Saint Lucia to Leave the Lima Group: 'It Never Had Value for us'

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saint Lucia, Alva Baptiste, has announced that the newly elected government of his country will withdraw from the fractured Lima Group, just as Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Mexico have already done. Baptiste acknowledged that being part of this group “never had value” for Saint Lucia.

Baptiste said that outgoing Foreign Minister Allen Chastanet “practically ignored our country’s relations with other countries” when Saint Lucia joined the Lima Group which “has imposed needless hardship on the children, men and women of Venezuela.”

“With immediate effect we are going to get out of the Lima Group arrangement—that morally bankrupt, mongoose gang,” declared Minister Baptiste, and promised to repair his country’s “largely destroyed relationships abroad,” with particular focus on Venezuela. “We are going to pursue relations that are mutually beneficial to us,” remarked the minister in this regard.

Saint Lucia's External Affairs Minister, Alva Baptiste, says his first order of business is to exit the Lima Group and repair relations with Venezuela.
“With immediate effect we are going to get out of the Lima Group arrangement – that morally bankrupt, mongoose gang,” 🇱🇨 🇻🇪 pic.twitter.com/RSAE0UotJC
— Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) August 10, 2021

The political stance of the new government of Saint Lucia complies with the rules of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which states that no government should “intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign State.” This has opened a new stage in the Caribbean island nation’s bilateral relations with Venezuela.

The new Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) government, led by Prime Minister Philip Pierre, is the second government to announce its withdrawal from the Lima Group this week, following Peru’s announcement last Tuesday, August 3, to leave the interventionist entity.

Former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, had applauded President Pedro Castillo’s decision to abandon the Lima Group, an “interventionist instrument” that “only sought to destabilize popular governments.”

“Peru follows the sovereign positions of Mexico, Bolivia and Argentina who have abandoned a submissive attitude towards the empire,” Morales had added.

Featured image: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saint Lucia, Alva Baptiste. Photo: World Trade Organization – https://commons.wikimedia.org/

(LaIguanaTV) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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