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As for­eign mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty in­ten­si­fies across the Caribbean—deep­en­ing di­vi­sions with­in Cari­com over how the re­gion should re­spond—the Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day amend­ed an Op­po­si­tion mo­tion that sought to con­demn the Prime Min­is­ter’s re­cent pub­lic state­ments on the mat­ter.

The mo­tion, brought by Op­po­si­tion Leader Pene­lope Beck­les, asked Par­lia­ment to de­nounce what she de­scribed as “reck­less and dam­ag­ing” re­marks by the Prime Min­is­ter on re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty is­sues in­volv­ing Venezuela and the pres­ence of US mil­i­tary per­son­nel in Trinidad and To­ba­go. She ar­gued that, at a time when Cari­com it­self is split over mil­i­tary de­ploy­ments and diplo­mat­ic pos­tures, the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of the sit­u­a­tion risked iso­lat­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“We are in a mo­ment where the Caribbean is al­ready un­der im­mense pres­sure, and sev­er­al Cari­com mem­bers have tak­en sharply dif­fer­ent po­si­tions on mil­i­tary build-ups in the re­gion,” Beck­les told the House. “In­stead of pro­vid­ing clar­i­ty and con­sis­ten­cy, the Prime Min­is­ter’s state­ments have on­ly cre­at­ed con­fu­sion. This gov­ern­ment must reaf­firm its com­mit­ment to Cari­com’s es­tab­lished for­eign-pol­i­cy prin­ci­ples.”