3 months ago
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Prime Minister John Brecenio weighed in today – on the Sunday arrival of the USS Gravely, and the USS Gerald R. Ford, moored just 24 miles from the Venezuelan coast. Over the next four days, one of the largest us expansion of military presence in the region will be monitoring the waters for any drug trafficking groups. This is all in motion as US President Donald Trump Earlier this year, designated Venezuelan drug trafficking groups as, “specialized terrorist organizations” and Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro as a “drug trafficking leader.” While speculations are that the US is slowly attempting to invade Venezuela, the John Briceno urges that the peace within the Caribbean must be sustained.
John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “We look at the Caribbean as a zone of peace and we need to do everything to keep it as that. And as that, Venezuela has been a partner and Trinidad and Tobago is a member of CARICOM so we hope that we could be able to tone down the rhetoric and tone down this whole talk about the an invasion into Venezuela because that helps no one. It’s not about condemning anybody. It’s about calling out what is happening and we have done that already. We have already condemned about the shooting of these boats in some instances maybe there may be drugs in there we don’t know, but it is something that we have condemned already.”
During its stay, US Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit are expected to conduct joint training with the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force, focusing on infantry tactics, maintenance, and advanced medical exercises.
English (US) ·