Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves has warned that CARICOM’s diplomatic order is under its most serious strain in decades, after a Trinidad and Tobago minister publicly confronted him in a way regional officials say bypassed every formal channel for communication between member states.
The unprecedented exchange, occurring entirely outside CARICOM’s formal machinery, has stirred deep unease in the region, with some diplomats cautioning that such departures from established protocol risk undermining the Community’s longstanding framework for preventing public deterioration in relations among member governments.
The controversy escalated after Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister in the Ministry of Housing Anil Roberts, via his Doubles and Coffee social media platform, questioned the legitimacy of housing purchases by Gonsalves’ wife and two children in Trinidad and Tobago.
In a widely circulated recording, Roberts referred to the Vincentian leader as a “big belly sixstar general,” while suggesting that Gonsalves’ recent criticism of Trinidad and Tobago’s interpretation of CARICOM’s Zone of Peace doctrine may have been influenced by “real estate gains” his family allegedly secured.
In an interview with the Sunday Sun Friday, Gonsalves said the conduct of the minister fell well outside accepted norms.
“This is unprecedented – where a junior minister is cursing and verbally abusing the Prime Minister of another country,” Gonsalves said.
“In my 46 years of electoral politics, I have never seen anything like this in CARICOM. Not once.”
Maturity
He stressed that St Vincent and the Grenadines would maintain its commitment to orderly regional relations.
“When it comes to governmental relations, my administration will operate with maturity. That is non-negotiable.”
Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM David Comissiong also underscored the seriousness of the breach, noting that the matter touched the core of CARICOM’s diplomatic architecture.
Comissiong said CARICOM’s strength has always relied on strict adherence to protocol.
“CARICOM is a wellstructured organisation. At the top, we have the Conference of Heads of Government – Prime Ministers and Presidents speaking to each other. Below that, we have ministerial councils – Foreign Ministers, Ministers of Education, Health and so on. The councils know their place. The leadership knows its place. Equals speak to equals, ” the ambassador explained He warned that sidestepping these structures invited instability.
“If the proper protocols are respected, we do not have problems. But when someone bypasses these protocols, when communication intended for formal channels is issued publicly, informally, or in a way inconsistent with the structure, that creates miscommunication and confusion. And frankly, the language used in this case is unprecedented. I cannot recall anything like this in the modern history of CARICOM.”
Political scientist Peter Wickham described the situation as the most serious challenge to CARICOM’s diplomatic norms since the West Indies Federation.
“We would need to go
back to the Federation to find this kind of nasty discourse in the public domain,” he said. He characterised the remarks as “mudthrowing” rather than policy scrutiny, and cautioned that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s endorsement risked deepening the impression of a diplomatic breakdown.
“This should have been a diplomatic conversation but that is not happening,” he said. He described Roberts as “a loose cannon” whose approach was entirely inappropriate for interstate communication.
Silence
Wickham added that CARICOM was unlikely to intervene formally.
“Once CARICOM steps in, it brings the institution down to the level of Anil Roberts but the silence speaks volumes. Every head in the region understands this is not how CARICOM business is done,” he said.
Matters intensified when Persad-Bissessar publicly supported her minister, describing his claims as “legitimate concerns” about the Victoria Keyes transactions.
Gonsalves has rejected the allegations outright, calling them “defamatory,” “entirely wrong,” and “a breach of privacy.” He stressed that his wife, Trinidadian by birth, and his children, who hold Trinidad passports, were entitled to conduct business with the state housing agency.
“These were armslength transactions,” he said. “My family did not get any special advantage. My wife is Trinidadian. My children are Trinidadian citizens. They engaged the agency in the normal way in which any Trinidadian citizen would.”
He said that one of the units was obtained through a rent-to-own arrangement that was plagued with delays and structural problems, not privilege.
“It was a terrible situation. The unit was leaking, it was flooding, it had plumbing failures. It took them five years to fix,” he said. “That alone gives the lie to any idea that they received preferential treatment. They actually bought at higher prices than those now being offered to the public.”
Gonsalves insisted he had no involvement in the transactions.
“Let the record show: I never contacted anybody in the government of Trinidad and Tobago about this matter. These were dealt with entirely by my family members and by relatives in Trinidad. Nothing unethical. Nothing improper. Nothing illegal.”
The dispute is unfolding as CARICOM continues reaffirming its Zone of Peace designation, supported by 13 member states and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Trinidad and Tobago has argued that domestic criminal activity undermines the designation.
Gonsalves dismissed the argument. “If you broaden the concept to include non-state actors, then no country in the world would qualify.” (CLM)
