Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Friday escalated a long-running dispute with CARICOM and its leadership, demanding that Secretary-General Carla Barnett exit once her five-year term ends in late August. The confrontation followed a verbal flare-up tied to how Caribbean governments have viewed U.S. actions in the region and the bloc’s broader posture toward Venezuela and drug trafficking.
Persad-Bissessar’s demand for Barnett’s departure came as CARICOM faced an emergency meeting focused on Barnett’s reappointment, according to the report. The dispute intensified after Persad-Bissessar, who has governed since winning Trinidad’s general election a year earlier, used her office to press for changes at the level of CARICOM’s chief executive.
The row is rooted in tensions that spiked late last year as governments denounced U.S. military action in the South Caribbean and a buildup of an unusually large American force near Venezuela that the report said was intended to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro. Regional neighbors had previously called for the Caribbean to remain a “zone of peace,” but Persad-Bissessar dismissed that framing as “zone of peace fakery,” directing her support toward U.S. military strikes and the broader Trump administration campaign against international drug trafficking and organized crime.
The prime minister’s focus then shifted from Washington to CARICOM’s internal decisions and operations. Persad-Bissessar said her administration remained puzzled about why the region aligned with Venezuela and Maduro rather than supporting the U.S. position, and she used her platform to argue that CARICOM’s approach was out of step with her government’s priorities.
In a statement she issued in late 2025, Persad-Bissessar said: “Caricom has chosen to support the Maduro narco-government through the fake zone of peace narrative,” as the U.S. was preparing for action against Maduro and as governments complained about the alleged illegality of deadly boat strikes, the report said. Her months-long campaign against the bloc and Barnett helped drive the emergency meeting that took up Barnett’s continued role.
Persad-Bissessar also linked her push for Barnett’s removal to Trinidad and Tobago’s financial contribution to CARICOM. The report said she reminded leaders that Trinidad pays around 22% of CARICOM’s annual budget, about $20 million, as she pressed her case for leadership changes.
The escalating verbal conflict underscored how U.S.-Venezuela tensions and differing views on regional security and drug enforcement are reverberating through CARICOM governance, at the same time the bloc is preparing for a leadership transition in August.