Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Gov­ern­ment has re­served its po­si­tion and dis­as­so­ci­at­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go from a state­ment is­sued by Cari­com’s Coun­cil for For­eign and Com­mu­ni­ty Re­la­tions (COF­COR), which ex­pressed alarm at re­cent state­ments sug­gest­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion against Cu­ba and called for the preser­va­tion of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

This was con­firmed in Cari­com’s com­mu­nique on COF­COR’s meet­ing, which was held in Suri­name last week. COF­COR is Cari­com’s sec­ond-high­est body.

Yes­ter­day, Cari­com is­sued a com­mu­nique on the COF­COR meet­ing, in­clud­ing the sit­u­a­tion af­fect­ing Cu­ba.

The Unit­ed States has threat­ened mil­i­tary ac­tion against Cu­ba, af­ter in­creas­ing pres­sure through mea­sures in­clud­ing an in­ten­si­fied fu­el block­ade, in­dict­ing Cu­ba’s for­mer pres­i­dent Raúl Cas­tro, and gath­er­ing mil­i­tary forces in the re­gion.

The ac­tions have been per­ceived as an ap­par­ent US bid to­ward regime change.

Trinidad and To­ba­go did not have min­is­te­r­i­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion at the COF­COR meet­ing.

Rep­re­sent­ing this coun­try, ac­cord­ing to Cari­com’s com­mu­nique, was Can­dice Shade, a For­eign Ser­vice Of­fi­cer V in the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs.

Since Feb­ru­ary, Trinidad and To­ba­go has not had min­is­te­r­i­al or prime min­is­te­r­i­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion at Cari­com meet­ings due to its ob­jec­tion to Cari­com lead­ers’ reap­point­ment of Cari­com Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett in Feb­ru­ary.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the process was not con­duct­ed ac­cord­ing to the Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas. Cari­com has main­tained that it was and de­tailed how the reap­point­ment was car­ried out.

At a fi­nal May 8th meet­ing on the is­sue, which the Prime Min­is­ter did not at­tend, lead­ers stood by the reap­point­ment.
Bar­nett was among those ad­dress­ing the COF­COR con­fer­ence.

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers did not re­ply to Guardian Me­dia’s What­sApp ques­tions on T&T’s po­si­tion on Cu­ba and why this coun­try re­served its po­si­tion on COF­COR’s stance.

Cari­com’s state­ment con­firmed that Guyana al­so re­served its po­si­tion on COF­COR’s state­ment on Cu­ba.

Ex­press­ing pro­found con­cern re­gard­ing the on­go­ing and in­ten­si­fy­ing eco­nom­ic, com­mer­cial and fi­nan­cial mea­sures im­posed on Cu­ba, COF­COR stat­ed: “The coun­cil re­minds that the mount­ing hard­ships fac­ing the Cuban peo­ple al­so se­ri­ous­ly im­pact Cari­com na­tion­als study­ing and liv­ing in Cu­ba, whose well-be­ing re­mains a pri­or­i­ty for the Com­mu­ni­ty.

“These mea­sures com­pound the trade and eco­nom­ic em­bar­go im­posed on Cu­ba for over six decades, which has had a dele­te­ri­ous ef­fect on the lives and liveli­hoods of the Cuban peo­ple. COF­COR un­equiv­o­cal­ly af­firms Cu­ba’s sov­er­eign right to im­port and re­ceive fu­el, and con­demns the ob­struc­tion of en­er­gy sup­plies to Cu­ba, which has pre­cip­i­tat­ed a grave hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis.”

COF­COR reaf­firmed the need for the preser­va­tion of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace and ex­pressed alarm at re­cent state­ments sug­gest­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion against Cu­ba.

“Any such ac­tion would in­flict un­nec­es­sary hu­man suf­fer­ing, im­pose grave ma­te­r­i­al costs, and fun­da­men­tal­ly desta­bilise the se­cu­ri­ty ar­chi­tec­ture of the en­tire Caribbean re­gion.”

Un­prin­ci­pled Govt stance — Browne

For­mer For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Amery Browne con­grat­u­lat­ed Cari­com and COF­COR for is­su­ing “an im­por­tant, prin­ci­pled state­ment on the cri­sis im­posed up­on Cu­ba. What is be­ing done to the peo­ple of Cu­ba is un­con­scionable.”

He added: “Giv­en that this Cari­com state­ment con­tains ref­er­ences to in­ter­na­tion­al law, hu­man rights and norms gov­ern­ing re­la­tions be­tween sov­er­eign states, and oth­er ref­er­ences root­ed in prin­ci­ple and the UN Char­ter, it should sur­prise no one at this stage that the state­ment isn’t sup­port­ed by Trinidad and To­ba­go un­der the most un­prin­ci­pled Prime Min­is­ter, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“Just when you think you’ve seen the worst as­pects of the UNC’s de­struc­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion and stand­ing, we’re re­mind­ed by this Gov­ern­ment that there’s worse to come.”

“To­day’s cow­ard­ly stance by Trinidad and To­ba­go is a re­pu­di­a­tion of the decades of gen­eros­i­ty from the Cuban peo­ple and a to­tal be­tray­al of the re­gion­al stan­dards and prin­ci­ples that have guid­ed every past Trinidad and To­ba­go leader, in­clud­ing the UNC’s own Bas­deo Pan­day.

“He and oth­er past prime min­is­ters would nev­er have sup­port­ed the use of lit­er­al star­va­tion and de­pri­va­tion of fu­el as tools of ma­nip­u­la­tion in the in­ter­nal af­fairs of a sov­er­eign state.”