Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has posited the view that the recent meeting between the United States President Donald Trump and some Caribbean leaders as “troubling.”

The Prime Minister lamented that meeting did reflect the view of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as the current chairman of the regional body, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis Dr. Timothy Harris, was not invited.

Additionally, he noted that key members of the CARICOM advisory committee including himself, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley were not invited to the meeting.

“None of those persons were invited and for it to be a true CARICOM representation you must at least have the chairman so that any discussion of Venezuela in that context . . . it cuts across the agreement mechanisms that we have put in place,” said Gonsalves.

The Prime Minister argued that the U.S. action against Venezuela is tantamount to “a creeping coup d’état” against a legitimate government.

“We in CARICOM have to be very alive to the mischief that some persons may be up to, to seek to divide us in a manner which we ought not to be divided and therefore reduce the extent of our work.”

The only invitees from the region to the Trump meeting to discuss the crisis in Venezuela and energy agreement were Prime Ministers of Jamaica, the Bahamas, and St. Lucia as well as the Presidents of the Dominican Republic and Haiti met with Trump to discuss the crisis in Venezuela and energy.

 “We are not supporting the principles of non-intervention and non-interference and no threats or force or sanctions. We are not holding a position on these things because we have a Petro agreement. We are doing so because of high principle and our commitment to international law,” noted Gonsalves.

 “I just want to keep CARICOM viable and I don’t have to try and make the CARICOM civilization great again we are an alive civilization of legitimacy. We have a history of achievement and we have a trajectory for ennoblement. We are not better than anybody and nobody is better than us and you must not try to divide us,” the Prime Minister added.

Marcia Wright, Readers Bureau, Fellow

Edited by Jesus Chan

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