PM stands firm on Caricom dispute: ‘Expel us if you want’

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says Caricom can expel Trinidad and Tobago from the regional body if it wishes to do so, but moving forward, this country will not recognize Dr Carla Barnett as Caricom Secretary-General after her tenure expires in Prime Minister was responding to questions from the Express yesterday, where she made it clear that T&T remains committed to Caricom and is not withdrawing, but it will not stay silent on what she said was the dysfunctional and chaotic state of the body and Barnett’s reappointment.“We have already made that clear. We do not recognise her after August 2026. This is our final position,” she added.

Trinidad and Tobago maintains that Barnett’s reappointment, which was decided on during the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in St Kitts and Nevis in February 2026 without T&T being present when the decision was made, was not formally placed on the agenda for plenary discussion during the conference, and this was in breach of the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.Last Friday, a virtual Regular Meeting of Caricom was held where Montserrat requested that the issue of the controversy surrounding the reappointment of Barnett be discussed.The Express understands that it was a tense meeting where ten leaders from the 15-member Caricom body were present.

Trinidad and Toba­go’s representatives from the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs raised objections, noting that the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Sean Sobers were not present because of the official visit of India’s Minister of External Affairs, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and parliamentary obligations.Asked yesterday whether she received any response to her questions about the Secretary-General autho­ring the Caricom press release or the text message sent to Sobers disinviting him from the retreat, Persad-­Bissessar said she did not.“No, they are still hiding from providing responses. It’s really shame­ful that the entire group knows that Barnett did disinvite Minister Sobers via Whats­App, but they still persist in continuing with dishonesty.

Is this yet another 1 from 10 = ZERO moment in the evolution of Caribbean government relations, where, this time, Trinidad is the ONE?

@Casper

From the time she was re-elected she has been hunting for a reason to exit Caricom

she has latched onto one now but instead of stating that Titland is leaving the coward wants the others to push her out

following the Precedent play book it appears

@Casper

a virtual Regular Meeting of Caricom was held where Montserrat requested that the issue of the controversy surrounding the reappointment of Barnett be discussed.The Express understands that it was a tense meeting where ten leaders from the 15-member Caricom body were present.

Trinidad and Toba­go’s representatives from the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs raised objections, noting that the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Sean Sobers were not present because of the official visit of India’s Minister of External Affairs, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and parliamentary obligations.

T&T PM made it clear that T&T remains committed to Caricom and is not withdrawing, but it will not stay silent on what she said was the dysfunctional and chaotic state of the body and Barnett’s reappointment.

She has more balls that the leadership in CARICOM.

Read what those cowards did behind T&T back , a manipulation to elected duncey Barnett.

Why hasn't the leadership of CARICOM respond to her allegations even Barnett

Note: My sympathies to individuals that can read and cannot assimilate what is posted on this thread. Their comments reflect such as they cannot offer a rebuttal what is posted.

@sudden

Everybody getting on with their business and their country, while she in the corner shouting drunkenly and incoherently saying “is anyone listening to ME?!!!”

opposition in Trinidad

opposition in CARICOM

it’s ingrained

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says Caricom can expel Trinidad and Tobago from the regional body if it wishes to do so, but moving forward, this country will not recognize Dr Carla Barnett as Caricom Secretary-General

@Halliwell

Simply put she is a coward

..............

Big talk from sodden....keep your profile in the wilderness...

The 30–0 Three-Peat: How to Lose a Parliament in Three Easy Steps

There is losing an election, and then there is whatever the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) is doing in Barbados.

To call them the "opposition party" is a severe misuse of the English language. An opposition requires presence. It requires a pulse. It requires at least one warm body occupying a single chair in the House of Assembly. Instead, for the third consecutive election cycle, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has treated the political map like an open etch-a-sketch, shaking it until the opposition completely vanished into thin air.

The Definitive Anatomy of a Whitewash

Achieving a 30–0 clean sweep once is a historical anomaly. Doing it twice is a flex. But doing it a third time? That is an eviction notice served to an entire political class.

The math of the latest snap election remains as brutal as ever:

• Seats Available: 30
• Barbados Labour Party (BLP): 30
• Democratic Labour Party (DLP): 0

The opposition did not just lose the room; they lost the entire zip code. Ralph Thorne, who famously crossed the floor to lead the DLP, learned the hard way that when Mia Mottley calls a snap election, she does not just defeat her opponents, she deletes the floor entirely. Thorne was decisively ousted from his own constituency, proving that political musical chairs only works if there is a chair left to sit on when the music stops.

A Permanent Seat in the Wilderness

The DLP’s campaign strategy seemingly relied on the hope that voters would grow tired of winning. They complained about infrastructure, shouted about domestic priorities, and tried to frame the government's massive international profile as a distraction.

The electorate responded by handing Mottley another absolute mandate, leaving the DLP to run a national party from what is effectively a WhatsApp group chat.

When a political party is reduced to a zero-seat entity three times in a row, it ceases to be a rival faction. It becomes a recurring punchline. If the opposition wants to know what their future looks like in Barbadian politics, they do not need a crystal ball. They just need to look at the parliamentary seating chart. There is nothing there.

Hehehehe ...Sarge

@sudden

SHE IS NO COWARD MATE!

@sgtdjones

They are all PNM till they dead so no amount of sensible response will help,PNM till they dead, believe it,the "COOLIE" gyul from Siparia have dem bawlin like wild hogs.

I am certain that PNM supporters are a bunch of duncey heads,the fact that they still want to stand in PNM corner makes you wonder.

@sgtdjones

I want her to go after CWI now

@Narper

@granite

Then we will hear claims that she is drunk, CWI is just as awful as CARICOM.

It is deeply telling that when a sovereign leader challenges international or regional status quos, such as breaking with CARICOM to condemn criminal networks or demanding accountability for domestic strains; the immediate response from opponents is to question her capacity.  During these external geopolitical standoffs, critics have occasionally attempted to derail the substantive discussion by recycling ad hominem attacks regarding the Prime Minister's personal sobriety.

This tired, sexist playbook attempts to invalidate sharp, deliberate policy decisions by pretending they are the result of personal impairment. The decision to prioritize national security over regional compliance is the product of hard, strategic calculus. Critics who rely on personal insults to answer structural policy pivots are merely admitting that they lack the data, the logic, and the authority to debate the issue on even ground.