Former Trinidad PM Keith Rowley criticizes Persad-Bissessar over US military deployment in Caribbean

Former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has issued a sharp rebuke of current Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar following her weekend announcement that the Trinidad and Tobago government supports the deployment of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean, and would grant them access to local territory should Venezuela attack Guyana.

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In a detailed Facebook post, Rowley accused Persad-Bissessar of abandoning decades of carefully cultivated regional foreign policy, warning that her stance aligns Trinidad and Tobago with Washington’s “Monroe Doctrine” approach. “With this legacy in the face of the intractable issues surrounding us, Trinidad and Tobago has now set our decades-old successful foreign policy alight as a beacon to advocates of the Monroe Doctrine,” Rowley wrote, invoking the legacies of Caribbean founding leaders such as Dr. Eric Williams and Errol Barrow.

Rowley recalled Caricom’s active diplomatic role during the 2019 Venezuelan crisis, highlighting interventions that averted war. He noted that Caricom leaders, including himself, Prime Ministers Mia Mottley of Barbados and Timothy Harris of St. Kitts and Nevis, engaged the UN Secretary-General and brokered accords such as the Montevideo and Arnos Vale agreements, bringing Guyana and Venezuela face-to-face for negotiations. “This period of aggressive, frenetic Caricom leadership prevented war and ushered in relative calm,” Rowley said.

The former Prime Minister argued that Persad-Bissessar’s position risks undermining regional unity. “Trinidad declared that ‘each member state can speak for themselves.’ Translation: regional unity is good until it clashes with Uncle Sam,” he wrote, describing the move as “reckless” and a potential compromise of sovereignty.

Persad-Bissessar’s original statement, issued on Sunday, framed the U.S. deployment as a countermeasure against transnational crime, including drug, human, and firearms trafficking. She emphasized that law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear and insisted that, if requested, her government would allow U.S. forces access to Trinidadian territory only to defend Guyana against aggression from Venezuela. The Prime Minister dismissed criticism linking the deployment to regional sovereignty or CARICOM protocols, saying each Caribbean state may act independently on the issue.

Rowley, however, condemned what he called a transactional approach to sovereignty, arguing that foreign military presence should not be decided without parliamentary debate or broad national consultation. “Foreign military access is not something you whisper through a press release. It’s the kind of decision that can reshape generations,” he wrote.

The controversy follows U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s recent remarks citing Trinidad and Tobago as an example of high regional crime while defending Washington’s security policies. Persad-Bissessar echoed this context in her statement, asserting that small Caribbean states lack the resources to confront entrenched criminal networks and welcoming U.S. support as a necessary measure.