Trinidad’s prime minister escalates feud with Caribbean neighbors over US policy in the region

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Trinidad’s ongoing row with its Caribbean neighbors over U.S. policy toward international drug trafficking and Venezuela boiled over into a full-scale verbal war Friday, with the prime minister demanding the exit of CARICOM’s secretary-general after her term ends in August.

Regional tensions among members of CARICOM, a 15-member regional trade bloc, spiked late last year when governments denounced U.S. military action in the South Caribbean and the build-up of an unusually large American force near Venezuela intended to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro.

Regional neighbors previously called for the Caribbean to remain a “zone of peace,” but Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar dismissed the label as “zone of peace fakery,” throwing her support behind U.S. military strikes and the Trump administration's broader campaign against international drug trafficking and organized crime.

She has now turned her focus to CARICOM's general operations, demanding that Secretary-General Carla Barnett step down once her five-year term concludes in late August.

Since winning Trinidad's general election one year ago, the prime minister has used her platform to push for Barnett’s removal, reminding leaders that Trinidad pays around 22% of CARICOM's annual budget, around $20 million.

Persad-Bissessar has repeatedly expressed her administration’s deep dissatisfaction with the bloc’s current operations, saying she remains puzzled why the region aligned with Venezuela and Maduro rather than supporting the U.S. position.

“Caricom has chosen to support the Maduro narco-government through the fake zone of peace narrative,” she said in a statement in late 2025 as the U.S. was preparing for action against Maduro and as governments complained about the alleged illegality of the deadly boat strikes.

Her relentless monthslong campaign against the bloc and its chief executive had forced Friday's emergency meeting to discuss Barnett’s reappointment.

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