T&T sides with US as OAS grapples with Venezuela fallout

DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­[email protected]

Trinidad and To­ba­go has again sig­nalled its sup­port for the Unit­ed States fol­low­ing a spe­cial meet­ing of the Per­ma­nent Coun­cil of the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS), as re­gion­al ten­sions in­ten­si­fy over the ar­rest of Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro.

The OAS con­vened at its Wash­ing­ton head­quar­ters amid grow­ing con­cern about the im­pli­ca­tions of the U.S. op­er­a­tion, which has raised ques­tions about sov­er­eign­ty, in­ter­na­tion­al law and re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across the hemi­sphere used the fo­rum to out­line sharply di­ver­gent po­si­tions on the un­fold­ing cri­sis.

Speak­ing on be­half of Trinidad and To­ba­go, in­ter­im OAS rep­re­sen­ta­tive Saschele Grif­fith said the coun­try con­tin­ues to val­ue its long­stand­ing re­la­tion­ships with both Venezuela and the Unit­ed States, while sup­port­ing Wash­ing­ton’s stat­ed ef­forts to com­bat transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ues to recog­nise the im­por­tance of col­lec­tive ef­forts aimed at ad­dress­ing the threat posed by transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime,” Grif­fith said. “It is against this back­drop that we re­it­er­ate our sup­port for the ef­forts led by the Unit­ed States to­ward dis­rupt­ing and dis­man­tling transna­tion­al crim­i­nal net­works that have been recog­nised here at the OAS and across the hemi­sphere as forces of in­sta­bil­i­ty and in­se­cu­ri­ty.”

Grif­fith al­so un­der­scored Trinidad and To­ba­go’s in­ter­est in main­tain­ing con­struc­tive re­la­tions with Cara­cas, de­spite the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing diplo­mat­ic cli­mate.

“As a close neigh­bour, our coun­try re­mains deeply in­vest­ed in re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty,” she said. “The del­e­ga­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go un­der­scores its long­stand­ing re­la­tion­ship with both the Unit­ed States and Venezuela and stands ready to work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with all part­ners who share the as­pi­ra­tion for a safer, more pros­per­ous and sta­ble Amer­i­c­as.”

Sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments were ex­pressed by Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the Unit­ed Na­tions, Dr Neil Parsan, dur­ing an emer­gency meet­ing of the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil on Mon­day.

Mean­while, OAS Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Al­bert Ramdin warned that the cri­sis has test­ed the hemi­sphere’s com­mit­ment to mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism and in­ter­na­tion­al norms, urg­ing mem­ber states to move be­yond rhetoric.

“We must find the mo­ment to reaf­firm the col­lec­tive com­mit­ment of mem­ber states to the norms and val­ues that un­der­pin our uni­ty and peace­ful co­ex­is­tence,” Ramdin said. “We must find a way to re­turn to a rule-based sys­tem.”

Ramdin stressed that the sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela ex­tends be­yond its bor­ders.

“This is not on­ly a Venezue­lan is­sue. It is a hemi­spher­ic re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. The sta­bil­i­ty of our re­gion de­pends on our col­lec­tive re­sponse,” he said.

He added that the OAS re­mains pre­pared to serve as a space for di­a­logue and col­lec­tive en­gage­ment, while re­spect­ing sov­er­eign­ty and non-in­ter­ven­tion. The or­gan­i­sa­tion, he said, would con­tin­ue mon­i­tor­ing the hu­man rights sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela, par­tic­u­lar­ly with re­gard to po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers, and stands ready to as­sist with di­a­logue and in­sti­tu­tion­al strength­en­ing if re­quest­ed.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, Ja­maica read a Jan­u­ary 3 state­ment on be­half of the Cari­com Chair, reaf­firm­ing the re­gion­al bloc’s com­mit­ment to in­ter­na­tion­al law and mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism. The state­ment, is­sued af­ter the US ac­tion in Venezuela, re­newed calls for di­a­logue through diplo­mat­ic chan­nels and said Cari­com re­mains ready to sup­port those ef­forts.

Be­lize aligned it­self with the Cari­com po­si­tion, while al­so re­it­er­at­ing op­po­si­tion to the buildup of mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion pri­or to the US op­er­a­tion. Its del­e­ga­tion called for re­straint, re­spect for in­ter­na­tion­al law and peace­ful res­o­lu­tion.

As ques­tions con­tin­ue to swirl around Trinidad and To­ba­go–Venezuela re­la­tions, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers con­firmed that diplo­mat­ic chan­nels re­main open, say­ing he is in con­stant con­tact with Venezuela’s am­bas­sador. He de­clined to say whether dis­cus­sions had tak­en place since the US op­er­a­tion.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador Ál­varo Sánchez Cordero, who de­clined to com­ment.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Win­ford James said the Gov­ern­ment chose what he de­scribed as the least con­fronta­tion­al op­tion by open­ly sid­ing with Wash­ing­ton.

“Every­body al­ways has a choice,” James said. “She chose some­thing oth­ers would not have cho­sen. What­ev­er way you choose, there are con­se­quences. The Prime Min­is­ter opt­ed for the eas­i­er con­se­quences, dri­ven by con­cerns about Trinidad and To­ba­go’s eco­nom­ic sur­vival.”

An­oth­er an­a­lyst, Dr Shane Mo­hammed, said the shift re­flects prag­mat­ic re­cal­i­bra­tion rather than ide­ol­o­gy.

“We have to ebb and weave and tra­verse the cur­rent and fu­ture geopo­lit­i­cal waves,” Mo­hammed said. “The pri­or­i­ty is sur­vival and en­sur­ing that we ride those waves to our ben­e­fit.”

Mul­ti­ple at­tempts to reach the Prime Min­is­ter for com­ment were un­suc­cess­ful.