Caracas considers US military drills in Trinidad and Tobago a provocation to start a war
Venezuela on Sunday described the arrival of the US warship USS Gravely in Trinidad and Tobago and planned military drills in the Caribbean archipelago as a provocation, and announced the arrest of mercenaries it says are linked to the CIA.
The government issued a statement saying, “Venezuela condemns the military provocation carried out by Trinidad and Tobago, in coordination with the CIA, to incite war in the Caribbean,” noting that it had “captured a group of mercenaries working for the CIA”.
The statement pointed out that these planned actions are a direct reminiscent of the devastating provocations of the Maine and the Gulf of Tonkin, which led to the war against Spain to seize Cuba in 1898 and enabled the US Congress to authorize the engagement in a perpetual war against Vietnam in 1964.
Venezuela accused Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s government of abandoning Trinidad and Tobago’s sovereignty to serve as a military colony of US hegemonic interests, turning its territory into an aircraft carrier for the United States to wage war throughout the Caribbean against Venezuela, Colombia, and all of South America.
The statement added, “This policy of surrender and betrayal of Trinidad and Tobago’s constitutional principles has ended up hurting the people of Trinidad and Tobago themselves: innocent fishermen have been victims of extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, exposing the repressive and criminal nature of the current government.
The statement concluded by emphasizing that Venezuela doesn’t accept threats from any government subordinate to the United States, noting that “the Bolivarian National Armed Forces will remain on alert and mobilized in full people-army-police unity in the face of this extremely serious provocation”.
The arrival of the USS Gravely, along with a Marine unit, was announced Thursday for training with the Trinidad and Tobago military, as US President Donald Trump increases pressure on his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro.
