PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar, says she is not concerned if regional countries decide to withdraw their support for Port of Spain as it seeks a position on the United Nations Security Council for the period 2027-28.
“I simply do not care if anyone withdraws their support. That is their choice,” Persad-Bissessar told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper in response to a story carried by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that her administration’s decision to support the United States in its military build up in parts of the Caribbean, could lead to a re-think by regional countries to support the UN Security Council nomination that had been secured under the Keith Rowley administration.
The CMC, quoting regional sources, said that Trinidad and Tobago may have also rendered itself ineligible to represent CARICOM, given Prime Minister Persad Bissessar’s view that the US military should kill all traffickers “violently”.
On Sunday, Port of Spain reiterated its position why it is standing apart from its Caribbean Community (CARICOM) neighbours saying that the United Sates military operations are “aimed at combatting narco and human trafficking and other forms of transnational crime (and) are ultimately aimed at allowing the region to be a true “Zone of Peace” where all citizens can in reality, live and work in a safe environment”.
The statement came less than 24 hours after the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat said that regional leaders had met last week to discuss several issues on the regional agenda, including the security build-up in parts of the Caribbean and its potential impact on member states.
It said that the government of the twin-island republic did not endorse the position at that meeting.
The meeting follows a series of deadly strikes by the Donald Trump administration targeting suspected drug-trafficking vessels off the Venezuelan coast, the latest of which reportedly claimed the lives of two Trinidad and Tobago nationals.
Prime Minister Persad Bissessar told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper, “Quite frankly, my only care and concern is for the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
“I have made it explicitly clear that Trinidad and Tobago will always come first under my leadership. No other country besides the US is willing to assist us in fighting the drug and arms traffickers aggressively.
“I am not going to toe Caricom’s line while our country is going to hell with drugs, out-of-control violent crime, and murders for the last 20 years. Added to that, we have tens of thousands of illegal Venezuelan immigrants here who are putting a strain on our services,” she added.
Last month, following discussions with the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, which she described as “very, very good” for Trinidad and Tobago, Persad Bissessar told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper “You may or may not know, we applied for a seat on the UN National Security Council, there has been no objection to that, there has been no other nomination, so it means we would have succeeded”.
But former foreign affairs minister, Dr. Amery Browne, on Monday, accused the Trinidad and Tobago government of “deliberately” misconstruing “basic CARICOM principles and concepts” and that Prime Minister Persad Bissessar “continues to misunderstand” the CARICOM concept, such as the zone of peace.
“The current government of Trinidad and Tobago has now completely isolated itself from CARICOM and is clearly serving another agenda,” Browne told CMC, adding that ‘every right-thinking citizen must be deeply concerned by recent developments”.
Trinidad and Tobago holds responsibility for security in the quasi-CARICOM cabinet, and Browne said the prime minister has “completely abdicated her responsibilities within the CARICOM quasi cabinet and her government is harming our relations in CARICOM and our relations with other countries in the region”.
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