All presidential men

A narrative about official, and unofficial visits to Trinidad  by incumbent and past presidents.

On November, 21^st, 1936, the USS Indianapolis refueled off Port of Spain harbour with US president Fanklin Delano Roosevelt on board. He went into a small craft while the ship was refueling and tried his hand at some fishing down-the–islands, but didn’t catch a thing. He was on his way to Argentina to attend a peace conference in Buenos Aires, the capital. 

On the return journey on December 11^th, he visited Port of Spain, with his son James. This was the first visit to Trinidad by an incumbent US president. Roosevelt was met on board the Indianapolis by the Colonial Secretary, Alfred Wallace Seymour C.M.G. , acting in place of Governor Murchison Fletcher, who was visiting Tobago at the time. He toured Port of Spain by car and held a press conference for the local and US press, who had flown down to Trinidad aboard one of Pan Am’s flying boats for the interview.

This was not FDR's first visits to Trinidad. He had been here on a cruise in 1904 with his mother and a friend when he was a 22 year-old university student. He married his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, the following year.

On January, 11^th, 1943, Franklin D Roosevelt landed off the coast of Chaguramas at the US Naval Air Station, on Pan Am’s Boeing 314 Flying boat, the Dixie Clipper. In the early part of the Second World War, German U-boats wreaked havoc in the Caribbean Sea. Traveling by ship, needless to say, was a very dangerous affair, especially for a US president who preferred this means of transport. FDR, out of necessity, became the first US president to travel by air on official business.

He was on his way to Casablanca, Morocco, for a strategic conference with other allied leaders, and Trinidad was his first stop. He spent the night at the Macqueripe Hotel, and continued his flight on the Pan Am Clipper at 5.30 am the following morning. On the return journey on 29^th January, 1943 he spent the night in Trinidad again and left the following day (his birthday) for Puerto Rico.

Theodore Roosevelt (the 32^nd president) was Franklin D Roosevelt (26^th president of the USA) distant cousin. He visited Trinidad in 1916, but strictly as a tourist and naturalist. Teddy Roosevelt was feeble and sickly as a child, but his father encouraged him to exercise, and by his late teens, he developed great physical strength and athletic ability. A noteworthy contrast to Franklin D Roosevelt lost the use of his both legs to polio in 1921.

Teddy met with local botanist, and biologist when he came to Trinidad on his way back home from Guyana in March, 1916.  He made many excursions into Trinidad’s countryside, the most notable was a trip to the Oropouche (Cumaca) caves to see the oildbirds (guacharo birds) .

He described the journey as follows:

“I made an interesting trip with three friends: F.W. Urich, the entomologist, G.B. Rorer, the mycologist, and the soliciter-general, Archer Warner into the northern mountains of Trinidad to see the guacharo birds…."

About transportation arrangements he relates:

“We motored out thirty miles to a point where the governor had most  kindly arranged  to have horses meet us. Then we rode four hours back among the mountains to a plantation belonging to Mr. Francis Leotand, who had courteously arranged that we should sleep in a room of the overseer’s house. The ride was lovely.” He continues in high praise of the beauty of the flower and fauna and the interesting wildlife he encounters along the way."

Roosevelt spent the night in question sleeping on a table. He apparently developed a taste for local rum punch, which Urich was in the habit of mixing, and Urich carried a  stash of the drink with him. 

From left: Aucher Warner, Friedrick William Urich or James Birch Rorer (kneeling), and Teddy Roosevelt at the entrance to the Cumaca Caves in March 1916.

He declined the primary nomination for a third term in office by his own Progressive Party, which he announced in a statement to Henry Stoddard, the editor of the New York Evening Mail. This became known as the “Trinidad statement” thus linking his stay in Trinidad to a significant US Political event.

At a dinner held in his honour at the Trinidad Union Club, he is reported to have made derogatory remarks about Colombia, and the character of its leaders, which prompted a challenge to a duel from the Colombian consul, whose presence he was apparently unaware of. Naturally, he ignored the challenge, and left for New York on March, 17^th, 1916 aboard the steamer "Maura", where he and his wife Edith arrived one week later.

Another significant visitor was none other by First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin D Roosevelt. She arrived by plane on 16th, March, 1944, after visits to other Caribbean islands where US troops were stationed. The purpose of her visit is best described in her own words:

“On the 4th of March Tommy and I left for our 13,000-mile plane trip in the Caribbean area. My husband had insisted that I take this trip. Because the war had receded in that area, the men stationed there felt they were in a backwater and chafed to be where they could do what they considered a more important job. Nevertheless, we had to have men there to guard and watch for submarines, because there was so much traffic to Europe, Asia and Africa.

Franklin wanted the men to realize that he knew and understood the whole picture and believed they were doing a vital job-that they were not forgotten, even though they were not on the front line.”

“Tommy” was her personal secretary and aide, Malvina Thompson.

She mingled and socialized with military officials, and spoke at a few cinemas where US troops were gathered to hear a prepared message from FDR. She also answered impromptu questions about domestic affairs in the United States.

Eleanor Roosevelt addressing US sailors at Chaguaramas

Sixty six years later in 2009, Trinidad welcomed Barrack Obama, the first black president of the US. The visit was highly anticipated, and some even purchased prints of his official portrait. The President was in Trinidad to attend the “Summit of the Americas” conference which coincided with the Commonwealth Head of Government Conference which was attended by Queen Elizabeth 2^nd.

There was the perception of a softening of America’s position on Cuba, and Obama even shook hands with Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, who presented him with a copy of the book,” Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina (The Open Veins of Latin America, Five Centuries of the pillage of a Continent)” by Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano.

The book deals with the topic of imperialist exploitation of Latin America. By curious coincidence, the gesture, whether intentionally derisive or not, almost evens the score with the US for statements made about other Latin American leaders by Teddy Roosevelt, at the Union Club diner, 93 years before Obama’s visit.

P.S.  FDR did not live to see the end of WW2. His successor, Harry S. Truman, landed at Wallerfield with his wife on Sunday 31st, August, 1947 at 4.50 pm, on his way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was met by Governor, Sir John Shaw, and Lady Shaw. The president and his wife remained within the confines of Fort Read, and left the following morning just after 3.00 am.

On 27th May, 2013, US vice president, Joe Biden visited Trinidad and held talks with the Prime Minister and other Caribbean leaders. He left the following day.