The overwhelming reliance on the United States for food has placed the region in a predicament, with at least one prime minister admitting his country would starve if the US should stop sending imports.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne is coming under pressure from citizens following the signing of a controversial agreement with the Trump administration to accept asylum-seekers rejected from the United States who cannot return to their countries of origin. According to the Miami Herald, this arrangement has also been accepted by at least five other countries in the region – Belize, Dominica, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia – as their governments are now making arrangements with Washington to accept migrants.
Browne admitted that his country’s dependence on the US is so deep that any prolonged disruption in supply could quickly become a national crisis. This admittance comes in the wake of the capture of Venezuelan Prime Minister Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Generally vocal regional leaders have been unusually quiet on the matter.
“In terms of trade, 80% of what we consume is imported from the United States,” PM Browne said during a radio discussion. “If the boats, the food boats—don’t come here for about three weeks, half our country will starve.”
Immediate past chair of CARICOM and Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, has not said much about Maduro’s capture. He hinted he is intentionally steering clear, following calls for him to share a position as the US/Venezuelan tension escalates.
“We are living in changing times, uncertain times, unchartered waters in many instances. And my job as the steward of your affairs and the servant of your wishes is to keep Jamaica safe, not to steer into waters for which we don’t have to go, not to invite problems on ourselves when we have our own problems to deal with. This is not us recoiling from our principles and duties,” he stated last Wednesday at the Heal the Family, Heal the Nation: National Day of Prayer Service hosted by the Power of Faith Ministries in Portmore, St. Catherine.
Holness has not stated whether Jamaica is in the process of inking any arrangement with the US to accept rejected asylum-seekers. However, it has been prophesied that the Holness administration would enter into several controversial arrangements with other countries without consulting the Jamaican people, as geopolitical tension increases this year.
Prime Minister of St Lucia, Philip J. Pierre, stated in a national address on Sunday, January 11, that the cabinet has given the approval for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to allow for the potential transfer of third-country nationals who are currently living in the US. The Prime Minister said the agreement has been reached but has not yet been formally signed.
PM Pierre says that he anticipates some concerns from the people of the island and assures, “I will always put you first and act in the best interest of the people of our beloved country.”
