The president of CARICOM and head of Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, issued a statement on behalf of the bloc, in which he condemned the aggression during a protest arranged by the political local opposition.

Gonsalves was entering the seat of the San Vincentian parliament when a group of demonstrators threw stones at him and his companions, who took him to the hospital, where he was photographed with his shirt stained with blood.

Browne described as ‘serious, almost fatal’ the attack, according to the doctors’ report, and affirmed that the introduction of violence in the political life of CARICOM ‘is shameful and deplorable, and those responsible must be brought to justice with due speed.’

The incident, he recalled, is all the more shameful because it occurred as the Prime Minister was entering the national parliament, the highest legislative body of the State, in which a meeting was being held.

There is no place for violence and personal physical assaults in our CARICOM democracies, where the rule of law prevails and peaceful protests are fully respected, Browne reaffirmed.

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