Kamla blasts CARICOM over silence in the face of Venezuela’s aggression to Guyana, T&T

Feb 25, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has delivered a stinging rebuke to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) over its silence despite repeated threats to two of its member states—Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago—from Venezuela.

In her address to leaders from across the region, who were in attendance at the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government Meeting in St Kitts and Nevis, Persad-Bissessar said that Trinidad had taken note when CARICOM chose to lend support to the Nicholas Maduro regime last year while the two countries were under threat.

The Trinidadian politician told the meeting, “Despite repeated threats against two fellow CARICOM members from Venezuela, most of the CARICOM members stood against the two. Only two were threatened… Guyana is still under threat. I openly said that if they touch Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, will be there with you and stand with you. And the other was Trinidad and Tobago. We are threatened, and we are still threatened by Venezuela,” Persad- Bissessar boldly declared.

She questioned, therefore, whether CARICOM can really be a zone of peace when the stability of its members is constantly threatened by a dictatorial regime in Venezuela, which killed thousands of civilians and imprisoned hundreds of opposition members.

“They [Venezuelan opposition] were imprisoned because of politics. So how can it be when that regime was threatening violence to two CARICOM member states? There was no voice from the CARICOM. We were talking about a zone of peace. But in my respectful view, my country is not a zone of peace, and I’ll tell you why. Because of the unreliability of the CARICOM and the above situation. We cannot bind ourselves to the same political ideologies, the same foreign issues and the same security policies of the entire CARICOM.”

To this end, she noted that every nation reserves the right to hold its own strategy, when it comes to the issues of national security and foreign policy.
“We respect that sovereignty and we expect no less from others,” she declared, adding that as a result, Trinidad and Tobago has chosen to rely on support from the United States military on matters of national security.

The PM lauded the Trump administration for its assistance. “Thanks to President Trump, thanks to Secretary Rubio and the US military, I say thank you today for standing firm against narco-trafficking. Human and arms smuggling originated from Venezuela. That is what we were facing in Trinidad and Tobago. Maybe some of the other islands in the Caribbean do not have that level of illegal migration,” she said.

“So don’t talk to me about a zone of peace when I will tell you Trinidad Tobago with 1.4 million people. We recorded 623 murders in one year in 2024, and 40% of those murders were gang-related, driven by narcotics, by firearms, from Venezuela, and gangs coming out of Venezuela and mingling and mixing with gangs in Trinidad. In 2025, a change of government….The military action by the American military in the Caribbean resulted in our murder rate decreasing by 42%. There were 257 fewer murders in T&T. I can say thanks again to President Trump, and thanks again to Secretary Marco Rubio. I thank them and the US military for the cooperation and what is shared with us for national security matters,” she iterated.

Nevertheless, the PM noted that cooperation with the US does not mean less cooperation for CARICOM.

“I cannot depend on just my military, my protective services, and certainly from you in the CARICOM. Many of you do not have military or large police services to help us down there. T&T will continue to cooperate with the US in the best interest of our citizens, to drive destabilising and destructive forces out of our country, out of our region and out of our hemisphere.”
Free movement

As it relates to full and free movement between CARICOM member states, PM Persad-Bissessar said while Trinidad supports the concept in principle, it cannot fully commit to it.
She explained, “I know several CARICOM islands are moving forward with that, but in Trinidad, again, illegal migration is a big problem. It has been left to flourish, not just in T&T, but elsewhere. Currently, Trinbagonian taxpayers pay the bills for the 10s of 1000s of illegal migrants who have come into our country. It has put an enormous strain on our health services, government services, financial resources, and we are working diligently to resolve this.”

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• CARICOM, Guyana, Kamla Persad -Bissessar, T&T, Venezuela

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