Eleven former heads of state and government from the Caribbean nations of Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) have issued a joint statement titled “Our Caribbean Space: A Zone of Peace on Land, Sea & Airspace Where the Rule of Law Prevails.”
Speaking from their experience as former heads of state or government, they “urge a pull back from military build up to avoid any diminution of peace, stability and development within our regional space that has the potential to pull the region into conflicts which are not of our making.” Neither the United States, nor U.S. President Donald Trump, nor Venezuela, nor any state supporting the militarization of the region (such as the current government of T&T) were named, but the measures that provoked this statement are obvious.
They remind the world that Caribbean leaders have “accepted that peace was a dominant factor in shaping the social and political framework for Caribbean development” for over 50 years; maintaining the Caribbean as a “zone of peace” has been “a cornerstone in the architecture of our Caribbean sovereignty and the axis for our relationship with the countries of our Hemisphere, Europe and the world at large.”
Their nations maintain that “established international law and conventions, rather than war and military might, should prevail in finding solutions to seemingly intractable problems,” and they adhere to the fundamental premise of the United Nations Charter that all disputes be resolved through negotiation and dialogue. “Since our Independence, Caribbean States have consistently refrained from permitting the hosting of military assets, which have the potential to lure the Region into conflicts which are not of our own making,” and that must continue.
