In a world where major powers are increasingly willing to flex economic and military muscle, the fallout from the US action in Venezuela has underscored why small states cannot afford to stand alone. As the arrest of Nicolás Maduro and the muted global response revealed the limits of international restraint under Donald Trump, the lesson for the Caribbean is clear: survival depends on unity. Acting collectively through Caribbean Community (CARICOM) gives small states greater leverage, shared protection, and a stronger voice in defending sovereignty, rather than each country navigating an increasingly unpredictable global order on its own.

No one is safe

Jamaica Gleaner/5 Jan 2026

AFTER MONTHS of escalating pressure on his government, few people could claim to be genuinely shocked by America’s bombing of Venezuela and the seizure of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.

What is perhaps surprising – even among those who have long disputed Mr Maduro’s legitimacy – is how few global leaders were all in with the US action and called, as Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief, did, for respect of international law, “in all circumstances”.

Or, as the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva framed the development: “These acts represent a grave affront to Venezuela’s sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community”.

Developed countries’ leaders didn’t adopt the trenchant language of Lula, or his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum. And some, like Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, made clear their happiness to see Mr Maduro’s back. But they were mostly reticent about the American approach.

And it is not only because of a symbolic adherence to international law, or support for a global rulesbased order, which no doubt played a role. They know that with the mercurial Donald Trump, anything can happen, especially in the Western Hemisphere, where the US president has reasserted the 19th Monroe Doctrine of unchallenged US supremacy in the region.

It is not outside the realm of possibility, for instance, for Mr Trump, who has called the border between the United States and Canada “artificial”, and has ruminated about Canada being subsumed into the US, acting on his premise. Indeed, relations between the historic partners have soured over Mr Trump’s imposition of high tariffs on imports from the US’ northern neighbour.

WORTHY OF CONSIDERATION

Should this contemplation seem extreme or farfetched, a recent assessment by Denmark’s Defence Intelligence Service (DIS) is worthy of consideration.

Denmark is a member of NATO and, therefore, a US security alliance partner. But Mr Trump believes that Greenland – a resource-rich island in the North Atlantic that is an autonomous part of Denmark – should be owned or controlled by the United States. He has talked about gaining the territory either by “military or economic coercion”.

Although Mr Trump hasn’t addressed the Greenland question in recent months, the Danish DIS takes him seriously.

In its recent security review, DIS, for the first time, marked the United States as a country whose policies raise security concerns. Noting increased great power contestation in the Arctic, it highlighted America’s “increasing interest in Greenland and its importance to US national security”.

The US, the DIS said, now “uses economic power, including threats of high tariffs, to enforce its will and no longer rules out the use of military force, even against allies”.

That was before Venezuela.

In the context of these global realities and the clear willingness of the United States, as was demonstrated by Saturday’s events in Venezuela, to exercise its economic and military might to assert its will, the Caribbean has to articulate new strategies for coexisting with an America in the time of Trump without abjectly surrendering its sovereignty.

That most credibly starts with conglomeration – combining the efforts of small island developing states, rather than each weak entity attempting to go it alone.

CONGLOMERATION

Conglomeration is the strategy that this newspaper recommends to Kamla Persad-bissessar’s government in Trinidad and Tobago. In other words, Port of Spain is reminded that there is real logic to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

The United States, and much of the West, long cast Mr Maduro as an illegitimate president who stole elections. During his first presidency, Mr Trump, contrary to most credible analyses, also branded Mr Maduro as the leader of a narco-state who sent drugs to the US.

Back in the White House, Mr Trump expanded his actions against Mr Maduro. He sent a big naval force, backed by war planes and thousands of troops to the southern Caribbean Sea, ostensibly to confront drug runners. It was really for regime change in Venezuela.

When the US military started blowing up alleged narcotics boats in the area, Ms Persad-bissessar encouraged the Americans to “kill them violently”. She subsequently ridiculed CARICOM’S call for the Caribbean to be maintained as a zone of peace, and followed up by granting Washington permission to establish listening posts in her country to support its military mission in the region.

The Trinidad and Tobago prime minister also decried CARICOM, a regional single-market and foreign coordination body to which Trinidad and Tobago sends 16 per cent of its exports, as an unreliable partner. She also mocked CARICOM members, Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica, who were hit with US visa sanctions because of Washington’s dissatisfaction with their citizenship by investment programmes.

After Saturday’s bombing of Caracas and the removal of Mr Maduro, Ms Persad-bissessar made clear her government wasn’t involved. However, she didn’t attend the CARICOM virtual summit where the community’s leaders reviewed the US action. She sent her foreign minister.

While small states, including CARICOM’S members, have to skilfully navigate a very fraught global minefield, this region will have a better chance of doing so together. Which is the lesson we hope Ms Persad-bissessar has learned, and will reinforce, if she attends next month’s in-person summit of CARICOM heads of government. Which she should.

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