Posted: Friday, October 24, 2025. 3:48 pm CST.
By Zoila Palma: Amid growing military activity in the Caribbean, 10 former Heads of Government from across the region have issued a rare joint statement calling for diplomacy, restraint, and the preservation of the Caribbean’s long-held identity as a “Zone of Peace.”
The statement warns that escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela risk pulling the region into “conflicts not of our making.”
Signatories include former prime ministers from Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, and St. Lucia — among them Jamaica’s P.J. Patterson and Bruce Golding, Belize’s Said Musa and Dean Barrow, and Barbados’ Freundel Stuart.
According to Times Caribbean Online, former leaders voiced alarm over recent U.S. military strikes in Caribbean waters — operations Washington claims were aimed at drug and arms trafficking networks.
The statement, described by diplomats as “unusually urgent,” urges a rollback of military presence and a recommitment to peaceful coexistence and mutual respect. “Peace was accepted as a dominant factor in shaping our social and political framework,” the leaders recalled, referencing the 1972 Chaguaramas meeting that helped define modern Caribbean diplomacy.
“That principle must not now be eroded.” They also expressed concern over reports of nuclear-powered vessels and surveillance aircraft operating in regional airspace, warning that the Caribbean “must not become the stage for confrontation.”
Absent from the joint appeal were any former leaders of Trinidad and Tobago, where Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar’s administration has backed the U.S. operations.
However, the former prime ministers emphasized that international law and diplomacy must guide regional security efforts, citing the Caribbean’s historic opposition to foreign intervention and its respect for sovereignty.
“The Caribbean Sea is central to our existence,” the joint statement concluded. “It must not become the stage for confrontation.”
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Posted: Friday, October 24, 2025. 3:48 pm CST. By Zoila Palma: Amid growing military activity in the Caribbean, 10 former Heads of Government from across the
The post International News: Former Caribbean leaders including 2 former Belizean Prime Ministers urge peace as U.S.-Venezuela tensions rise in regional waters appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
