Where were you, Caricom Secretariat, in 2022?
And Persad-Bissessar also criticized the Caricom Secretariat for an “unsettling” matter in 2022. “In October 2022, the then-sitting T&T government coordinated the kidnapping of a Trinidadian citizen from another Caricom state. (Barbados) He was visiting another Caricom state, and he was kidnapped. Our Supreme Court has ruled that he was kidnapped. He was placed in handcuffs, transported to the airport, and then back to Trinidad. I think an RSS plane was used to transport him. He was kidnapped,” Persad-Bissessar said.
She was referring to an incident in 2022, when T&T businessman Brent Thomas was arrested in a Barbados hotel and returned to Trinidad via a military aircraft without formal extradition proceedings being initiated. A High Court judge later ruled this act an “unlawful abduction,” leading the Trinidad and Tobago government to apologize and both nations to accept liability for constitutional breaches. However, Persad-Bissessar said when she wrote to the Caricom secretariat as the then Opposition Leader during that time, she received no response.
In the presence of Caricom Secretary General Dr. Carla Barnett, Persad-Bissessar said, “I wrote to the secretariat of Caricom asking what happened. How could you have facilitated the kidnapping of a T&T citizen? Please let us know what was happening and how it happened. To date, that was 2022, I have not had a response from the secretariat. “So, I say to Caricom that response, or non-response, may be the result of poor management, lax accountability, or, most concerning, that one ceases to be recognized by the secretariat as a member citizen of Caricom when not in government.”