Griffith: The bully has been bullied

News Clint Chan Tack 14 Hrs Ago

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. - AP PHOTO

FORMER national security minister and police commissioner Gary Griffith has described the capture and extraction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US military forces around 2 am on January 3, as a case of a bully now being bullied.

The operation involved a coordinated aerial and land assault by US forces. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said over 120 aircraft (manned and unmanned) from 20 bases in the Caribbean led the aerial attack on Venezuela's capital city Caracas, taking out key targets that could have disadvantaged the US ground team which extracted Maduro and his wife Cecelia Flores from a fortified compound in the middle of the city.

CBS News reported the US Army's elite counter-terrorism unit Delta Force was involved in the mission. US President Donald Trump and Caine confirmed there were no US casualties or loss of US military assets during the operation.

In a WhatsApp comment on January 3, Griffith recalled threats by Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino López and other Venezuelan government officials against Trinidad and Tobago, if the US was attacked. Prior to January 3, the Venezuelan government criticised TT for supporting all aspects of the US military deployment in the Southern Caribbean which began last August.

"They were threatening us about false claims that we were being used as a base to destabilize Venezuela and they will invade any country to extract those individuals."

Out of the blue, Griffith continued, "they started to claim that TT was a territory of Venezuela, which is the narrative used as the excuse to attack another country."

Venezuela and Guyana have a decades long dispute over the Essequibo border region between them. Venezuela has threatened to seize the region from Guyana.

Griffith said, "This arrogant and threatening approach was put on us by Venezuela and it took place for months whilst they could not say a word to the US."

He added, "Well let us hear their warmongering defence minister and others talk now. I have no sympathy for anyone who was threatening my country. Good riddance. TT. The bully has been bullied."