Twelve CARI­COM coun­tries have adopt­ed a po­si­tion of non-in­ter­fer­ence and non-in­ter­ven­tion in the po­lit­i­cal im­passe in Venezuela.

CARI­COM heads of gov­ern­ment and for­eign min­is­ters met on Thurs­day evening on the mat­ter.

They've agreed as well to fa­cil­i­tate di­a­logue with a view to­wards re­solv­ing the cri­sis.

The lead­ers of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Bar­ba­dos, Be­lize, Do­mini­ca, Ja­maica, Montser­rat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lu­cia, St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and To­ba­go and the for­eign min­is­ters of Grena­da and Suri­name met by video-con­fer­ence and is­sued the fol­low­ing state­ment.

“Heads of Gov­ern­ment are fol­low­ing close­ly the cur­rent un­sat­is­fac­to­ry sit­u­a­tion in Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela, a neigh­bour­ing Caribbean coun­try.

They ex­pressed grave con­cern about the plight of the peo­ple of Venezuela and the in­creas­ing volatil­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion brought about by re­cent de­vel­op­ments which could lead to fur­ther vi­o­lence, con­fronta­tion, break­down of law and or­der and greater suf­fer­ing for the peo­ple of the coun­try.

Heads of Gov­ern­ment reaf­firmed their guid­ing prin­ci­ples of non-in­ter­fer­ence and non-in­ter­ven­tion in the af­fairs of states, re­spect for sov­er­eign­ty, ad­her­ence to the rule of law, and re­spect for hu­man rights and democ­ra­cy.

Heads of Gov­ern­ment re­it­er­at­ed that the long-stand­ing po­lit­i­cal cri­sis, which has been ex­ac­er­bat­ed by re­cent events, can on­ly be re­solved peace­ful­ly through mean­ing­ful di­a­logue and diplo­ma­cy.

In this re­gard, Heads of Gov­ern­ment of­fered their good of­fices to fa­cil­i­tate di­a­logue among all par­ties to re­solve the deep­en­ing cri­sis.

Reaf­firm­ing their com­mit­ment to the tenets of Ar­ti­cle 2 (4) of the Unit­ed Na­tions Char­ter which calls for Mem­bers States to re­frain from the threat or the use of force and Ar­ti­cle 21 of the Char­ter of the Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States which refers to ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­vi­o­la­bil­i­ty, the Heads of Gov­ern­ment em­pha­sized the im­por­tance of the Caribbean re­main­ing a Zone of Peace.

Heads of Gov­ern­ment called on ex­ter­nal forces to re­frain from do­ing any­thing to desta­bi­lize the sit­u­a­tion and un­der­scored the need to step back from the brink and called on all ac­tors, in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal, to avoid ac­tions which would es­ca­late an al­ready ex­plo­sive sit­u­a­tion to the detri­ment of the peo­ple of Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela and which could have far-reach­ing neg­a­tive con­se­quences for the wider re­gion.

Heads of Gov­ern­ment agreed that the Chair­man of Con­fer­ence, Dr the Ho­n­ourable Tim­o­thy Har­ris, Prime Min­is­ter of St. Kitts and Nevis would seek an ur­gent meet­ing with the Unit­ed Na­tions Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al to re­quest the U.N’s as­sis­tance in re­solv­ing the is­sue.”