Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC is accusing CARICOM of what she describes as a “corrupt backroom operation,” saying it is undermining the regional body and harming Caribbean citizens.
In a strongly worded statement, the Prime Minister criticised a recent post by CARICOM Chairman, Dr. Terrance Drew, which sought to dismiss concerns raised by Trinidad and Tobago over the reappointment of Secretary-General Carla Barnett.
She claims key issues remain unanswered, including a WhatsApp message allegedly sent to CARICOM Foreign Ministers on the morning of a February retreat, and says no official has come forward to confirm its contents, despite what she describes as evidence supporting Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers.
We have her full statement.
“On the April 11th, 2026 CARICOM posted on their Facebook page a statement from the Chairman, The Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis (written by GS Barnett see attached photo) seeking to dismiss the issues raised by Trinidad and Tobago regarding the surreptitious, corrupted and flawed reappointment of GS Carla Barnett.
Nowhere in the statement crafted by GS Barnett did she address the WhatsApp message sent on the COFCOR WhatsApp group (of which she is a member see attached photo) to ALL CARICOM Foreign a Ministers at 8:55am (seen at 8:56am by Minister Sobers) on Thursday 26th February 2026, the morning of the Retreat (see attached photo).
This message can still be found on the COFCOR WhatsApp group.
Nowhere did GS Barnett also address that the TT CARICOM Director confirmed the contents of the said message with the Chef de Cabinet Janice Miller.
Yet to date, not a single member of the CARICOM Secretariat or CARICOM Foreign Minister who is a participant of that WhatsApp group show the decency, honesty or courage to acknowledge that Minister Sobers is being truthful. Instead they have all contributed to the dishonesty and malignment by their deliberate and disgraceful silence to smearing the reputation of Minister Sean Sobers.
The leadership at CARICOM particularly at the Secretariat is dysfunctional, dishonest and incompetent. This is what happens when instead of appointing competent technocrats to run the organization, friends, party hacks, relatives of politicians and affiliates of regional sister parties are dumped into managerial positions to maintain the old boys club order.
CARICOMs ideals towards integration, integrity and inclusion are just a smoke screen masking a backroom operation to maintain the decades old business elite status quo and dominance of ‘sister’ political parties with the region. Far from being an inclusive body, CARICOMs operations are frequently hijacked to promote and assist aligned sister political parties to remain in office while excluding those that are unaligned or historically not part of the entrenched political class.
I continue to await the documentation that I have requested in my letter to the Chairman. Surely there must be timestamped minutes, performance appraisals etc. Even village councils and sports clubs document their meetings far less an organization over half a century old.
Trinidad and Tobago has invested billions of dollars over the past 52 years into CARICOM and WILL NOT be exiting the organization. We helped build this organization and will be a part of fixing it to benefit ALL the people of CARICOM.
The economic, security, integration and development future of Trinidad and Tobago will not be compromised because of backroom machinations within CARICOM. This is not a game, the future of my citizens lives and livelihoods are directly connected to CARICOM.
Therefore this matter will continue to be ruthlessly and relentlessly publicly escalated and prosecuted until persons are held accountable for their odious actions and proper reforms are made to the organization to ensure fairness, accountability, effective management and non interference in the domestic politics of CARICOM members.
I repeat my words from December 2025, “Caricom cannot continue to operate in this dysfunctional and self-destructive manner as it is a grave disservice to the people of the Caribbean. The Caribbean community must face the rot within the organisation with transparency and honesty. Hiding behind the glibness of diplomacy, fake sophistication and false narratives is self-defeating.”