CARICOM CONCERNED OVER US REGIONAL MILITARY BUILD-UP

By Staff Writer

Rising tensions between the United States and Venezuela are triggering splits with Caricom, the regional political bloc, over the military build-up in the Caribbean.

The Trump administration has been ramping up pressure on the Venezuelan socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro, ostensibly over narco-trafficking but with equally mounting concerns over the suppression of democracy in the South American socialist country.

In the most recent development, the US government of President Donald Trump has approached Grenada to install radar monitors and other military facilities on that island.

The Grenadian government says it is studying the request.

But the issue has been escalated to the highest levels of Caricom, with several regional leaders convening a virtual meeting to consider the Grenada issue and the wider regional implications.

Their concerns are also said to be linked to the ongoing controversial US naval attacks in the southern Caribbean Sea.

The US says the attacks, which have seen several reported drug-carrying fastboats blown up and the occupants killed, are to curb narco-trafficking, which it says is originating out of Venezuela.

The Caricom leaders in the meeting are said to have highlighted misgivings about US military expansion in the area, stressing their wish for the Caribbean to remain a ‘Zone of Peace’ and for international law and regional sovereignty to be respected.

The leaders of Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia said they stand by Grenada and will back its decision ‘in the national interest’ regarding how it chooses to proceed with the request of the US government.

Speaking for his country, Grenada’s Prime Minister, Dickon Mitchell, said: “We wish to assure our citizens that any decision taken will be guided by Grenada’s sovereignty, public safety, and national interest, including the protection of our tourism industry, the travelling public, and the country’s economic well-being.”

But there’s an emerging split between current and former Caribbean leaders as the US-Venezuela tensions deepen.

The Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is firmly backing the American military action in the region, while several former regional leaders have issued a joint statement raising questions about the likelihood of escalation ensnaring Caribbean countries.

The group includes former prime ministers of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and St. Lucia.

In the joint statement, they declared: “When Caribbean leaders gathered at Chaguaramas in 1972 under Dr Eric Williams’ chairmanship, peace was accepted as a dominant factor in shaping our social and political framework. That principle must not now be eroded.”

In a new development, the United States government has intensified its naval presence in the region by deploying the USS Gerald R Ford, said to be the world’s largest battleship. A US Government spokesman said its presence “will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organisations.”

The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, has accused the US of “inventing” a war with his country.