RELEASE: UNC NATIONAL YOUTH ARM ENDORSES HON. PRIME MINISTER’S HISTORIC CARICOM ADDRESS
UNITED VOICE
Please find attached the official statement from UNC National Youth Arm on the historic address delivered today by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC at the 50th Regular Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference.
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UNC National Youth Arm
24th Feb, 2026
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO FIRST: UNC NATIONAL YOUTH ARM ENDORSES HON. PRIME MINISTER’S HISTORIC CARICOM ADDRESS
The National Youth Arm of the United National Congress stands firmly and unequivocally behind the historic address delivered today by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC at the 50th Regular Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference. Her words were not merely a speech, they were a declaration of principle, sovereignty, and the unapologetic prioritisation of Trinidad and Tobago's national interest.We, the youth of the UNC, are proud to stand behind a leader who speaks truth to power, even on a regional stage!
For too long, our generation has buried friends, classmates, and neighbors because of narco trafficking and gang violence fueled by weak policy and illegal firearms, and the Prime Minister’s acknowledgment of 623 murders in 2024 shows the honesty and courage this moment demands. We support the government’s partnership with the United States, whose engagement helped drive a 42 percent drop in murders in 2025 and saved more than 257 lives that might otherwise have been lost. The National Youth Arm stands resolutely with the Prime Minister: partnering with the United States does not weaken the Caribbean, it defends it.
Prime Minister Hon Kamla Persad-Bissessar has drawn attention to the troubling pattern of CARICOM being used as a vehicle for political convenience rather than as a body that truly serves the people of the Caribbean, citing the 2022 kidnapping of a Trinidad and Tobago citizen, the silence of the CARICOM Secretariat in response to correspondence from the then Opposition Leader, and the body’s endorsement of the Maduro government despite direct threats against Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana as evidence that these are not minor grievances but serious failures of responsibility. CARICOM must serve all the people of the Caribbean, not just sitting governments and their political allies. We stand firmly with our Prime Minister in demanding that accountability and integrity be restored to our regional institutions.
As the generation that will inherit this nation, we understand what is at risk when sovereignty is weakened, and the Prime Minister’s clear declaration that Trinidad and Tobago will shape its own foreign and security policies, independent of unreliable regional consensus, is not an act of defiance but one of responsibility. We support her firm position on climate policy, affirming our right to balance environmental stewardship with economic growth, poverty reduction, and the protection of jobs, and rejecting imposed, one-sided mandates that would export livelihoods and stall national development. Trinidad and Tobago will put its national interest first. Our generation demands nothing less.
The National Youth Arm of the United National Congress is proud of Prime Minister Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC. She walked into that CARICOM chamber not to seek applause, but to speak the truth that the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago deserve. That is leadership. That is courage. And that is exactly what this nation's youth demands of those who lead us. The UNC National Youth Arm stands with her. We stand with Trinidad and Tobago.
Issued by:
Daniel Rasheed, Chairman The National Youth Arm United National Congress Republic of Trinidad and Tobago