#caricom

The Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM met very early on 3 January following reports of military action in Venezuela.

CARICOM is actively monitoring the situation which is of grave concern to the Region with possible implications for neighbouring countries.  CARICOM will continue to update the people of the Region as more information is received.

Caribbean countries have pledged to support Cuba through a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by a US fuel embargo, after a leaders summit defined by regional divisions over Washington’s policies. The decision to send humanitarian assistance to Cuba was announced during a press conference on Friday to mark the end of the four-day Caribbean Community (Caricom) meeting in St Kitts and Nevis, which secretary of state Marco Rubio attended to discuss US relations with Caribbean governments. The summit was held amid escalating tensions between Cuba and the US after the arrest of the Caribbean nation’s key ally, the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, by US forces and the Trump administration imposed an oil blockade on Cuba in January. At the opening of the conference there were calls for dialogue to de-escalate the tensions between Cuba and the US, with Jamaica’s prime minister Andrew Holness raising concerns about the “severe economic hardship, energy shortages and growing humanitarian strain” and its potential consequences on the wider region. On Friday, the chair of Caricom, St Kitts and Nevis prime minister, Terrance Drew, said that the 15-country bloc will be responding “in a significant way to help the humanitarian situation in Cuba” within a month. Asked whether there will be a joint Caricom statement condemning the US military intervention in the region, which has included deadly military strikes against suspected drug boats in the area killing at least 151 people without providing evidence of wrongdoing, Drew told reporters that the body was investigating and gathering information to “ensure … a complete and comprehensive response”.

Sandra Mason after she was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, at Buckingham Palace on March 23, 2018 in London.

Barbados has elected its first-ever president to replace Britain's Queen Elizabeth as head of state, in a decisive step toward shedding the Caribbean island's colonial past.

Sandra Mason was elected late on Wednesday by a two-thirds vote of a joint session of the country's House of Assembly and Senate. In a statement, the government called her appointment a milestone on its "road to republic."A former British colony that gained independence in 1966, the nation of just under 300,000 had long maintained ties with the United Kingdom's monarchy.

But many Barbadians have long agitated to remove the Queen's status -- and with it, the lingering symbolic presence of imperialism over its governance. Multiple leaders this century have proposed that the country become a republic.

That will finally happen on November 30, the country's 55th anniversary of independence from Britain, when Mason will be sworn in.

A former jurist who has been governor-general of the island since 2018, Mason was also the first woman to serve on the Barbados Court of Appeals.

Barbados will drop Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state next year, government announces

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called the election of a president "a seminal moment" in the country's journey.

"We have just elected from among us a woman who is uniquely and passionately Barbadian, does not pretend to be anything else (and) reflects the values of who we are," Mottley said after Mason's election.Several countries dropped the Queen as head of state in the years after they gained independence, with Mauritius the last to do so, in 1992. That makes Barbados the first country in nearly three decades to drop the monarch.

The Queen is still head of state in more than a dozen other countries that were formerly under British rule, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Jamaica.Wazim Mowla of the Atlantic Council think tank told Reuters the election could benefit Barbados both at home and abroad.

The move makes Barbados, a small developing country, a more legitimate player in global politics, Mowla said, but could also serve as a "unifying and nationalistic move" that may benefit its current leadership at home."Other Caribbean leaders and their citizens will likely praise the move, but I don't expect others to follow suit," Mowla added. "This move will always be considered only if it is in the best interest of each country."