Giving clear indications that they think war between the U.S. and Venezuela is imminent, Caribbean leaders offered themselves as 11th hour mediators at the weekend, saying military conflict will seriously affect the region.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, head of government in Dominica since 2004, led the offer to be interlocutors between Washington and Caracas even as the heavily armed guided missile destroyer, the USS Gravely, docked in Trinidad on Sunday, sparking fears that the Caribbean Community (Caricom) nation has senselessly lined up behind the U.S. in a war that does not directly concern it.
The vessel, with more than 300 sailors, docked in Port of Spain, presumably for joint security exercises with the local military, but it also means that this is the closest known position of the U.S. warship to Venezuela since the threat of war and regime change broke out in recent weeks. The two nations are separated by the Gulf of Paria, a 7-mile stretch of water used by the merchant marine, local fishermen, economic migrants heading for a new life in Trinidad, and those involved in illegal business among others.
Sharing a governing party platform with a visiting PM Skerrit, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley argued that war and military overreach are not the answer, but peaceful resolution to conflicts should be the route to take.
“We have to speak up. I believe that the time has come for us, therefore, to be able to ensure that we do not accept that any entity has the right to engage in extra-judicial killings of persons that they suspect of being involved in criminal activities. If there are conflicts and disputes that are in need of resolution, then the place that needs to be taken for such resolution is the UN and the methodology that must be deployed for the resolution is one of negotiation and peaceful actions taken in order to ensure that we can settle disputes,” she said.
Their remarks follow a plea by nearly a dozen former heads of government, asking the US to pull back from military action in an area that has long paraded itself as a zone of peace.
“We are impelled to urge a pull back from military build up to avoid any diminution of peace, stability and development within our regional space that has the potential to pull the region into conflicts which are not of our making,” the leaders stated.
Contending that they are serious about mediating, Skerrit stated that “of course, we in Barbados and Dominica, and indeed the wider Caribbean, offer ourselves as intermediaries so that we can bring the two forces together and let us understand that there can be common sense and agreement, and disagreement — but we have to ensure that we do not have a situation of our region descending into turmoil.”
As hundreds of curious onlookers flocked to the port and discussed the implications of the warship in local waters, Venezuelan officials, including Vice President Delcy Rordriguez, hurled criticism against the administration of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar for becoming an alleged puppet of the USA. Skerrit has openly welcomed the U.S. attacks on alleged drug-fetching vessels several times, saying that runway violent crime at home had quite a lot to do with the narco, weapons, and human trafficking trade. “Kill them all violently,” she said recently, irking regional colleague nations and Venezuelan authorities.
“The government has renounced the sovereignty of TT to act as a military colony subordinate to US hegemonic interests, turning its territory into a US aircraft carrier for the war throughout the Caribbean against Venezuela, Colombia, and all of South America,” a government statement noted. “By folding to Washington’s militaristic agenda, Persad-Bissessar not only intends to attack Venezuela — a country that has always maintained a policy of energy co-operation, mutual respect, and Caribbean integration — and break our historic bonds of brotherhood.”
As the region monitors developments, including the deployment of the largest and most powerful U.S. warship, attention is also being paid to neighboring Grenada. The U.S. has asked Grenada to allow it to set up a military radar station at the main airport, just about 100 miles from the Venezuelan mainland. PM Dickon Mitchell has promised an update to his nation, which the U.S. invaded back in 1983 this week. Nearby Antigua has said it would not allow any foreign military assets on the island.