Chronicles of a Chronic Caribbean Chronicler By Earl Bousquet

With the Northern Caribbean caught in the crosshairs of the worst hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season and the most-intense military build-up in Caribbean waters since the 1980s, Eastern and Southern Caribbean nations and people are hoping and praying for the best, but also preparing for the worst.  

Jamaica, Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic braced days ahead for today’s arrival of Hurricane Melissa, with 175 mph (miles per hour) winds expected to bring heavy rains and flash floods, as well as landslides.

But just as Jamaicans were ignoring evacuation orders to stay-put to protect homes and property, many Caribbean Community (CARICOM) citizens are similarly stubborn about local implications of any US military action against Venezuela.

Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley describes the US military build-up and the region’s latest hurricane as two reminders of “how unstable and vulnerable” the Caribbean remains.

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Addressing Barbadians at home and abroad last Saturday (October 25), she noted: “These are not pirate times anymore, this is 2025 — and we have reason to be duly concerned…”

The Prime Minister referred to “a multiplicity of threats” from “menacing military vessels from the United States, across the Caribbean Sea, including what is reputed to be the world’s largest warship.”

And she said Melisa is “one of the most dangerous” hurricane systems for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.

According to the Barbados leader, “The region is facing an extremely dangerous and untenable situation in the Southern Caribbean today.”

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She referred too, to its “tragic history of being subjected to centuries of Big Power, orchestrated genocide, terrorism and warfare, even as we spend much time and resources trying to preserve our region as a Zone of Peace.”

However, PM Mottley added, “Peace is critical to all that we do in this region and now that it’s being threatened, we have to speak-up.”

She says she believes “The time has come to be able to ensure that we do not accept that any entity has the right to engage in extrajudicial killing of persons they suspect of being involved in criminal activities.”

The PM left no doubt who she was referring to, when she added: “We stand for the rule of law and we believe that if there is other intelligence available that will cause you to take action that you consider is an immediate threat to you as a nation, then you have a duty to share it with us.”

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“But on the face of it,” said the Prime Minister — who’s also an accomplished Barbadian attorney-at-law — “conflating law enforcement with military action is a dangerous step.”

Further, she said, “We equally do not accept that any nation in our region, or the Greater Caribbean, should be the subject of an imposition on them of any unilateral action of force or violence by any third party or nation…”

The Caribbean leader insisted that “If there are conflicts and disputes that are in need of resolution, then the place they are needed to be taken for such resolution is to the United Nations (UN) organization.”

She also advocated that “The methodology that must be applied for the resolution, is one of negotiation and peaceful actions, taken in order to ensure that we can settle disputes.”

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PM Mottley also said, “The violent actions that this build-up has led to needs to be the subject of dialogue, because, as I have said before, almost every war in the history of the world has been ended by dialogue…”

‘So,” she appealed, “let us have dialogue to prevent the war from starting, rather than to stop it when it has started.”

Noting that “these are indeed no longer pirate times, she said the Caribbean has all reasons to be concerned about the double-jeopardy of an intense hurricane and a promised US ‘ground operation’ against Venezuela that President Donald Trump says is coming “soon”.

Trinidad & Tobago is facing a barrage of loud criticism at home and abroad for being seen as cosying-up with Washington to facilitate its militarization of the Caribbean in the name of fighting a US ‘War on Drugs’.

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However, by negotiating only with the US – and not Caracas – for a deal to access abundant natural gas reserves in the shared offshore Dragon field between Venezuela and Trinidad & Tobago, the twin-island republic may have just lost its last chance to do so.

Following the berthing of an American warship in the port of Port of Spain to engage in advertised military manoeuvres between Trinidad & Tobago’s Coast Guard and US forces, Caracas described it as “a provocation”.

President Nicolas Maduro said it was also meant to provide a “false flag” incident to justify quick US action against Venezuela and on Monday announced cancellation the related agreement with Trinidad & Tobago.

Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is under intense pressure at home and abroad for her unapologetic support for the US militarization of the Caribbean.

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She is now accusing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) of turning its back by “supporting Venezuela against Trinidad & Tobago…”

But, as her Barbadian counterpart has clearly pointed out, there’s every reason for CARICOM to be concerned about the terrible implications of what can come out of Trinidad & Tobago’ limitless support for US disregard for international norms in pursuit its anti-Venezuela agenda in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean is left to watch how the winds blow and tides change, in the face of Hurricane Melissa and President Trump’s ‘land operation’ against Venezuela, the latter predicted to happen within days after arrival in the region of the ‘USS Gerald Ford’ and a strike group redirected to the Caribbean from the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & The Grenadines and other Eastern Caribbean nations approaching General Elections continue to nervously look-on, as regime and climate change agendas combine to threaten the region’s safety and its preservation as a Zone of Peace.

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