Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­newed calls for trans­paren­cy from CARI­COM over the reap­point­ment of Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Car­la Bar­nett, warn­ing that her Gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to chal­lenge what it de­scribes as an im­prop­er process. She has al­so threat­ened to with­hold fund­ing from Trinidad and To­ba­go for the re­gion­al or­gan­i­sa­tion.

In a Face­book post, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that Trinidad and To­ba­go re­mains com­mit­ted to CARI­COM but will not re­lent un­til what she termed a “sur­rep­ti­tious and odi­ous” process is ful­ly ex­plained. She ar­gued that the ap­point­ment car­ries im­pli­ca­tions for the coun­try’s econ­o­my, se­cu­ri­ty, re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion, and for­eign af­fairs over the next five years.

The Prime Min­is­ter stat­ed that the Gov­ern­ment has for­mal­ly ob­ject­ed to the reap­point­ment, main­tain­ing that it was not con­duct­ed in ac­cor­dance with Ar­ti­cle 24 of the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas, which re­quires for­mal con­sid­er­a­tion by the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment.