By- Staff Writer
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Oct 26, CMC – Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, Sunday, reiterated the need for the Caribbean to be a zone of peace, warning that any military action now will have severe consequences for the entire region.
Addressing the 86th annual conference of the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP), Skerrit echoed a similar call made by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley for an end to the United States military build-up of the coast of Venezuela, allegedly to fight the illegal drugs trade.
“We have to be counted, we cannot cower under fear, we have to stand for principle and stand on the shoulders of the sacrifices of our foreparents who fought for our freedom and who fought for our independence,” Skerrit said, adding that he had extracted parts of Prime Minister Mottley’s speech and placed in the social media page of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM leaders.
“We must always speak truth to power, and your speech yesterday was absolutely truth to power, representing what …this great country stands for and what our foreparents had fought for so many generations.
“And so we stand with you on this, and this Caribbean must continue to be a zone of peace. We do not want any war in our region. We solve problems by discussion, dialogue, and diplomacy, and we sometimes have to agree to disagree.
“But we must do so peacefully and respect for each other,” Skerrit said, warning, “if a war breaks out in the Caribbean, we will have some serious challenges in our respective countries”.
Skerrit said there is an opportunity to “prevent this from happening by adding our voices that reason prevails and common sense comes to our being, and let us work out our problems together.
‘We in Barbados and Dominica and indeed the wider Caribbean offer ourselves as intermediators so that we can bring the two forces together and let us understand that there can be common sense and agreement and disagreement.
“But we have to ensure that we do not have a situation of our region descending into turmoil,” he said, adding, “we have to speak to this”.
On the first day of the conference, the Barbados Prime Minister said that the region is now facing “an extremely dangerous and an untenable situation in the southern Caribbean and as a people with a tragic history of being subjected to centuries of big power orchestrated genocide, terrorism and warfare and as a small state, we have invested tremendous time and energy…in establishing and maintaining our region as a zone of peace.
“Peace is critical to all that we do in this region, and now that peace is being threatened, we have to speak up,” she said, thanking the former prime minister for their “very strong statement issued by them for the fundamental principle that was agreed upon in the formation of the Caribbean Community…
“I want to thank them because without their statement, we are possibly going to have others think that those who now lead governments are speaking in vain without reflecting on the fact that this has been a core principle of the Caribbean Community from its very inception.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, prime ministers,” Mottley said, adding that she believes the time has come for the region not to accept any entity “has the right to engage in extrajudicial killings of persons they suspect of being involved in criminal activities”.
Mottley, who is also an attorney, said, “As I said, we stand for the rule of law, and we believe if there is other intelligence available that would cause you to take action that is an immediate threat to you as a nation, then you have a duty to share it with us.
“But on the face of it, conflating law enforcement with military action is a dangerous step,” Mottley said, adding “we equally do not accept that any nation in our region or the greater Caribbean should be the subject of an imposition upon them of any unilateral expression of force and violence by any third party or nation”.
Last week, the Donald Trump administration announced that it is intensifying its military build-up in the Caribbean with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering the deployment of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its carrier air wing, to the Caribbean in aid of what the administration says is its counter-drug initiative.
Washington said the enhanced US force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and its security in the Western Hemisphere.
In recent times, the Trump administration has deployed several warships and over 10,000 troops to the Caribbean in what pundits claim is a pretext for an eventual land invasion of Venezuela.
At least two Trinidad and Tobago nationals have been killed as the US military bombs vessels it claims are transporting illegal drugs on the international seas. It has provided no proof to substantiate the allegations, and Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has said that the US should kill all those engaged in the illegal drugs trade “violently”.
Earlier this month, Trump confirmed that he had permitted the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to spy on Venezuela.
On Sunday, the USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, docked in Port-of-Spain until October 30.
The Trinidad and Tobago government, which has been very vocal about its support for the United States military action, said that the 22nd US Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) will conduct joint training exercises.
“The visit strengthens US-Trinidad and Tobago military-to-military cooperation through expert exchanges focused on core infantry tactics, maintenance procedures, and advanced medical capabilities, leveraging the TTDF’s facilities to enhance tactical proficiency and enhance mutual trust,” the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs said in a statement.
CMC/pr/ir/2025