Sobers dismisses concerns over possible US congressional scrutiny

DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­[email protected]

For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers has dis­missed con­cerns that Trinidad and To­ba­go could face scruti­ny from the Unit­ed States Con­gress over its sup­port for the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion and its mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions in the Caribbean.

The is­sue comes amid a shift­ing po­lit­i­cal land­scape in Wash­ing­ton fol­low­ing the Re­pub­li­can Par­ty’s loss­es in the US midterm elec­tions.

The US Sen­ate and House Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tees are con­duct­ing bi­par­ti­san in­quiries in­to US mil­i­tary strikes on sus­pect­ed drug-traf­fick­ing ves­sels in the Caribbean. The in­quiries in­clude re­ports that a fol­low-up at­tack killed two sur­vivors of an ini­tial strike.

The Op­po­si­tion has warned that T&T could face ques­tions about its sup­port for the op­er­a­tions and the le­gal ba­sis for its co­op­er­a­tion.

Sobers said the Gov­ern­ment had noth­ing to be con­cerned about, point­ing to the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s le­gal po­si­tion.

“I think the AG’s po­si­tion is quite pel­lu­cid, and as a mem­ber of the Cab­i­net and a mem­ber of the NSC (Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil), we stand with the AG’s po­si­tion on the mat­ter. So, there’s noth­ing for us to be con­cerned about,” he said.

Sobers al­so said the Gov­ern­ment saw no need to seek fur­ther le­gal ad­vice on the pos­si­bil­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go be­ing im­pli­cat­ed in the in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie has said the Gov­ern­ment ob­tained le­gal ad­vice from an in­ter­na­tion­al ex­pert sup­port­ing the le­gal­i­ty of the US strikes un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law. He has not dis­closed the ex­pert’s iden­ti­ty or the sub­stance of the ad­vice.

The Gov­ern­ment has al­so said Trinidad and To­ba­go was not in­volved in the strikes or in the Jan­u­ary 3 op­er­a­tion to cap­ture Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro in Cara­cas.

How­ev­er, US Sen­ate For­eign Re­la­tions Com­mit­tee chair­man Jim Risch pub­licly praised Trinidad and To­ba­go’s sup­port for US law en­force­ment ef­forts in the re­gion in Ju­ly, specif­i­cal­ly ref­er­enc­ing Maduro’s ar­rest and ex­tra­di­tion to the Unit­ed States.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has said mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force were not in­volved in the op­er­a­tion to cap­ture Maduro.