CARICOM Heads of Government - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The CARICOM heads of government serve as the most important body leading key policy direction for the Caribbean Community

Caribbean Community

The Caribbean Community is an organisation of 15 Caribbean nations and dependencies. CARICOM's main purposes are to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy...

(CARICOM) organisation and for the implementation of the Caribbean (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy.

Current leaders

: Baldwin Spencer
Baldwin Spencer
Winston Baldwin Spencer is the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. He has been Prime Minister since March 24, 2004, when his party, the United Progressive Party , which he had led as the opposition party for several years, won a parliamentary election...
: Hubert Ingraham
Hubert Ingraham
Hubert Alexander Ingraham is the Prime Minister of the Bahamas. He first served as Prime Minister from August 1992 until May 2002 and became Prime Minister again in 2007. He is a member of the Free National Movement Party . The Rt. Hon. Hubert A...
: Freundel Stuart
Freundel Stuart
Freundel Jerome Stuart QC MP is the seventh Prime Minister of Barbados. He succeeded David Thompson, who died on 23 October 2010 of pancreatic cancer. He is a member of the Democratic Labour Party .-Personal life and career:...
: Dean Barrow
Dean Barrow
Dean Oliver Barrow is Prime Minister of Belize and leader of the United Democratic Party. An attorney by trade, he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1998 and was then Leader of the Opposition until the UDP won the February 2008 election...
: Roosevelt Skerrit
Roosevelt Skerrit
Roosevelt Skerrit is a Dominican politician who has been Prime Minister of Dominica since 2004; he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency since 2000...
: Tillman Thomas
Tillman Thomas
Tillman Joseph Thomas is a Grenadian politician, currently serving as Prime Minister of Grenada. He is also the leader of the National Democratic Congress .-Biography:...
: Bharrat Jagdeo
Bharrat Jagdeo
Bharrat Jagdeo is a Guyanese politician who has been President of Guyana since 11 August 1999. Prior to his presidency he was Minister of Finance and became President after Janet Jagan resigned for health reasons; subsequently he won two elections, in 2001 and 2006.Jagdeo was born in Unity Village...
: Michel Martelly
: Andrew Holness
Andrew Holness
Andrew Holness is Prime Minister of Jamaica since October 2011, and was Minister of Education since 2007.Holness attended St. Catherine High School and later graduated from the University of the West Indies...
: Reuben Meade
Reuben Meade
Reuben Theodor Meade is a politician from Montserrat, a veteran lawmaker and the current Premier since 27 September 2011. He served previously as the territory's chief minister from 10 October 1991 to 13 November 1996. His party is called Movement for Change and Prosperity . He previously led the...
: Denzil Douglas
Denzil Douglas
Denzil Llewellyn Douglas has been Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis since July 1995. He leads the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party. He is the longest serving Prime Minister Saint Kitts and Nevis has ever had....
: Stephenson King
Stephenson King
Stephenson Toby King was the sixth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia. He represents the constituency of Castries North for the United Workers Party in the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia. King won the elections in 2006, unseating the incumbent Minister of Agriculture Ignatius Jean...
: Ralph Gonsalves
Ralph Gonsalves
Ralph Everard Gonsalves , also known as "Comrade Ralph", is the fourth and current Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and leader of the Unity Labour Party . Gonsalves became Prime Minister after his party won a majority government in the 2001 general election...
: Dési Bouterse
Dési Bouterse
Desiré Delano "Dési" Bouterse is the 9th and current President of Suriname.As an army officer, he was the de facto leader of Suriname through most of the 1980s, serving as Chairman of the National Military Council...
: Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Kamla Persad-Bissessar is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the seventh person to hold this position...

CARICOM past leaders

Only those persons who have been leaders since their country became a member of CARICOM are listed. The leaders are listed in order of their terms, with leaders serving twice only being listed in order of their first term:

: Vere Cornwall Bird and Lester Bird
Lester Bird
Lester Bryant Bird was the second Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda from 1994 to 2004 and a well-known athlete. He was chairman of the Antigua Labour Party from 1971 to 1993, then became Prime Minister when his father, Vere Bird, the previous Prime Minister, resigned.Bird was born on February...
: Lynden Pindling
Lynden Pindling
Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling KCMG, OM, JP , is generally regarded as the "Father of the Nation" of the Bahamas, having led it to Majority Rule on 10 January 1967 and then to independence on 10 July 1973. He served as the first black premier of the Colony of the Bahama Islands from 1967 to 1969 and as...

and Hubert Ingraham
Hubert Ingraham
Hubert Alexander Ingraham is the Prime Minister of the Bahamas. He first served as Prime Minister from August 1992 until May 2002 and became Prime Minister again in 2007. He is a member of the Free National Movement Party . The Rt. Hon. Hubert A...

