Opposition wants PM to explain policy on Venezuela

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne has urged Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to clear­ly out­line Trinidad and To­ba­go’s for­eign pol­i­cy and ap­proach to re­la­tions with the cur­rent Del­cy Ro­driguez ad­min­is­tra­tion in neigh­bour­ing Venezuela. So far, the Gov­ern­ment has re­mained silent on its po­si­tion.

The call comes af­ter Venezue­lan Ex­ec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez was sworn in as Pres­i­dent of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela on Mon­day. Ro­driguez as­sumed of­fice fol­low­ing the US cap­ture last Sat­ur­day of Venezue­lan leader Nico­las Maduro and his wife Cil­ia Flo­res, who ap­peared be­fore Man­hat­tan courts on Mon­day fac­ing drug and weapons charges.

Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar and For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers did not re­spond to Guardian Me­dia’s What­sApp queries about Trinidad and To­ba­go’s stance re­gard­ing the Ro­driguez Gov­ern­ment. Ques­tions in­clud­ed whether the coun­try had sent any mes­sages — con­grat­u­la­to­ry or oth­er­wise — re­gard­ing Ro­driguez’s ap­point­ment, and whether Trinidad and To­ba­go would seek to re­store en­er­gy links re­cent­ly cut un­der the Maduro ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Both of­fi­cials were al­so asked about the Gov­ern­ment’s ex­pec­ta­tions for Ro­driguez, giv­en her re­port­ed­ly con­cil­ia­to­ry tone to­ward the US last Sun­day fol­low­ing Maduro’s oust­ing, and US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s warn­ings that Ro­driguez could face even greater con­se­quences than Maduro if she failed to act in ac­cor­dance with US in­ter­ests.

When asked for the PNM’s per­spec­tive on the sit­u­a­tion, Sen­a­tor Browne said:

“Frankly, those are all ques­tions for Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Gov­ern­ment. As con­sis­tent­ly in­di­cat­ed by Op­po­si­tion Leader Pene­lope Beck­les-Robin­son, we con­demn the Prime Min­is­ter’s re­fusal to con­vene a me­dia con­fer­ence to ad­dress the na­tion and re­spond to ques­tions and con­cerns re­gard­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­si­tion.

“The on­ly state­ment of note from the Prime Min­is­ter since Maduro’s re­moval is that Trinidad and To­ba­go ‘wasn’t a par­tic­i­pant in any of the mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions,’ which fails to rec­on­cile with the open-end­ed au­tho­ri­sa­tion pre­vi­ous­ly grant­ed for the land­ing and over­flight of mil­i­tary air­craft.”

Browne added that since the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had es­tab­lished a pat­tern of hold­ing post-Cab­i­net me­dia con­fer­ences, a prac­tice that has since lapsed.

“At the very least, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is re­quired to ex­plain her de­ci­sions on dou­bled fees, rates, and tax­es im­posed on cit­i­zens, as well as her for­eign pol­i­cy to­ward the cur­rent Cara­cas ad­min­is­tra­tion, and her vi­sion for rev­enue gen­er­a­tion be­yond tax­ing the pop­u­la­tion.”

Mean­while in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions ex­pert Dr An­tho­ny Gon­za­les said the sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela re­mains flu­id.

“I don’t think any­one can say for sure what’s like­ly to hap­pen. Over the next few weeks, we should have a clear­er pic­ture of how the Ro­driguez Gov­ern­ment will pro­ceed,” Gon­za­les said.

He not­ed that if Ro­driguez choos­es to co­op­er­ate with the US, the Venezue­lan Gov­ern­ment may pur­sue poli­cies aligned with US in­ter­ests, cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for T&T to ne­go­ti­ate the re­open­ing of cross-bor­der en­er­gy projects.

How­ev­er, Gon­za­les added that Chav­ista sup­port­ers — loy­al to late Pres­i­dent Hugo Chavez and Maduro — re­main strong, and protests have con­tin­ued over the cap­ture of the Maduros.

“It’s un­clear how much in­flu­ence they will have on the new ad­min­is­tra­tion,” he said.