Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will at­tend the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly to ad­dress world lead­ers, along with three min­is­ters, in­clud­ing Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath.

Sev­er­al oth­er Cari­com lead­ers will at­tend next week’s UN­GA, and the sub­ject for most will be peace.

This, as US/Venezuela ten­sions con­tin­ue, with Trinidad and To­ba­go be­ing a tar­get of Venezuela.

Venezuela, which is a found­ing mem­ber of the UN, will be rep­re­sent­ed at the UN­GA and is ex­pect­ed to strong­ly de­nounce the US’s mil­i­tary de­ploy­ment in the Caribbean - the is­sue that’s at the heart of US/Venezue­lan ten­sions.

Venezuela sees it as a covert at­tempt to over­throw the Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro regime and has mo­bilised na­tion­als to de­fend the coun­try.

Top Venezue­lan of­fi­cials said Venezuela’s For­eign Min­is­ter Yvan Gil, or Venezuela’s Vice Pres­i­dent, Del­cy Ro­driguez, will con­front the is­sue at the UN­GA’s high-lev­el week pro­gramme. The UN­GA is be­ing held in New York from Sep­tem­ber 23 to 27.

The US’s mil­i­tary de­ploy­ment cen­tres on an in­ter­na­tion­al coali­tion against drug car­tels. Per­sad-Bisses­sar has spo­ken fierce­ly in sup­port of the US’s moves, in­clud­ing the Sep­tem­ber 2 mis­sile at­tack on an al­leged drug boat, killing all 11 on board.

This coun­try’s team to the UN­GA, led by Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in­cludes For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the min­istry Nicholas Mor­ris (Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter), as well as Padarath, who is al­so a Min­is­ter in the OPM, of­fi­cials con­firmed. The team will trav­el in two batch­es.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said last week she will ad­dress the UN­GA on Sep­tem­ber 26. She re­turns Sep­tem­ber 30.

Aides said Per­sad-Bisses­sar will stand by T&T’s po­si­tion, the cri­sis the coun­try has seen over the years due to drug op­er­a­tions fu­elled by crime, and sup­port for ef­forts to se­cure peace.

But the mil­i­tary de­ploy­ment will like­ly see a di­vid­ed Cari­com ad­dress­ing world lead­ers at the UN­GA.

Last week, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, ques­tioned on the di­vi­sion in Cari­com on the is­sue, said re­cent elec­tions in Guyana and Ja­maica “may have damp­ened a co­he­sive re­sponse from the en­tire Cari­com.”

Yes­ter­day, of­fi­cials in Ja­maica con­firmed that Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness will at­tend the UN­GA and speak. Hol­ness is the out­go­ing Cari­com chair­man.

Guyanese Pres­i­dent Dr Ir­faan Ali, who is at­tend­ing the UN­GA, will like­ly speak on peace for the re­gion, it was con­firmed.

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Prime Min­is­ter Gas­ton Browne, who has been out­spo­ken against mil­i­tary con­flict or pres­ence in the re­gion and in his calls for main­tain­ing the Caribbean as a zone of peace, is at­tend­ing the UN­GA. He said he will speak on the US mil­i­tary de­ploy­ment.

Browne said, “I won’t pri­ori­tise diplo­mat­ic niceties but will send a strong mes­sage that we’re against any form of mil­i­tary in­ter­ven­tion in our hemi­sphere.

“While I wel­comed US ef­forts against nar­co-traf­fick­ing, it must be done with re­spect for hu­man and con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and due process. I’m not seek­ing con­fronta­tion, sim­ply stand­ing on my un­com­pro­mis­ing prin­ci­ples of truth, peace, love, and jus­tice.”

The Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fice in St Kitts and Nevis con­firmed that Prime Min­is­ter Ter­rance Drew (in­com­ing Cari­com chair­man) will speak at the UN­GA.

St Vin­cent and the Grenadines Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves will al­so at­tend and speak, his of­fice con­firmed. Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley is ex­pect­ed to be a voice for peace.

Grena­da Prime Min­is­ter, Dick­on Mitchell, will at­tend, Grena­da ‘s OPM con­firmed.

Be­lize For­eign Min­is­ter Fran­cis Fos­e­ca re­cent­ly said Be­lize sup­ports the US mil­i­tary work against the car­tel. But he al­so ac­knowl­edged Cari­com’s con­cern that the re­gion re­main a zone of peace.