2 days ago
5
Reporter
Hours after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar distanced Trinidad and Tobago from the United States’ military operation in Venezuela on Saturday—which resulted in the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife—a group of civil society activists gathered outside the Venezuelan Embassy in Port-of-Spain yesterday, accusing the PM of being complicit in the attack.
The protesters, who have been vocal in opposing US military involvement in the region, said the Government failed to uphold regional solidarity and the Caribbean’s designation as a zone of peace.
“When regional solidarity was required, we chose proximity to empire. When Caricom asserted the Caribbean as a zone of peace, we undermined it. When sovereignty was under threat, we offered access, legitimacy, and silence,” social activist Abeo Jackson said.
In an immediate response yesterday, Persad-Bissessar did not directly address Jackson’s claims but instead pointed to the small turnout at the protest, saying she respected the right of citizens to express their views once it was done within the law.
“Although the protest was an abysmal failure with about twelve persons … that is their democratic right, and I don’t see anything wrong with them expressing their views,” she said in a WhatsApp response.
Among those at the protest were the All Mansions of Rastafari, Concerned Muslims of T&T, the Emancipation Support Committee, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, the Ifa/Orisa Council of T&T, the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women, the T&T Scrap Iron Dealers Association, Trinbago for Palestine, and the Warao Nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Activists Khafra and Shabaka Kambon and Wayne Kublalsingh were also present.
Under the watch of a delegation of police officers, MSJ leader David Abdulah argued that the PM’s position amounted to tacit support for the US action.
“She says that Trinidad and Tobago did not participate in the attack. Well, of course, the police and army did not participate,” Abdulah said.
“But if someone is in a house where another person is abusing a child, and you stand by and support that individual, you cannot say you did not participate.”
Abdulah warned that the US operation posed a threat to sovereignty and self-determination and could further destabilise the region.
Asked about social media videos showing Venezuelans celebrating Maduro’s arrest, Jackson said such images did not negate the hardships faced by Venezuelans, but maintained that foreign military intervention was not a legitimate solution.
She said she rejected external military action as a way to resolve Venezuela’s crisis, describing it instead as imperialist aggression that violated sovereignty and risked worsening conditions.
Venezuelan Ambassador to T&T Álvaro Sánchez Cordero reiterated his government’s position that the US military action constituted a blatant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. He warned that no country was immune to such force and said the removal of President Maduro set a dangerous global precedent.
“We are defending our peace, our democracy, and our right to exist,” Sánchez Cordero said.
“In 1819, our liberator Simón Bolívar told a US envoy a timeless truth: free people defeat powerful empires. And I repeat—free people defeat powerful empires.”
English (US) ·