(twice, also incumbent), Perry Christie
Perry Christie
Perry Gladstone Christie is a Bahamian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of the Bahamas from 2002 to 2007...
: Errol Barrow
Errol Barrow
Errol Walton Barrow, PC, QC was a Caribbean statesman and the first Prime Minister of Barbados. Born into a family of political and civic activists in the parish of Saint Lucy and educated at Harrison College, his sister Dame Nita Barrow also became a social activist, humanitarian leader and later...

(twice), Tom Adams
John Michael Geoffrey Manningham Adams
Jon Michael Geoffrey Manningham "Tom" Adams was a Barbadian politician who served as Prime Minister of Barbados from 1976 until 1985.-Personal life:...

, Bernard St. John
Harold Bernard St. John
The Rt. Hon. Sir Harold Bernard St. John, KA was a Barbadian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of Barbados from 1985 to 1986. He was leader of the Barbados Labour Party from 1970 to 1971 and again from 1985 to 1987. He was widely known as "Bree".St. John was born in the Parish...

, Erskine Sandiford
Lloyd Erskine Sandiford
Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, KA is a Barbadian politician. He served as the fourth Prime Minister of Barbados from 1987 to 1994....

, Owen Arthur
Owen Arthur
Owen Seymour Arthur, MP was the fifth Prime Minister of Barbados who was in office from 1994 to 2008 and is the current Leader of Opposition in Barbados. To date, he is the longest serving Barbadian Prime Minister....

, and David Thompson
David Thompson (Barbadian politician)
David John Howard Thompson, QC, MP was the sixth Prime Minister of Barbados from January 2008 until his death from pancreatic cancer on 23 October 2010....
: George Cadle Price
George Cadle Price
George Cadle Price PC was the first Prime Minister of Belize and is considered to have been one of the principal architects of the country's independence, and is today referred to by many as "the Father of the Nation"....

(twice), Manuel Esquivel
Manuel Esquivel
Sir Manuel Esquivel, KCMG, PC is a Belizean politician. As leader of the United Democratic Party, he served as Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989, and then again from 1993 to 1998.-Biography:...

(twice) and Said Musa
Said Musa
Said Wilbert Musa is a Belizean lawyer and politician. He was the Prime Minister of Belize from August 28, 1998 to February 8, 2008.-Early life and education:Said Musa was born in San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize...
: Edward Oliver LeBlanc
Edward Oliver LeBlanc
Edward Oliver Le Blanc was a Dominican politician.Le Blanc was born in Vieille Case. He joined the Dominica Labour Party in 1957. He joined the government of the Federation of the West Indies in Trinidad in 1960, but returned to Dominica later that year to become the leader of his party...

, Patrick John
Patrick John
Colonel Patrick Roland John was the Prime Minister of Dominica as well as the Premier of Dominica. During his premiership Dominica gained independence from the United Kingdom and he became the first Prime Minister of Dominica. He was a successful trade union leader and a mayor of Roseau before...

, Oliver Seraphine, Dame Eugenia Charles
Eugenia Charles
Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, DBE was Prime Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995. She was Dominica's first, and to date only, female prime minister, as well as the nation's longest serving prime minister...

, Edison James
Edison James
Edison Chenfil James was the prime minister of Dominica from June 14, 1995 to February 3, 2000 as well as the Member of Parliament for the Marigot constituency from 1990. He graduated from the Dominica Grammar School...

, Rosie Douglas
Rosie Douglas
Roosevelt Bernard Douglas was a Dominican politician. In 2000 he was prime minister of the Caribbean island for eight months, from 3 February 2000 until his death later that year....

, Pierre Charles
Pierre Charles
Pierre Charles was Prime Minister of Dominica from 2000 to 2004 as well as Member of Parliament for Grand Bay, Dominica from 1985 until his death. He was born in Grand Bay in Saint Patrick parish. He began his high school education at the Dominica Grammar School and completed it at the St...

and Osborne Riviere
Osborne Riviere
Francis Osborne Riviere is a former Foreign Minister of Dominica. He became the foreign minister in 2001, replacing the prime minister, Pierre Charles. He acted as Prime Minister in November 2003, after Pierre Charles was taken ill. Charles died on January 6, 2004...

(acting)
: Eric Gairy
Eric Gairy
Sir Eric Matthew Gairy was the first Prime Minister of Grenada, serving from Grenada`s independence in 1974 until his overthrow in a coup by Maurice Bishop in 1979...

, Maurice Bishop
Maurice Bishop
Maurice Rupert Bishop was a Grenadian politician and revolutionary who seized power in a coup in 1979 from Eric Gairy and served as Prime Minister of the People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada until 1983, when he was overthrown in another coup by Bernard Coard, a member of his own...

, Herbert A. Blaize, Ben Jones
Ben Jones (Grenada)
Ben Joseph Jones was a Grenadian politician. He was a lawyer before being elected to Parliament as a member of the New National Party in 1984. In 1984 he began serving as foreign minister in the government of his party's leader, Herbert Blaize. When Blaize died in December 1989, Jones became prime...

, Nicholas Brathwaite
Nicholas Brathwaite
Sir Nicholas Alexander Brathwaite was the prime minister of Grenada from 1983 to 1984 and from 1990 to 1995.Brathwaite was born in Carriacou, Grenada. Following the 1983 invasion of Grenada, Brathwaite, a member of the National Democratic Congress, was appointed by Governor-General Sir Paul Scoon...

, George Brizan
George Brizan
George Ignatius Brizan, CMG, CBE is a Grenadian political figure who served as the Caribbean island nation's Prime Minister for four months in 1995...

and Keith Mitchell
Keith Mitchell
Keith Claudius Mitchell is a Grenadian politician who served as Prime Minister of Grenada from 1995 to 2008. He was the longest serving Prime Minister Grenada has ever had, serving just over 13 years as Prime Minister...
¹: Arthur Chung
Arthur Chung
Arthur Chung was a President of Guyana from 1970 to 1980. He was the first ethnic Chinese head of state in a non-Asian country...

, Forbes Burnham
Forbes Burnham
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was the leader of Guyana from 1964 until his death, first as Premier from 1964 to 1966, then as the Prime Minister from 1966 to 1980 and finally as President from 1980 to 1985....

, Desmond Hoyte
Desmond Hoyte
Hugh Desmond Hoyte was a Guyanese politician. He served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1984 to 1985 and President of Guyana from 1985 until 1992.He was born in Guyana's capital, Georgetown...

, Cheddi Jagan
Cheddi Jagan
Cheddi Berret Jagan was a Guyanese politician who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964, prior to independence. He later served as President of Guyana from 1992 to 1997.- Biography :The son of ethnic Indian sugar plantation workers, Jagan...

, Sam Hinds
Sam Hinds
Samuel Archibald Anthony Hinds is a Guyanese politician who has been Prime Minister of Guyana almost continuously since 1992...

and Janet Jagan
Janet Jagan
Janet Jagan was an American-born socialist politician who was President of Guyana from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She previously served as Prime Minister of Guyana from March 17, 1997, to December 19, 1997....
²: Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...

, René Préval
René Préval
René Garcia Préval is a Haitian politician and agronomist who was the President of the Republic of Haiti from 14 May 2006 to 14 May 2011. He previously served as President from February 7, 1996, to February 7, 2001, and as Prime Minister from February 1991 to October 11, 1991.-Early life and...
: Michael Manley
Michael Manley
Michael Norman Manley ON OCC was the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica . Manley was a democratic socialist....

(twice), Edward Seaga
Edward Seaga
Edward Philip George Seaga ON PC was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1980 to 1989 and Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He served as leader of the opposition from 1974 to 1980 and again from 1989 until January 2005...

, P. J. Patterson
P. J. Patterson
Percival Noel James Patterson, ON, QC, PC, O.E., was the sixth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1992 to 2006. Until February 2006 he was the leader of the Jamaican People's National Party . The new PNP leader, Portia Simpson-Miller, took over as Prime Minister on 30 March 2006...

, Portia Simpson-Miller
Portia Simpson-Miller
Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller, ON, MP is Jamaica's Leader of the Opposition and was the country's seventh Prime Minister from 30 March 2006 to 11 September 2007...

and Bruce Golding
Bruce Golding
Orette Bruce Golding MP served as Prime Minister of Jamaica from 11 September 2007 to 23 October 2011. He is a member of the Jamaica Labour Party.-Biography:...
: Percival Austin Bramble
Percival Austin Bramble
Percival Austin Bramble is a politician from Montserrat. He served as the territory's Chief Minister from December 1970 to November 1978. Bramble is the son of W.H. Bramble, the island's first chief minister. While in office, Bramble helped pass laws to spur development on the island of Montserrat...

, John Osborne
John Osborne (politician)
John Alfred Osborne was a chief minister of Montserrat.He first came to that position in November 1978, as a member of the People's Liberation Movement, and continued until losing legislative council elections on October 10, 1991. By 2001 he had switched parties, joining the New People's...

(twice), Reuben Meade
Reuben Meade
Reuben Theodor Meade is a politician from Montserrat, a veteran lawmaker and the current Premier since 27 September 2011. He served previously as the territory's chief minister from 10 October 1991 to 13 November 1996. His party is called Movement for Change and Prosperity . He previously led the...

(also incumbent), Bertrand Osborne
Bertrand Osborne
Bertrand Osborne is a politician from Montserrat. He served as the territory's Chief Minister from 13 November 1996 to 22 August 1997. He resigned from his post amid demonstrations over his dealings with the British government in the wake of the island nation being ravaged by a volcano...

, David Brandt
David Brandt (politician)
David Brandt is a politician from Montserrat. He served as the territory's Chief Minister from 22 August 1997 to 5 April 2001.- References :* , 19 August 2009, CSME Network News. Retrieved Jan 5, 2011....

and Lowell Lewis
Lowell Lewis
The Honourable Lowell Lyttleton Lewis is a politician , a former Chief Minister of Montserrat. He took office on 2 June 2006 and headed a coalition government consisting of the Montserrat Democratic Party , which he leads, the former ruling New People's Liberation Movement , and an independent...
: Robert L. Bradshaw, Paul Southwell
Paul Southwell
Caleb Azariah Paul Southwell was the second Premier and first Chief Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean. He also worked as a teacher, police officer, and trade unionist.- Early life and career :...

, Lee Moore and Kennedy Simmonds
Kennedy Simmonds
Dr. the Right Honourable Sir Kennedy Alphonse Simmonds was a founding member of the People's Action Movement party. He was Premier of Saint Kitts and Nevis from 21 February 1980, until the twin-island state gained independence from the United Kingdom on 19 September 1983. Upon Independence, he...
: John Compton
John Compton
Sir John George Melvin Compton, KBE, PC was the first, fifth and eighth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia in 1979, from 1982 to 1996, and from 2006 until his death. Compton, who previously led Saint Lucia under British rule from 1964 to 1979, was the country's first leader when it became independent...

(thrice), Allan Louisy
Allan Louisy
Sir Allan Fitzgerald Laurent Louisy, KCMG, PC was the second prime minister of independent St Lucia, following Sir John Compton in office...

, Winston Cenac
Winston Cenac
Winston Francis Cenac, Q.C. was a civil servant and politician from Saint Lucia. He was the third elected Prime Minister of independent Saint Lucia....

, Michael Pilgrim
Michael Pilgrim
Bryan Michael Pilgrim is a Saint Lucian politician. He served as Acting Prime Minister after the resignation of Winston Cenac on January 17, 1982. As agreed he served for four months and on his party's loss in the elections he was succeeded in May 1982 by John Compton, leader of the United...

(interim), Vaughan Lewis
Vaughan Lewis
Vaughan Lewis is a Saint Lucian politician and a former member of the ruling United Workers' Party . He served for a brief period as the fourth Prime Ministers of Saint Lucia following the resignation of John Compton. Lewis, a former director of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States,...

and Kenny Anthony
Kenny Anthony
Kenny Davis Anthony is a Saint Lucian politician who was the fifth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia from 1997 to 2006. As leader of the Saint Lucia Labour Party, he was Leader of the Opposition from 2006 to 2011 and returned to office as Prime Minister on 30 November 2011 following the 2011...
: James Fitz-Allen Mitchell
James Fitz-Allen Mitchell
Sir James Fitz-Allen Mitchell was the second Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the founder of the New Democratic Party . He also served as Premier of the then colony from 1972 to 1974.-Life and career:...

