The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) faces a challenging foreign policy-related moment, which variously impacts its 14 sovereign member states. American military forces deployed in the Caribbean since September 2025 drew 2 disparate strands of reaction from these states, which tested the bloc’s unity.
At present, CARICOM’s leadership is in the process of addressing this concern. In so doing, it would be mindful, inter alia, of the seemingly implacable goals of the so-called ‘Donroe Doctrine’ and pressure from concomitant U.S. policy towards regional groupings’ sovereign members.
The powers-that-be at CARICOM will have their work cut out to move with what ostensibly amounts to a cohesive foreign policy response. This is towards Trump 2.0’s take on American powers that tends to lean into spheres of influence and strategic rivalry-related thinking.
So far, the signals reflect that the associated interests of two sets of CARICOM member states diverge. This divergence follows a stark contrast in how the two sets of CARICOM member states are framed.
For that reason, public messaging-related restraint qua threading the needle has informed the bloc’s collective reaction to date to America’s recent targeted military strikes on Venezuela. Instructively, several Latin American countries, such as Brazil, have not held back from airing their opinions in condemning this U.S.-orchestrated development.
President Donald Trump has characterised this development as a large-scale military strike against Venezuela and its leader. The U.S. authorities attached a narrative of a law enforcement operation to this U.S. intervention. That resulted in the ouster of the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro. Plans were afoot for the U.S. to run the country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio qualified this Trumpian characterisation. Rubio focused instead on regime management in post-Maduro Venezuela.
There is a stark difference in the respective responses of two leading CARICOM member states to this high-profile, consequential development. Those countries are Barbados, besides Trinidad & Tobago.
At present, Barbados is emblematic of the set of member states that embraces the bloc’s traditional foreign policy-related ethos.
Barbados is currently representative of the group of members that uphold the bloc’s long-standing foreign policy philosophy. For its part, Trinidad and Tobago has pursued a radical break with many of its sister CARICOM member states’ foreign policy-related dispositions.
