Dear Editor,
I have noted the recent statements made by the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, concerning regional security cooperation. While I hold Madam Mottley, the Office of the Prime Minister of Barbados, and the people of Barbados in high esteem, I find it necessary to fundamentally and unequivocally reject the flawed premises and dangerous mischaracterizations contained within her address.
The central assertion that international security cooperation threatens the Caribbean’s “zone of peace” represents a profound misdiagnosis of the existential threats we face. The primary source of instability and violence for the southern Caribbean remains the narco-terrorist statecraft and explicit military threats emanating from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela towards several CARICOM member states.
We recall the statement of October 31, 2025, from Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, who explicitly threatened that Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago would suffer “the most tragic consequences” for their sovereign alliances with the United States. Don’t we have a right to choose our friends anymore?
It is these overt threats to our territorial integrity and sovereignty that shatter the “zone of peace”, not the collaborative efforts to secure our Caribbean Sea. Prime Minister Mottley, whose nation is not under such direct military threat, presumes to speak for those who are. This position is not only untenable but diminishes the gravity of the peril facing your CARICOM partners, and this is the time for her to step up in defence of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago rather than Venezuela.
The legitimate and sovereign decision of nations like Trinidad and Tobago to engage in bilateral security cooperation with the United States is a strategic necessity, not an imposition. But most importantly, it is their right to invite whoever they want into their sovereign waters, and that is no business of Venezuela or anyone else.
To frame the defence of our region from criminal empires and state-sponsored aggression as a surrender of sovereignty is a backwards and perilous notion. We in Guyana must stand in solidarity with the Government and people of Trinidad and Tobago, and despite the silence of President Irfan Ali, or the real power in Guyana, Dr. Bharat Jagdeo, on this matter, the people of Guyana know what has to be done.
Therefore, as a Guyanese citizen, I am putting on record my position. I note the conclusion of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, that “CARICOM’s disunity has rendered it an unreliable security partner”. She is 100% correct, and thus we all must support the statement of truth from Madam Persad-Bissessar. Her statement is a damning indictment of our Caribbean collective failure to address the real, clear, and present dangers in our region – Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the Government of Guyana is faced with a sustained campaign of hybrid warfare, including the recent alleged act of international terrorism on our soil that resulted in the death of a Guyanese child. In the face of such provocations and the deafening silence from some regional quarters, we have a primary duty to ensure the safety and security of the Guyanese people first.
Therefore, we in Guyana should not be dissuaded from pursuing every lawful and strategic partnership to guarantee our defence. We must seek to deepen our alliance with the United States and other democratic partners capable of providing the critical security assistance required in these perilous times. This is not a choice between peace and war; it is the only responsible path to securing the peace through an alliance with the strong in order to combat the bullies and narco-terrorist states in the region.
Prime Minister Mottley’s position, however well-intentioned, is strategically misguided and fails to meet the urgency of this moment. It is a position that Guyana, given the clear and present dangers we face, must firmly and categorically reject. But where is the voice of the PPP-led Government of Guyana on this matter?
Azmo! Azmo! Azmo! That is their opportunistic and foolhardy focus at this time.