SPLITTING CARICOM IN THE ZONE OF PEACE
Fred Mitchell, Chair of the PLP, reflected on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the death of the late National Hero Sir Lynden O Pindling, how difficult it is to defend the sovereignty of a small state, as the United States has moved ships into the seas off Venezuela and Trinidad, using drug smuggling as a pretext to invade Venezuela. Sir Lynden Pindling died on 26 August 2000 at the age of 70. Trinidad welcomed the placement of the US battleships and troops in their surrounding seas. Here is the statement by the PLP’s Chairman delivered on Monday 25 August 2025:
Tomorrow will mark 25 years since the passing of the father of our nation Sir Lynden Pindling. May rest in peace. As we remember him and his role as the pater familias of our country, we look at today’s events around the Caribbean Sea with alarm and concern. This self-declared zone of peace may be plunged without regard to that declaration into a zone of instability.
It tells us that declarations of peace and sovereignty are easy to declare, but when we are small, difficult to defend. Our ministers are being attacked and threatened because of their ordinary work. Our slave ancestors had a similar problem. They were bludgeoned into submission at the point of a gun, murdered, their culture denied and denigrated, but they still arose. A luta continua, It comes in different forms, but the struggle is real and it continues for the peace of the region, the sovereignty of our nations, and for justice for people of African descent, and indeed all peoples in this region. We must, at least raise our voices in protest.