GROS ISLET, St. Lucia – After an impressive official opening ceremony yesterday, Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis and members of The Bahamas delegation participated in the first business session of the 40th Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government today, Thursday, July 4, 2019
In addition to an address Her Excellency Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway — a special guest of CARICOM, who also spoke at the opening session — items on Thursday’s agenda included discussions on blacklisting, the SIDS Resilience Foundation and the CSME.
Bahamas Senator, the Hon. Jennifer Isaacs-Dotson, President of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), was also scheduled “to take part in the engagement with representatives of the private sector, labour and civil society,” according to information provided by Yontalay Bowe, the official photographer attached to the Office of the Prime Minister, along with pertinent information for captions for her photos
Speakers at the opening ceremony, held at the Royalton St. Lucia Resort, included United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres; St. Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, incoming Chairman of CARICOM; Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris of St. Kitts and Nevis, outgoing CARICOM Chairman; and CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque.
According to CARICOM’s website, UN Secretary-General Guterres “has been paying close attention to challenges in the Caribbean Community.”
“In 2017, following the devastation by Category Five Hurricanes Irma and Maria in several Caribbean Community Member States, he visited for a first-hand view and to meet affected residents,” the website notes. “Later, he collaborated with his CARICOM counterpart Ambassador Irwin LaRocque to host the CARICOM-UN High Level Pledging Conference at UN Headquarters in November that year to support the rebuilding process and the effort to make the Caribbean Community the world’s first climate resilient region.”
The website also said Heads of Government “are expected to build on the St. Ann’s Declaration approved at their 18th Special Meeting on the CSME, in Trinidad and Tobago in December.”
“The Declaration, which confirmed the CSME as still the most viable platform to support the Region’s growth and development agenda, put forward several measures for determined action,” the website states. “Among them, a more formalized, structured mechanism for engagement with the region’s private sector and labour; expansion of the categories of skilled nationals entitled to move freely and work within the Community, to include Agricultural Workers, Beauty Service Practitioners, Barbers and Security Guards; ensuring Community-wide recognition of each Member State-issued CARICOM Skills Certificate; reinforcing regional security mechanisms; and permitting the Region’s citizens and companies to participate in public procurement processes across the Community.”
One issue during the packed two days of deliberations that will almost certainly generate disagreement among the CARICOM heads is how to address the crisis in Venezuela. Of significance is the fact that current Chairman of CARICOM Chastanet was one of the five leaders from the region who met with U.S. President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate In Palm Beach, Florida in March in support of U.S. efforts to oust Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, who is considered to be a dictator by both the U.S. and the OAS, and replace him with opposition leader Juán Guaidó.
Bahamas Prime Minister Dr. Minnis was also one of the Caribbean leaders at that Mar-a-Largo meeting, along with Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Haiti President Jovenel Moise, and Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina, whose country is not a member of CARICOM and subsequently is not at the Heads of Government meeting in St. Lucia.
However, the four leaders of CARICOM-member states who were at the meeting with President Trump are participating in the deliberations in St. Lucia and unless their positions have changed over the past three months, robust discussions – possibly even very heated – may possibly erupt during discussions on the crisis in Venezuela.
Indeed, Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley and St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves vociferously criticized the meeting of the CARICOM leaders with President Trump, with Dr. Rowley publicly stating that they were not speaking on behalf of CARICOM.
Dr. Gonsalves’ criticism was equally as strident during a video-taped interview shortly after the Mar-a-Largo meeting. Earlier, in a letter to CARICOM leaders and heads of states, Dr. Gonsalves “complained that the 15-member grouping was allowing a small group of powerful nations within the OAS to dilute CARICOM’s collective strength by dividing the regional states in a bid to overthrow the Venezuela government,” according to published reports.
It was probably in anticipation of heated discussion on the Venezuela crisis that the CARICOM Chairman Chastanet delivered a powerful opening ceremony address, during which he stressed the importance of unity among CARICOM member states.
The 15 CARICOM Member States are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. There are five Associate Members – Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
