Caribbean Islands Foreign Relations
Although it is a small developing nation, the Bahamas has managed
to involve itself in a wide range of international affairs. It
became a member of the United Nations (UN) in 1973. In the late
1980s, the Bahamas belonged to a number of international
organizations, including the World Bank, the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (de facto), the International Monetary Fund (IMF-
-see Glossary), the International Civil Aviation Organization, the
World Health Organization, and the World Meteorological
Organization. The Bahamas also belonged to several other
intergovernmental organizations, such as the Pan American Health
Organization, as well as to several regional development banks,
including the European Investment Bank, the IDB, and the Caribbean
Development Bank. It was a signatory of the Treaty for the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (Tlatelolco Treaty)
and a member of the Nonaligned Movement. Regionally, the Bahamas
was a member of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the
Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom--see Appendix C).
In the first few years following independence, the Bahamas
identified closely with United States interests. By the early
1980s, however, it was evident that the Bahamas was moving toward
greater involvement in regional and international affairs and was
not necessarily seeking to satisfy the United States. It joined the
OAS in 1982 and Caricom in 1983 after a lengthy period of close
cooperation with the latter organization. In 1984 it hosted
Caricom's seventh Heads of Government Conference. The Bahamas
opposed the 1983 United States-Caribbean intervention in Grenada,
labeling it a "premature overreaction," and declared that there
should be no intervention in the affairs of other states.
Since independence, the Bahamas has been a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations (see Appendix B), the organization bringing
together nations and dependent territories presently or previously
under British sovereignty. In 1985 the Bahamas hosted a Meeting of
Heads of Government of the Commonwealth; Queen Elizabeth II paid an
official visit to the Bahamas at that time. As a former British
colony, the Bahamas also was one of the African, Caribbean, or
Pacific countries affiliated with the European Economic Community
under the Lomé Convention (see Glossary).
Although the Bahamas had diplomatic relations with over forty
nations throughout the world, it maintained diplomatic missions in
only four countries: Canada, Britain, Haiti, and the United States.
High commissioners served as official representatives to Canada and
Britain, whereas a chargé d'affaires was assigned to Haiti.
Bahamian officials in the United States included an ambassador in
Washington and consuls general in both Miami and New York. The
Bahamas also maintained a permanent mission to the UN in New York
with a resident ambassador.
Just five nations maintained diplomatic or consular missions in
the Bahamas. The United States and Haiti each had embassies, the
Dominican Republic and The Gambia had consulates, and Brazil
maintained a vice consulate. The Gambia maintained a consulate as
a result of close relations with the Bahamas in the Commonwealth
and because a majority of Bahamians were of West African origin.
Additionally, twenty-five nonresident ambassadors and thirteen
nonresident high commissioners (ambassador-level representatives of
Commonwealth nations) were accredited to the Bahamas. The Honorary
Consul Corps provided representatives from twenty-five countries;
these officials assisted foreign nationals in emergencies. The
corps consisted of, in descending order of rank, consuls, honorary
consuls, consular agents, and commercial representatives.
Traditionally, the most important factor influencing Bahamian
foreign relations has been the nation's geography, especially its
proximity to the United States, Cuba, and Haiti. Of these three
neighbors, the United States has been the most important.
Throughout Bahamian history, the United States has played a
significant role in the nation's economy.
In the late 1980s, the United States and the Bahamas were
parties to over thirty treaties and agreements covering aviation,
consuls, customs, defense, extradition, investment guarantees,
postal matters, property, shipping, social security, taxation,
telecommunications, trademarks, visas, and weather stations. The
United States also operated naval and air facilities in the
Bahamas. The United States Navy's Atlantic Underseas Test and
Evaluation Center, located on Andros Island, was involved in
underwater research and submarine testing. On Grand Bahama, the
United States Air Force operated an auxiliary airfield that
assisted the United States National Aeronautics and Space
Administration in tracking test flights from Cape Canaveral. In
April 1984, the Bahamas signed an agreement whereby the United
States would pay US$100 million over a 10-year period for the use
of these sites. In addition to an embassy in Nassau, the United
States also maintained preclearance units at the nation's two
international airports at Freeport and Nassau. The units were
composed of employees of the Customs Service, the Department of
Agriculture's Plant and Animal Inspection Service and the
Immigration and Naturalization Service and were designed to help
United States travelers complete their customs and immigration
formalities before entering the United States.
In March 1985, the Bahamas was designated a beneficiary of the
Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI--see Appendix D). As a result of
the structure of the Bahamian economy, however, the CBI had
virtually no impact on the Bahamian economy. The Bahamas was unable
to participate in the special tax provision involving deductions
for business people because it had not entered into a tax
information exchange agreement with the United States. In a
December 1986 speech to Parliament, Prime Minister Pindling
asserted that limited trade concessions meant little in an
environment of slow global economic expansion, declining commodity
prices, and rising protectionism.
