Rowley 'embarrassed' by Trinidad's stance on US military actions in the region

Former ‎Prime Minister‎ of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Rowley, has joined former CARICOM heads in registering concern about the military build-up of the United States in the region, while expressing "loss and sadness" at his country's response to the issue.

Rowley, who was prime minister from 2015 to earlier this year, said on Friday that he found it "necessary and dutiful to sign on to this historic statement of Former Heads of CARICOM" on his 76th birthday.

Trinidad and Tobago recently declined to back a regional position on key security and regional stability issues, including the growing presence of the United States military in the region.

In a follow-up statement, its Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs said the Kamla Persad Bissessar-led government “wishes to once more, categorically express its strong support for the ongoing military intervention of the United States of America in the region."

The Donald Trump administration says it is targeting suspected drug-trafficking vessels off the Venezuelan coast. One of its military strikes claimed the lives of two Trinidad and Tobago nationals.

Rowley has expressed embarrassment at Port of Spain's current stance, noting that ‎"It was Trinidad and Tobago’s voice supported by all my colleagues when we affirmed that 'together we are stronger'. We maintained, even in the most difficult of circumstances, that 'we may be small but not insignificant and our voice and our interests should be respected'."

"‎I am today embarrassed to accept that with our proud record of leadership and accomplishments, that today, it is Trinidad and Tobago that recklessly subscribes to the dispensing with these principles in the expectation of plenty. It is a dangerous dereliction of duty, under any circumstances, to embrace the discarded colonial mantra that might is right and that the rule of law, local or international is an inconvenience and a humbug," Rowley stated.

On Friday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the US military conducted its 10th strike on a vessel suspected of carrying drugs overnight, killing six people and bringing the death toll of the campaign against drug cartels to at least 46 people.

In a post to social media, Hegseth said that the vessel was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang and the strike occurred in the Caribbean.

The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks in September when they first began to three in one week now. Two of the strikes this week were also carried out in the eastern Pacific, expanding the area in which the military was willing to conduct the strikes.

Former Jamaican prime ministers PJ Patterson and Bruce Golding are among a group of ex-heads of government in the Caribbean who have urged a pull-back to avoid any undermining of peace, stability, and development in the region.

In a joint statement, the former PMs said that they felt a need to make public their apprehension about the increased military security build-up and the presence of nuclear vessels and aircraft within the Caribbean archipelago, arguing that this has the potential to pull the region into conflicts that are not of its making.

The other leaders are Baldwin Spencer from Antigua and Barbuda; Belize’s Said Musa and Dean Barrow; Freundel Stuart of Barbados; Dominica’s Edison James; Grenada’s Tilman Thomas; Donald Ramotar of Guyana; and Kenny Anthony of St Lucia.

The former leaders stated that having a zone of peace has long been a cornerstone in the architecture of Caribbean sovereignty and the axis of the region’s relationship with countries in the hemisphere, Europe, and the wider world.

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