CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
By Abby Rogers, AFP and Reuters- Venezuela has declared Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister a persona non grata, as the two countries continue to feud over United States military activity in the Caribbean Sea.
On Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly voted in favour of the sanction against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has been sparring with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. It designates her as unwelcome in the country and bars her from entering.
Asked a day earlier about the prospect, Persad-Bissessar told the news agency AFP: “Why would they think I would want to go to Venezuela?”
The two countries – separated by a small bay just 11km (7 miles) wide at its narrowest point – have been at loggerheads in recent weeks over the US military activity in the region.
Persad-Bissessar is one of the few Caribbean leaders to applaud the build-up of US military forces in the Caribbean as well as its bombing campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats.
“I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Persad-Bissessar said shortly after the first missile strike was announced on September 2.
“I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all, violently.”
But that stance has put her at odds with Maduro’s government. Just this week, Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Yvan Gil Pinto told the United Nations General Assembly that the US strikes were an “illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads”.
Legal experts have compared the bombing campaign with extrajudicial killings, citing likely violations of international law. At least 13 strikes have occurred so far against 14 maritime vessels, most of them small boats.
An estimated 57 people have been killed in the US attacks. Their identities are unknown, and no definitive evidence has been provided to the public so far to link them to drug trafficking.
Relations frayed over US strikes
Labelling Persad-Bissessar a persona non grata is just the latest chapter in the tit-for-tat between the two countries.
Get instant alerts and updates based on your interests. Be the first to know when big stories happen.Yes, keep me updated
On Tuesday, AFP reported that Trinidad and Tobago was considering a “mass deportation” of undocumented migrants, most of whom are Venezuelans, from its territory.
According to a memorandum reviewed by the news agency, Trinidad and Tobago’s homeland security minister, Roger Alexander, ordered a halt to any planned releases of “illegal immigrants” in detention.
“Consideration is currently being given to the implementation of a mass deportation exercise,” the memo said.
That comes after Maduro ordered the “immediate suspension” of a major gas deal with Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, citing the island nation’s reception of a US warship.
The island is hosting one of several US warships deployed near Venezuelan waters by President Donald Trump. Venezuelan officials have accused the US president of seeking to overturn Maduro’s government.
In cancelling the gas deal, Maduro accused Persad-Bissessar of transforming the Caribbean nation “into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela”.
The Pentagon has so far deployed seven warships, a submarine, drones and fighter jets to the Caribbean, as well as another warship to the Gulf of Mexico.
The rate of the US bombing campaign has increased in recent weeks, with six strikes announced over the last week alone.
Its scope has also broadened, with strikes taking place this month in the Eastern Pacific Ocean near Colombia, as well as the Caribbean waters off Venezuela’s shores.
Some observers believe the Trump administration is using the US military to pressure and destabilise Maduro, who was re-elected last year in what the US has dismissed as a fraudulent election.
Persad-Bissessar, however, has been steadfast in her support of the US campaign, saying she would rather see drug traffickers “blown to pieces” than have them contribute to deaths in her country.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHAT’S APP GROUP
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
I would love to see drug dealers brought to justice and punished severely, but not the way Trump is doing it. His way is downright criminal
@ Born & Bred Antiguan…..The US government or as we refer to it simply as Trump has tried many times to get Maduro to stop the drug traffic and he said f**k U we will not stop…..America warns we will start to blow up ur boats….They said we dont care……So wah mek u feel sorry for people who made up their minds to take the risk???? Bulls**t!!! dem fa get BLOW UP!!!!!
@this world is a messed up place there is the evidence of those claims and proof of the drugs? They branded Maduro as a drug cartel where is the evidence in that? They boats they blowed left behind nothing.
