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Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts are split over Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s claim that Cari­com is an “un­re­li­able part­ner,” af­ter she ac­cused the re­gion­al bloc of sid­ing with Venezuela over Trinidad and To­ba­go dur­ing a tele­vised in­ter­view on Crime Watch on Mon­day evening. The Op­po­si­tion has, in turn, ac­cused Per­sad-Bisses­sar of iso­lat­ing the coun­try from its Caribbean neigh­bours and stok­ing ten­sions with Venezuela.

Po­lit­i­cal con­sul­tant and prin­ci­pal di­rec­tor of the Caribbean De­vel­op­ment Re­search Ser­vices (CADRES), Pe­ter Wick­ham, re­ject­ed the Prime Min­is­ter’s claim, say­ing there is no ev­i­dence that Cari­com has tak­en Venezuela’s side.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia via Zoom yes­ter­day, Wick­ham said Per­sad-Bisses­sar has dou­bled down on her po­si­tion in­stead of cor­rect­ing it, af­ter dis­tanc­ing her ad­min­is­tra­tion from Cari­com’s re­cent state­ment reaf­firm­ing the Caribbean as a “zone of peace.”