Charles warns of possible investigation into T&T after US Midterms

Akash Sama­roo

For­mer Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the Unit­ed Na­tions and UNC MP Rod­ney Charles is urg­ing the Gov­ern­ment to seek le­gal ad­vice on Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­ten­tial ex­po­sure to in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s ac­tions, fol­low­ing the De­moc­rats’ vic­to­ry in the Unit­ed States midterm elec­tions.

In a state­ment sent to Guardian Me­dia, Charles warned that con­gres­sion­al in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the bomb­ing of sus­pect­ed drug ves­sels in Caribbean wa­ters and the cap­ture of Venezue­lan leader Nicolás Maduro could raise ques­tions about this coun­try’s in­volve­ment.

De­moc­rats have won con­trol of both the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Sen­ate, giv­ing them the pow­er to in­ves­ti­gate Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s ad­min­is­tra­tion and block his leg­isla­tive agen­da and ap­point­ments.

“Con­gres­sion­al in­ves­ti­ga­tions may re­veal our roles in Maduro’s re­moval and in al­leged ex­tra-ju­di­cial killings in Caribbean wa­ters,” Charles said.

He rec­om­mend­ed that the Gov­ern­ment seek ad­vice from for­mer Pres­i­dent of Trinidad and To­ba­go and for­mer In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court (ICC) judge An­tho­ny Car­mona.

“My ad­vice? Get le­gal ad­vice as­ap on how to deal with the ICC—if is­sues arise,” he said.

How­ev­er, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie has pre­vi­ous­ly said the Gov­ern­ment ob­tained ex­ter­nal ad­vice from an in­ter­na­tion­al le­gal ex­pert that the US boat strikes were con­sis­tent with in­ter­na­tion­al law.

Je­re­mie said he had con­veyed that ad­vice to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Charles al­so rec­om­mend­ed that the Gov­ern­ment seek pub­lic re­la­tions ad­vice to man­age pos­si­ble fall­out from con­gres­sion­al hear­ings and en­gage dis­creet­ly with De­moc­rats.

“We must dis­en­gage from Trump­ism—diplo­mat­i­cal­ly and im­me­di­ate­ly. The soon­er the bet­ter,” he said.

Charles ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of adopt­ing un­pop­u­lar in­ter­na­tion­al po­si­tions through what he de­scribed as “seem­ing­ly un­crit­i­cal sup­port” for Trump.

He cit­ed its po­si­tions on the US em­bar­go against Cu­ba, the ICC and the Caribbean Sea as a zone of peace, as well as its de­ci­sion to host a US mil­i­tary radar.

“Ab­sent a course cor­rec­tion, we may well find our­selves iso­lat­ed on the glob­al stage, large­ly ig­nored, and pos­si­bly a pari­ah state,” he warned.

Charles urged the Gov­ern­ment to as­sem­ble lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al pro­fes­sion­als, in­clud­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, to de­vel­op for­eign pol­i­cy pro­pos­als for dis­cus­sion with­in the gov­ern­ing par­ty, with the pub­lic and in Par­lia­ment.

He al­so called for greater trans­paren­cy and clear­er ex­pla­na­tions of the coun­try’s in­ter­na­tion­al de­ci­sions.

“Let the en­tire coun­try ‘rea­son to­geth­er’ on for­eign pol­i­cy is­sues,” he said.