Moyston: Persad-Bissessar mirroring Dominica’s Charles in backing US over regional neighbours
Published:Friday | March 13, 2026 | 12:08 AMErica Virtue/Senior Gleaner Writer
Forty-three years after the late Dominican leader Eugenia Charles facilitated the 1983 American invasion of Grenada – by allowing her country to be used as a launching pad – Dr Louis Moyston, a lecturer in the Department of Government at The University of the West Indies (UWI), believes history will judge her and Kamla Persad-Bissessar, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, in a similar light for siding with the United States (US) against regional neighbours.
The Trinidad prime minister has given the US permission for its land and air space to be used, according to Washington DC, for the targeting of narco-traffickers using the high seas to traffic drugs into the US.
Several boats have been blown up, and as at March 11, 2026, the US military has killed at least 157 people in strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean since early September 2025.
Moyston, one of five presenters speaking at a seminar put on by the Faculty of Social Sciences on Wednesday, argued that the support given to the US by the two women has had consequential effects within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), dividing the regional bloc of 15 island states and one dependency.
NOT GROUNDED IN PHILOSOPHY
Speaking on the topic, ‘The Resurgence of US Imperialism in the Region: Target Cuba’, he told The Gleaner after the seminar that Charles, like Persad Bissessar, came to power not grounded with any philosophy but populism in one hand and discontent in the other.
“When you come into the power like that, without an ideology, the easiest thing for one to do is to latch onto anything that was available. In Grenada, it was the turmoil there, which led to the assassination of Maurice Bishop. Eugenia Charles latched onto that. But that was not the only reason. The New Jewel Movement (the popular movement in Grenada and the party of Maurice Bishop), with Roosevelt (Rose) Douglas, was expanding into Dominica, and Charles wanted none of that,” Moyston argued.
While Charles was hugely popular in Dominica and went on to serve for 14 years, Persad-Bissessar’s return to power was on the back of national discontent with the People’s National Movement.
The 1983 US invasion of Grenada was supported by Charles as well as Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, Dominica, St Lucia, and St Vincent, with a mission to remove the Marxist military regime installed after Bishop’s murder.
Charles, who at the time of Bishop’s execution was serving as chair of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OESCS), appealed to the US, Jamaica, and Barbados for intervention, appearing on television with US President Ronald Reagan, supporting the invasion.
American journalist Bob Woodward reported that the US paid millions of dollars to the Dominica government, some of which was regarded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a “payoff”, for Charles’ support of the intervention.
Douglas, a human rights and political activist and anthropologist, later became prime minister. He gave public support to children in Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, and China, arguing that what was good for the children of America was good for all children. His support for then Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi and the freeing of Nelson Mandela was viewed as a radical threat, and the invasion crashed the ideological well that was springing in the Eastern Caribbean state.
The split was remedied, somewhat, after decades of diplomacy and a vow from the region that it would give no more support to any such invasions.
Fast-forward to 2026, Moyston said, and Persad-Bissessar is at the centre of another split in CARICOM.
“She has given permission for that country to be used for the invasion of Venezuela. How can a democratically elected leader in a region that thrives on the freedom of the ballot give support for the removal of a leader elected by the people? If Venezuelans have problems with their elections, it’s not for any country to interfere. They can fix it. Let them do it,” he stated.
“So now, history has the two women in the middle of regional interference,” said Moyston.
Jamaica, he said, while remaining silent, has acted on instructions to discontinue the PetroCaribe oil facility between Venezuela and CARICOM, which allowed oil to be sold at a concessionary rate and paid for over time.
While there is no official public support from CARICOM for the actions taken by Trinidad, he believes that Guyana, which is involved in a border dispute with Venezuela, as well as Jamaica, have signalled on which side they stand.
Members of the student body from the St Augustine campus of The UWI in Trinidad have demonstrated against the country’s action, and two weeks ago, another former UWI scholar, Dr Brian Meeks, said Persad-Bissessar would be confined to the dustbins of history for her role in the current regional discord as well as facilitating the US’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife.