Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is expected to attend a special meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Bureau to be held in Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow.
The meeting is being convened, to discuss the ruling by the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic, which revokes citizenship to some 250,000 persons of Haitian descent who were born in the Dominican Republic after 1929.
Tomorrow’s meeting will be chaired by Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, who is also Chairperson of the 15-member regional grouping.
The CARICOM Bureau comprises Prime Minister Persad Bissessar, this country’s Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and the President of Haiti, Michel Martelly. Tomorrow’s meeting in Trinidad and Tobago will also be attended by CARICOM Secretary General Irwin la Rocque.
Prime Minister Gonsalves has been openly critical of the September 23 ruling by the Constitutional Court in the Dominican Republic which has the effect of rendering stateless, thousands of people of Haitian descent living in the Spanish-speaking country.
Dr. Gonsalves has written two letters to the President of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina, warning that St. Vincent and the Grenadines would oppose his country’s application for membership to CARICOM , as well as seeking its suspension from CARIFORUM. The Prime Minister said he has also written to Venezuela’s President Nicolas Madura urging that Santo Domingo be suspended from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas ALBA, and from PetroCaribe, the oil alliance initiative.
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