February 25, 2026 Anna Ramdass
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday launched an onslaught against Caricom leaders, saying while Trinidad and Tobago remained ‘vested’ in the regional bloc, this country would no longer bind itself to the region’s political ideologies, foreign policy positions or security frameworks.
Instead, Persad-Bissessar said T&T will craft its own foreign and security policies to defend its sovereignty as it sees fit.
She also signalled that while T&T supported regional movement in principle, the burden of illegal immigration prevented any further commitment at this time.
The Prime Minister outlined her position during an address at the opening ceremony of the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in Basseterre, St Kitts.
It was the first Caricom meeting she attended since her election in April 2025.
She outlined issues she had with the regional body and criticised Caricom’s ‘unreliability’ in defending Trinidad and Tobago against threats from the former Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela.
She said it was the United States that stood with T&T, and she extended gratitude to US President Donald Trump.
Tensions among Caricom states have been high in recent months amid Persad-Bissessar’s strong support for the US military presence in the region and her criticism of Caricom as an ‘unreliable partner’ over its collective silence when the former Maduro regime threatened T&T.
Standing before regional leaders, Persad- Bissessar said Trinidad and Tobago respected the sovereign right of Caricom members to determine their own national security and foreign policies.
However, she said her Government had taken careful note of events in Caricom in 2025, when the then-Maduro government threatened Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
She recalled coming to Guyana’s defence, warning that if Guyana were touched, Trinidad and Tobago would stand with it.
T&T was also threatened and ‘is still under threat’, she said.
Persad-Bissessar questioned how the Caribbean could be deemed a ‘zone of peace’ when a ‘narco dictator’, who she said imprisoned and killed thousands of civilians and opposition members, was threatening violence against two Caricom member states.
‘There was no voice from the Caricom,’ she said.
Because of that ‘unreliability’, she added, ‘we cannot bind ourselves to the same political ideologies, to the same foreign issues and the same security policies of the entire Caricom’.
Persad-Bissessar welcomed remarks by Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, that each Caricom state must chart its own pathway according to national circumstances.
Persad-Bissessar said going forward, T&T will continue to work with Caricom, but ‘we will want to have our own foreign issues, policies, defend our sovereignty as we see best’.
US co-operation The Prime Minister acknowledged Trinidad and Tobago’s support for the United States military presence in the region.
She said this move was necessary as T&T grappled with crime fuelled by illegal trafficking from Venezuela.
‘Thanks to President Trump, thanks to Secretary (Marco) Rubio, and the US military, I say thank you today for standing firm against narco-trafficking, human and arms smuggling originating from Venezuela,’ she stated.
She recalled that in 2024, while crime was treated as a ‘public health gimmick’, this nation of 1.4 million recorded 623 murders.
Persad-Bissessar said of those, 40% were gang-related, driven by narcotics and firearms smuggled from Venezuela.
She noted that in 2025, following a change of government and a policy shift to treat drug cartels and gangs as violent terrorist organisations, US military action in the Caribbean contributed to a 42% reduction in murders with 257 fewer killings.
Persad-Bissessar reiterated her gratitude to the US government, stating she could not rely solely on Trinidad and Tobago’s own military or the wider region for assistance, noting some islands lacked substantial military or police forces.
‘In Trinidad there is a saying, ‘who vex loss’,’ she said, underscoring that T&T had benefited from US support.
Thomas scandal
The Prime Minister also criticised the Caricom Secretariat for its silence in 2022 when Trinidad and Tobago national Brent Thomas was kidnapped from Barbados, describing the matter as deeply ‘unsettling’.
She said the then-T&T government ‘coordinated’ the kidnapping from another Caricom state using an RSS aircraft, and pointed out that a court had ruled that Thomas had been kidnapped.
As Opposition Leader, she said, she wrote to the Caricom Secretariat, seeking answers, but to date has received no response.
Seated in the audience was Caricom Secretary- General Dr Carla Barnett.
The Prime Minister suggested the lack of response could reflect poor management, lax accountability or, more troublingly, that one ceases to be recognised by the Secretariat as a Caricom citizen when not in government. She said Caricom must be a voice for all Caribbean people-not only governing parties.
Election interference
Persad-Bissessar also accused regional leaders of interfering in domestic elections.
She warned that Caricom should not be misused to benefit or protect political parties aligned with incumbent governments.
‘Caricom governments and their political parties who actively involve themselves in the domestic and political affairs of member states to assist sister or brother parties cannot then expect that when we come together, that we must hug up each other when in the last election gone you sent your political missives to openly campaign against another political party,’ she said.
She continued: ‘I am sorry I have to share this, but it hurt me a lot when I saw what transpired within the last set of elections in the Caricom.’
Regional movement
The Prime Minister further acknowledged Caricom’s commitment to regional movement, but said Trinidad and Tobago faces acute challenges with illegal migration.
She said taxpayers were bearing the cost of tens of thousands of illegal migrants, placing significant strain on public services and financial resources.
Trinidad and Tobago remains committed to the principle of full and free movement, she said, ‘but we have to deal with the illegal ones that I already have in my country’.
In closing, Persad-Bissessar reaffirmed Trinidad and Tobago’s commitment to Caricom.
In that spirit of partnership, she invited member states to encourage their nationals to access educational opportunities at The UWI South Campus when academic programmes commence in September 2026.
She also announced that the Couva Children’s Hospital has been reopened to all Caricom citizens.
Source: Daily Express
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