3 days ago
5
Senior Reporter
Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers says this country will be staying out of the current impasse between the United States and Venezuela, and he is urging the population to put aside any fear amid the ongoing tensions.
While some Caricom neighbours and Latin American countries have condemned the presence of the US Navy near Venezuela as a threat to regional peace and stability, Sobers yesterday rejected that view.
In the Government’s first official statement since the news broke, Sobers, responding to questions from Guardian Media, said, “America is a sovereign country. Where they decide to send their ships or not send their ships is not really a matter for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Sobers noted that the Caribbean Sea extends all the way to the coast of Florida.
“So, if the Americans decide, through their own sovereignty, to have ships on the water in the Caribbean, or have ships on the water in Alaska, or have ships on the water in the Indian Ocean, I mean, that’s their prerogative. I read the statement. I think all of us would have read the statement as to why the ships are,” he said.
Sobers said the US made it clear that its intention is to fight drug running, drug smuggling, and the activities of people deemed terrorists. He said that aligns with the same mandate expressed by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the Government.
“Our Prime Minister or Government has made it quite clear that we will stamp out all types of illegal activity entering Trinidad and Tobago in the same forms and activities that they are talking about, which are drugs and gun smuggling, human trafficking.”
The US has deployed three warships — the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and USS Sampson — with 4,500 troops, including 2,200 Marines, to Venezuela’s coast as part of its anti-drug campaign. The US has accused Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro of trafficking through the “Cartel of the Suns” and has placed a $50 million bounty on him. In response, Maduro mobilised over 4.5 million militia members, rejecting the allegations and warning that the US military build-up endangers regional stability.
Sobers said the US has not communicated with T&T about its mission but noted there was no need for such engagement.
“They’ve not entered Trinbagonian maritime waters or anything like that. So, there would be no cause for a request, or there’s no cause for a discussion on the issue. They are conducting an exercise to combat illegal activity.”
He also rejected any notion that there is any arrangement between this country and the US for T&T to serve as a base for the Americans. Amid tensions between Venezuela and the US, concerns have surfaced in south Trinidad, the closest point to the South American nation, but Sobers is urging the public to remain calm.
“I will tell them that they are safe. I suspect that they should all be operating on the right side of the law. And once they are doing so, there’s no need for concern,” he said.
“There’s absolutely no need for any concern, panic, worry, trepidation. If that thought ever enters anyone’s mind, they should perish (the thought) immediately.”
The Foreign Affairs Minister said T&T will take a “non-interventionist” approach while maintaining good bilateral relations with both countries. And while an intergovernmental organisation of Latin American and Caribbean nations called ALBA, or the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America, has denounced what it described as “renewed aggression by the US against Latin America and the Caribbean,” Sobers said he does not see it that way.
“Absolutely not. I don’t share that view at all,” he said.
He went on to explain, “The Americans move ships all the time, all around the world in many different regions. The Caribbean region should be no different. And they’ve indicated why they are moving the ships. I mean, if everybody is a law-abiding person and is on the right side of the law, anything that they’re saying, that they’re coming to interdict, are things that are on the wrong side of the law.
“Why would you have any cause for concern with respect to security and stability? As a matter of fact, the notion that is being proffered by the Americans for the movement of the ships is for safety and security. So, why would anyone feel otherwise or feel contrary to that? Do we have any evidence to support or suggest that it is creating insecurity? That is preposterous.”
Sobers also said Caricom has had no discussion yet on the matter.
“Nobody has any reason to be concerned. They are moving ships through the Caribbean Sea. They are not involved in anybody’s territorial waters. I suspect if that is to ever happen, they’ll reach out and a conversation will be had at that juncture,” he said.
English (US) ·