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CARICOM, and the wider Caribbean region, must remain a zone of peace, former prime minister Stuart Young urges, as concerns mount over a brewing military conflict between the United States and Venezuela.
The message came amid the ongoing build-up of a powerful US military naval fleet off the coast of Venezuela, purportedly to curb narcotics trafficking cartels.
"The recent developments being reported by international media should be of concern to all citizens and I dare say to the region," Young said in a text to Newsday on August 21.
"Caricom and our region is a recognised zone of peace and it is critical that this be maintained.
"TT has consistently respected and upheld the principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and for good reason.
"I trust that our allies will also respect and uphold these principles," he said.
While Young, as a former minister, has worked for TT to access Venezuelan oil and gas, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has adopted a US line and termed Maduro a "narco terrorist."
Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) leader David Abdulah MSJ, who served a stint in Persad-Bissessar's first administration, condemned the US military build-up.
On August 21, the US Embassy in ​​Venezuela issued a stern travel advisory to US citizens.
"The United States government advises any US citizen or resident of the United States not to travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the serious risks of unlawful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, unfair policing practices, violent crime, and civil unrest. If you are aware of any US citizen detained in Venezuela, please contact ACSBogota@state.gov."
The US has accused the Maduro regime of narco-trafficking and election fraud.
Reports are of eight US warships plus 4,500 sailors and marines heading to the waters off of Venezuela.
This fleet includes the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit comprised of the USS Iwo Jima, USS San Antonio and USS Fort Lauderdale, vessels all specifically designed for amphibious assaults, that is, to land marines.
The fleet also includes three destroyers armed with Aegis guided-missiles namely the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham and USS Sampson, and reportedly a guided-missile cruiser plus a nuclear-powered attack submarine.
The fleet is also outfitted with aircraft and attack helicopters, plus Saildrone Voyager unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), akin to an unmanned surveillance yacht.
Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro has vowed to counter the US fleet by mobilising 4.5 million militiamen.
While Reuters had initially revealed the deployment of US vessels to the Southern Caribbean to act against drug cartels, since then, both US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, have accused the Nicholas Maduro government in Venezuela as being an organisation of narco-traffickers, with the US putting a US$50 million bounty on Maduro's head.
Leavitt told a briefing on August 19, "The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel.
"Maduro, it is the view of this administration, is not a legitimate president. He is the fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the US for trafficking drugs into the country."
Rubio said, "The Maduro regime is not a government. We have never recognised them as such. They are a criminal enterprise that basically has taken control of national territory of a country.”
Newsday over several days has sought a comment from key government officials namely Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers and Defence Minister Wayne Sturge but up to publication time had got no response.
On August 21, four Caribbean countries – Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada and St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines – stood as part of regional group which met virtually and then issued a strong condemnation of current US manoeuvres. This is the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) – the meeting of which was chaired by Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel.
ALBA-TCP expressed its support for Maduro – against brutal yet groundless attacks by the US – which it said were "a direct attack on Venezuela’s independence, but also a threat to the stability and self-determination of Latin America and Caribbean people.
"We categorically reject the orders of the US government to deploy military forces under false pretexts, with the clear intention of imposing illegal and interfering policies contrary to the constitutional order of the States of Latin America and the Caribbean." ALBA-TCP said. "US military deployment in Caribbean waters, disguised as anti-drug operations threatened the region's peace and stability. Any deployment violated international law and the UN Charter which enshrined respect for sovereignty, equality of States and the self-determination of peoples."
ALBA-TCP demanded the cessation of any military threat or action violating the region's territorial integrity and political independence.
"We condemn the imperialist policy of harassment and destabilisation, which, through unilateral coercive measures, blockades, diplomatic blackmail and media campaigns, seeks to undermine regional peace and security, in open contravention of the spirit of co-operation, brotherhood and dialogue that should prevail."
China's Foreign Ministry condemned the US deployment.
"China opposes any move that violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and a country’s sovereignty and security.
"We oppose the use or threat of force in international relations and the interference of external forces in Venezuela’s internal affairs under any pretext."
For the MSJ, Abdulah condemned the US military build-up, declaring the Caribbean to be a zone of peace.
"We totally reject the so-called pretext for this unprecedented assembly of naval and other military assets and personnel as being one to 'deal with narco-trafficking.'"
He said the US Coast Guard, with Caribbean and European countries, have already long enacted interdiction of narco-traffickers in the Caribbean, with a major drug seizure as recently as June.
"US Navy destroyers, a guided missile cruiser, helicopter carriers, amphibious vessels and other assets, US marines, nuclear submarines are all offensive, to attack another country or target."
He noted that a US spokesperson has not denied these assets may be used against another country.
Abdulah accused the US of hypocrisy in citing its current anti-narcotics operations to be in its national interest.
He said in contrast, the US's past "national security interests" saw its military import narcotics into the US in the 1980s to finance right-wing fighters in El Salvador and Nicaragua, plus the FBI promote drugs in black neighbourhoods in the 1960s to try to quell civil rights protests.
"This is military build-up is no different. It’s all a lie. The real intent is to effect regime change in Venezuela. This is evident by the new 'bounty' of US$50 million to capture the President of Venezuela."
He said amid the Maduro bounty, the US Congress warmly welcomed Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a fugitive with a warrant for genocide for trial at the International Criminal Court.
"The MSJ calls out the US. We oppose its colonial and imperial agenda.
"We stand with the people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its President Nicolas Maduro and with the PSUV – the party which is in government."
He urged Caricom and its member States to state they would not support any military intervention in Venezuela.
"Silence is not an option," Abdulah said.
"This is a crucial moment in our region. Trump claims that he has stopped six wars recently. He must not start one here in our region which we insist is, and must remain, a zone of peace."
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