Venezuela Denounces US-Backed Military Drills by Trinidad and Tobago as Hostile Provocation

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuela denounced Sunday the dangerous military exercises carried out by Trinidad and Tobago, which began Sunday, October 26, and end October 30, under the coordination, financing and control of the United States Southern Command. The government called the action a hostile provocation and a serious threat to the peace of Latin America and the Caribbean amid recent unprecedented US military actions.

The information was released in a statement by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. In the statement, Venezuela reported it captured a mercenary group with direct information from the US intelligence agency, the CIA, and has determined that a false flag attack is being prepared from waters bordering Trinidad and Tobago or from Trinidadian or Venezuelan territory itself. It warned this could lead to a full-blown military confrontation against Venezuela.

The document stated emphatically that Venezuela does not accept threats from any US vassal government.

“We are not intimidated by military exercises or war cries. The Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) will remain alert and mobilized in perfect Popular-Military-Police unity in the face of this extremely serious provocation. Our Republic, heir to Bolívar and Chávez, will always defend its sovereignty, its territorial integrity, and its right to live in peace against foreign enemies and their vassals,” the statement read.

USS Gravely arrives in Trinidad
Mainstream media reported Sunday on the arrival of the US Navy destroyer USS Gravely in Trinidad to participate in the military drills.

The ship anchored at a dock in Port of Spain around 9 a.m. local time under tight security measures. In addition to the destroyer, the arrival of the US Marine Corps’ 22nd Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is expected.

This elite unit specializes in rapid response operations. It projects power from amphibious ships to conduct a variety of missions, including combat operations, and is prepared to execute missions like seizing airfields or ports. The MEU is structured for strategic speed and agility, ensuring Marines are forward-deployed and ready to respond to US imperial interests.

Trinidad and Tobago is a small Caribbean country located very close to Venezuela: the island of Trinidad is just 11 kilometers from the Venezuelan coast at its closest point. Its citizens have also been subjected to the US extrajudicial assassination campaign in the Caribbean, the statement alleged, without its prime minister or authorities publicly questioning the illegal US actions.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar expressed her support on Saturday for the deployment of military troops to her waters in an attempt to remove Maduro, CNN reported. She has made unprecedented threats to Venezuela in recent months and has shown a submissive role amid the controversial US operation in the region, the Venezuelan government said.

On October 18 the leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) expressed concern about the increase in US military troops, nuclear ships and aircraft in the region, which poses a threat to the security and well-being of its inhabitants and contravenes the CELAC-declared Zone of Peace. Trinidad and Tobago abstained from signing the statement.

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Below is the full unofficial translation of the Venezuelan statement:

Venezuela denounces military provocation by Trinidad and Tobago in coordination with the CIA to provoke a war in the Caribbean.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces before the international community the dangerous military exercises carried out by the government of Trinidad and Tobago between the 26th and 30th of this month, under the coordination, financing and control of the United States Southern Command. This action constitutes a hostile provocation against Venezuela and a serious threat to the peace of the Caribbean.

Venezuela reports that it has captured a mercenary group with direct information from the US intelligence agency, the CIA, and has been able to determine that a false flag attack is underway from waters bordering Trinidad and Tobago or from Trinidadian or Venezuelan territory itself, which could lead to a full-blown military confrontation against our country.

This planned action perfectly evokes the provocations of the Battleship Maine and the Gulf of Tonkin, which gave rise to the war against Spain to seize Cuba in 1898, and which allowed the US Congress to authorize involvement in an eternal war against Vietnam in 1964, respectively, from which they emerged defeated by the Vietnamese people after facing incalculable destruction and lamentable human losses.

The government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has relinquished the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago to act as a military colony subordinate to US hegemonic interests, turning its territory into a US aircraft carrier for the war across the Caribbean against Venezuela, Colombia and all of South America.

By complying with Washington’s militaristic agenda, Persad-Bissessar not only intends to attack Venezuela—a country that has always maintained a policy of energy cooperation, mutual respect and Caribbean integration—and break our historic bonds of brotherhood, but also violates the United Nations Charter, the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace approved by CELAC, and the principles of CARICOM, which protect all the peoples of the Caribbean. These are not defensive exercises: this is a colonial operation of military aggression that seeks to transform the Caribbean into a space for lethal violence and US imperial domination.

This policy of sellout and betrayal of the constitutional principles of Trinidad and Tobago has ended up hitting the people themselves. Innocent fishermen have been victims of extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean Sea, revealing the repressive and criminal nature of the current government, which fires on its own people under the slogan “kill them all,” and celebrates the summarily executed Trinidadians while opening the doors to murderous foreign troops.

Venezuela does not accept threats from any US vassal government. We are not intimidated by military exercises or war cries. The Bolivarian National Armed Force will remain alert and mobilized in perfect Popular-Military-Police unity in the face of this extremely serious provocation. Our Republic, heir to Bolívar and Chávez, will always defend its sovereignty, its territorial integrity, and its right to live in peace against foreign enemies and their vassals.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

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