For generations, the Caribbean Sea has been upheld as a Zone of Peace. That is no accident. It was built by the conscious decisions of leaders and peoples who understood their history — the horrors associated with captivity — a people who value freedom, who fought for their sovereignty and who ought to cherish, with the last breath in our bodies, the right to self-determination in dictating our future.
Today, that peace is under threat, and Caribbean leaders are sitting on their hands while the region walks closer to the edge of a dangerous conflict between the United States and Venezuela.
We are not spectators in this. Already, we have heard that nationals of Trinidad and Tobago have died as a result of being caught in the crossfire. These are Caribbean people — our brothers. They are not mere statistics or pawns, but people with families, with lives, with rights. If one Caribbean national is affected, all are. What affects Trinidad affects Guyana, affects Antigua, affects Grenada, and every Member-State and Associate-State. This is the foundation of CARICOM.
So where are the leaders? Why are some silent? Why are they not speaking with one voice?
What we are seeing instead is a fragmentation of the regional voice. Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda told a visiting U.S. Southern Commander, Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey, what all of CARICOM has said for decades: the Caribbean Sea must remain a Zone of Peace.
But President Irfaan Ali has taken a different stance, intimating that while Guyana supports maintaining the region as a Zone of Peace, the country will also stand firm against transnational crime, the illicit drug trade, and any form of destabilisation that threatens regional stability.
Presently, the USA has warships in our sea under the very pretext Ali says he stands firmly against. Just as the Americans have been calling for evidence to justify their actions, it is not unreasonable for those directly affected to demand the same standard of evidence. The Guyanese people need to know where the President stands on this.
At the United Nations General Assembly, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar declared that the idea of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace has become a false ideal. But who determines the nature of peace in our region? Is it Washington? Or is it the Caribbean people through their governments?
These mixed messages are dangerous. When some leaders say the region is a peaceful zone and others invite the warships of global powers into our backyard, they send confusion into the world. That confusion invites exploitation. It invites intervention. It tells the world that the Caribbean is divided, and where there is division, there is weakness.
We have been down this road before. We saw it in Grenada with the murder of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop on October 19, 2025. We saw how regional division opened the door for foreign intervention, leaving behind scars that we are still reckoning with today. That must never happen again. We will not allow this region to be split and sacrificed to serve the geopolitical games of bigger powers.
Since the time of Forbes Burnham, Guyana’s foreign policy has been rooted in non-alignment. This was not because we feared taking a stand but because we believed in sovereignty, self-determination, and settling disputes through regional and international fora such as CARICOM, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the United Nations. That was not a position of neutrality. It was a position of strength and principle. That is the Guyanese tradition, and it is the Caribbean tradition.
For this reason, the current moment demands leadership, not silence. Caribbean Heads of Government must meet immediately, not to host another photo-op but to engage in serious and urgent dialogue. They must come together and issue a clear, unambiguous statement on the region’s collective position. What is the Caribbean’s view on foreign military presence in our sea? What is the Caribbean’s strategy for ensuring the safety of our people, the defense of our territory, and the respect for international law?
Our people must not live in fear of being collateral damage in foreign conflicts. They deserve answers. We deserve unity of voice. We deserve protection. The longer our leaders remain silent or divided, the more the region becomes a playground for foreign militaries and political interests that do not answer to us and do not care about our future.
Our sovereignty should never be up for debate. Our people should never be made to feel that their rights are being negotiated behind closed doors with foreign powers. The peace of the Caribbean must be articulated and defended by Caribbean hands- with voice, with unity and with strength.
