Barbados PM wants Caribbean to remain a zone of peace

UNITED NATIONS (CMC) – Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Thursday called for the Caribbean region to remain a zone of peace and that there should be no acceptance of the region “becoming a theatre for confrontation or for the unilateral and unjustified use of force”. In an address to the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Mottley said that it is also necessary for political leaders in the Caribbean to play a pivotal role in ensuring that the region remains peaceful and progressive. She said that in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country of Haiti, where criminal gangs are seeking to overthrow the government following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, the security crisis continues to retard political renewal and economic recovery.

“Still, preparations for a return to constitutional government are moving forward, even with great difficulty. But those efforts cannot succeed unless security improves, particularly in the areas containing more than half of Haiti’s electorate,” she argued. She said as a result, Barbados supports the full deployment that has been long-promised and the renewal of the mandate of the 5,500 Gang Suppression Force (GSF), a multinational security mission authorised by the United Nations Security Council to combat armed gangs in Haiti.

“Let me remind you that it was in 2022 that this recent, more heightened state of insecurity began with the fuel riots. At the same time, we thank all member states who have contributed in whatever way to helping Haiti find its path,” she said. Mottley said that this includes the three-member Caricom Eminent Persons Group (EPG), chaired by the former St Lucia prime minister Dr Kenny Anthony and including Bruce Golding and Perry Christie, the former prime ministers of Jamaica and The Bahamas respectively.

She said that EPG has been helping to build consensus in Haiti and maintain engagement with key international partners. Mottley said that the region is also “deeply concerned” by the worsening humanitarian pressures facing the people of Cuba as the United States, which has in place a decades-old trade and economic embargo against Havana, has in recent months stepped up its programme of seeking to remove the government on the island. The aggressive strategy, led by the Donald Trump administration, has pushed the island into…