GEORGETOWN, Guyana: As the region remains stunned by the sudden death of Charlesworth Samuel, Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Environment, Marine Resources and Agro Industries of Antigua and Barbuda, CARICOM Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington has hailed the late Minister’s contribution to the Community in a message to Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and the family of the Minister.

The Secretary-General recalled the late minister’s career, which saw him sitting in both Houses of the Antigua and Barbuda Parliament at various times from 1976, before assuming a Ministerial portfolio when his party won the general elections in 2004. The Secretary-General sees his passing as carrying with it a piece of Antigua and Barbuda’s history as he was the last surviving member of the Independence Delegation of members of the governing and opposition parties, which went to London in December 1980 to discuss the constitution of his soon-to-be independent country.

Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Edwin Carrington. AFP PHOTO

At the time of his death, Samuel was one of two remaining MPs who attended Antigua and Barbuda’s first sitting of independence Parliament on November 2, 1981.

In reference to his more recent contributions to CARICOM the Secretary-General said, “We in the Caribbean Community; particularly in the agricultural sector will surely miss his unassuming but deliberative manner which contributed in no small degree to the development of the agricultural programme in Antigua and Barbuda and in the Region as a whole.”

Samuel served as Lead Minister for Risk Management in Agriculture under the CARICOM "Strengthening Agriculture for Sustainable Growth and Development" initiative, better known as the Jagdeo Initiative.

His last regional encounter was the Caribbean Week of Agriculture and the Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) (Agriculture) in Jamaica in October 2007.

The Secretary-General conveyed to the late minister’s family and to the government and people of Antigua and Barbuda, the Caribbean Community’s deepest condolences.