by Kevon Browne
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN)—CARICOM has faced significant backlash following its cautious response to a large-scale U.S. military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
On January 3, 2026, CARICOM issued a brief statement expressing “grave concern” and reiterating its commitment to the Caribbean as a “Zone of Peace”.
The regional body called for “peaceful dialogue” and adherence to international law, rather than directly condemning the U.S. action.
Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Hon. Dr Terrance Drew, during the January 08, 2026, broadcast of ‘The Roundtable’, set to clarify the role of the CARICOM chairmanship following media questions suggesting inaction by the chairman.
“Within the CARICOM construct, I am now the chief of CARICOM. To clarify for people, the chief of CARICOM is a function where you coordinate all of the countries that are members of CARICOM. Any statement that comes from CARICOM is a statement of consensus, not the chairman or the chairperson. The chairperson speaks to the consensus reached, because these are individual, sovereign countries that come together, and we will take the chairmanship. And the chairman is who facilitates that all of this be done. It’s almost like being the chair of a meeting. You are not the prime minister of the region. You are not the president of the region. You do not speak specifically for any country. But what happens, the statements that come out is after robust discussions. What is the consensus reached will be released as a CARICOM statement. So I wanted to make that clear because I see things around what is a CARICOM chairman saying and what is a CARICOM chairman doing. And just to let people know that the fundamental role of CARICOM chairman is a CARICOM chairperson is a coordination role. You’re not the president of the Caribbean. You’re not the prime minister of the Caribbean. And therefore, that is done when everybody comes together. Discussions are had, and a statement is reached.”
As the situation in Venezuela remains dynamic, the fallout remains elusive, and any projected definitive outcome is uncertain.
The Country’s President and his wife face several charges in the U.S., including Narco-terrorism conspiracy, Conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, Possession of machine guns and destructive devices and Conspiracy to use machine guns to carry out drug trafficking.
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president of Venezuela, though she has described Maduro and Flores as “hostages”; they are being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Centre (MDC) in Brooklyn.
Nicolás Maduro’s next scheduled court appearance is March 17, 2026. His first appearance in court and arraignment were on January 5, 2026.
What is the expected fallout of this on the region, especially St. Kitts and Nevis?
The Prime Minister did not share any information on expected fallout as the situation continues to develop.
“Now, you asked about mitigating the outcomes and so forth.
Now, in the proactive aspect of diplomacy, we want to know what will happen and how we can prepare our people to deal with some of these fallouts. It so happens that sometimes you may not have all of the information at the same time. But in developing these channels is to find how can we develop a channel to make sure we get pertinent information at the right time so that we can do what is necessary. I consider some effort to do that. For example, with the third-party nationals, they will sit with us, and we’ll sit together and work out the framework. So we know already what to expect, what not to expect. And we put our scenario that we can work with on the table, for example. So it’s not just doing it, but being proactive in making sure that we know the parameters or the factors that would be involved and how they can impact our people. So that comes from part of our proactive diplomacy. And so we want to continue to work this type of, I would say, interaction, collaboration, so that the best scenario for us would be had. And so that is where we are with that. But that question with respect to making sure that we mitigate, we continue to work on that. I know you might speak when the airspace was closed, for example, and how that might have affected flights. And then some people could not get out. The best-case scenario, of course, would be to know ahead of time that something like that might happen. And that, you know, based on what is being done, it depends on how much information might be flowing at a particular time. But it is always the objective to get the best-case scenario and to see how best you can position your country, even in challenging times.”
On the “muted” statement from CARICOM, as described by Former St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister Drew emphasises the damage dissenting comments could cause to the bloc.
“With respect to the CARICOM statement, the CARICOM statement is a collaborative statement. It is a joint statement. In CARICOM, you have all of these independent sovereign countries and associate members. It’s mainly between the independent countries or the sovereigns. And a scenario is put forward and a statement is to put out. The statement involves everybody. Let me tell you. Let’s say you put out a statement, and countries start to dissent. You see what happened between the two territories recently. A statement went out, two countries ended up on different sides of the statement and a big spat in public with one country. Eventually, it settled down, and I think, you know, cam heads prevailed. But if each time CARICOM is to put out a statement and you have a country dissent and this one dissent and that one dissent, and then you have this spat in public, that does more damage to CARICOM than really getting around the table and saying what is the best situation we can reach in terms of putting out a statement to deal with a particular scenario. It does not necessarily have to be what is happening with Venezuela and so forth, but it can be an almost any other issue. And so CARICOM is a collaborative effort. And I want to say to all people again that the chairman does not write statements for CARICOM. What the chairman does with the secretariat is coordinate to make sure that everybody participates in the issuing of the statement. So you do preliminary statement, you put it there, people comment on it, what they can tolerate, what they cannot tolerate, what they think should be changed, what they, you know. So everybody has a chance to see it and to discuss it and to see. And you always seek to get what I would say is the best-case scenario, meaning that all states can really sign on to whatever the eventual statement is.”
The statement ultimately results from consensus among the participating countries.
“So sometimes let’s say you have one state who say, you know, let’s send out this type of statement. I’ll say this: another state might say, ‘No, but I don’t think that should be in it.’ Let’s consider this. Let’s consider that. This we think should not be there. And this one will say include that. So, you know, it’s like, just think about even your own home, you’re negotiating with your wife. You know, you have an opinion, your wife has an opinion, or your partner has an opinion, or even your family members. And you’re trying to reach the best scenario on which to go forward. And so that is how CARICOM operates. If you go to the European Union or any other scenario where you have multiple countries in an arrangement, ours is the integration movement of Caribbean nations. That is how it is obtained. So I just wanted to stress that. And this is a very good question. So I know there were questions about the statement could have been stronger. Some say, you know, you should not have mentioned this. Even when you’re arguing, I should have been stronger. There are those who think really something should not have even been mentioned. So you’re still trying to find that ground where everybody can, whatever statement is had, is palatable to all around the table. That’s what we seek to do. So that is how it works.”
On January 9, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the cancellation of a planned “second wave” of military strikes because of improved cooperation from the current Venezuelan authorities.
The Venezuelan government recently began releasing high-profile political prisoners, including former presidential candidate Enrique Márquez, on January 8, 2026.
The maritime blockade remains in place. U.S. naval ships are stationed in the Caribbean to maintain “safety and security”.
