PRIME Minister Andrew Holness said yesterday that the current political crisis in Venezuela would be among the main issues on the agenda when Caricom leaders meet this week for their annual summit in St George’s, Grenada.
“It will be on the agenda,” Holness confirmed to the Jamaica Observer. He also confirmed that he will be leaving Jamaica today for the meeting, which will run from July 4-6.
Regional news agency CMC reported last Thursday after a press briefing by Grenada’s acting Foreign Affairs Minister Nicholas Steele in St George’s that it was expected that relations between Caricom and the United Kingdom, following the Brexit process, would dominate the meeting.
“That would also be on the agenda,” Holness admitted yesterday, noting that there are several other issues, including trade matters, which would have to be dealt with.
However, Jamaica has taken the lead among Caricom states seeking to have dialogue commenced between the Nicolas Maduro Administration in Venezuela, and the Opposition, to end several months of street battles between the Government, supported by the security forces, and Opposition civilian demonstrators calling for fresh elections in light of serious economic stagnation and attempts by the Government to make constitutional amendments amidst the crisis.
Over 80 deaths have been reported so far.
Jamaica was among six Caricom countries which voted in favour of a failed US-backed resolution at the recent Organisation of American States (OAS) General Assembly meeting in Mexico on the crisis.
The resolution included a proposal for mediation of the Venezuelan political crisis. But it failed after falling three short of the 23 votes necessary for it to be passed.
Barbados, The Bahamas, Belize, Guyana, and St Lucia were the other Caricom states that voted in support. Those who voted against the resolution, which also called for President Nicolas Maduro to “reconsider” an assembly to rewrite the constitution, were Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Haiti, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago abstained.
The OAS has 34 member states in the region, and Caricom has 14 OAS members, most of whom benefit from Venezuela’s oil export concession agreement, PetroCaribe. This has led to speculation that the split within the community is related to the oil concession.
Holness, in a letter to Caricom leaders in May, which was in response to the opposition to the OAS efforts raised by Prime Minister of St Vincent and Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, had proposed that the issue be discussed at the level of the Heads of Government.
“It would be desirable for us to have dialogue with each other at the earliest opportunity with a view to framing a positive outcome,” he stated.
The prime minister had suggested that Caricom engage through the OAS to promote dialogue in search of a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Former US Ambassador to Jamaica Luis G Moreno, who ended his tenure on Friday, said that the US was disappointed with the position taken by the opponents of the OAS resolution.
Moreno said that there has been no “pressure or threats” from the United States in seeking regional support for the OAS resolution.
“The Venezuelan people are suffering, suffering horribly, and the (Maduro) regime is becoming more and more oppressive as time goes by. Yes, there are economic realities. Yes, there is PetroCaribe. But Jamaica is taking a very principled, ethical, forward-leaning position and really demonstrating true leadership in this whole Venezuelan thing. And I can tell you, the United States is very pleased with that,” he told the Observer last Monday.