Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les will this af­ter­noon pi­lot a mo­tion for de­bate in Par­lia­ment con­demn­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s state­ments on the T&T/Venezuela is­sue and call­ing up­on the Gov­ern­ment to reaf­firm this coun­try’s com­mit­ment to Cari­com and to the up­hold­ing of in­ter­na­tion­al law.

The mo­tion is list­ed on to­day’s Low­er House or­der pa­per. The Op­po­si­tion, as well as Par­lia­ment of­fi­cials, con­firmed it will be de­bat­ed at to­day’s Pri­vate Mem­bers’ Day sit­ting.

The mo­tion has not­ed that the con­duct of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s for­eign re­la­tions is vest­ed in the Ex­ec­u­tive and must be ex­er­cised in ac­cor­dance with the Con­sti­tu­tion, the Unit­ed Na­tions Char­ter, and the prin­ci­ples of peace­ful set­tle­ment of dis­putes, re­spect for sov­er­eign­ty, non-in­ter­ven­tion, and pru­dent diplo­ma­cy.

It al­so states that T&T’s na­tion­al in­ter­ests—in­clud­ing cit­i­zen safe­ty, re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty, trade, avi­a­tion, fish­eries, and en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion —are di­rect­ly af­fect­ed by re­la­tions with the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela.

It fur­ther cites re­cent de­vel­op­ments which have giv­en rise to an im­passe be­tween T&T and Venezuela, risk­ing ad­verse con­se­quences for this coun­try’s econ­o­my, na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, and in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ing.

It con­tin­ues, “And where­as pub­lic state­ments at­trib­uted to the Prime Min­is­ter re­gard­ing these de­vel­op­ments have been viewed as in­flam­ma­to­ry and in­ju­ri­ous to the rep­u­ta­tion and in­ter­ests of Trinidad and To­ba­go, gen­er­at­ing pub­lic con­cern and diplo­mat­ic un­ease.

“And where­as Cari­com has long ad­vanced a col­lec­tive ap­proach to ex­ter­nal re­la­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly se­cu­ri­ty chal­lenges, to en­sure the re­gion re­mains a zone of peace, which may be in­ter­pret­ed to be at vari­ance with the Prime Min­is­ter’s state­ments; and where­as Trinidad and To­ba­go’s for­eign pol­i­cy must be co­her­ent, mea­sured, and aligned with the long-stand­ing tra­di­tions of Caribbean diplo­ma­cy and in­ter­na­tion­al law.”

The mo­tion comes amid sim­mer­ing US/Venezuela ten­sions, T&T’s sup­port of the US mis­sion in the re­gion against drug car­tels, which Venezuela has viewed as cov­er for a US move for regime change there. At a re­cent Cari­com meet­ing, re­gion­al lead­ers—save for T&T—deemed the Caribbean a zone of peace and called for di­a­logue rather than dis­putes and war.

The mo­tion comes af­ter the USS Grave­ly docked in Port-of-Spain in Oc­to­ber, a train­ing ex­er­cise with US Marines and the De­fence Force, Tues­day’s vis­it by the Chair­man of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen­er­al Dan Caine, and Wednes­day’s land­ing in To­ba­go of two US mil­i­tary air­craft.

The Op­po­si­tion had un­suc­cess­ful­ly sought to get in­for­ma­tion on the pres­ence of US mil­i­tary troops in this coun­try from De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge in Par­lia­ment.