Row over Barnett’s reappointment simmers as Caricom leaders meet in St Lucia
Trinidad and Tobago is threatening court action over the secretary-general’s second term, agreed at a February meeting in St Kitts, but appears to have little support from other leaders.
CASTRIES, St Lucia. As Caribbean Community leaders meet in St Lucia, the row over February’s decision to reappoint Carla Barnett as head of the regional secretariat continues to simmer, with Trinidad and Tobago threatening court action to reverse her second term.
Both Barnett and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar are attending this week’s summit. Barnett’s current tenure ends in late August.
Origins of the dispute
Persad-Bissessar, who returned to office by winning general elections in April last year after a decade on the backbench, has complained that she wrote to Barnett in 2022 about a Trinidadian national she said had been abducted by Barbados, and received no reply.
She has since challenged the reappointment, made at a leaders’ meeting in St Kitts in February, on the grounds that there had allegedly not been a full quorum of country representatives at that session.
Trinidad and Tobago now wants the matter decided by the Caribbean Court of Justice, even though it has not signed on to the court as a member. Some leaders dispute her version of events.
Jamaica’s position
Jamaica says court action would be a waste of time. In a letter to colleagues, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica was not seeking to overturn the February decision.
“However, I remain concerned that the approach taken has neither resolved the matter nor promoted the spirit and goals of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas,” he wrote, calling for concerns to be addressed “to restore cohesion, if not unity.”
Trinidad’s argument
Persad-Bissessar insists the procedures were irregular. “Our concern is not directed towards any individual. It is neither personal nor political,” she wrote. “Rather, it concerns the legality of the process adopted, the integrity of our institutions, and the faithful observance of the constitutional framework established by the treaty.”
Her government, she said, “is unable to recognise the validity of the purported second term of the secretary-general.”
From all appearances, Persad-Bissessar stands largely alone, with few if any colleagues publicly supporting her position as they argue that the issue threatens to divide the community.
