Tensions are rising between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago over support for US military operations in the Caribbean.
Venezuela has declared the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago persona non grata amid an ongoing feud between the two countries over US military activities in the Caribbean.
On Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly voted in favor of sanctions against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has been sparring with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The law designated her as an unwelcome person in the country and barred her from entering the country.
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Asked about the prospects a day earlier, Persado-Bissessar told AFP: “Why would they want me to go to Venezuela?”
The two countries, separated by a small bay just 11 kilometers (7 miles) wide at its narrowest point, have been at loggerheads in recent weeks over U.S. military activities in the region.
Persado-Bissessar is one of the few Caribbean leaders to praise the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean and its bombing campaign against suspected drug-trafficking ships.
“Like most people in the United States, I am pleased that the U.S. Navy’s deployment is successful in its mission,” Persad-Bissessar said shortly after the first missile strikes were announced on Sept. 2.
“I have no sympathy for human traffickers. The U.S. military should violently kill them all.”
But that stance puts her at odds with Maduro’s government. Just this week, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Iván Gil Pinto told the United Nations General Assembly that the U.S. attack was “an illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads.”
Legal experts have compared the bombing campaign to extrajudicial killings, pointing to possible violations of international law. There have been at least 13 strikes against 14 vessels, most of them small vessels.
An estimated 57 people were killed in the U.S. attack. Their identities are unknown and no conclusive evidence linking them to drug trafficking has so far been provided to the public.
Relations deteriorate due to US attack
Labeling Persad-Bissessar a “free personality” is just the latest chapter in retaliation between the two countries.
On Tuesday, AFP news agency reported that Trinidad and Tobago is considering “mass deportations” of illegal immigrants, most of them Venezuelan, from the territory.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander has ordered plans to release detained “illegal immigrants” to be halted, according to a memorandum seen by the news agency.
“The implementation of a mass deportation exercise is currently being considered,” the memo said.
This comes after President Maduro on Monday ordered an “immediate suspension” of large-scale gas transactions with Trinidad and Tobago, citing the country’s acceptance of US warships.
The island is home to one of several U.S. warships that President Donald Trump has deployed near Venezuelan waters. Venezuelan officials have accused the US president of seeking to overthrow Maduro’s government.
President Maduro accused Persado-Bissessar of turning the Caribbean nation “into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela” by canceling gas deals.
The Pentagon has so far deployed seven warships, submarines, drones and fighter jets to the Caribbean Sea, and one warship to the Gulf of Mexico.
The frequency of US bombing campaigns has increased in recent weeks, with six airstrikes announced last week alone.
Its range has also expanded, with attacks this month in the eastern Pacific near Colombia and the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela.
Some observers believe the Trump administration is trying to use the U.S. military to pressure and destabilize President Maduro, who was re-elected last year in what the United States denied as a fraudulent election.
But Mr Persad-Bissessar was adamant in his support of the US campaign, saying he would “rather see drug traffickers blown to smithereens” than contribute to his country’s death toll.