Beginning in 1980, the Bahamas and the United States agreed to
intensify efforts to hinder the illegal flow of drugs, and they
coordinated a drug interdiction program (see Current Strategic
Considerations, ch. 7). The United States Anti-Drug Abuse Act of
1986 authorized the establishment of the United States-Bahamas Drug
Interdiction Force and the construction of a joint United States
Coast Guard-Bahamas drug interdiction docking facility. The law
authorized expenditures for helicopters and improved communications
detection equipment. The Bahamas-United States Mutual Legal
Assistance Treaty, designed to hinder drug traffickers from money
laundering, was expected to be signed in late 1987.
Although the United States had more drug interdiction
agreements with the Bahamas than with any other country, United
States officials in the late 1980s at times questioned Pindling's
commitment to the narcotics control effort. In 1987 the Bahamian
government took umbrage at various statements on this issue by
United States officials, regarding them as unacceptable intrusions
in the islands' domestic politics. The Pindling government
responded by engaging in such actions as temporarily suspending the
airport parking privileges of the United States ambassador. It
remained to be seen whether Pindling would engage in more
substantive retaliation in the wake of his impressive electoral
triumph in June 1987.
The country's proximity to Haiti has made it a haven for
economic refugees from that nation. The number of illegal Haitian
immigrants has increased steadily over the last several decades, as
have accompanying social and economic problems. Haitian immigrants
began to trickle into the Bahamas in 1948; by the late 1950s, that
trickle was described by government officials as a flood. Roundups
and deportations began at that time and reached an annual high of
2,899 deportees in 1963, when the government resolved to clear out
the illegals. Following the election of a black independent
government in 1967, a change in official policy was expected; a
leading PLP figure indicated that expulsion was out of the question
because so many Haitian illegals were raising families. The new
government, however, initiated a repatriation program similar to
that in 1963 and deported 2,589 Haitians in 1967.
Illegal Haitian immigrants kept arriving despite the regular
roundups and detentions and the implementation of a new "Bahamas
for Bahamians" policy that was intended to phase out the employment
of expatriates. According to the 1973 Constitution, those born in
the Bahamas to noncitizen parents may register for citizenship only
at age eighteen or within twelve months of that birthday, provided
that no dual citizenship is involved. (Before independence every
person born in the Bahamas was able to claim Bahamian citizenship.)
Despite these restrictions, by early 1980 the illegal Haitian
immigration had reached enormous proportions, with an estimated
25,000 in a country having fewer than 210,000 people.
The situation developed into a major political issue as the
expense of health care and other services for these illegals
increased along with Bahamian unemployment. In September 1985, some
alleviation was noted when the governments of the Bahamas and Haiti
signed a treaty whereby Haitians who arrived prior to 1981 would be
legalized. A two-month voluntary repatriation period was
established, after which deportation would be carried out in an
orderly and humane manner. As of early 1987, however, an estimated
20,000 to 40,000 Haitians still resided in the country. None had
been accorded legal status under the terms of the treaty. About
2,000 had been repatriated, but many of those detained for
deportation were quartered in less than humane facilities. In 1986
it was estimated that over 300 Haitians had returned voluntarily.
Both the United States Department of State and human rights groups
in the Bahamas have expressed concern over the treatment of illegal
Haitians.
For years, Bahamian relations with Cuba were strained by
disagreement over territorial fishing rights. The disagreement came
to a head in May 1980, when Cuban military aircraft sank a Bahamian
patrol vessel, the Flamingo, after it had apprehended two
Cuban fishing boats; four Bahamian marines were killed during the
event (see Regional Security Threats, 1970-81, ch. 7). The Bahamas
demanded an unconditional apology and full reparations. Cuba agreed
to the Bahamian demand and paid US$5 million to replace the patrol
vessel and US$400,000 to the families of the four marines. The two
nations continued diplomatic relations despite the incident. In May
1986 a new nonresident Cuban ambassador presented his credentials
to the government and encouraged the development of Bahamian-Cuban
diplomatic, commercial, and cultural relations. Cuba was the only
communist nation with which the Bahamas maintained diplomatic
relations.
Although Bahamian relations with Britain in the late 1980s were
most often overshadowed by its relations with its giant neighbor to
the north, important links persisted. Over 300 years of British
colonial rule left many relations still intact. Membership in the
Commonwealth increased Bahamian contact with former British
colonies around the globe. Important linkages also existed in legal
institutions, such as the right of Bahamians to final, judicial
appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.
British cultural influence on the Bahamas was also strong. Finally,
although trade between the two nations was relatively small
compared with trade with the United States, it was still
significant. In 1984 Bahamian domestic exports to Britain were 7.2
percent of the total figure; imports from Britain accounted for
approximately 7.7 percent of the Bahamian total.
Data as of November 1987
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