PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Former attorney general, Garvin Nicholas, says Trinidad and Tobago government should not readily abandon its closest allies to appease “those who would easily discard us” as he questioned Port of Spain’s announcement that it fully supports the decision of the United States to deploy “military assets” into the Caribbean region to destroy what it described as “the terrorist drug cartels”.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, in a statement over the last weekend, also indicated that Port of Spain has “not engaged and has no intention of engaging” the 15-member regional integration grouping CARICOM “on this matter”.
The government said that on this matter, each CARICOM member state “can speak for themselves” and that “Trinidad and Tobago has been helplessly drowning in blood and violence for the last 20 years”.
But in a statement posted on his Facebook page, Nicholas, who served as attorney general during the final months of the Persad Bissessar-led 2010-15 People’s Partnership coalition government, said “as a small island state, we must understand that our strength comes from reliable partners with common interests.
“As such, we should not readily abandon our closest allies to appease those who would easily discard us. Instead, we should seek to strengthen our relationship with dependable allies and build on our global network of alliances to ensure we spread our eggs around diverse baskets.”
The 15-member regional integration movement, CARICOM, has not issued any statement on the matter. At the same time, the Guyana and Barbados governments have reiterated the need for the region to be a zone of peace.
Nicholas said, while he is “absolutely unambiguously in support of eliminating crime and making Trinidad and Tobago the safest country in the world to live…the undisputed reality is that there is no military in history nor will there be any in the future that can bomb drug cartels or gangs out of existence.
“That is not to say we couldn’t benefit from greater vigilance of the waters between the South American coast and ours.
“It is, however, important to remember that the USA couldn’t eliminate the Taliban in Afghanistan by bombing them, nor could the IDF, after killing over 400,000 innocent Palestinians, destroy Hamas, and to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq, over 100,000 civilians were killed.”
Last week, the United States ordered an amphibious squadron to the southern Caribbean as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels.
A nuclear-powered attack submarine, additional P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, several destroyers, and a guided-missile cruiser are also being allocated to US Southern Command as part of the mission.
Nicholas, who also served as this country’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom and an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to several European countries, said that the Mexican border is the main entry point for illegal drugs entering the USA from South and Central America, not the Venezuelan border.
“The Trump regime has, however, been clear that its aim is regime change in Venezuela. And history is clear as to the USA’s aims in oil and gas giants like Venezuela,” Nicholas said.
Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said that she wanted to “make it very clear” that if the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela “launches any attack against the Guyanese people or invades Guyanese territory and the American Government requests access to Trinidadian territory to defend the people of Guyana, my government will unflinchingly provide them that access,” she said.
Nicholas said that the rhetoric of bringing democracy “has been used conveniently but inconsistently over decades.
“In recent times, the USA has shown that it has no moral authority to speak on issues of democracy or law and order, both domestically and internationally. As a small island state, we must understand that our strength comes from reliable partners with common interests.”
The attorney said that in recent times, the UK, with its visa imposition, and the USA, with its 15 per cent tariffs and utterances, “have shown themselves not to be the kind of partners we can rely on”.
Meanwhile, the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) has described it as a “shameful and sad day” for Trinidad and Tobago following Persad Bissessar’s statement.
The MSJ said one week before the country celebrates its 63rd anniversary of political independence from Britain, “and just weeks away from marking the 49th year of our Republican status,’ the statement issued by Prime Minister Persad Bissessar had “swallowed the Trump administration’s position that this deployment is to deal with ‘terrorist drug cartels.
“The MSJ repeats that the reason advanced is a lie,” adding “the nature and size of the US military assets are for offensive purposes, not drug interdiction.
“…destroyers with guided cruise missiles are meant to take out military targets; amphibious vessels are designed to land troops. What is the military target? Where are the 4,000 troops to be landed?”.
The MSJ questioned whether the deployment constituted a naval blockade of Venezuela, which is contrary to international law.
“The US can’t or won’t say. Yet our Prime Minister endorses it.
“Mrs Persad-Bissessar should say in clear words who the target is, what the cartel is, and in which country,” the MSJ said, adding, “Trinidad and Tobago has had a long record of conducting foreign policy based on the principles of recognition of the sovereignty of states and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states.
“We have taken positions on principle even when this meant opposing US foreign policy.”
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