How did we get here? How did we end up with a Prime Min­is­ter who is pre­pared to put the coun­try at risk of be­ing sub­ject to US sanc­tions?

What we know as fact is that Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley wel­comed Venezuela Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez and a del­e­ga­tion that in­clud­ed at least one of­fi­cial, who, like Ro­driguez, is sanc­tioned by the Unit­ed States.

We al­so know they came to T&T on a plane be­long­ing to Venezuela's state oil com­pa­ny Petroles De Venezuela Sud Amer­i­ca (PDVSA) that is al­so sub­ject to US sanc­tions.

The Op­po­si­tion has tried to link the del­e­ga­tion’s vis­it and the re­port­ed ship­ment of gaso­line to the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic, which, it is al­leged, came from T&T via Aru­ba. This is still sub­ject to in­ves­ti­ga­tion and for now, no con­clu­sion can be made.

The Prime Min­is­ter has tried to de­fend what hap­pened by deny­ing he knew all the mem­bers of the Venezue­lan del­e­ga­tion save the Vice Pres­i­dent. If this is true, then why are For­eign Min­is­ter Den­nis Moses and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young still in the Cab­i­net, hav­ing put the Prime Min­is­ter in a po­si­tion where our Head of Gov­ern­ment met in­di­vid­u­als with­out hav­ing a clue as to who they all were? Sure­ly, this can­not be plau­si­ble and if so is very dis­turb­ing.

Sec­ond­ly, Dr Row­ley has tried to play down the se­ri­ous­ness of the US sanc­tion against Venezuela, say­ing it is a US pres­i­den­tial or­der and not a UN sanc­tion and there­fore not sub­ject to T&T's laws. This may be so, but the US has nev­er sug­gest­ed it is in­ter­na­tion­al law. Rather, the US, which is our sec­ond-largest trad­ing part­ner and the most in­flu­en­tial glob­al pow­er, has sim­ply said if a coun­try breach­es that or­der it will im­pose sim­i­lar lim­i­ta­tions on that coun­try.

We on­ly have to look at the col­lapse of Venezuela to see the po­ten­tial im­pact and risk run­ning afoul of the sanc­tions can do to re­alise the dan­ger the PM has placed the coun­try in.

If Dr Row­ley re­al­ly be­lieved this, why did he pull out of the Drag­on Deal blam­ing it on sanc­tions? Prime Min­is­ter, no amount of un­seem­ly at­tack and go­ing be­low the dig­ni­ty of the of­fice to call Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar a trai­tor will change the risk you have put the coun­try at.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the at­tempt by the UNC and its po­lit­i­cal leader to con­stant­ly raise a nar­ra­tive to get sanc­tions placed on this coun­try reeks of des­per­a­tion, in which it mat­ters not what hap­pens to T&T as long as it helps the par­ty's elec­tion cause.

One must not for­get that as prime min­is­ter, Per­sad-Bisses­sar sup­port­ed Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro and her about-face seems noth­ing but po­lit­i­cal ex­pe­di­en­cy.

This is a mat­ter which re­quires diplo­ma­cy and lead­er­ship in the in­ter­est of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, we are not get­ting it from ei­ther on this mat­ter.