Now logically when most of the drugs comes from Colombia and other nations which uses the Pacific ocean as their main route nearly 90%. If Venezuela even had any drugs it’s would be less than 5% and it’s closer to 1 than it is to 5, wouldn’t that be the main focus? And not Venezuela? Shouldnt the villain be Colombia in this context? It would actually make sense in that context even though what they are doing is absolutely wrong, like isn’t that a basics principle in life that killing people is wrong, plus it’s illegal In International and domestic American law they aren’t even war
@ Young Antiguan Communist….Boss ur head full up of internet videos of BS…Bosss ya know how long America ah watch Maduro??? If u kill smaddy in America them will look up all ur deleted messages how much porn u watch etc…….America been having a problem with these cartels….Venezuelan government ah sponsor the cartels so they get a percentage…..Intel was done young Communist they know what was on those boats……U feel any drugs can survive American hypersonic lazar guided missiles??????GTFOH….BLOW DEM UP CAUSE THEY SAID THEY DONT CARE THEY SENDING THEIR DRUGS…..SO TEK BLOW UP….SIMPLE…..If Obama min do um and he indeed would stop the drug boats with force if he was in office no one would care as much…..When Obama deport no one cares…When Obama deal with the southern Border no one cares…..Hmmmmmmmmm…..
The same USA told us Saddam Husein had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Which after the fact we found out was a big lie. Yet they used that to bomb Iraq and kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. But I guess those human lives are not worth anything. But they can tell you how many American lives were lost. They told us so many bad things about Khaddaffi and saw to it that he also was killed. Libya is up to this day in turmoil. Anyone want to believe what the USA is telling us without providing any evidence is the stupid one. Why would a statesman that has so much oil to sell get into drugs. I will never ever believe the USA propaganda again. Only a fool would be fooled twice and three times.
It is sad that Trinidad and Tobago has taken this stand against the collective CARICOM position. But this shows that CARICOM is not really a UNION. We are all about Self Interest. And the USA knows how to divide and rule us.
@this world is a messed up place, Dawg you didn’t answer the questions to show proof, They know what’s on the boats doesn’t make it right when:
1. you show no evidence.
2. You kill them and when asked why don’t you board them like the law says and people have done before, you rely their “boats are too fast”
3. They even killed 2 Trinidadian fishermen with 0 explanation and families are asking for answers not the mention the Venezuelans as well.
When this first started I said it was for the oil and quoted Trump while he was rallying in 2023
“When I left, Venezuela was about to collapse. We could have had all that oil. We could have had it. It would have been so easy. And now he’s begging Venezuela for oil. He’s begging. It’s a whole different world.
We were energy independent. We were the number one in the world. And now we’re not. And he’s begging Venezuela… and by the way, he made a deal with Venezuela. You know, it’s a very dangerous country, and it’s a very dangerous situation. But he made a deal. He’s getting a little bit of oil, but he’s begging.” – Trump 21/1/2023, rally in Rochester
There is more comments he made about both Venezuela and the region but not only that US has a history of doing so with the war on terror in the middle east where they took control of the oil there as well which Less we forget brought up with Saddam Husein stating that they had weapons of mass destruction. Even in the region when they did so to Grenada when they invaded in the 80s to kill Maurice bishop who they saw as a treat simply because he was a communist english people one too and close to home stating he was a tread because the import they were building were big enough to house soviet military aircrafts.
Now I don’t know why you think I would defend Obama when he did the same things other governments did, he did nothing for the black lives in America, Bomb foreign nations killed Gaddafi of Libya which Less we forget also brought up has not been “liberated” to this day being a nation at civil war and in poverty, when they were openly Pan-Africanist seeking to make an unified Africa with one currency and even founded their datacoms. He’s just as wrong as them only thing difference it was a black face behind the root of suffering. Oppression is still open where the president was black, white or just straight up racist.
Communist Trini fisher men/drugs smugglers knew what they was getting themselves into…Yawns……There is no way to twist and turn this and conspiracy away yall the internet has opened a door of BS…You can believe the hurricane in Jamaica is man made the world is flat LMAO…….The US Navy is not blowing up innocent fishing boats im sorry I know that’s what yall want to believe but those boats contain drugs heading for the USA Trumpland…….BAM BOOM everytime……….Poor innocent mosquitoes just wanna live and spread bacteria dont swat the innocent mosquitoes….The poor drug cartels just wanna live and spread drugs to destroy the lives of many don’t shoot them their innocent for Christ sake have a heart………GTFOH!!!!