Maybe only the top officials at the White House and Pentagon know the exact plans for possible military action against Venezuela, but Washington appears to be soliciting the help of several reluctant Caribbean Community (Caricom) nations in its ambitions against the South American nation.
In the past week, the Trump administration formally asked the Eastern Caribbean nation of Grenada to allow the U.S. to establish a military radar base at Grenada’s main international airport, presumably to monitor activities in Venezuela, just 100 miles to the south of the island.
Grenada’s Dickon Mitchell administration had been given less than a week to make up its mind on the issue, even as local opposition to the idea simmered and the U.S. upped the pressure on authorities by sending Southern Commander Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey to Grenada and Antigua for urgent talks with top officials on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
From all appearances, the admiral’s visit is timed to coincide with the request for Grenada, which, ironically, the U.S. invaded back in 1983, to allow the military radar at the airport — the same facility that the Reagan administration had tried to shut down because the then-leftist government was building it to allegedly accommodate Russian fighter jets. The airport is a civilian facility.
Speaking at the weekend as the admiral also heads to Antigua, Prime Minister Gaston Browne was adamant that his federative state with Barbuda does not want to become embroiled in the Venezuela issue with the U.S. and has no interest in hosting military assets from any foreign nation.
“This is really a sovereign issue involving the government of Grenada. If they decide to accommodate the U.S., there is nothing we can do,” he told the AmNews. “We would have to respect the decision. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and Caricom will have locus to speak and to state their opposition if they (Grenada) are being pressured. Antigua and Barbuda has no interest in hosting any military assets of any country. We are friends of all and enemies of none. We are quite happy we don’t have any military bases or assets of any foreign power.”
It is unclear whether Mitchell, Browne’s colleague in Grenada, will be back in time to meet with Holsey — he was on an official visit to Ghana and was due back this weekend. However, as the request remains on the table, a leading labor leader and former Senate president said he is prepared to lead peaceful opposition protests against the U.S. to ensure Grenada is not used by the U.S. in its war plans for Venezuela.
Chester Humphrey said the U.S. is using narcotics interdiction as a pretext to invade Venezuela, as it had done in the lead-up to other wars, Iraq included. The U.S. embarks on a sustained propaganda campaign, as is the case now, he says.
“Let us be clear that the U.S. — that the American military build-up in the Southern Caribbean just off the Venezuelan coast — has absolutely nothing to do with the interdicting of drugs,” the clearly combative veteran labor leader told local television anchor Calistra Farrier. “The Americans have had a history of lying in respect of its intentions before it goes to war. Of recent vintage, it lied in respect of its invasion of Iraq, so America has a long history of lying. It lied when it invaded Grenada, but this one has taken all of the prizes.”
The local foreign minister had stated that Grenada “is carefully reviewing the request,” noting that “we wish to assure our citizens that any decision taken will be guided by Grenada’s sovereignty, public safety, and national interest.”
“Venezuela has not done us anything. Venezuela has helped us. On a state-to-state basis, Venezuela has probably provided more than the U.S. in recent years. Why must we join in somebody else’s war? It will be a grave [stain] on history against the memory of our forefathers for us to join a war against a state that has done us nothing, a state that has helped us tremendously. They have murdered Venezuelan citizens,” Humphrey said.
He argued that the U.S. had been quietly targeting Venezuela in recent months, canceling visas of cabinet officials associated with the Cuban medical brigade program and banning fish exports from the island from next year. All this was done for a particular purpose, said Humphrey.
“All this was softening up the ground for what has come now. The threat of banning our fish from going to the U.S. was all part of softening the ground. The worst you can do for yourself is to run from a bully. You will never stop running,” he said, urging authorities to reject Washington’s request outright. “The excuse is so flimsy — that you are sending a massive flotilla into the southern Caribbean to interdict drugs. You don’t send a nuclear-armed submarine with missiles, several destroyers, an entire fleet of F-16 aircraft with advanced Tomahawks, to interdict fishing boats. The Trump administration has broken all international laws by murdering persons on the high seas without giving them an opportunity to be heard by a court. If you are indeed interdicting drugs, then your Coast Guard is quite adequate to do that.”
Grenada needs to say “No”. Period.
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