Former Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley turned 76 years old on Friday.
And it was not just a day of celebration for him, as he announced he has signed a" statement by other Former Heads of Caricom." in a plea for the Caribbean to be "a Zone of Peace, where the Rule of Law Prevails."
00:00Former Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley took to Facebook in the pre-dawn hours of his 76th birthday to state that he found it necessary and dutiful to sign on to what he called this historic statement of former heads of CARICOM, which is entitled Our Caribbean Space, a zone of peace on land, sea, and airspace where the rule of law prevails.
00:22Dr. Rowley said on his birthday on Friday, quote, it is with a deep sense of loss and sadness that I reflect on the leadership provided by Trinidad and Tobago at an earlier time within all the fundamental principles outlined and embodied in this statement, end quote.
00:38Dr. Rowley did not mention Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Besessa, who did not mince her words at the United Nations General Assembly last month.
00:47The notion that the Caribbean is a zone of peace has become a false ideal.
00:57The reality is, stop, no such peace exists today.
01:04For too many in our region, peace is not daily life, but an elusive promise, glimpsed and never grasped.
01:13In its absence, our citizens pay a terrible toll.
01:18The former CARICOM Prime Ministers said in their statement that they feel obliged, with the benefit of their experience,
01:25to make public their apprehension on the increased security buildup and the presence of nuclear vessels within the Caribbean archipelago.
01:33The former CARICOM Prime Ministers further said, quote,
01:36We are impelled to urge pullback from military buildup, to avoid any diminution of peace, stability and development within our regional space that has the potential to pull the region into conflicts which are not of our making, end quote.
01:53CNN has reported that Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro, has claimed Venezuela has 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in key air defense positions.
02:03The U.S. has continually said its military buildup in the region is about the new U.S. war on drug cartels.
02:11The former CARICOM Prime Ministers said that they subscribed to the ship rider agreement with the United States
02:16to ensure that illicit drug traffickers could be tracked, pursued, searched and lawfully apprehended without extrajudicial killing
02:24and the destruction of that which could provide conclusive evidence of criminal operation.
02:30The former CARICOM heads of government did not make any mention of Prime Minister Passat-Bassassar,
02:36whose administration has expressed its full support for the lethal U.S. military strikes on boats
02:42the U.S. said were being used by narco-terrorists to carry illegal drugs.
02:48Dr. Rowley said in his statement that it was Trinidad and Tobago's voice supported by all his colleagues
02:53when they affirmed that together we are stronger.
02:56Dr. Rowley said, quote,
02:58I am today embarrassed to accept that with our proud record of leadership and accomplishments
03:03that today it is Trinidad and Tobago that recklessly subscribes to the dispensing with these principles
03:10in the expectation of plenty, end quote.
03:13Dr. Rowley further said, quote,
03:14It is a dangerous dereliction of duty under any circumstances to embrace the discarded colonial mantra
03:21that might is right and that the rule of law, local or international, is an inconvenience and a humbug, end quote.
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