Fighting…for relevance

Barbados PM Mia Mottley was invited by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) to give a (virtual) feature address at the organisation’s 136th Annual Awards Presentation. You read that right – 136th!! They’ve been around a bit, innit?? Anyhow, your Eyewitness wondered why she’s been invited, given that with the (welcome) ouster of St Vincent’s Ralph Gonsalves, she’s the surviving vestige of leftist leaders in Caricom!!
Mottley’s a darling of the internationalist crowd, which seeks relevance by pushing the woke agenda of “inclusivity” that creates the illusion they are really movers and shakers in the world. The reality is that Barbados is a 169-square-mile speck of an island with a total population of 180,000 – around the same as our Georgetown!! It has enjoyed a pretty high standard of living primarily because of catering to British and European tourists who used to troop down especially to enjoy its “surf and turf”!!
It boasted about being “Little England” in mores and manners – as they obsequiously kowtowed to the Europeans while treating supposedly “fellow” West Indians like dirt!! Your Eyewitness personally experienced the condign rigours of the “Guyanese Bench” they’d set up for us after Burnham’s PNC social and political experiments scattered us like dust across the globe!! Anyhow, after the Covid pandemic, their tourism numbers were hit for six – outta the ground!! – and Mottley’s attempting to play nice with us!! That this rejigging comes when we’ve struck oil big time is purely coincidental!! If Mottley’s to be believed, she’s motivated by pure idealism in every action of her life!!
She purported to offer a “new vision” to the Caribbean in her presentation at the GCCI!! In her estimation, there are three critical “pillars” on which Caribbean stability and economic resilience must now be built: security, climate and disaster readiness and fiscal reform. With all that’s going on right now in the region, your Eyewitness was particularly interested in how she saw our “security needs”!!
This, she announced, must be seen from a regional perspective, and we must strengthen the Regional Security System (RSS). Because “our solidarity is not merely a diplomatic legacy; it is a fundamental act of economic self-preservation.” All well and good up to there!! But it was her conclusion that made your Eyewitness sit up!! “We stand firmly to ensure that the rule of law is respected and that this zone of peace is defended from all external pressures and escalating threats.”
“Take that, USA!!” she was saying!! “Get outta here with your war on narco-trafficking that involves taking on one of its kingpins, Venezuela’s Mad Maduro!!”
And this is where your Eyewitness says we gotta forcefully part ways – like T&T’s Kamla – with MS Mottley playing to her international gallery!!

…Mad Maduro
Another piece in the Venezuelan puzzle on Mad Maduro’s demise fell into place with the activities surrounding Venezuela’s charismatic opposition leader, Maria Machado. She, of course, had been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to save democracy in Venezuela – against the jackboots of Mad Maduro’s minions!! One of those – not coincidentally – was just charged with committing “crimes against humanity”!!
Anyhow, Machado arrived late for the ceremony – which again, coincidentally, emphasised that she had to sneak out of Venezuela, where she’d been in hiding!! She then announced to the rapturous European crowd that lapped up her words, “I’m going back to Venezuela regardless of when Maduro goes out. He’s going out, but the moment will be determined by when I’m finished doing the things that I came out to do!!” One awaits “those things”!!
Simultaneously, the US issued new sanctions against Venezuela – specifically against three narco-nephews of Mad Maduro’s wife – as well as six crude oil tankers and shipping companies linked to them!!
As the screw turns…!

…the Donroe Doctrine
Countering Trump’s NSS, China announced that its policy toward Latin America is guided by “non-intervention, respect for sovereignty, the defence of multilateralism, and the rejection of unilateral sanctions”!!
Till they take over!!