A for­mer Trinidad and To­ba­go diplo­mat be­lieves this coun­try was “diplo­mat­i­cal­ly in­sult­ed” dur­ing For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers’ vis­it to Cara­cas, ar­gu­ing that Venezuela’s ac­tions, rather than the cor­dial lan­guage con­tained in a joint state­ment, show re­la­tions re­main far from re­paired.

One year af­ter Caribbean Air­lines (CAL) tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend­ed flights be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela, the air­line is prepar­ing to re­sume ser­vice to the South Amer­i­can na­tion.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce has wel­comed the re­open­ing of di­rect di­a­logue be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela, par­tic­u­lar­ly re­newed dis­cus­sions on en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion, but says the fo­cus must now shift from diplo­ma­cy to im­ple­men­ta­tion.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is ques­tion­ing what Trinidad and To­ba­go ac­tu­al­ly achieved from For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers’ trip to Venezuela and why Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has still not met di­rect­ly with Act­ing Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez.