T&T, Caricom, Venezuela plus—Part 1

A divided Caricom is not in the Caribbean’s best interest. But no one is feeling the heat in the region more than Trinidad and Tobago because of migration under the Nicolas Maduro regime and the proximity of T&T to Venezuela. This we must understand.

This is what sets Kamla Persad-Bissessar apart from her Caricom colleagues and other regional leaders. In addition, the Prime Minister took an anti-Maduro stand as Opposition leader when massive protests began under Juan Guido in 2019, after Guaido became National Assembly president in Venezuela, and repression by Maduro increased. Our Prime Minister, as Opposition leader then, took a stand against dictatorial rule and oppression of the Venezuelan people and for democracy.

Caricom intervened on Maduro’s behalf at the UN, led by then prime minister of T&T, Dr Keith Rowley, on the basis of sovereignty and non-interference. And to some extent, restraint prevailed under then US president Joe Biden.

Since then, T&T has had up to 100,000 Venezuelan immigrants entering the country. Not all have remained. Some have returned home. Others have migrated to the US. Some have gone elsewhere. But there must be around 50,000 Venezuelan immigrants in this country now, of whom only 20,000 or so are officially registered.

The majority of Venezuelans are law-abiding, have a circle of compatriots as a support group and are learning the society and integrating into it.

But some of the males, now becoming comfortable, and assessing the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of T&T’s society, have been forming gangs. The Venezuelans are largely settled in Central Trinidad. They are in other places as well, but central Trinidad has significant clusters of immigrants. Trini-spawned Vene gangs are reaching out to urban gangs. This collaboration makes for a deadly combination with cross-country alliances, cross-cultural influences and cross-border reach—because Venezuelan gangsters here have collaborators across the Venezuelan diaspora in the Americas and, of course, in Venezuela itself.

The good-looking women of Venezuela present other kinds of societal challenges. Some are single, single mothers or away from husbands or companions. Local men are attracted to them but Indian men in particular, seem to be drawn to them. Men with wives and children sometimes befriend them, abandoning their homes, which sometimes leads to broken families and a rather chaotic situation in some Central households and communities.

The Prime Minister, rooted in South Trinidad and with a deep base in Central Trinidad, must be aware of what is happening to her constituents and what this implies for community well-being. On the other hand, she also must be aware of what the growing gangsterism in Central means for things like home invasions and what collaboration between gangs rooted in Central and urban gangs spread across every government housing project in the East West corridor and, following the ribbon pattern of development from East Port-of-Spain to Enterprise, Couva, La Romaine, San Fernando, Point Fortin, connecting to Cedros where urban, rural, Venezuelan and international currents meet. The Prime Minister must know she is dealing with a sociological, political, national security and mental health challenge of potentially immense proportions, in a region in which a country such as Haiti, a Caricom country, seems way beyond redemption because of the stranglehold of gangs.

All Caricom countries have a problem with guns, drugs, crime and international collaboration. The difference is the significant Venezuelan presence and the easy passage to transshipment from Trinidad northwards, made possible by the proximity of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, the largest producers of cocaine because of the compatibility of the Andean ridge with the coca plant, to Venezuela, and the easy movement between Venezuela and T&T, with its multivarious border penetration points and our seemingly sleeping Coast Guard, and their dozen boats all docked in Teteron and around Chaguaramas, rendered useless

But the gangs, guns, drugs, crime and international collaboration are all the way down from the Bahamas, Jamaica, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Barbados, T&T, Guyana, at different degrees, but the migration impact is higher in T&T, Curacao and Guyana, where greater proportions of Venezuelan immigrants live.

And drug cartels and gangs have demonstrably penetrated the political party system and the political process across countries. Where they cannot influence the selection of candidates, they eliminate candidates who are opposed to drugs and gangs. In the last major election in Mexico, several candidates regarded as hostile to their interests by gangsters were executed before election day.

How successful have Caribbean leaders been in containing crime in their own countries and across borders in the region? And do they now need to ask for help? (Part II tomorrow)