(twice), Milton Cato
Milton Cato
Robert Milton Cato was the first Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and also held the offices Premier of Saint Vincent and Chief Minister of Saint Vincent before independence...

and Arnhim Eustace
Arnhim Eustace
Arnhim Ulric Eustace is a Vincentian politician and economist, who was the third Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and is the current leader of the New Democratic Party ....
: Ronald Venetiaan
Ronald Venetiaan
Ronald Runaldo Venetiaan served as the 6th and 8th President of Suriname. His first term as president ran from 1991 to 1996 after which he lost in the elections to Jules Wijdenbosch...

(twice) and Jules Wijdenbosch
Jules Wijdenbosch
Jules Albert Wijdenbosch is a politician in Suriname. He was a member of the National Democratic Party, which held absolute power in Suriname during the 1980s. He was Prime Minister from April 1987 until January 1988, Vice President from January 1991 until September 1991, and President from...
: Eric Williams
Eric Williams
Eric Eustace Williams served as the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He served from 1956 until his death in 1981. He was also a noted Caribbean historian, and is widely regarded as "The Father of The Nation."...

, George Chambers
George Chambers
George Michael Chambers was the second Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Born in Port of Spain, Chambers joined the People's National Movement in 1956, and was elected to Parliament representing the St. Anns East seat...

, A.N.R. Robinson, Patrick Manning
Patrick Manning
Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning was the fourth and sixth Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the former Political Leader of the People's National Movement . He served as Prime Minister from 17 December 1991 to 9 November 1995 and held that office again from 24 December 2001 until 26...

(twice) and Basdeo Panday
Basdeo Panday
Basdeo Panday was the 5th Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001 and has served as Leader of the Opposition from 1976–1977, 1978–1986, 1989–1995 and 2001–2010. He was first elected to Parliament in 1976 as the Member for Couva North. He is the former...

Portfolios

Each of the regional leaders have been relegated to a specific task to oversee, in the capacity of a CARICOM quasi-cabinet. Once work on a specific subject area is completed, that information is transmitted to the other CARICOM Heads of Government and then a process of implementation is carried out by the governments in other member states.

These are some of the areas which have been assigned: (both officially and by national special interest.)

... Lead Head of Government for Services (including Information Technology and Telecommunications)
... Lead Head of Government for Tourism
... Lead Head of Government for the CSME (including Monetary Union)
... Lead Head of Government for Sustainable Development (including Environment and Disaster Management)
... Lead Head of Government for Labour (including intra-Community movement of skills)
... Lead Head of Government for Science and Technology
... Lead Head of Government for Agriculture
... Lead Head of Government for Transport (Maritime and Aviation)
... Lead Head of Government for External Negotiations/Foreign Relations
... Will work closely with Belize in Disaster Management
... Head of Government for Health, Human Resources and HIV/AIDS
... Lead Head of Government for Justice and Governance
... Lead Head of Government for Air Transportation; and Banana trade issues
... Lead Head of Government for Community Development and Cultural Cooperation
... Lead Head of Government for Crime and Security; and Energy Policy

Footnotes

Note that for Guyana only the past Presidents are listed. In most instances the past Presidents of Guyana since it joined CARICOM were also past Prime Ministers at some point. Only Arthur Chung and Cheddi Jagan have never been Prime Ministers. Prime Ministers of Guyana (since it joined CARICOM) that were never Presidents at some point were Ptolemy Reid
Ptolemy Reid
Dr. Ptolemy Alexander Reid was a Guyanese veterinarian and politician who served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1980 to 1984....

and Hamilton Green
Hamilton Green
Hamilton Green was the prime minister of Guyana from 6 August 1985 to 9 October 1992, during the racial and oppressive dictatorship of the People's National Congress...

.
The head of the interim government in Haiti, which was installed under controversial circumstances had been suspended, (as of 2004) from the councils of the Caribbean Community and was not recognized as the legitimate government, hence its leaders aren't listed.

Current leaders

CARICOM past leaders

Portfolios

Footnotes

See also