Opinion: As Chair, T&T's PM Persad-Bissessar Once Enforced CARICOM Discipline. Now It's Time For Jamaica's Holness to Enforce It On Her.
Security alignment, sovereignty, and the limits of unilateral action when it affects the region.
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On Thursday night, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar addressed Trinidad and Tobago citizens with a demand for compliance built around U.S. visa vulnerability. She described public criticism of Washington as “the height of hypocrisy and unkindness,” and asked, “Which Trini wants their visa cut? So behave yourself.” Speaking at a UNC Christmas function, she warned, “Careful you don’t end up like Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica… bad-mouthing the US and guess what happened… all their visas rescinded now.”
She grounded national security in U.S. protection — “Understand where our help comes from. Understand who can protect and defend Trinidad and Tobago.” She stated that “right now, there is only one country in the world” capable of doing so.
Those remarks placed Trinidad and Tobago inside a regional security moment unfolding under the CARICOM chairmanship of Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness. As Chair, Holness convenes heads of government, sets the bloc’s political agenda, coordinates common positions, and carries responsibility for preserving the Caribbean’s Zone of Peace posture as member states take decisions with basin-wide security and economic consequences with potential fallout to industries like tourism, a main driver of Caribbean economies like Jamaica’s.
The Caribbean now stands at a crossroads.