Skerrit urges region against sowing seeds of discord among themselves

ROSEAU (CMC):

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit on Monday urged Caribbean countries against sowing “seeds of discord among ourselves”, maintaining his adopted position of many years that he would not be commenting publicly on statements made by regional leaders.

“We are not islands to ourselves, we are not continents, we do not have this largesse that anyone of us think that we have. And as we have seen and experienced, in a twinkle of an eye all what you have build for … can be washed and blown away in a natural disaster,” Skerrit told reporters at a news conference here.

“And so we all have to lead our countries with is humility, recognising that we are just passing through, and that’s what I do here. But we have to be careful that we don’t try to sow seeds of discord, disunity and tension among ourselves, with ourselves. It is not good for anybody, for that matter,” Skerrit said as he responded to a question regarding whether or not he agreed with a statement by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar that the notion of the Caribbean being a zone of peace is a farce.

Asked whether he thought there was a division within the CARICOM grouping as it relates to the United States military build-up off the Venezuelan coast, where President Donald Trump has ordered an amphibious squadron to the southern Caribbean as part of his effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, Skerrit said “it is not for me to determine that”.

“Every country expresses themselves as sovereign nations. People have divergent views on a particular matter. This is not unusual,” he said, noting also that a “delayed response” from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to a letter from CARICOM foreign ministers should not be viewed as anything else.

“I would caution us against trying to create a situation within CARICOM that does not necessarily exist,” Skerrit told reporters.

Venezuela has responded to the US sending a nuclear-powered attack submarine, additional P8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, several destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser to US Southern Command by marshalling its troops along its borders.

Late last month, President Trump ordered the US military to strike a boat in the Caribbean Sea, off Venezuela, killing 11, allegedly carrying drugs and earlier this month, he told reporters from the Oval Office that he had strong evidence that the latest boat in which three people were killed, was also carrying drugs.

The Trinidad and Tobago government has come out publicly in support of the United States, and Persad Bissessar, in her address to the United Nations General Assembly last weekend, said while there have been objections to the US military action against drug cartels from some countries, Port of Spain wanted to remind the international community that “unless forceful and aggressive actions are taken, these evil drug cartels will continue their societal destruction, because they believe affected nations will always unreservedly subscribe to morals and ethics which they themselves blatantly flout”.

“That is why we willingly supported the international security alliance announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, involving the US and several countries in South America, to combat drug trafficking in the hemisphere,” she told the UNGA, adding that the notion that the Caribbean is a zone of peace has become a false ideal.

“The reality is stark, no such peace exists today,” she added.

Skerrit said within CARICOM and at the Community of Latin America and Caribbean states “we have declared the Caribbean Sea as a zone of peace”.

“The rational of declaring a zone of peace is to ensure that our waters are never used for any military incursions or military interventions; that whatever issues that we have between ourselves or among ourselves, that we can come together and discuss it and to find a diplomatic, friendly, non-contentious way of resolving it.

“That’s what the rational for the zone of peace is. The truth is, since the second World War…we have had the situation in Grenada (when US invaded the country to put down a coup by the more radical members of the left-wing government of then Prime Minister Maurice Bishop), but generally, one can say that the Caribbean is the most peaceful region in the entire world.

“There are other places in the world on fire, literally, but we have enjoyed peace and tranquility, and so this is the background or rational for this,” Skerrit said, repeating as he has done over the years since in office that he has no intention of commenting on views of any government leader in the Caribbean.