News Americas, NEW YORK, NY., Tues. Jan. 21, 2020: Two Caribbean leaders have said they will be boycotting the Caribbean visit of U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who is set to arrive in Jamaica today as the impeachment trial gets underway in the US Senate of US President Donald John Trump.
Pompeo was in Bogota, Colombia yesterday, January 20th, where he addressed the Third Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial and meet with President Duque and other regional leaders.
He is set to arrive in San Jose, Costa Rica this morning and then travel to Kingston, Jamaica to meet with the country’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness and conduct a multilateral roundtable discussion with several Caribbean leaders while delivering remarks on U.S. Caribbean relations.
But current chair of the Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, and prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, says she will skip the meeting and won’t be sending a representative either while Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley said Monday he will also boycott the meeting.
“PM Mottley has the full support of the government and the people of Trinidad and Tobago in outlining our principles and vision of Caribbean unity. In the expectation of Caribbean unity, the Prime Minister of Barbados speaks for Trinidad and Tobago,” Rowley, of the oil rich island Republic said Monday.
However, leaders from The Bahamas, Belize, The Dominican Republic, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis and St Lucia are set to join Jamaica at the meeting with the US Secretary.
Pompeo’s visit comes a year after Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness along with the leaders of St. Lucia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, met with Trump at his Mar-A-Lago Resort in Florida.
Trump had pledged investment in a rare meeting with the five Caribbean leaders who sided with the United States in backing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as head of state.
The nations broke from other members of CARICOM, in their support for Guaido. The organization had officially advocated for talks between President Nicolas Maduro and Guaido, and most of its members had rejected resolutions by the Organization of American States supporting Guaido.
Pompeo met with Guaido in Colombia and said the United States is “prepared to work alongside President Guaido and the good people of Venezuela to deliver democracy.”
