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PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- The residents of Beetham Gardens, a drab area of rundown government housing and relentless gang warfare, have been cut off from the rest of this sprawling Trinidadian capital. The government has erected a wall along the neighborhood's frayed edges, blocking the view into a long troubled community that shares space with the murky waters of industrial waste, overgrown weeds and the constant stench of the nearby landfill. The 5-foot-tall wall is simply a beautifying touch, say government officials, who have spent months prepping for the arrival this week of 33 leaders including President Barack Obama at the largest and most important gathering of hemispheric leaders. But to those who live behind the wall, the structure means something else: It's a symbol of years of broken promises, government neglect and the widening gap between the haves and have-nots. ''They can talk prosperity. They can talk about development. But there can be no development in a country if you continue to leave behind any community or any of your people,'' said Sherma Wilson, 42, a mother of four and community activist who has taken on the plight of this long-suffering east Port of Spain community. ``The peace we seek? We can only do that if we develop community by community.'' As Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepare to engage regional leaders at the three-day summit that begins Friday, the question of deep-rooted social and income inequalities in the region will be a priority for the new administration. ''We know that there has been progress . . . in this hemisphere on gross domestic product increase and reduction of poverty, particularly abject poverty,'' said Jeffrey Davidow, a former U.S. ambassador in Latin America and now a White House special advisor for the summit. HIGH INEQUITY ``But the fact remains that Latin America, according to the United Nations, is the least equal of all the areas of the world. The level of inequity . . . is very high, higher than anywhere else.'' Until the current global economic crisis, Latin America and Caribbean countries had seen six years of robust economic growth following ''the lost decade'' debt crisis of the 1980s. But as standards of living have increased, governments have struggled to meet the social and economic needs of their poorest citizens. From Port-au-Prince to Buenos Aires, where residents recently took a sledgehammer to a 10-foot ''Wall of Discord'' separating an impoverished neighborhood from a wealthy enclave, poverty persists. Here in this oil- and natural gas-rich country, disagreement over the construction of the wall hasn't sparked its dismantling. Instead, it has fostered debate on not just the failures of the past, but the perils of growth. ''When you look at Beetham and understand the kinds of natural resources and wealth this country have, you ask yourself, why do communities like Beetham have to be in this poverty-stricken position?'' said Juliet Davy, 43, who moved to Beetham 38 years ago and fears the wall will make residents more vulnerable to crime. ``The government has taken the people for granted.'' Fueled by rising world oil prices, Trinidad and Tobago's economy has seen more than a decade of growth, hitting 12 percent in 2006, according to the World Bank. Even today as oil prices drop, the economy is still thriving as the twin-island nation boasts one of the highest per-capita incomes and lowest unemployment rates -- 5 percent -- in the region. Ralph Cabrera and Maria Anderson were reelected to the city commission on Tuesday evening. BY ELAINE DE VALLE edevalle@MiamiHerald.com

