OECS union turned down
The new Trinidad and Tobago government has confirmed that it will not go ahead with the proposed economic and political unification with countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
The plan was promoted by the previous administration led by Patrick Manning.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, who took office last month, said Manning made a unilateral decision.
She said the proposal had not been taken to parliament, nor had a national consensus been sought.
In its manifesto for May’s general election, Persad Bissesar’s People’s Partnership coalition had pledged to reverse the move toward a union with the OECS, calling it divisive.
Caribbean drug traffic down, says UN
The annual United Nations report on global drug use has said that the Caribbean’s role as a cocaine transhipment point into the US has greatly diminished in importance over the past 15 years.
Most of the traffic now goes through Central America and Mexico.
