And while the attacks on Barnett from the Trinidadian PM have been almost visceral, Fonseca tried to keep them in context:
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"The whole attack as you described it has very little to do with Dr Barnett herself and certainly nothing to do with her being a Belizean. You know it all goes back to, I think, the current administration in Trinidad's a particular issue that they have with the secretariat going back to 2022 where one of their Trinidadian nationals was involved in a criminal investigation and arrest and they continued to hold the secretariat responsible for that, they feel very strongly about that. So it has nothing to do with her being a Belizean and in fact very little to do with her personally. It has to do with that incident and the response, or in the view of Trinidad, the non response of the CARICOM secretariat.""
