modified constantly because I think that people and issues of security change. And as they change we need to be aware that we are changing as well and that we need to be on top of them, and that we do this, the most important thing is that we do it together and we are doing that and we will continue to work in this area with the Bahamian government,” she added, “it’s too important.”

Ms Aponte was appointed Acting Assistant Secretary in the Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs on May 5. During her tenure as US Ambassador to El Salvador from 2012 until February, 2016, she focused on expanding crime prevention, the economy, democracy, sustainable development and human rights. She was the first Puerto Rican woman to hold the title.

Meetings with civil society in The Bahamas echoed her own personal journey as an activist, and policymaker.

“With each one of them, through my career working very actively in the Hispanic community in the states,” she said, “I had been where they all are, in different stages. I saw the development of my career almost right in front of my eyes because some of them were having issues with fundraising, others the issue of legitimacy, of credibility, the issue of recognition. All issues that are very relevant to how an NGO and civil society functions. I saw their struggles and my heart went out to them and I kept telling them that they should not give up,” she said.

“It’s in that constancy and that discipline of being present and staying the course that they can make a difference. I saw incredible spirit and was very excited with all the participants at the meeting.”

“With that kind of enthusiasm and energy,” she said, “when I think of [Free National Movement candidate for Bain and Grants Town] Travis Robinson and what is happening in the upcoming election in The Bahamas, that you will also do well.

Mr Robinson, the 21-year-old who was recently ratified by the FNM, is an alumnus of the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Programme.

“The young people who are so active in registering voters will do a great job, and give us all, even the ones who are not so much wiser but maybe more experienced a lesson in civic participation, which I also think is very important.”

From her first visit to The Bahamas, Ms Aponte said her greatest impression was the indomitable nature of the Bahamian spirit.

“I think that speaks to the spirit of Bahamians and their resilience,” she said, “and it doesn’t matter that there was a hurricane last year, that (hurricane) Matthew visited this year. You, the Bahamians, are still here present, very much focused on engaging and moving forward and I have been very positively impressed by what I have seen since I arrived.”

She added: “The spirit of the Bahamians is pure joy for me to see.”

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