Govt: T&T Embassy staff, nationals safe in Caracas

AKASH SAMA­ROO

Lead Ed­i­tor- Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

The Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs says all Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als and per­son­nel sta­tioned at the coun­try’s em­bassy in Cara­cas are safe, se­cure, and ful­ly ac­count­ed for.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions about the well-be­ing of na­tion­als in Cara­cas af­ter the US mil­i­tary car­ried out sev­er­al strikes on mil­i­tary bases in Venezuela and cap­tured the coun­try’s Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro, Min­is­ter Sean Sobers said, “Since ap­prox­i­mate­ly 2.30 am on Sat­ur­day Jan­u­ary 3, the Head of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mis­sion in Cara­cas has main­tained con­tin­u­ous con­tact with me and with se­nior of­fi­cials at the Min­istry.”

Sobers added, “All mem­bers of the mis­sion are safe, se­cure and ful­ly ac­count­ed for. The mis­sion con­tin­ues to pro­vide reg­u­lar brief­in­gs on the sit­u­a­tion in the cap­i­tal city.”

Mean­while, Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath, who yes­ter­day act­ed in the role of For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter, told Guardian Me­dia that the em­bassy in Cara­cas has two T&T res­i­dents at the mo­ment, the Head of Chancery and a mil­i­tary at­taché. He added that five lo­cal­ly re­cruit­ed peo­ple make up the re­main­der of the staff.

He too con­firmed that every­one was safe.

Min­is­ter Padarath said the staff spent their time yes­ter­day check­ing in on T&T na­tion­als in Venezuela.

“The em­bassy has been reach­ing out to our na­tion­als on their data­base over the last few hours, and we will con­tin­ue to do so. Thus far, there have been no ad­verse re­ports com­ing out of Cara­cas about any na­tion­al be­ing hurt.”

Cara­cas was at the cen­tre of an ex­tra­or­di­nary night­time mil­i­tary op­er­a­tion by the Unit­ed States, which led to the cap­ture of Maduro and his wife, Cil­ia Flo­res.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 2 am, res­i­dents of Cara­cas were wok­en by a se­ries of at least sev­en pow­er­ful ex­plo­sions and the sound of low-fly­ing air­craft.

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s em­bassy is lo­cat­ed in the Venezue­lan cap­i­tal, and Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that Unit­ed States strikes oc­curred be­tween four and 10 kilo­me­tres from the diplo­mat­ic mis­sion.

While the Gov­ern­ment has not yet ap­point­ed an am­bas­sador to Venezuela (some­thing, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has said is still in progress), the em­bassy is cur­rent­ly be­ing over­seen by Head of Chancery, Dayne-Marc Chin Slick.

Yes­ter­day, the Op­po­si­tion Leader al­so ex­pressed con­cern for na­tion­als at the em­bassy in Cara­cas.

In a me­dia re­lease, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said, “We have tak­en note of the Prime Min­is­ter’s three-line state­ment this morn­ing, which made no ref­er­ence to the fact that Trinidad and To­ba­go has an em­bassy with staff in Cara­cas. We place on record our con­cern for the safe­ty and wel­fare of the staff and all T&T na­tion­als in Venezuela.”

Yes­ter­day morn­ing, Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar ac­knowl­edged the US mil­i­tary ac­tion in Venezuela; how­ev­er, she said this coun­try played no part in it. Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­it­er­at­ed that T&T con­tin­ues to main­tain peace­ful re­la­tions with the peo­ple of Venezuela.