T&T Prime Minister on 45 minute visit to Belize

There was no official announcement and he left as quickly as he came in one of the shortest visits to Belize by any Head of Government. Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning was in Belize today for whole of forty-five minutes. On arrival, the P.M. from the oil rich country, was whisked off to the Radisson for a brief sit-down with Prime Minister Dean Barrow and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington. Belize was the second stop on a five-country tour that the T&T Prime Minister began this morning to rally support for a political and economic union between his country and the O.E.C.S. Trinidad and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and St. Lucia signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this month, seeking to establish a CARICOM Single Economy by 2011 and regional political integration two years later. Manning, accompanied by his Foreign Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon, flew in on a chartered private jet and before lunch was served, the T&T delegation headed for Jamaica with stops in Haiti and Suriname before returning home on Tuesday. The P.M.’s two day regional tour is attracting some adverse publicity and according to T&T’s Newsday Newspaper, the whirlwind tour will cost over six hundred thousand dollars. The newspaper quotes Opposition Chief Whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj as saying “that money could be used in a clean up plan to prevent dengue. Mr. Manning should not be gallivanting on this issue while his government neglects flooding, dengue and crime.”