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(CMC)— Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders are scheduled to meet on Friday ahead of the arrival of United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in Jamaica next Wednesday, well-placed sources told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Thursday.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Stuart Young had earlier told reporters that he had “spent quite a while on the telephone this morning” with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who is also the Caricom chair “sharing ideas ahead of a Heads of Caricom meeting to be convened tomorrow 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 giving any further details about the meeting or Rubio’s visit to the region.
But, according to the sources, the regional leaders on Friday, will among the agenda items, receive an update on the situation in Haiti, where criminal gangs are trying to overthrow the government and efforts are being made to hold fresh general and presidential elections in November this year.
In addition, there will be 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 interlocur, 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.
The disclosure came after US Special Envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mauricio Claver-Carone, met in Washington with the representatives from Barbados, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts-Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
The 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.
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Ohh please….The United States is the boss of the world they call the shots…Yawns….
4 men in a photo
A bunch of traitors!!!
I wish someone would throw in an explosive device while you are seated awaiting the US official.
I do not want the US official to be harmed with you people.
Aren’t you seeing what is happening in Dominica?
How could you send troops to Dominica to take advantage of the people who are standing for their rights
The Foreign troops have no idea what the Dominicans are going through so they have no empathy nor sympathy.
How could you leaders attempt to suppress a people who are the most heavily taxed in the Caribbean?
Dominicans receive the lowest pay in the Caribbean.
Dominica has the worst health care in the Caribbean.
Dominica has a dying and dwindling population caused by migration. The migration is cause by a poor economy lead by a failure who has been in power for 25 years.
Today the rope is tightening around his neck he wants to cement his hold on power.
He wants to create a one party state.
He wants to own Dominica.
So Dominicans according to you should not stand up against that?
Is that how wicked and selfish you leaders are? You all deserve to be extinguished in the same room at the same time
what is happening in Dominica is that protestors DID NOT FOLLOW THE RULES, so they suffer the consequences!! Police told them to stay behind the barricade, but no! What did they do? SHAKE THE BARRICADE to aggravate the police.
No mention of Hon. Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda.
I’m going to guess in as much as The PM is the next incoming Chairman of CARICOM; he is to busy keeping up the moral off his Riot Troops on BARBUDA; or he busy prep for his legal cases.
Mr. PM you can’t make up documents and then say that there is nothing more to see. That may work in the known currupt Courts of the Eastern Caribbean but not elsewhere.
This is your moment to shine, as the Chair if CARICOM and the Chair of the ECCB.
Unfortunately the way things are going you may soon have start packing your bags. You have a friend in the President of Air Peace
I spoke to both a doctor and nurse here who told me that the Cuban Government gets between 80 -90 percent of their salary as per their agreement. This was confirmed by 2 other Cuban nurse friends in 2 separate Caribbean countries. I Googled it and it was confirmed there as well That is why the overseas Medical Program is so important to Cuba. The government benefits big-time. For this reason, the US is adamant that this arrangement must be stopped. Even while they put heavy sanctions on Cuba, Cuba is making and raking in millions from these Medical programs and it bothers Washington that Caribbean governments are supporting it.. Even if Governments pays the full salary over to the Cuban doctors and nurses, the doctors and nurses are still indebted to their country (Cuba) who must get their 80 to 90 percent share. Caribbean countries are caught in no man’s land where this issue is concerned. Washington is displeased. I suspect that Rubio is coming to read to them the “riot act.”