Editorial | Kamla should cool the rhetoric

The United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago may be rusty at the intricacies of statecraft and international diplomacy. They were out of office for a decade.

However, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who previously served in administration, including a full term as head of government, ought to be sufficiently experienced to avoid the kind of bellicose stand-off she invited with neighbouring Venezuela last week.

In fact, Ms Persad-Bissessar’s challenge, or warning to Caracas of what would happen if there was an incursion of Venezuela’s military in Trinidadian waters, was the kind of rhetoric we have associated with Venezuela in its claim of two-thirds of Guyana, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member with which it shares a border on the South American mainland.

This newspaper suggests to the Trinidad and Tobago leader that she throttles back the rhetoric and engages Venezuela diplomatically in an effort to determine the credibility of Caracas’ claim of having intercepted a Trinidad and Tobago national who was a part of a plan to destabilise Nicolás Maduro’s government.

The Caribbean can ill-afford military conflicts and overheated political tensions in the region that create even greater instability than those that have already been unleashed by other global forces.

Venezuela is South America’s northernmost country. It is separated from Trinidad and Tobago by a Gulf of Paria, an almost fully enclosed portion of the Caribbean Sea. At the closest point, at the gulf’s southern entry, the Serpent’s Mouth, the two countries are seven miles apart – between the Trinidadian town of Icacos and Pedernales in Venezuela.

LONG HISTORY

The two countries have a long history of commerce and migration, expanded in recent years as millions of Venezuelans have left their homeland to avoid the country’s political and economic instability, brought on by disputed elections and Western economic sanctions against the Maduro government.

Mr Maduro has in the past claimed, with seeming credibility, to have foiled attempts at foreign-led efforts to induce uprisings in Venezuela. Last week, his justice minister, Diosdado Cabello, claimed that a Trinidadian national, who he named as Guis Kendell Jerome, was held while travelling to Venezuela with a group he labelled as “terrorists”, with a mission to destabilise Mr Maduro’s government.

Trinidad and Tobago’s defence minister, Wayne Sturge, said the name Guis Kendell Jerome had not shown up in his country’s criminal database and that Port of Spain had no evidence to support Venezuela’s claim.

That’s fair enough.

What, however, was surprising was the escalatory tone of Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar’s public intervention.

She said: “... I want to make it very clear to the Venezuelan government and officials that they can do whatever they want on Venezuelan territory, but they cannot come here. T&T territory is off limits to them…

“No amount of rhetoric from the Maduro government will drive any wedge between this UNC-led government and the US government. We stand solidly with the American government on the issues concerning Venezuela. That will not change.”

Caracas called Ms Persad Bissessar’s statement “virulent and high-handed” and claimed that it raised “serious suspicions of complicity ... and undermines the good cooperative relations between our countries in key areas”.

Under Trinidad and Tobago’s former administration, which lost office in the April election, two countries were working on a project for the development of Venezuela's offshore gas fields and for the processing of the gas for export at underutilised Trindadian LNG facilities.

ADULT IN THE ROOM

Given Venezuela’s provocative behaviour with respect to its claim of Guyana’s Essequibo region (Caracas claimed to have held municipal elections in the region on May 25), the Maduro government is now almost projecting itself as the adult in the room. It reminded Port of Spain that “... any legitimate concern must be addressed through diplomatic channels, not through threats or unfounded statements that only serve to escalate artificial tensions”.

This is sound advice. The Gleaner commends it to Venezuela in its dealings with Guyana over the Essequibo question, as well as urges Mr Maduro to respect the rulings and findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the dispute.

Regarding the possibility of a Trinidadian national, or people from anywhere, being part of efforts to destabilise or unseat the Maduro government, that is not a particularly outrageous idea. People do these things, often without the knowledge of their governments. For instance, Caribbean nationals were among the brigades of young Muslims from around the world who joined ISIS in the mid-2000s in its bid to establish a caliphate in the Levant.

The point is, overheated rhetoric and a priori rejection of claims don’t usually solve issues. Which is why Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar should change tack.

Indeed, Trinidad and Tobago’s foreign minister, Sean Sobers, should be quietly talking to his Venezuelan counterpart.