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Trinidad, Tobago Open Up to US Military12/16 06:09
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) -- The government of Trinidad and Tobago said
Monday that it would allow the U.S. military to access its airports in coming
weeks as tensions build between the United States and Venezuela.
The announcement comes after the U.S. military recently installed a radar
system at the airport in Tobago. The Caribbean country's government has said
the radar is being used to fight local crime, and that the small nation
wouldn't be used as a launchpad to attack any other country.
The U.S. would use the airports for activity that would be "logistical in
nature, facilitating supply replenishment and routine personnel rotations,"
Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. It did
not provide further details.
Trinidad's prime minister previously has praised ongoing U.S. strikes on
alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
Only 7 miles (11 kilometers) separate Venezuela from the twin-island
Caribbean nation at their closest point. It has two main airports: Piarco
International Airport in Trinidad and ANR Robinson International Airport in
Tobago.
Hours after the announcement, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodrguez said
her country was immediately canceling any contract, deal or negotiation to
supply natural gas to Trinidad and Tobago.
She claimed that the government of Trinidad and Tobago participated in the
recent U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off the country's coast, calling it an
"act of piracy."
She also accused Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar
of having a "hostile agenda" against Venezuela, noting that the U.S. military
installed an airport radar in Tobago.
"This official has turned the territory of Trinidad and Tobago into a US
aircraft carrier to attack Venezuela, in an unequivocal act of vassalage,"
Rodrguez said.
Persad-Bissessar told The Associated Press that she wasn't bothered by the
statement, describing it as "simply false propaganda."
"They should direct their complaints to President Trump, as it is the U.S.
military that has seized the sanctioned oil tanker. In the meantime, we
continue to have peaceful relations with the Venezuelan people,"
Persad-Bissessar said.
The prime minister asserted that her nation has "never depended" on
Venezuela for natural gas supplies: "We have adequate reserves within our
territory."
Trinidad and Venezuela had previously reached a deal over the development of
a gas field in Venezuelan waters, near the maritime border separating the two
countries.
In December 2023, Venezuela granted a license for oil giant Shell and
Trinidad and Tobago to produce gas from the field. In October, the U.S.
government granted Trinidad and Tobago permission to negotiate the gas deal
without facing U.S sanctions placed on Venezuela.
Amery Browne, an opposition senator and Trinidad and Tobago's former foreign
minister, accused the Trinidadian government on Monday of being deceptive in
its announcement.
Browne said that Trinidad and Tobago has become "complicit facilitators of
extrajudicial killings, cross-border tension and belligerence."
"There is nothing routine about this. It has nothing to do with the usual
cooperation and friendly collaborations that we have enjoyed with the USA and
all of our neighbors for decades," he said.
He said the "blanket permission" with the U.S. takes the country "a further
step down the path of a satellite state" and that it embraces a "'might is
right' philosophy."
American strikes began in September and have killed more than 80 people as
Washington builds up a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest
U.S. aircraft carrier.
In October, an American warship docked in Trinidad's capital, Port-of-Spain,
as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump boosts military pressure
on Venezuela and President Nicols Maduro.
U.S. lawmakers have questioned the legality of the strikes against vessels
in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean, and recently announced that
there would be a congressional review of them.
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