Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Cari­com lead­ers were present for yes­ter­day’s launch of the 45th reg­u­lar Cari­com meet­ing ex­cept for Be­lize’s leader who ar­rives to­day.

Cari­com sec­re­tari­at of­fi­cials said Be­lize Prime Min­is­ter John Briceno is ex­pect­ed to­day. They al­so said the US team of Sec­re­tary of State Antony J Blinken will ar­rive to­mor­row to meet with lead­ers and this had been sched­uled.

At yes­ter­day’s sum­mit launch, heads of Cari­com coun­tries were es­cort­ed in­to the Hy­att Re­gency’s ball­room by Girl Guides and Boy Scouts. Some lead­ers like St Vin­cent’s Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves and Suri­name Pres­i­dent Chan­drikaper­sad San­tokhi held the hands of their lit­tle es­corts.

Oth­er lead­ers led by the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts were Cari­com sec­re­tary-gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett and Prime Min­is­ters Kei­th Row­ley (T&T), Roo­sevelt Sker­rit (Do­mini­ca), Mia Amor Mot­t­ley (Bar­ba­dos), An­drew Hol­ness (Ja­maica), Dick­on Mitchell (Grena­da), Gas­ton Browne (An­tigua), Philip Davis (Ba­hamas), Dr Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali (Guyana), Dr Ariel Hen­ry (Haiti), Dr Ter­rance Drew (St Kitts/Nevis), Philip J Pierre (St Lu­cia).

Al­so es­cort­ed in by the young­sters were Pre­mier Dr El­lis Web­ster (An­guil­la), E David Burt (Bermu­da), Pre­mier Dr Na­talio Wheat­ley (British Vir­gin Is­lands), Act­ing Pre­mier Samuel Joseph (Montser­rat), Deputy Pre­mier Er­win Saun­ders (Turks and Caicos), Pre­mier G Wayne Pan­ton (Cay­man Is­lands).

Oth­er at­ten­dees in­clud­ed Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Nigel de Fre­itas, Speak­er of the House Bridgid An­nisette-George, mem­bers of the Cab­i­net, the diplo­mat­ic corps, Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, and oth­ers.

Ab­sent was Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar who did not at­tend due to a pri­or en­gage­ment, UNC of­fi­cials said.

Sources said the Push­back Move­ment was ex­pect­ed to protest out­side the Hy­att to give Cari­com lead­ers let­ters call­ing for in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers for T&T’s Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions and to ex­press con­cern on se­cu­ri­ty and drug traf­fick­ing is­sues.

Push­back Move­ment leader Robert Amar said he was not able to be there yes­ter­day but the Move­ment’s Michael Kirk was ex­pect­ed to de­liv­er a let­ter to Cari­com’s sec­re­tari­at.