Voters in Coral Gables reelected both incumbents -- albeit by different margins -- to their posts on the city commission in Tuesday's election. Incumbent Maria Anderson defeated challenger Gonzalo Sanabria 55 percent to 45 percent of the nearly 6,000 votes cast, with 24 of the 26 precincts reporting. The commission's other incumbent, Ralph Cabrera, had an even easier time, defeating challenger Richard W. Martin II, 78 percent to 22 percent. ''I'm just thrilled,'' a visibly exhausted Anderson said Tuesday night with tears in her eyes. ``I love serving my city and I'm glad the citizens of Coral Gables gave me another opportunity to do so.'' When asked to assess the ease of her victory in what was expected to be a closer race, Anderson said: ``I don't know, I'm still processing it. When a candidate knows your city and has lived in it and cares about it, people know the difference.'' Despite campaigns to ''take back Coral Gables'' and bring the city ''back to basics'' in light of several recent scandals, residents said they were generally pleased with their local government and their ballots represented that. ''I'm very happy in the city,'' said Herminio San Roman, an attorney who voted for both City Commissioners Maria Anderson and Ralph Cabrera. ''My trash is picked up regularly. Police and emergency services are right there when you need them,'' San Roman said. ``Taxes are probably one of the lowest for what we get.'' He also did not like the tone of the campaign waged by Gonzalo Sanabria, the former planning advisory board member and current Miami-Dade Expressway Authority member, who had been campaigning since October against Anderson. ''He made it too personal and it was out of character for Coral Gables,'' San Roman said. When the absentee ballots were counted after the polls closed, Sanabria was actually leading by less than 100 votes -- 1349 to 1267. While Cabrera handily beat Martin, who owns a real estate management firm and sits on the city's emergency management board, the Sanabria/Anderson face-off was expected to be much tighter. Many voters at the polls said they liked Sanabria after he knocked on their doors and engaged them in conversation. But others echoed concerns raised by the Anderson camp about his votes to move the Urban Development Boundary while on the planning board. One woman said she changed her vote to Anderson after learning Sanabria never voted in a city election. Realtor Maria Somoza, who voted at the Saint Augustine Catholic Church, said Anderson was ``tried and true.'' She didn't feel the same way about Cabrera, who was first elected with Anderson and Mayor Don Slesnick in 2001 during a wedge issue race, when the majority of the Commission was turned out by voters who disagreed with plans to build a City Hall annex and close off Biltmore Way. ''He keeps voting down the museum and I think that's very important,'' she said, referring to votes on the Coral Gables Museum. Voters also made decisions on five charter amendments on the ballot. They passed term limits for commission members -- 12 years for commissioners, eight years for mayors -- by 59 percent to 41 percent of votes. The mayoral four-year term was apparently reduced to two years by a slim 51 to 49 percent. They also kept the trial board, a panel of residents that review the disciplinary action of the city manager at an employee's request. But they decided to not let the city increase the amount the city manager can spend on public works projects from $25,000 to $100,000 without going to the commission for approval. You wanted the national attention you crave, Florida International? You got it. You wanted escape from the sports shadow of the University of Miami? You found it. The fixes surely are short-lived and their long-range impact dubious. But as a quick-fix or glorified publicity stunt or shades in between, FIU could hardly have done better, or bigger, than to trot out Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas as its new men's basketball coach. For once Tuesday, FIU didn't stand for Forgotten-Ignored-Undercovered in athletics as the announcement of Thomas' hiring rang down from the mountaintop of ESPN SportsCenter. Again Wednesday, at his introductory news conference here, the Golden Panthers will flare onto the national sports map like never before. One question, though: Then what? FIU made a big hire. It made a loud hire. But did it make a good hire? How smart will it look after the initial wave of attention recedes and the work you don't see starts? There have to be legitimate doubts about that by all but the most star-struck. Thomas, for all his success as a Detroit Pistons point guard, has failed and often spectacularly in his post-playing career. He has been fired from both his opportunities as an NBA head coach. He has never coached at the college level. He has failed as a basketball administrator. He arrives with the baggage of off-court controversies, too. Thomas, who turns 48 on April 30, has much to prove about his ability to coach, particularly at an NCAA level new to him. DIFFERENT LEAGUE One also wonders how satisfied a man can be going from the NBA to the third-tier Sun Belt Conference. Going from the New York Knicks to FIU. And landing in a city that isn't a college basketball town by any stretch, and where his new program plays an afterthought to the Miami Hurricanes of the mighty Atlantic Coast Conference. Thomas says he is excited about college coaching. Yet he interviewed only two weeks ago for a front-office position with the Los Angeles Clippers. It feels like a leap to imagine FIU will be more than a reputation-rehab stop for Thomas, a necessary step to a bigger college program or eventually back into the NBA. Meantime, for a positive spin, maybe working in the shadows will do Thomas some good. Lord knows the spotlight hasn't been his friend lately. The book of Isiah is not an easy read because there has been such a veering plotline. The book was a fairy tale, all good, during his championship-festooned playing career, but it has been closer to a horror story since. After retiring as a player, he failed to distinguish himself as a Toronto Raptors executive or as a TV analyst. Then it went downhill. Thomas purchased the Continental Basketball Association and ran it into oblivion, the CBA drifting into bankruptcy and then folding under his leadership. Then he coached the Indiana Pacers, inheriting a team that had reached the NBA Finals but failing three consecutive years to get past the first round of the playoffs before being fired.

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Then things really went downhill. His past five years steering the New York Knicks as president and/or coach amounted to a sporting disaster, feeding amply those screaming back-page tabloid headlines until finally he was run out of town to a cacophony of ''Fire Isiah!'' chants. He was 56-108 his two years coaching the Knicks before being bounced last April. He traded away future draft choices, two of which turned out to be lottery picks, for Eddy Curry. He fathered the Stephon Marbury mess. He paid $30 million to mediocre Jerome James. Knicks fans hear Thomas' name and look as if they've bitten a lemon.

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