RAPHAEL JOHN-LALL

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Venezuela Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez is warn­ing that the Unit­ed States is “de­ceiv­ing” Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar over the new li­cence for ex­plo­ration of the Drag­on gas field.

Speak­ing dur­ing the Venezuela Pro­duc­ti­va 2025 Busi­ness Ex­po fo­rum in Cara­cas on Wednes­day, Ro­driguez made it clear that T&T must pay for Venezuela’s gas.

“The Prime Min­is­ter is head­ing off a cliff by be­liev­ing that (US Sec­re­tary of State) Mar­co Ru­bio can give them Venezue­lan gas. They have to pay for Venezue­lan gas. Any mol­e­cule ex­port­ed has to be paid for; that's in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion, those are nat­ur­al trade re­la­tions," Ro­driguez said.

She stressed that all of Venezuela’s gas must be paid for in ac­cor­dance with in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion and trade agree­ments and sole­ly through Venezuela’s Bo­li­var­i­an gov­ern­ment.

She added, “They (the Amer­i­cans) are de­ceiv­ing them (T&T) and they are go­ing to leave them hang­ing. It is not Mar­co Ru­bio but Venezuela who will give you the gas you need, T&T.”

She al­so in­di­rect­ly threat­ened T&T, cau­tion­ing that this coun­try's econ­o­my will “col­lapse” if Venezuela does not con­clude a deal with Port-of-Spain.

“If Venezuela doesn't ex­port gas to Trinidad, that coun­try's econ­o­my will col­lapse and it will im­pact the Caribbean. Mar­co Ru­bio is sell­ing preg­nant birds to the Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go."

On a trip to the Unit­ed States in ear­ly Oc­to­ber, Per­sad-Bisses­sar met with Ru­bio and was as­sured the US Trea­sury De­part­ment would is­sue a new Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol (OFAC) li­cence to ex­plore the Drag­on gas field on con­di­tion that the Nico­las Maduro regime does not ben­e­fit.

Ru­bio ac­knowl­edged the sig­nif­i­cance of the Drag­on gas plan to T&T’s eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty and re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty, not­ing that US sup­port would in­clude steps to safe­guard the project’s im­ple­men­ta­tion.

Just last week, Ro­driguez crit­i­cised Per­sad-Bisses­sar, say­ing that the death of two T&T fish­er­men dur­ing US airstrikes off Venezuela was a "self-ful­fill­ing prophe­cy," as it is T&T which had cho­sen to al­ly it­self with the Unit­ed States.