Former JA PM Patterson rips CARICOM leaders
countries within the 15-member
CARICOM grouping, which in an
apparent rebuttal of US wishes,
had in January agreed on noninterference
in Venezuela affairs
that “can only be resolved peacefully
through meaningful dialogue
and diplomacy.”
“CARICOM leaders arrived at
a common position consistent
with the purposes of the Treaty
of Chaguaramas that repudiated
external intervention in Venezuela’s
internal affairs.
“We expect all our 14 leaders
to act in accordance with
that decision and not to veer off
in support who have a contrary
view within the halls of the OAS
or the corridors of Mar-a-Lago,”
the former prime minister said
to loud applause of the audience
that included Barbados Prime
Minister, Mia Mottley.
On the eve of that Mar-a-Lago
meeting, Mottley had warned
against CARICOM leaders falling
for attempts to divide the
grouping.
Patterson referred to 14 CARICOM
leaders because the 15th is
Montserrat that remains a British
Overseas Territory and does
not craft its own foreign policy.
“The position we take should
be determined by us in accordance
with our own Caribbean
enlightened self-interest not by
remnants of hegemonic power
or the Monroe Doctrine which
the Caribbean abandoned many
years ago,” said the octogenarian
who was as a serving minister
in a Jamaica government
helped craft the original Treaty
of Chaguaramas that was proclaimed
in 1973.
“I regard the pursuit of a common
foreign policy as fundamental,”
he said, adding, “It wasn’t
put in the Chaguaramas Treaty
by accident. It was because
Former Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson.
Photo by George Alleyne
TAKE ON
EVERYTHING
NEW YORK CITY
HAS TO OFFER
TODAY
By George Alleyne
Former Jamaica Prime Minister,
Percival Noel James Patterson
has scolded four colleague
leaders of Caribbean nations
including the current head of his
island for breaking a CARICOM
pact of joint foreign policy, and
acceding to US President Donald
Trump’s wishes.
“We live in our own Caribbean
space not in anybody else’s
backyard,” said the 84-year-old
who retired as prime minister in
2006 after leading Jamaica for 14
years and long before then featuring
prominently in the affairs
of CARICOM.
His backhand was aimed at
present prime ministers of Jamaica,
Andrew Holness; St. Lucia,
Allan Chastenet; The Bahamas’,
Hubert Minnis; and Haiti’s President,
Jovenel Moise, who along
with the leader of the Dominica
Republic, Danilo Medina
met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago,
Palm Beach, resort in March and
voiced their support for the US’
desire for regime change in Venezuela.
While in Barbados a week ago
to launch his latest book, ‘My
Political Journey’, Patterson hit
out at Holness, Chastenet, Minnis
and Moise who are leaders of
Caribbean L 18 ife, June 14–20, 2019 BQ
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CARICOM has also been showing
division at the Organisation
of American States meetings in a
series of votes this year on what
Patterson called ‘the current Venezuela
imbroglio’ with St. Lucia,
Jamaica, Haiti and the Bahamas
favouring US-influenced resolutions,
some voting against, a few
abstaining and others absenting
themselves from the meetings of
that 34-country strong group.
“We at the OAS as 14 nations
strong. We have the voting
power. Once we assert it as a
single block to protect and safeguard
our sovereign control the
Caribbean will prevail,” Patterson
pointed out.
Barbados Prime Minister, Mia
Mottley. Photo by George Alleyne
/nyc