Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Venezuela’s vice president said Monday that an energy deal with Trinidad and Tobago should be canceled, which she described as a “hostile” action by the island nation.
Trinidad is now host to one of the US warships involved in a controversial campaign to destroy speedboats allegedly carrying drugs to Venezuela. United States of America,
On Sunday, the USS Graveley, a destroyer armed with guided missiles, arrived in Trinidad to conduct joint exercises with the Trinidadian Navy.
Venezuelan officials have described Trinidad’s decision to host the ship as a provocation, while the Trinidadian government has said that joint exercises with the United States occur regularly.
“The Prime Minister of Trinidad has decided to join the warmongering agenda of the United States,” Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said on national television on Monday.
Rodriguez, who is also Venezuela’s hydrocarbons minister, said she would ask the president Nicolas Maduro Withdrawal from a 2015 agreement that enables the neighboring countries to conduct joint natural gas exploration projects in waters between the two countries. Trinidad and Venezuela are separated by a small gulf that is only 7 miles (11 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point.
unlike other leaders Latin America and this Caribbean Trinidad’s Prime Minister Kamala Persad-Bissessar, who has compared the attacks on alleged drug vessels to extrajudicial killings, has supported the campaign.
The Prime Minister has said that she would rather see drug traffickers “cut to pieces” than kill her country’s citizens.
Trinidad, which has a population of about 1.4 million people, is sometimes used by smugglers to store and sort drugs before shipping them to Europe and North America.
Venezuela’s government has described the US military buildup in the Caribbean as a threat, with government officials there claiming the deployment of US warships to the region is part of an effort to oust Maduro, who is widely accused of stealing last year’s election.
Tensions between Venezuela and the United States escalated last week as the Trump administration announced it would deploy its largest-ever aircraft carrier to the southern Caribbean, complementing a flotilla that already includes eight warships, a submarine, drones and fighter jets.
The Trump administration has launched 10 strikes against alleged drug-carrying ships since September, when it first deployed ships to the southern Caribbean. At least 43 people have been killed in the controversial attacks.