Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders are scheduled to meet on Friday before the arrival of United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in Jamaica on Wednesday, according to well-placed sources who spoke to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Thursday.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Stuart Young told reporters that he had “spent quite a while on the telephone [Thursday] morning” with Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who is also the CARICOM chair, discussing ideas for the CARICOM meeting to be convened [Friday] afternoon.
“I gave her the assurance that Trinidad and Tobago will continue to be at the front of the batting lineup, standing firm at the crease with CARICOM,” Young said without providing further details about the meeting or Rubio’s visit to the region.
According to sources, the regional leaders will discuss several agenda items on Friday, including an update on the situation in Haiti, where criminal gangs are attempting to overthrow the government whilst efforts are being made to hold fresh general and presidential elections in November this year.
The leaders will also receive an update on the Guyana-Venezuela border dispute. Earlier this week, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, travelled to Georgetown and Caracas for talks with Presidents Irfaan Ali and Nicolas Maduro as tensions rise between the two countries over the disputed Essequibo region.
A government statement issued in Kingstown noted that Gonsalves, who serves as an interlocutor based on the Argyle Agreement signed between the two countries in December 2023, “cautioned that an escalation into open conflict could devastate both nations, economically and socially and destabilise the entire Latin America and Caribbean region, potentially leaving us with a humanitarian and refugee problem”.
The statement said he advised “both parties to resolve the matter so it does not lead to any conflict,” recalling that after signing the Argyle Agreement in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the “leaders had then reiterated their commitment to Latin America and the Caribbean remaining a Zone of Peace”.
The regional leaders are also expected to discuss a concept for a regional debt swap, as well as the impact of the announced United States charges on Chinese-built ships going to US ports.
Last week, it was announced that Rubio was expected to travel to the Caribbean region before the end of March for discussions on a number of issues affecting CARICOM relations with the North American country.
This disclosure came after US Special Envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mauricio Claver-Carone, met in Washington with representatives from Barbados, the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
Sources told CMC that Rubio will be in Jamaica on Wednesday and that the meeting will discuss Washington’s recent announcement regarding the Cuban health brigade system, energy and economic development as well as Haiti’s security and stability. They said that not all regional leaders are expected in Kingston for the talks.
CARICOM countries have defended the Cuban health programme, which they say has benefitted the region significantly, even as Rubio announced recently that Washington would be expanding an existing Cuba-related visa restriction policy that targets forced labour linked to the Cuban labour export programme.
“This expanded policy applies to current or former Cuban government officials, and other individuals, including foreign government officials, who are believed to be responsible for, or involved in, the Cuban labour export programme, particularly Cuba’s overseas medical missions,” Rubio said then.
Some CARICOM leaders, notably Prime Minister Mottley, Gonsalves, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda and senior Grenada government ministers, have publicly indicated their willingness to give up their United States visas in favour of the Cuban health brigade programme, which they said has benefitted their countries tremendously.
(CMC)
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