Browne assumes the presidency of the group for the next six months, as successor to his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart, Keith Rowley.

At the meeting, which will be held virtually, due to the restrictions for the Covid-19 pandemic, Irwin LaRocque, secretary general of the organization since 2011, from the Dominican Republic, will be replaced by Carla Barnett, from Belize, who will take office in August.

In that forum, the leaders will commemorate CARICOM Day, which is celebrated every July 4 in honor of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, and the 20th anniversary of the signing of this revised agreement, on July 5, according to the regional bloc’s website.

The document approved in Trinidad and Tobago in 1973, and updated in 2001 in Nassau, the Bahamas, laid the foundations of the Caribbean organization.

The coincidence of those dates should summon the heads of Government to reflect on the achievements, setbacks and failures mainly in the last two decades, said Elizabeth Morgan, a specialist in International Politics, who was quoted by the CARICOM website.

However, there are other pressing issues for the leaders to reflect on, such as the shortage of vaccines to deal with Covid-19, concerns about new strains and economic constraints exacerbated by natural disasters, she noted.

The meeting will take place after the passage of Hurricane Elsa through the region, whose effects are already perceptible in the countries of the Eastern Caribbean.

The Caribbean Community is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

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