As the first woman to serve as prime minister of the eastern Caribbean nation of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley has a history of breaking barriers.

Since coming to power in 2018, she has led her Barbados Labor Party to three consecutive victories, including a landslide in February; emerged as one of the most prominent global voices for climate change vulnerable countries, pushed for reparatory justice over slavery and closer ties between the Caribbean and Africa.

So when speculation began over who might replace United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres this fall, Mottley’s name was often mentioned as a serious contender if she were to enter the race.

But as Guterres delivered his final address to the 81st U.N. General Assembly this week and the contest to choose his successor gets under way, Mottley is not among the seven candidates vying to replace him when he steps down on Dec. 31. Instead, she has joined fellow leaders of the 15-member Caribbean Community bloc in backing the candidacy of Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, Guyana’s ambassador to the United Nations since 2020.

This week, while attending the General Assembly in New York, Mottley publicly addressed why she’s not a candidate during an appearance Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“I have a country to run and a region to take care of, and I mean that with all sincerity,” Mottley said in response to a question from an audience member following her conversation with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. who is also a member of the council board.

“Look, I’m not sure that the world wants somebody whose tongue is, might be as heavy as mine, and I’m not sure that the world is ready to be able to work in a consensual approach,” Mottley said. “If they are, then all of us, not just me, are going to have to put our shoulders to the plow, and we will do so willingly. But at this point in time I have an overwhelming mandate from my country.”

The work of addressing problems in her nation, and the wider Caribbean, requires her greater attention, Mottley said.

“Regrettably, the task ahead of us at securing the fate of our country and the stability of our region is one that is perhaps more complex than it has ever been since we became independent territories,” she said.

Calling for UN reforms

Still, Mottley’s decision to not go after the top job at the U.N., which since its 1945 founding has never been led by a woman or someone from the Caribbean, has not stopped her from weighing in on what she believes are the issues confronting the world organization.

In her high-level address Thursday, Mottley said the U.N., like the world, is confronting a number of crises, from climate change and conflict to geopolitical tensions.

But beneath all of them lies “a crisis of responsibility,” she said.

“That responsibility begins here in these halls,” Mottley said. “The transformation we seek for a better world will only happen when we trust each other, and we accept our responsibility for each other.”

The Caribbean, she said, has learned through its shared history of migration, conquest, slavery and the difficult work of building a common national and regional identity “that difference need not mean division, that coexistence requires dialogue and negotiation, and that those without the power to compel must learn the power of persuasion.”

Mottley has developed a reputation for outspokenness on issues that don’t necessarily fit into the agenda of the current U.S. administration, whose recent criticism of the U.N. has raised questions on how the final decision on the organization’s next leader will pan out.

In his final address, Guterres called for greater attention to climate change, called for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine and “de-escalation and dialogue” in the Middle East. He also called for regulations for artificial intelligence. In addition to inheriting those issues, Guterres’ successor will also be confronted with increasing global conflicts, an organization facing massive financial restraints and pressure to reform.

Mottley said reforms of the U.N. are needed. The Security Council, whose structure of 15 members, five of them permanent and armed with veto power, has remained largely unchanged even as the world around it has.

“Africa, with 54 states, has no permanent seat,” said Mottley. “This must change.”

Small island nations, she argued, face threats that fall squarely into the security council’s mandate, from climate and security risks and illicit armed flows to organized crime and population displacement.

“And yet, despite constituting one quarter of the world’s states, we have no assured representation within the Council,” Mottley said. “This too, my friends, must change. And the world we know has already changed. The council has not changed with it.”

The failure is eroding people’s trust in the U.N., the Caribbean leader stressed, which is not fair to the majority of member states “who still believe in the promise” of the organization.

“Even as we call for greater equity with the reform of the Security Council, we must equally reform the Secretariat to better support peacekeeping and the resolution of conflicts,” she said.

Climate change

A strong advocate on climate change, Mottley also called on countries to do more to assist climate-vulnerable countries like hers. Those nations need $490 billion each year by 2030, yet current inflows are roughly $90 billion, she said.

“As young people in Barbados would say, the math simply ain’t mathing,” she said.

In the Caribbean, Mottley said, the gang-violence crisis continues to undermine political renewal and economic recovery in Haiti and called for “the full deployment that has been too, too, too long promised and the renewal of the mandate of the Gang Suppression Force.”

She also turned her focus to Cuba, speaking out against the U.S. embargo and other “unilaterally coercive measures.

“We are deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian pressures facing the people of Cuba. Too many people are suffering,” Mottley said. “Restrictions on trade, finance and access to fuel are intensifying hardship not only for Cuban citizens but for all others who study and live there.”

Mottley also reaffirmed support for a peaceful resolution of the territorial controversy between Guyana and Venezuela through the International Court of Justice.

“The Caribbean,” she said, “must remain a zone of peace. We cannot accept our region becoming a theater for confrontation or for the unilateral and unjustified use of force.”

At the Council of Foreign Relations event, Mottley provided a resume of ways she has been contributing to the global challenges confronting the world and the U.N. including chairing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals Advocates group alongside Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain, and working with the World Health Organization on major initiatives.

“There are a number of things we do outside the borders,” Mottley said.

©2026 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.