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As re­gion­al lead­ers con­vene in Mon­tego Bay, Ja­maica, to­day for the 49th Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing, this coun­try’s Prime Min­is­ter will be un­ex­plain­ably ab­sent. This means Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has cho­sen to skip the first Cari­com meet­ing of this mag­ni­tude to oc­cur dur­ing her sec­ond term as Prime Min­is­ter.

This has drawn sharp crit­i­cism from for­mer For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne, who told Guardian Me­dia that this is send­ing all the wrong mes­sages to the re­gion­al body.

Lead­ing up to to­day’s open­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the Mon­tego Bay Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, Per­sad-Bisses­sar was list­ed on Cari­com’s web­site as one of the open­ing speak­ers at the event.