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Thursday, July 24, 2025

Grenada minister on Venezuela crisis:

We hope heads can resolve issue

by

Anna-Lisa Paul
2356 days ago
20190209
Grenada’s Minister for Youth Development, Sports, Culture and the Arts Senator Norland Cox speaks during the Caribbean Prestige Foundation media conference at the Normandie Hotel, St Ann’s, yesterday.

Grenada’s Minister for Youth Development, Sports, Culture and the Arts Senator Norland Cox speaks during the Caribbean Prestige Foundation media conference at the Normandie Hotel, St Ann’s, yesterday.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

Even as Cari­com na­tions con­tin­ue to lob­by for con­sen­sus on the sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela, in­di­vid­ual coun­tries are pray­ing that a res­o­lu­tion may soon be found as they ex­press an out­pour­ing of love and hope for the strick­en south-Amer­i­can na­tion.

One such ap­peal came from Grena­da’s Min­is­ter for Youth De­vel­op­ment, Sports, Cul­ture and the Arts Nor­land Cox yes­ter­day.

“The world is a very small place and we are all very sad­dened by what is hap­pen­ing there (Venezuela). The whole re­gion, of course, wants the sit­u­a­tion to be re­solved as quick­ly as pos­si­ble,” Cox told the me­dia dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at The Nor­mandie Ho­tel, St Ann’s.

“If some­thing is go­ing wrong in your back­yard it can af­fect you sig­nif­i­cant­ly and so we are just hop­ing for some con­sen­sus for heads to come to­geth­er and re­solve this.”

Point­ing out that Venezuela was a sov­er­eign na­tion, Cox added, “There is on­ly so much you can do as oth­er is­lands and we are work­ing on the diplo­mat­ic end to en­sure that they can come to­geth­er and re­solve this.

“It is very painful. Venezuela has been a re­gion­al friend to Grena­da and we have worked to­geth­er for a num­ber of years so we are hop­ing for the best. If you don’t put a han­dle on these things it can al­ways get away from you and there will be col­lat­er­al dam­age. It is right in our back­yard.”

Re­fer­ring to the pres­ence of some of the world’s su­per-pow­ers in lo­cal wa­ters as the sit­u­a­tion rages on in Venezuela, Cox said, “They are right in our neigh­bour­hood and we are very con­cerned but very hope­ful that some re­solve can come to this mat­ter very quick­ly.

“We know all who are on both sides do love Venezuela in their own way and I think that is the start­ing point in terms of re­solv­ing this mat­ter. Once you fo­cus on Venezuela and the pas­sion and love they have for the coun­try, I be­lieve they can come to a con­sen­sus and re­solve this mat­ter once and for all.”

Asked if Grena­da had be­gun to re­ceive Venezue­lans flee­ing the cri­sis in that coun­try, Cox said they had not wit­nessed any in­flux of na­tion­als from that coun­try, as has been the case in T&T.

In De­cem­ber 2018, the Unit­ed Na­tions said the deep eco­nom­ic cri­sis af­flict­ing Venezuela had prompt­ed 3.6 mil­lion Venezue­lans to flee - most since 2015. This fig­ure, they claimed, rep­re­sent­ed rough­ly ten per cent of that coun­try’s pop­u­la­tion.

Cox is in T&T at the in­vi­ta­tion of Caribbean Pres­tige Foun­da­tion (CPF) and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) to of­fer sup­port to the five Grena­di­an artistes who will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in to­day’s So­ca Monarch and Groovy So­ca Monarch se­mi-fi­nals at the Ari­ma Velo­drome.

Com­pet­ing tonight from Grena­da will be Hol­lice “Mr Kil­la” Map, Din­gaan “Lil Nat­ty” Hen­ry, Nyelon “Thun­da” Williams, Hec­tor “Mr Legz” Thomas and Je­vaughn “V’ghn” John. Thir­ty-five peo­ple were se­lect­ed for the se­mi-fi­nals tonight fol­low­ing which on­ly 15 will be se­lect­ed for the fi­nals on March 1.

“I am here to give them our full sup­port and I want to wish them all the best. It means a lot and we are pret­ty ex­cit­ed that is hap­pen­ing. We are pleased to share that with T&T as the two have a long-stand­ing his­to­ry of suc­cess­ful part­ner­ships…T&T is like fam­i­ly to us,” Cox said.

Ex­tend­ing an in­vi­ta­tion to Trinida­di­ans want­i­ng to get away dur­ing the two days of Grena­da rev­el­ry sched­uled for March 4 and 5, Cox said per­sons could go to Grena­da and ex­pe­ri­ence a “scaled down” ver­sion of T&T’s car­ni­val on the is­land of Car­ri­a­cou which will high­light the Jab-Jab Mas they are unique­ly known for. Grena­da’s of­fi­cial car­ni­val will take place in Au­gust.


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