It is not known what Andrew Holness said in private when he visited the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) secretariat in Guyana last week.

But the Jamaican prime minister’s public remarks underlined the need for CARICOM’s heads of government to resolve the lingering uncertainty over the status and future of Carla Barnett, the community’s secretary general, who Trinidad and Tobago says it will no longer recognise when her current contract expires in mid-August.

Port of Spain argued that Dr Barnett’s reappointment for a second term at a CARICOM summit in Kitts and Nevis in February was irregular, having broken the rules on decision-making by heads of government.