Sobers says seasickness claim was a joke

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers has re­ject­ed claims made by Dr Ralph Gon­salves that he de­clined to at­tend a Cari­com re­treat in Nevis due to sea­sick­ness, in­sist­ing the re­mark was made in jest.

For­mer St Vin­cent and the Grenadines Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves al­leged that Sobers was not dis­in­vit­ed from the Nevis re­treat but in­stead chose not to at­tend the Feb­ru­ary 26 event, cit­ing sea­sick­ness.

Gon­salves’ com­ments con­tra­dict the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion that Trinidad and To­ba­go was ex­clud­ed from the vote to reap­point Dr Car­la Bar­nett af­ter Cari­com did not recog­nise Sobers as head of the na­tion­al del­e­ga­tion fol­low­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­par­ture. The Gov­ern­ment has said this pre­vent­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go from par­tic­i­pat­ing in the elec­tion.

In re­sponse, Sobers said his ref­er­ence to sea­sick­ness was made in jest af­ter be­ing told the trip to Nevis would in­volve boat trav­el.

“I made a joke about the modal­i­ty of trans­porta­tion but at no point in time and I re­peat, at no point in time did I say that I would not be will­ing or did not want to at­tend,” Sobers said in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia.

He said he in­formed Cari­com of­fi­cials that he was re­quired to at­tend the re­treat as head of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s del­e­ga­tion but was lat­er told on the morn­ing of the event that he would not be able to par­tic­i­pate.

“We were told, no, we’re get­ting in­for­ma­tion, they want heads of gov­ern­ment on­ly, not heads of del­e­ga­tion.”

He added that he told of­fi­cials, “I am head of del­e­ga­tion, I want to at­tend. That is how it is. I’ve been des­ig­nat­ed as head of del­e­ga­tion. I have my in­stru­ment of full pow­ers. I can at­tend. That was elu­ci­dat­ed. They are the ones who then re­tort­ed by say­ing, no, the po­si­tion is that it is for heads of gov­ern­ment on­ly.”

Guardian Me­dia asked Sobers to pro­vide the mes­sages he said barred his at­ten­dance. He de­clined, but said the cor­re­spon­dence will be in­clud­ed in a let­ter he is prepar­ing for Cari­com Chair­man Ter­rance Drew. He said the let­ter will al­so be shared with the me­dia.

Sobers con­firmed that af­ter three let­ters rais­ing con­cerns about Dr Bar­nett’s reap­point­ment, the Cari­com Chair re­spond­ed to the Gov­ern­ment. He de­clined to dis­close the con­tents, but said his re­ply will ad­dress the is­sues raised.

He said Cari­com did not dis­pute that Dr Bar­nett’s reap­point­ment was not on the agen­da.