Kamla: US war on cartels has T&T’s full support

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has thrown her government’s full support behind the deployment of United States military assets in the Caribbean, describing it as a necessary war against “terrorist drug cartels.”

“The only persons who should be worried about the activity of the US military are those engaged in, or enabling criminal activity. Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear,” Persad-Bissessar declared in a statement issued Friday.

She said her government has not consulted CARICOM on the issue and has no intention of doing so. “Each member state can speak for themselves on this issue,” she said.

The Prime Minister stressed that Washington has never sought permission to use Trinidad and Tobago’s territory for military action against Venezuela.

“Trinidad and Tobago has always had good relations with the Venezuelan people and that will continue,” she said.

But Persad-Bissessar drew a hard line, warning that any aggression by Caracas against Guyana would trigger a different response. “I want to make it very clear that if the Maduro regime launches any attack against the Guyanese people or invades Guyanese territory and a request is made by the American Government for access to Trinidadian territory to defend the people of Guyana, my government will unflinchingly provide them that access.”

Linking the US presence to decades of spiralling crime at home, the Prime Minister said small island states like Trinidad and Tobago are simply unable to take on the cartels alone. “Due to drug, human and firearms trafficking, Caribbean countries, and in particular Trinidad and Tobago, have experienced massive spikes in transnational crime, gang activity, murders, violence and financial crimes,” she said.

She said cartels have embedded themselves into the “high echelons of Caribbean societies,” influencing politics, legislation, media, banking, security and economic decisions. “Record murder rates, gang activity, drug addictions, violent crime and increasing poverty throughout the Caribbean and especially in our country certainly do not paint a peaceful existence,” Persad-Bissessar said.

Responding to critics of the US deployment, she fired back: “It is shocking to hear some persons using referrals to the Caribbean region as a zone of peace to push negative commentary on the US military deployment against these terrorist cartels.”

“Despite the misinformation being peddled, the US military is operating legally in international waters within the region and have not breached any nation’s sovereignty,” she added.

Persad-Bissessar dismissed those opposing Washington’s presence as being motivated by “Trump derangement syndrome tantrums and anti-American propaganda,” adding, “no amount of that will prevent my government from welcoming assistance to combat the terrorist drug cartels.”

Reiterating her stance, she said: “Other CARICOM countries are free to make their decisions based on the best interests of their citizens. But Trinidad and Tobago has been helplessly drowning in blood and violence for the last twenty years. Vice President Vance spoke the truth when he mentioned our high murder and crime rates.”

She closed with an appeal for stability in the region: “May good sense and peace prevail.”