COMMENTARY: Between A Rock And A Hard Place

By Yves Ephraim – BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

Many people and politicians seem to be grappling with the flurry of visa sanctions against Antigua and Barbuda, wondering what have its leaders done to invite the apparent fury of the United States on the population.

Some think that the sanctions have something to do with corrupt leadership; a weak CIP Program; even drug trafficking.

Although, I thought that the Antiguan and Barbudan leadership’s response to the crisis was lame, I always felt that the vagueness of the accusations against Antigua and Barbuda suggested something more than what was seemingly obvious.

I am convinced that what we see acting out before our eyes has very little to do with drug trafficking, a weak CIP program or even Antiguan and Barbudan citizen’s tendency to overstay. 

The way Antigua and Barbuda is being treated by this US administration is deliberate.

How do I know this?

Well, in November of 2025, the President of the United States released his National Security Strategy which is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf

In that 29 page document, the principles were laid out that necessitated the actions against Venezuela; it clarifies the need to “take” Greenland; and it even elucidates why the visa sanctions against Antigua and Barbuda are necessary.

This document is recommended reading. 

As I make my points, I will be quoting various parts of this document in support of my assertions. 

I will attempt to convince you that everything that transpired in the past weeks were all intended to allow the United States to:

1. Reassert its dominance in this Western Hemisphere;

2. “Discourage” Antigua and Barbuda to abandon it relationship with China;

3. Force Antigua and Barbuda to sign what I will call the Deportee MOU. 

With regards to reasserting dominance, the document states:

“After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere” 

It goes on to say:

“The terms of our alliances, and the terms upon which we provide any kind of aid, must be contingent on winding down adversarial outside influence: from control of military installations, ports, and key infrastructure to the purchase of strategic assets broadly defined.”

For the US to assert its dominance, it could not just send in troupes or slap us with visa restrictions without cause.

It was therefore necessary to first exaggerate the specter of drug trafficking and our weak CIP program to paint Antigua and Barbuda as villainous and a threat to the US’s national security.

Coupled with the force and reach of the international media, behaving as judge and jury in the absence of irrefutable evidence, the stage was set to justify the sanctions and actions that followed. 

This was now sufficient for the allies to be reluctant to censure this aggression.

Mind you, this is not to suggest that there may not be some truth to the drug trafficking or the weak CIP program accusations. I believe that the narrative was deliberately and disproportionately amplified to justify taking action.

No country is exempt from the drug trafficking scourge and it is not unique to Antigua and Barbuda. The US government itself with its vast resources have not been able to eradicate it over decades, how much more can a small country like ours with nowhere near the capabilities of the US.

Here are my reasons why I do not accept that Antigua and Barbuda could be a serious national security threat to the United States.

First, I am not convinced that a country of 100,000 people, who can all fit in a single stadium in the US, could ever be a serious national security threat to a population of 375,000,000 people with the world’s most formidable military force. Antigua and Barbuda does not own a single missile.

Antigua and Barbuda has never had a history of violence. Neither have it perpetrated any mass destruction of any people. It does not manufacture guns nor nuclear arms; Its defense force has never invaded a nearby country on its own.

The assertion that Antigua and Barbuda is a national security threat to the US is almost laughable, if it were not for the seriousness of the visa sanctions.

Our police cannot solve most crimes; our course guard could not even stop the escape of a large group of Cameroon “refugees” absconding our shores. 

The country cannot even wrap its head around the cybercrime epidemic but is somehow a national security threat to the US? 

Really!?

All Americans are very warmly welcomed to its shores. Antigua and Barbuda spends lots of marketing dollars and rolls out the red carpets to encourage Americans to visit its shores. 

As is said colloquially, when America sneezes, Antigua and Barbuda catches a cold. 

As a people, Antigua and Barbuda has no incentive to be anti-American. Its very survival is linked to the United States’ prosperity and well being. 

What would be the incentive for Antigua and Barbuda to deliberately act against the interests of the US and its own? 

Regarding the CIP program, having an Antigua and Barbuda passport does not give citizens of Antigua and Barbuda automatic access to the US territories by default. 

Every Antiguan and Barbudan wanting to enter the US, must first present himself in person to the Bridgetown US Embassy for an interview. 

I have been scratching my head to understand how it is even possible for a nefarious character with an Antiguan and Barbudan passport to slip into the US without having been issued a visa, first? 

Perhaps someone can enlighten me on this one.

Let’s pretend for a moment that Antigua and Barbuda’s national sin is that of drug trafficking. 

Are you telling me that this illegal activity is so rampant in our country that Antigua and Barbuda could singlehandedly overwhelm the US borders? 

Did the US not demonstrate in Venezuela how effective its intelligence apparatus was and how capable they are at spotting vessels with drugs and eliminating these miscreants? 

Why then would a small developing country with not even a fraction of US interdiction capabilities be expected by the US to be just as capable? 

It is like punishing me because I cannot afford a Bentley, like you.

It is inconceivable to think that the great US would expect a poor so-called third world country like Antigua and Barbuda to effectively defend US borders when Antigua and Barbuda can scarcely do that for itself.

So to be framed as a national security threat to the US is  exaggerated and very flattering, in my opinion!

I surmise that our country’s relationship with China is partly the reason Antigua and Barbuda is being treated this way. Antigua and Barbuda has significant Chinese asset, particularly its large embassy.

The National Security Strategy document asserts: 

“We want other nations [in the region] to see us as their partner of first choice, and we will (through various means) discourage their collaboration with others.” 

I read that to mean that if Antigua and Barbuda seeks to deepen its economic relation with the adversaries of the United States, China in this case, our country should expect to be “discouraged”. 

I believe that the visa access issue is the exertion of “soft power” to create a crisis for the Antiguan and Barbudan government in order to force its leadership to the negotiating table, as part of what the US describes as “unconventional diplomacy”. 

After having read and assimilated the National Security Strategy document, it is my impression that this US administration simply sees Antiguans and Barbudans as undesirables; plain and simple. 

The document infers that Antiguan and Barbudan citizens are part of the so called “destabilizing population” of the world. 

Exerting pressure on Antigua and Barbuda to accept deportees is the US’s attempt of moving other “destabilizing populations” off of its shores into other “destabilizing populations” like Antigua and Barbuda.

Ultimately the aim of the visa sanctions by the US is to 1) get a signed deportee “MOU”; 2) have the relationship with China abandoned; and 3) show who is boss.

The Antigua and Barbuda government is now between a rock and a hard place!

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