UNITED STATES Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to visit Barbados next Wednesday to meet with some Caribbean leaders and their foreign ministers.The one-day visit, announced by an official in Washington yesterday, will be part of a Latin American and Caribbean tour with stops in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Barbados.
Although details of the discussions in Barbados have not been disclosed, it is expected that the United States and the Caribbean will discuss the region’s financial and economic troubles and crime and security.She will be the third member of the cabinet of President Barack Obama to visit the Caribbean since he moved into the White House in January last year. United States Attorney General Eric Holder visited Barbados last year and met with the region’s attorneys general while Robert Gates, the defence secretary, visited Barbados several weeks ago and conferred with regional ministers of national security.
Clinton is going to Peru to attend the annual general assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS), which begins next Monday.She has already visited Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Guatemala.This will be her second visit to Barbados after accompanying her husband, President Bill Clinton, to the region in the late 1990s when he met with Caribbean leaders here.
Last week, CARICOM security ministers met in Washington with the United States attorney general and others. (TB)
