T&T Demands CARICOM Meeting to Challenge Belizean Sec. Gen. Reappointment

The government of Trinidad and Tobago is demanding a special meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government after claiming it was deliberately kept out of the decision to reappoint Dr Carla Barnett as secretary general. Barnett, a Belizean, has held the post since 2021.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has vowed to “ruthlessly” pursue the matter, while Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Sean Sobers from Trinidad and Tobago described the exclusion as “extremely disrespectful” and a breach of CARICOM’s own treaty.

Sobers revealed that despite T&T being CARICOM’s largest financial contributor, paying up to $120 million annually, three official letters to the Secretariat went unanswered.

Sobers claimed that he, along with delegates from The Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, was “disinvited” from the Nevis retreat where Barnett’s reappointment was approved. According to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, Heads of Government may designate representatives to vote on their behalf. Sobers argued that the Secretariat’s refusal to honour this provision undermined the legitimacy of the process.

He added that T&T will formally request a meeting of CARICOM’s Community Council this week in an interview with Trinidad’s Guardian Media. If the Council agrees, the matter could escalate to the Heads of Government Conference, where leaders may decide whether to uphold Barnett’s reappointment or call fresh elections.

Sobers stressed that the issue is not with Dr Barnett personally, but with the procedure.