A deepening dispute over the reappointment of Caricom Secretary-General Dr Carla Barnett has escalated into a public conflict, with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar leveraging internal regional body correspondence to argue the selection process was conducted in a covert and procedurally flawed manner. The Prime Minister has also issued a clear warning: any attempt to damage the reputation of the country’s Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, Sean Sobers, will be met with immediate, forceful pushback from her and her entire administration.
The public standoff erupted after Persad-Bissessar took to her official social media channels to respond directly to claims made by Caricom Chairman Dr Terrance Drew, opening her rebuttal with a stinging comparison that highlighted what she called misplaced institutional priorities: more official communication had been dedicated to coordinating a ceremonial event shirt than to the high-stakes reappointment of the bloc’s top administrative leader.
The conflict traces back to a February 26 leadership retreat held in St Kitts and Nevis, where the decision to reappoint Barnett was finalized. Over the course of 39 days leading up to the retreat, from January 19 to February 26, Persad-Bissessar revealed that Caricom had sent eight separate communications to the Trinidad and Tobago government all focused on the ceremonial Caricom shirt, but not a single message mentioning Barnett’s reappointment as an agenda item. “Clearly the shirt was of utmost significance and importance but the reappointment of the GS of Caricom was not,” she noted, arguing that this lopsided communication pattern raises serious red flags about institutional governance and transparency within the regional bloc.
The most critical contradiction at the heart of the dispute surrounds the attendance of Foreign Minister Sobers. After Drew claimed in an April 8 leaked letter that Sobers had been invited to the retreat but declined to attend due to seasickness, Persad-Bissessar pushed back by publishing an April 9 letter from Sobers to Drew that refuted that account, plus internal Caricom communications that confirm Sobers was effectively disinvited the morning of the retreat.
On the day of the meeting, a WhatsApp message sent directly to all regional foreign ministers, including Sobers, from the Caricom Secretariat explicitly stated that Chairman Drew had determined the retreat would be “Heads of Government only.” The message, timestamped 8:56 a.m., read: “Good morning Foreign Ministers. Chairman PM Drew has indicated that today will be a Heads only retreat. Notwithstanding any indication otherwise, he would like it to remain Heads only. He apologises for any inconvenience. Ministers should therefore remain for the Community Council Meeting to complete its work, including those agenda items from the Heads agenda which Community Council is to consider and provide recommendations to Heads for adoption.” Persad-Bissessar confirmed this notification was later verified by Caricom Chef de Cabinet Janice Miller, and a separate February 22 email from Miller to member states also explicitly designated the retreat as Heads-only, further undermining Drew’s claims that Sobers was invited and declined.
After Drew released a public statement including a timeline of events following Persad-Bissessar’s initial social media post, the Prime Minister pointed out that the Caricom chairman’s account intentionally omitted this key WhatsApp correspondence, creating a false narrative about Sobers’ non-attendance. “When will Barnett and Miller address this WhatsApp message which was sent to foreign ministers including Minister Sobers that was verified by our director of Caricom?” she asked. “At best Minister Sobers was disinvited because he had no fancy Caricom shirt, at worst he was disinvited to deliberately facilitate Ms Barnett’s surreptitious reappointment process.”
Persad-Bissessar has since demanded the release of four critical sets of documents that the Trinidad and Tobago government has repeatedly requested but not received: official meeting minutes from the retreat, a full performance appraisal for Dr Barnett, documentation of the 2021 appointment procedure that Caricom claims the 2026 process mirrored, and all additional records requested in Sobers’ April 9 letter to Drew.
The Prime Minister warned that the Caricom Secretariat’s continued refusal to release these public records is eroding public and institutional confidence in the entire regional integration project. “Any progress towards deepening the integration process is being diminished by the continued aversion to transparency regarding this surreptitious, corrupted and flawed process used to reappoint GS Barnett,” she said.
Reaffirming her commitment to defending her cabinet minister, Persad-Bissessar closed her statement by emphasizing that any future attempts to smear Sobers will be met with clear, public pushback. “The deliberate attempts to avoid accountability but instead wilfully and publicly smear my Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Sean Sobers will continue to be met with public responses from myself and my Government,” she said. When asked by local outlet *Trinidad Express* to clarify a passing reference to an unnamed “Charles” in her social media post who could assist in further smearing Sobers, the Prime Minister deferred the question back to Caricom, saying the regional body should explain the reference.