Trinidad and Tobago: YES TO NON-INTERFERENCE; NO TO THE INVASION OF VENEZUELA!

A statement issued by the National Workers Union
January 25, 2019

The National Workers Union (NWU) calls on the people of Trinidad and Tobago to pay serious attention to the ongoing fast climaxing creeping coup that has been taking place in Venezuela orchestrated and financed by the government of the United States.

It has already had a serious impact on Trinidad and Tobago and which, if it continues, as all indications suggest it will, promises to be a game changer in Latin America and the Caribbean and for Trinidad and Tobago in particular.

Our country has always adopted in times like these a stance of non-intervention in the political affairs of sovereign countries, just as we would desire other countries, whether great powers or not, to refrain from interfering in our political affairs.

The NWU urges the Rowley administration to hold fast to that principle, which we applied to our relationship with Cuba, in the face of opprobrium from the United States in the 1970s. We urge the Rowley administration to recall that the government of Trinidad and Tobago resisted the pressure from the Reagan administration and many Caricom heads of government and did not participate in the shameful assault on Grenada in 1983.

The danger of war is looming large in the Caribbean. This possibility becomes a frightening probability if the masses and the military in Venezuela do not follow the script penned by the USA.

We must remember as David Rudder said that we are in the Orinoco mouth and any military assault on Venezuela will affect us in that the USA will have no qualms about violating our sovereignty in order to carry out its assault on Venezuela. T&T is the ideal staging post for sabotage, surveillance and even the massing of troops and material in case of war.

We must remember that T&T had the biggest American base in the Western Hemisphere during the Second World War and that the treaty giving the USA the right to operationalise that base is still in force and only lapses in the late 2030s. So any invasion of Venezuela may also result in an occupation of T&T.

If as some people believe that our analysis is alarmist, just remember that the USA has been engaged in never-ending wars since the end of World War II. Over the last few years the USA has implemented military action in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya where they murdered Gaddafi, turned Libya into a number of warring factions which resulted in a massive refugee crisis form which Europe is reeling and revived a human trafficking trade that is no different to slavery.

The Russian government has already warned the United States not to intervene militarily and this raises the possibility of the Venezuelan situation morphing into a wider war as hyper-military powers square off or it may have the effect of making the US think twice.

The people of T&T must not allow the government to succumb to the, admittedly, overwhelming pressure that may be applied by the declining superpower to support their position. We must insist that the government hold fast to the position that they have publicly expressed and act in the best interests of Trinidad and Tobago and not act as pawns in the effort of a declining, but militarily dangerous superpower, to maintain its dominance in the face of challenges from fast-rising militarily powerful adversaries.

Further massive continued destabilisation of Venezuela which already impacts Trinbago and foreign military intervention will create chaos and economic, military and social problems never before experienced in our country.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:


Gerry Kangalee (National Education and Research Officer – Cell: 785-7637)