PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago government says it recognized Delcy Rodriquez as the Acting President of Venezuela as Port of Spain prepares to send a delegation to Caracas to discuss energy issues, Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers has said.
Rodríguez was sworn in as the acting president of Venezuela on January 5, 2026.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has been declared “persona non grata” by Venezuela, announced that a Trinidad and Tobago delegation will visit the South American country shortly “to ensure we get our just share of the oil and gas that we partly own.
“We’ve been working really hard with the government of the United States and other governments, and shortly a diplomatic delegation will depart … to go to Venezuela to ensure we get our just share of the oil and gas that we partly own through the NGC (National Gas Company)”.
Sobers, speaking at the weekly post-Cabinet news conference, told reporters “the diplomatic relationship with Venezuela is getting better day by day” and that he is in “contact with officials from Venezuela almost every week.
“In terms of the cohort of the group of persons that would be going across there, that is under review as to what that team and composition would look like, and as soon as that has been nailed out, we would reveal the same to the public”.
Sobers said that while he is not in a position to state when the diplomatic mission would leave, he suspects it will be in short order, but it is something under current… It is something under review”.
Asked by reporters whether Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar would lead the delegation given her current status with Venezuela, Sobers responded by saying, “Currently, that is the position by the Venezuelan Congress.
“That is something that is also under discussion,” he said, adding that “we recognize Delcy Rodriguez as the interim president of Venezuela”.
Last October, Venezuela declared Persad-Bissessar persona non grata, as the two countries feud over United States military activity in the Caribbean Sea.
Venezuela’s National Assembly voted in favor of the sanction against Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, who had been sparring with the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and the status designates her as unwelcome in the country and bars her from entering.
When the ban was announced, Persad-Bissessar told the news agency AFP: “Why would they think I would want to go to Venezuela?”
Rodriguez had also questioned the US Treasury Department’s granting of an OFAC license to Trinidad and Tobago to negotiate for Venezuelan gas, claiming that without it, Trinidad and Tobago’s economy would collapse.
“The gas of Venezuela you must pay for, any molecule that is exported… You must pay. Everything else goes against nature, and it does not exist, and you are being deceived.”
Persad-Bissessar is one of the few Caribbean leaders to applaud the build-up of US military forces in the Caribbean as well as its bombing campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats, even as observers said that Washington’s presence was to remove President Maduro from office.
In January this year, US soldiers invaded Venezuela, detaining Maduro and bringing him to New York, where he now faces drug-related charges.
On Thursday, former prime minister and minister of energy, Stuart Young, speaking at a news conference of the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), said he is not impressed by the government’s announcement that it is sending a diplomatic delegation to Venezuela.
“The first question is, Kamla Prasad Bissesser, do you recognize Her Excellency Delcy Rodriguez as the current acting president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela? Do you? We still can’t get an answer to that because you spent years insulting Delcy Rodriguez,” Young said, adding that the government is failing miserably when it comes to the energy sector.
“…we have been saying for months now from this platform and others, you are destroying Trinidad and Tobago and putting us at a disadvantage because you are giving the multinational oil and gas companies a free run.
“So you wake up yesterday…and suddenly you wake up and decide you have to go to Venezuela, and persona non grata can’t go to Venezuela. So she says, I’m sending a diplomatic mission. You all are incompetent, and you are destroying Trinidad and Tobago,” Young said.
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