Rowley among CARICOM delegation in meeting with UN Secretary General

T&T Prime Minister  Dr Keith Rowley is included in a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) delegation currently in New York for meetings scheduled for today, January 28 Monday with United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres.

The meeting follows last week’s emergency meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government during which it was agreed that Chairman of the Conference, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis Dr Timothy Harris, would seek an urgent meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General to request the United Nations’ assistance with the ongoing situation in Venezuela.

Last Wednesday, Venezuela’s Opposition Leader, Juan Guaidó, declared himself the interim leader of the South American country and was promptly recognized by several countries including the United States, Canada and some Latin American countries.

In the statement that followed Thursday’s CARICOM conference, the regional leaders said that they are “closely” following the “current unsatisfactory situation” in Venezuela and “expressed grave concern about the plight of the people….and the increasing volatility of the situation brought about by recent developments which could lead to further violence, confrontation, breakdown of law and order and greater suffering for the people of the country.”

The 15-member CARICOM grouping “reaffirmed their guiding principles of non-interference and non-intervention in the affairs of states, respect for sovereignty, adherence to the rule of law, and respect for human rights and democracy

Earlier this month, Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas, Guyana and St. Lucia supported a resolution at the Organisation of American States (OAS) in not recognising the second five-year term of Maduro, while Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname voted against the measure.

St. Kitts-Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, and Belize abstained during the vote while Grenada was not present.