For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has bro­ken his si­lence on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s sur­prise week­end an­nounce­ment that her gov­ern­ment sup­ports the pres­ence of Unit­ed States war­ships in the Caribbean and would even al­low them ac­cess to Trinidad and To­ba­go soil if Venezuela were to at­tack Guyana.

In a strong­ly word­ed Face­book post, Row­ley ac­cused Per­sad-Bisses­sar of set­ting aside decades of care­ful­ly cul­ti­vat­ed re­gion­al for­eign pol­i­cy and align­ing Port of Spain with Wash­ing­ton’s “Mon­roe Doc­trine” play­book.

“Com­pare that with what CARI­COM did last time the ‘big guns’ — the USA, Cana­da and Eu­rope — gave [Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás] Maduro eight days to leave and threat­ened in­va­sion if he did not com­ply,” Row­ley wrote. “Cari­com showed lead­er­ship.”