Cari­com has been go­ing through a stormy pe­ri­od re­cent­ly. Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s chal­lenge to the modus operan­di of Cari­com, in­clud­ing the func­tion­ing and op­er­a­tions of the sec­re­tari­at and be­hav­iour of the sec­re­tary gen­er­al her­self, es­ca­lat­ed in­to a full-blown war. The Prime Min­is­ter has al­so rep­ri­mand­ed the po­lit­i­cal di­rec­torate for be­ing less than trans­par­ent and ac­count­able.

Strong voic­es have ar­gued that Dr Car­la Bar­nett’s res­ig­na­tion would be a pos­i­tive step for Cari­com, which would give the in­sti­tu­tion time to re­cal­i­brate. At least one in­ves­tiga­tive re­port has iden­ti­fied pro­ce­dur­al flaws and con­sti­tu­tion­al breach­es in the process of her reap­point­ment, re­in­forc­ing the po­si­tion of the T&T Gov­ern­ment. It is un­clear whether any of­fline dis­cus­sion or back-room ne­go­ti­a­tions have been tak­ing place to re­solve the con­tro­ver­sial mat­ter, and per­haps more im­por­tant­ly, to get Cari­com on a re­spectable, uni­fy­ing path­way for­ward.

The con­flict in Cari­com is not just about the ap­point­ment of the sec­re­tary gen­er­al. It has es­ca­lat­ed in­to a ma­jor diplo­mat­ic and ad­min­is­tra­tive feud about re­gion­al gov­er­nance, trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty.

Where it stands now on the eve of the next Cari­com meet­ing is that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Prime Min­is­ter will not re­lent un­til struc­tur­al re­forms that sup­port trans­paren­cy are made in Cari­com; un­til of­fi­cials are held ac­count­able; and she will not ac­cept the process by which Dr Bar­nett has been reap­point­ed, nor is she like­ly to ac­cept her as sec­re­tary gen­er­al.

The Prime Min­is­ter has not­ed T&T ‘s bil­lion-dol­lar in­vest­ment in Cari­com over 52 years, and has made it clear that this coun­try has no in­ten­tion of ex­it­ing Cari­com, in which it has in­vest­ed so heav­i­ly. How­ev­er, she has al­so in­di­cat­ed that she will pub­licly and re­lent­less­ly pur­sue the mat­ters of con­cern to her in Cari­com un­til they are prop­er­ly ad­dressed.

Be­sides the is­sue of the sec­re­tary gen­er­al and her ap­point­ment, the Prime Min­is­ter is un­com­fort­able with for­eign pol­i­cy po­si­tions and the ap­proach to re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty is­sues in Cari­com. She feels that Cari­com com­pro­mised it­self with the Nico­las Maduro regime in Venezuela and failed to ex­press sol­i­dar­i­ty with Guyana against Venezuela’s ag­gres­sion on the Es­e­qui­bo re­gion dis­pute. With­out nam­ing coun­tries or coun­try lead­ers, she claims that there was po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence in Trinidad and To­ba­go dur­ing the 2025 elec­tion in favour of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment. She ac­cused the or­gan­i­sa­tion of be­ing “dis­hon­est, dys­func­tion­al and in­com­pe­tent” and of crony­ism in re­cruit­ment prac­tices.

The man­ner in which some Cari­com note­ables sought to dis­cred­it For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers’ ac­count of events and his ob­jec­tions to the pro­ce­dure used in Dr Bar­nett’s reap­point­ment was al­so not re­spect­ful to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment. And that ap­proach of ridicule, dis­missal and hu­mil­i­a­tion would not be ac­cept­able to our Prime Min­is­ter.

If Bar­nett re­mains Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of Cari­com, the Per­sad-Bisses­sar Gov­ern­ment will not en­gage her and will re­think its ap­proach to its par­tic­i­pa­tion in Cari­com. On the oth­er hand, whether Cari­com heads will con­cede that they made an er­ror, that con­tin­u­ing to in­sist on a reap­point­ment of Bar­net will weak­en the in­sti­tu­tion fur­ther and make it in­ef­fec­tive at a chal­leng­ing time in geopo­lit­i­cal his­to­ry, is dif­fi­cult to an­tic­i­pate.

It would be ab­solute fol­ly for Cari­com to pro­ceed with busi­ness as usu­al at the St Lu­cia meet­ing on Ju­ly 5, whether T&T’s Prime Min­is­ter at­tends or not. Com­mon sense sug­gests that she will on­ly go if a res­o­lu­tion that she can live with is agreed be­fore­hand. If she does not at­tend, it will be ei­ther be­cause no ac­cept­able way for­ward has been reached be­hind the scenes, or she is wait­ing for the Heads to come to mu­tu­al­ly ac­cept­able de­ci­sions with­out her be­fore she agrees to join the Cari­com Lead­ers’ fo­rum again.

But this re­gion of the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca is in a mess, and the west­ern hemi­sphere as a whole needs co­her­ence, sta­bil­i­ty and an en­light­ened agen­da on which coun­tries can mu­tu­al­ly agree. The three most im­por­tant in­sti­tu­tions in the hemi­sphere—Cari­com, the OAS and CELAC—are in jeop­ardy.

Haiti, Cu­ba and Venezuela are not re­al­ly po­lit­i­cal­ly set­tled. Ide­o­log­i­cal shifts are chang­ing the ta­pes­try and tex­ture of for­eign pol­i­cy align­ments. The West­ern Hemi­sphere is the most un­equal re­gion in the world. Drugs, guns, gangs and crime are weav­ing their way in­to con­sti­tu­tion­al pow­er and le­git­i­mate busi­ness. AI and the need for quan­tum readi­ness are threat­en­ing to leave this Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can re­gion be­hind.

How will Cari­com act in the best in­ter­est of a uni­fied re­gion and our anx­ious peo­ple who crave their place in the world?