Trinidad’s PM doubling down on US action against Venezuela
Trinidad’s prime minister doubled down this week on her administration’s unequivocal support for US action against Venezuela and international crime cartels saying the Americans are the only ones capable of taking them down.
Responding to withering criticism from political analysts and opposition leaders, Kamla Persad Bissessar says she has no apologies for her unequivocal support for the US as her twin island republic with Tobago has disproportionately been affected by the influx of thousands of Venezuelan and other migrants as well as the smuggling of guns and drugs from neighboring Venezuela. Murders have averaged more than 500 per year for the past decade.
The two countries are separated by a mere seven miles of water in the Gulf of Paria. The local coastguard intercepts dozens of economic and other migrants trying to cross the straits each week. She says the time has come to act.
“The Caribbean is already on fire, engulfed by the flames of illicit drug, gun, and arms trafficking. The Trinidadian taxpayers are the ones footing the bill for the tens of thousands of illegal Venezuelan migrants living in our country. Thousands of our citizens have been murdered in the last 25 years. Just yesterday, a 65-year-old retiree was raped, most likely by an illegal immigrant. Going forward, our foreign policy will be dictated mainly by what is in the best interest of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. My government will adopt a Trinidad and Tobago-first policy in the next five years,” she told the Guardian newspaper.
Her comments came hours after former prime minister Keith Rowley described her weekend statement offering full support to Washington “as the most reckless foreign policy statement in years,” calling it “pure deflection” of her administration’s struggles since winning general elections in late April. Local Foreign Minister Sean Sobers had also suggested that Trinidad would remain neutral in the tiff with Venezuela but his comments were contradicted in just a few hours by the PM.
The PM also appeared to offer the US military as a launching base, suggesting that no formal request had as yet been made for such access. She did say, however, that if Venezuela ever tries any military action against fellow CARICOM nation Guyana to enforce its decades-old claim to Guyana’s territory, the Americans will be welcomed to use Trinidad as an access area.
“I make no apology for standing firm against narco-trafficking and gun smuggling. I make no apology for defending a CARICOM neighbor Guyana who is under threat. And I make no apology for putting the interests of Trinidad and Tobago first. To partner with the Americans is not to undermine the Caribbean region but to defend it. Trinidad and Tobago does not need to consult CARICOM on our national matters and I certainly have no wish to dictate to any CARICOM member on how they should run their country,” she told the Express newspaper.
Neighboring Guyana has also thrown its unequivocal support behind the US saying the time has come for concerted international action to deal with this scourge. Both are oil-producing nations exporting to the US. US oil companies have invested billions in both nations over the decades.
