MEETING FLAK

Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) on Friday defended Jamaica’s absence from Thursday’s meeting that was set up by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to ease regional tension amid Guyana and Venezuela’s fight over the Essequibo region.

The twin-island republic’s minister of foreign and CARICOM affairs, Dr Amery Browne, sought to clarify Jamaica’s absence at the day-long meeting in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines, telling journalists at a media conference that the island was part of efforts to bring the two countries together.

“To my awareness and my knowledge, Jamaica, as another founding member of the Caribbean Community, has been part and parcel of these efforts, part and parcel of the dialogue, the analysis, the recommendations, et cetera,” said Browne.

Heads of government from St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Grenada, The Bahamas, and St Kitts and Nevis participated in the multiphased meeting, which produced several declarations, key among them, an agreement not to use force in settling the land dispute.

The two countries also agreed to create a joint commission to address the territorial fight over the oil and mineral-rich region that accounts for more than half of Guyana’s land mass.

“Jamaica was not present yesterday. I read the list of who were present and who came to St Vincent to be a part of this initiative. Jamaica was one of those and there are others who did not participate in yesterday’s (Thursday’s) event, but certainly in the emergency meeting and certainly in the work of CARICOM that I’ve chronicled,” Browne said.

“We’ve issued multiple statements over the years. We have shared CARICOM’s principles, views, perspectives on this matter. We’ve had heads of government meetings on which this matter formed part of the agenda at and outside of caucus. Jamaica has been working with the family in that regard,” he added.

Yesterday, Opposition Leader Mark Golding criticised Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ absence from the meeting that is being touted as a success in possibly reducing the likelihood of military conflict in the region.

In a social media post, Golding said the meeting between Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and Guyana President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali appeared to have been “successful and very worthwhile and a victory for proactive diplomacy”.

Golding congratulated host Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves and Grenada Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit “for leading the charge”.

Added to that, he said it was good to see Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, along with other Caribbean leaders and officials, in attendance.

“Jamaica’s conspicuous absence is another sad day, marking the further demise of our role and importance in the region,” said Golding.

Hours later, Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith sought to explain Jamaica’s absence, noting that it was not a meeting of the regional bloc.

“I see some people asking why Jamaica wasn’t present. Firstly, it was not a CARICOM meeting. Secondly, please note the countries present were generally from the southern and eastern Caribbean having special concerns with Venezuela/ALBA. We are in the north leading on Haiti. There is no need to be concerned,” said Johnson Smith.

ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, was conceived by former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. It was formed in 2004 as a regional bloc to solidify social, political, and economic integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its membership includes largely Eastern Caribbean countries.

That aside, Jamaica and Venezuela have suffered strained relations since 2019, following the Caribbean country’s support of the United States in its attempt to isolate the Maduro government in the Americas.

Jamaica in February of that year legislated the takeover of Venezuela’s 49 per cent stake in the Petrojam refinery that PDVSA acquired in 2006, which formed part of Chávez’s energy diplomacy efforts in the Caribbean.

The current relationship between the two countries is believed to have fuelled Jamaica’s absence from the meeting.

On Friday, Opposition Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Lisa Hanna ripped into Johnson Smith’s tenure, noting that Jamaica’s absence from the meeting formed part of the minister’s “flagrant and continuous blunders”.

This, Hanna said, has further “castrated” Jamaica’s significant role and credibility within CARICOM.

“Her recent chirp about our absence from the Venezuela-Guyana meeting in St Vincent not only justifies her inept understanding of friendship but also underscores her diplomatic hypocrisy,” Hanna said in a social media post.

She added: “But I guess it is hard to face a country when you forcefully expropriate their shares after they helped to save our economy; forget that you’re sending Haitians back without due process. So you have no friends on the playground anymore.”

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com