American troops have departed Trinidad’s sister isle, Tobago, after dismantling a high-grade radar which had been installed in the lead up to recent military action against Venezuela to capture former President Nicolas Maduro, officials said this week.
The last batch of marines departed this week. Their exit from the idyllic tourist island came just days after the specially established radar equipment which had been erected at the ANR Robinson International Airport had been dismantled and flown overseas.
The presence of the radar late last year had triggered nationwide controversy with Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar and cabinet ministers struggling to defend and explain its erection and the secret presence of dozens of marines on the island.
The PM had stated that the marines were there to assist in road construction, but Tobago House of Assembly Chief Farley Augustine told an executive council meeting on Wednesday that the road had not been completed and his outfit will do so in the coming days.
The radar’s erection had come during the peak period of several lethal strikes against vessels operating between Venezuela and Trinidad that were allegedly trafficking narcotics to the region and also during the height of military preparations that eventually led to the abduction of President Maduro in early January.
“It is more than confirmed that the radar assets belonging to the US government and the US marines who were here, that they, for the most part, have left the island. Those that have not left the island as yet probably on their way out the island. That is actually consistent with what the THA was told before, that it would be a temporary arrangement,” Farley told executive members.
The US had exerted enormous pressure on several Caribbean member nations to accommodate radar facilities but in the end, one of set up in Tobago which is about 100 miles north of the Venezuelan coast.
