RAPHAEL JOHN-LALL

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

Venezue­lan Jus­tice Min­is­ter Dios­da­do Ca­bel­lo is ac­cus­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of be­ing in a “drunk stu­por” and is promis­ing a “force­ful re­sponse” if Trinidad and To­ba­go al­lows the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary to use its ter­ri­to­ry as a base to at­tack Venezuela.

This marks the first re­ac­tion from a se­nior Venezue­lan Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial since Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar crit­i­cised CARI­COM for align­ing it­self with Venezuela, which she de­scribed as a “dic­ta­tor­ship” in a state­ment on her X ac­count on Sun­day night.

Al­though she did not pro­vide ev­i­dence, the Prime Min­is­ter al­so ac­cused the Venezue­lan Gov­ern­ment of im­pris­on­ing and killing “thou­sands of Venezue­lans”.

Ca­bel­lo, Venezuela’s sec­ond most pow­er­ful of­fi­cial af­ter Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro, who con­trols the mil­i­tary and state se­cu­ri­ty, warned of a re­sponse in the event of an “at­tack”.

“Venezuela is not fight­ing with any­one, but they leave us no al­ter­na­tive. If Trinidad lends its ter­ri­to­ry to at­tack Venezuela, we have to re­spond, and we have no oth­er choice to pre­vent them from at­tack­ing us,” Ca­bel­lo said.

On Mon­day night, dur­ing an event broad­cast on the state chan­nel Vene­zolana de Tele­visión (VTV), Ca­bel­lo al­leged that the US mil­i­tary is al­ready “us­ing Trinida­di­an ter­ri­to­ry” against Venezuela, some­thing he in­sist­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go cit­i­zens “do not agree” with.

He added that both na­tions have “al­ways lived in peace”.

“We hear this la­dy from Trinidad, who is still in a ‘drunk­en stu­por’, al­low­ing the ter­ri­to­ry of Trinidad to be used against Venezuela. We have al­ways lived in peace,” he as­sert­ed.

He warned: “But if Trinidad lends its ter­ri­to­ry to at­tack Venezuela, we must re­spond with max­i­mum, pop­u­lar mil­i­tary-po­lice fu­sion.”