CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has expressed the Region’s sadness at the passing of Trinidadian Kamaluddin Mohammed, the 2012 recipient of the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC).

The Secretary-General, in a message of condolence, recalled that Kamal  had come to be called Mr. CARIFTA due to his dedication to the building of that process, in particular, his championing of a Caribbean Economic Community’.

The former Minister of West Indian Affairs and Minister of CARICOM Affairs died in his homeland on Tuesday night at the age of 88.

Read the full message:

“The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is extremely saddened by the death of Honourable Kamaluddin Mohammed OCC.

 He was in many ways an historic figure having played key political roles in his country and in the Region during the post-independence formative years of nationhood and the regional quest to come together.

 Mr. Mohammed was instrumental in ensuring his country’s participation in the then Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA) and maintained his commitment to regional integration throughout his political life. Among the portfolios he held in his country’s cabinet were Minister of West Indian Affairs, Minister of CARICOM Affairs.  He later served as Trinidad and Tobago’s Ambassador to CARICOM.

 In the citation read in his honour in 2012 when bestowed with the Community’s highest award, the Order of the Caribbean Community, it was noted that Kamal, as he was fondly known, came to be called Mr. CARIFTA due to his dedication to the building of that process, in particular, his championing of a Caribbean Economic Community. As the citation mentions, “given the Community’s trade and economic cooperation structures including the Single Market which have been built on the foundations that he played such a leading role in planting,” the name was well earned.

 On behalf of the Community, I express deepest condolences to the family of the late Kamaluddin Mohammed and to the Government and People of Trinidad and Tobago. The country and the Region has lost an outstanding servant whose name will always be among those counted as  true regional integrationists.”