Caribbean Community leaders issued a statement at the weekend, urging a peaceful resolution to the crisis in the Southern Caribbean but as they united on the issue, one of its founding members made it clear it has a much different view of the situation.
Trinidad and Tobago said it had adopted a much different attitude to the others in the 15-member grouping by throwing its full support behind the region, a point leaders ensured was recorded in their weekend statement on US military threats to Venezuela.
“Heads of government CARICOM met and discussed various issues on the regional agenda including the increased security build up in the Caribbean and the potential impacts on member states. Save in respect of Trinidad and Tobago who reserved its position, heads reaffirmed the principle of maintaining the Caribbean region as a zone of peace and the importance of dialogue and engagement towards the peaceful resolution of disputes and conflict. CARICOM remains willing to assist towards that objective,” the terse statement noted.
The administration there has repeatedly stood behind the Trump administration in its ambitions on Venezuela with Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar calling on US soldiers to “kill them all violently,” referring to alleged drug traffickers trying to move large shipments of cocaine north to her nation and also to the US. She says such activities over the years have led to a spike in violent crime with murders averaging 600 annually, gangland violence and increases in felony crimes including drive-by shootings.
So, she and her cabinet has been openly supporting Washington, even offering the island as a base if Venezuela attacks neighboring Guyana to enforce a decades-old border claim. On Sunday, her government issued a statement categorically standing behind the US.
“The government of T&T wishes to once more, categorically express its strong support for the on-going military intervention of the US in the region.” It suggested that current American operations are “ultimately aimed at allowing the region to be a true ‘zone of peace’ where all citizens can in reality, live and work in a safe environment. Alternatively, all persons who may seek to engage in, or indirectly support, any illegal activities in the region, are warned that should they be so inclined, they do so at their own peril. The government reiterates its commitment to the people of the Caribbean for the creation of a safer, stronger and more prosperous region.”
And while this was happening, citizens in Trinidad were spiked by a weekend advisory from the US mission in Port of Spain asking the population to increase alertness “to be aware of their surroundings and to report any suspicious activity to local authorities.”
Local authorities have since increased security presence around the mission, hinting that there might have been threats to the facility even as police work to confirm the identities of two Trinidadians killed in one of the boat strikes last week.
Neighboring Guyana is the other member state which has lined up behind the US, largely because of persistent Venezuelan bullying of the country over border lines.
