Saint Lucia is closely monitoring rising tensions between Venezuela and Guyana, as well as the deployment of United States military assets in the southern Caribbean on the stated basis of countering drug cartels, and will act in line with the Treaty of Chaguaramas alongside its fellow CARICOM governments, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre said on Monday.
“We are concerned about the escalation,” Pierre told St Lucia Times at Monday’s Cabinet press briefing. “Saint Lucia’s interest, we believe, is that the region must remain peaceful. We are completely against any sort of violence, both internally or regionally.”
Pierre said Saint Lucia would “be monitoring the situation and waiting for the official response from CARICOM,” noting that the Treaty of Chaguaramas sets out a clear process for coordinating foreign policy. Article 16 of the treaty establishes the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), which is tasked with developing joint positions on hemispheric and international issues.
The prime minister suggested one factor delaying a CARICOM statement could be that the bloc’s current chairman, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness, is campaigning in a general election scheduled for September 3.
His comments come as regional leaders weigh responses to fast-moving developments involving the United States, Venezuela and neighbouring Guyana, a CARICOM member state.
Washington has ordered the deployment of additional military assets to the southern Caribbean, including warships, submarines and thousands of marines, in what it calls a crackdown on Latin American drug cartels, according to US officials.
This was followed by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s statement that more than four million members of the National Bolivarian Militia have been mobilised to defend the country’s “territory, sovereignty, and peace”, calling on them to be “armed and ready” against foreign threats.
“No empire will come to touch the sacred soil of Venezuela, nor should it touch the sacred soil of South America,” Maduro said during a televised address.
The escalating US-Venezuelan standoff comes as Guyana expands its defence capabilities with new surveillance technology, following months of tensions with Caracas over the disputed Essequibo, an oil-rich region. Maduro’s government in May swore in a governor for the territory after regional elections, a move Georgetown has rejected.
CARICOM has yet to issue a unified position, though some member states have acted unilaterally. Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said her government welcomed US assistance to combat drug cartels and would grant Washington access to Trinidadian territory in the event of further escalation.
“… I want to make it very clear that if the Maduro regime launches any attack against the Guyanese people or invades Guyanese territory and a request is made by the American government for access to Trinidadian Territory to defend the people of Guyana, the Trinidadian government will provide that access,” read Persad-Bissessar’s statement.
Her statement drew criticism from Trinidad and Tobago’s opposition, which called it “reckless” and urged consultation through COFCOR.
Against that backdrop, Pierre reiterated Saint Lucia’s preference for a collective, regional approach. “We are going to consult with CARICOM and, according to the Treaty of Chaguaramas, we’re going to continue in that vein,” he said, acknowledging every country’s right to act in its own interest. “All governments reserve the right to say what they feel is in their best interest,” Pierre said.
