Freelance Correspondent
Venezuela’s security apparatus has increased its presence in areas in the eastern end of the country that face Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean nations, according to media reports there.
The development comes as Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yván Gil, expressed the South American country’s concerns regarding the US military presence in the region during a meeting with officials from the United Nations.
On Thursday, Gil held a meeting with Gianluca Rampolla, the United Nations’ resident coordinator in the country.
“We stress the urgency for the United Nations system to adopt a firm stance in defence of our Latin American region as a Zone of Peace, and for all states to respect the Charter of the United Nations,” he emphasised in a statement on his Instagram page.
The meeting, he added, aimed to strengthen “our cooperation, based on respect for sovereignty and the leadership of the organised Venezuelan people.”
This comes as there could be a new phase in the US war on drugs.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump suggested that the United States is preparing to take new action against alleged drug trafficking networks in Venezuela, telling service members during a Thanksgiving call that efforts for strikes on land will be starting “very soon.”
Given President Trump’s latest pronouncements and the heightened activity of the US military in T&T, Venezuela’s security apparatus has set up an increased presence in eastern Venezuela, which faces T&T and the Caribbean, according to reports coming out of the country.
Following the bombings carried out by the United States against alleged drug-laden vessels near its coasts, the Venezuelan state of Sucre has experienced weeks of tension and intensified surveillance.
Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional quoted from a Reuters report yesterday, which noted that the Venezuelan town of Güiria’s local economy, which, beyond alleged drug trafficking, is also partly sustained by informal trade in food and other goods with T&T, is showing signs of stagnation.
“No boats of any kind are leaving for Trinidad and Tobago anymore — not migrants, not people buying goods there to sell here, and certainly not those taking Venezuelan products to sell there, which was another way to make money. Everything is practically dead,” an unnamed resident said.
The heightened patrols, which locals said increased after the announcement of joint military exercises between the United States and T&T in late October, have led to arrests, said two of the residents.
El Nacional’s report also said that in many cases, Venezuelan military and intelligence officials drive unmarked sedans and SUVs, which residents describe as creating an atmosphere of constant surveillance.
In others, uniformed officers conduct nighttime patrols alongside civilian motorcycle groups linked to the ruling Socialist Party.
