Port of Spain.– Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, assured this Wednesday that the United States has not asked her country to be a “base for any war against Venezuela”, a day after the visit of the US Chief of Staff, Dan Caine.
Persad-Bissessar insisted that Trinidad and Tobago will not serve as a base for military operations between the U.S. and Venezuela and rejected speculations that U.S. military activity in the country was linked to tensions with Caracas.
“We are not going to launch any campaign against Venezuela. I have made it very clear,” said the Prime Minister, who indicated that Venezuela was not discussed in that meeting with General Caine.
“We reaffirm our cooperation against drug trafficking, human trafficking, drug trade and arms trafficking,” he added, describing the conversations as “very good”.
In response to reports of the sighting of U.S. military aircraft in Tobago, Persad-Bissessar explained that their presence was limited to training and logistical assistance.
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“They are helping us with the track. There are no troops on the ground,” he declared, noting that a contingent of about 250 Marines had left the country on November 25 after conducting maneuvers.
He also stated that he was unaware of the existence of U.S. ships or military assets operating within the territorial waters of Trinidad and Tobago.
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“As far as I know, we were not asked for any of these vessels to be in the waters of Trinidad and Tobago… as far as I know, they are international waters,” he stated.
In response to questions about Washington’s designation of an organization called Cartel de los Soles as terrorists, which it links to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Prime Minister said that her Administration has not made any decision in this regard.
In the same vein, the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Barry Padarath, pointed out that Trinidad and Tobago will determine “as a sovereign nation” its “own foreign policy”.
According to Padarath, Caine’s visit was “courtesy”, “a common and ordinary meeting”.
“I can assure you that nothing sinister or secret came out of yesterday’s meeting,” he emphasized.
For its part, the U.S. Embassy indicated that Caine’s visit aimed to strengthen “the solid bilateral relationship, regional stability, and regional unity around the fight against illicit trafficking and transnational criminal organizations.”
U.S. B-52H bomber aircraft conducted attack demonstrations this week in the Caribbean, as revealed this Wednesday by the United States Air Force, amid tensions with Venezuela and the growing military deployment in the area.
The U.S. has moved its largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, to the Caribbean, and U.S. forces have killed more than 80 people by destroying more than 20 vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
