St. Lucia threatens to withdraw from Lima Group as part of change of policy on Venezuela

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL -The Caribbean island of St. Lucia threatened to withdraw from the Lima Group as part of a change of policy on Venezuela, which will be consistent with the position of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) of not intervening in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.

The Lima Group was promoted five years ago by former Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) to bring together a group of American countries that consider Nicolás Maduro as the illegitimate president of Venezuela and supports as president in charge the opposition Juan Guaidó.

St. Lucia would be the second country of the Lima Group to withdraw from the said organization after Peru announced its exit this weekend and join the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States (CELAC).

The decision of the government of Saint Lucia comes after its Prime Minister, Phillip Pierre, met with a delegation of Venezuelan officials led by the Venezuelan Vice-Minister for the Caribbean, Raul Licausi, as well as other heads of Caricom, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and the Organization of American States (OAS).

In a brief statement, the Government of Saint Lucia indicated that despite its decision, the delegation of officials accepted their messages of support for Maduro and assured that Pierre’s administration would continue to work in favor of strengthening the relationship between his country and Venezuela.

For his part, the incoming Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saint Lucia, Alva Baptiste, indicated that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Allen Chastanet, practically ignored the country’s external relations with other countries.

Baptiste also acknowledged that after Saint Lucia joined the Lima Group, it imposed sanctions against Venezuela, which had a serious and deadly impact “on our Venezuelan brothers and sisters”. “Given this, and Saint Lucia being a member of the Lima Group, which has no value for us, we announce our intention to withdraw from the group,” Baptiste said.

Baptiste acknowledged that when the Caribbean country succumbed to a fiscal crisis in 2011, Venezuela assisted them in the education and infrastructure sector.

In October last year, the government of St. Lucia joined the Bahamas, Haiti, and Jamaica in voting in favor of an OAS resolution calling for “free and fair” elections in Venezuela.

The governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines voted against, while Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Grenada, St. Kitts, and Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago abstained.

The resolution, which explained that the elections in Venezuela lacked the minimum democratic conditions of a transparent, free and fair voting system, was approved by 21 countries, four against and nine abstentions.

On the other hand, Baptiste called on the rest of the countries on this side of the world to join together to cooperate and develop the area together.

The official also acknowledged the assistance provided by the Cuban government to the country.

Referring to Cuba, Baptiste called on U.S. President Joe Biden to lift the economic blockade imposed by his country against the largest of the Antilles.