RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Dr Garvin Heer­ah has called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to im­me­di­ate­ly ad­dress the na­tion fol­low­ing the ar­rival of the USS Grave­ly, a US Navy de­stroy­er, in Trinidad and To­ba­go amid ris­ing re­gion­al ten­sions be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Dr Heer­ah said the ar­rival of the war­ship has gen­er­at­ed un­cer­tain­ty among cit­i­zens, many of whom are ques­tion­ing whether the vis­it is lim­it­ed to joint train­ing ex­er­cis­es as stat­ed by the Gov­ern­ment.

“The im­mi­nent ar­rival of the USS Grave­ly has sparked wide­spread dis­cus­sion and un­ease among our cit­i­zens,” Heer­ah said. “Many are ques­tion­ing the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the ex­pla­na­tion that the vis­it is sole­ly for joint train­ing ex­er­cis­es. These con­cerns are not mis­placed, giv­en the cur­rent geopo­lit­i­cal and mil­i­tary ten­sion be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela, which now un­folds alarm­ing­ly close to our bor­ders.”

He said the lack of di­rect com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the Gov­ern­ment risks fu­elling spec­u­la­tion and mis­trust.

“In the ab­sence of clear lead­er­ship com­mu­ni­ca­tion, fear and spec­u­la­tion can quick­ly fill the void,” he said. “Al­ready, we are see­ing pan­ic and un­cer­tain­ty emerg­ing, with cit­i­zens in­ter­pret­ing these de­vel­op­ments through the lens of broad­er re­gion­al hos­til­i­ties.”

Dr Heer­ah urged the Prime Min­is­ter to make a na­tion­al ad­dress ac­com­pa­nied by the Min­is­ters of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and For­eign Af­fairs and the heads of the De­fence Force and in­tel­li­gence units.

“The mes­sage should be fac­tu­al, firm, and trans­par­ent, clar­i­fy­ing the in­tent, scope, and im­pli­ca­tions of the USS Grave­ly’s pres­ence and reaf­firm­ing our na­tion’s sov­er­eign­ty and neu­tral­i­ty amid grow­ing re­gion­al ten­sions,” he said.

He al­so rec­om­mend­ed the for­ma­tion of a Na­tion­al Co­or­di­na­tion Task Force (NCTF) to pro­vide reg­u­lar up­dates to the pub­lic.

“The NCTF should in­clude rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, For­eign Af­fairs, the De­fence Force, and the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter,” Heer­ah said. “This mech­a­nism will main­tain trans­paren­cy, co­or­di­nate ac­cu­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and en­sure na­tion­al co­he­sion through con­sis­tent up­dates.”

Heer­ah em­pha­sised that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ge­o­graph­ic po­si­tion places it with­in a com­plex strate­gic en­vi­ron­ment that re­quires bal­ance and care­ful diplo­ma­cy.

“While we re­spect our in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships, our pri­ma­ry al­le­giance must al­ways re­main with the sov­er­eign­ty and sta­bil­i­ty of our Re­pub­lic,” he said.

He con­clud­ed by ap­peal­ing for calm and steady lead­er­ship.

“This is not the time for pan­ic, but for mea­sured lead­er­ship and col­lec­tive calm,” he said. “The peo­ple of this na­tion must see and hear from their lead­ers. On­ly through clar­i­ty, trans­paren­cy, and strate­gic diplo­ma­cy can we dis­pel the cloud of un­cer­tain­ty and safe­guard the peace we all cher­ish.”

Ica­cos on edge amid drone sight­ings

His com­ments came as Ica­cos res­i­dents claimed drones flew over their homes over the week­end, knock­ing out con­nec­tiv­i­ty briefly.

At Fullar­ton Beach, fish­er­men docked their ves­sels, say­ing they were still cau­tious about go­ing back to sea af­ter four boats were chased by Venezuela’s Guardia Na­cional.

Res­i­dent Shirley Ed­wards, who lives on the Ica­cos beach, said over the past few weeks, they have been see­ing mul­ti­ple drones and a white air­craft fly­ing close to the bor­ders. There have al­so been un­con­firmed ru­mours about sol­diers near the Colum­bus Bay re­gion.

But Coun­cil­lor for Ce­dros Shankar Teelucks­ingh said he had no such in­for­ma­tion. To avoid pan­ic and hys­te­ria, Teelucks­ingh said he had al­ready ad­vised res­i­dents to get in­for­ma­tion from trust­ed, cred­i­ble sources. He said the Coast Guard sends out a bul­letin every morn­ing for ma­rine in­ter­ests.”

The USS Grave­ly (DDG-107) will ar­rive in Port-of-Spain to­day for a five-day vis­it as part of joint ex­er­cis­es with the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force. The Gov­ern­ment has said the vis­it is part of on­go­ing se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion be­tween T&T and the Unit­ed States.