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“[…] By praising Donald Trump and stating that this country is proud to be aligned with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call for an international coalition to fight narco-trafficking, this country’s Prime Minister has put our country in the pocket of the US…”
The following is a press statement from the Movement for Social Justice political leader David Abdulah:
(via UNC.)
The Prime Minister’s address at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday puts Trinidad and Tobago in Washington’s back pocket.
This was not the articulation of a foreign policy position that speaks to us standing for a more just, equal, environmentally sustainable and peaceful world. Instead, it catered to Washington’s current playbook.
On climate change, the PM stated that “the antagonistic approach adopted by climate activists towards the implementation of their climate agenda does more harm than good”.
Who these climate activists are, she doesn’t say. But what we do know is that the Donald Trump administration withdrew from the Paris Accord, not once but twice.
There can be no more antagonistic approach to climate change that withdrawing from international discussions and agreements on climate change.
While it is true that many of the countries of the global north speak with forked tongues on climate change—demanding transitions but not backing this up with the funds that they had signed on to—by not calling out the US for its rejection of the science of climate change must have pleased Washington.
The question must now be asked: is Trinidad and Tobago going to honour its commitments under the Paris Climate Accord?
The PM’s support for a proposed US and Panama “gang suppression unit” to be deployed in Haiti and her endorsement of the statement made by a US Ambassador are very disturbing.
Again here, the PM is in the orbit of the US. There is no reference to the Caricom Eminent Persons initiative, however problematic that has been. There was no call for the US to fulfil its original commitments, or even for the UN as a whole to fund a proper international approach to deal with the crisis in Haiti.
Will this gang suppression unit deal with the fact that the guns that are being used to kill in Haiti come from the US? Is the US suppressing the flow of guns out of its borders that, in the hands of criminals, result in the deaths of our citizens?
And what about the cutting of aid funds for Haiti by Trump, which has diminished the ability of NGOs and others to provide basic social services to the Haitian people? Nothing said about that.
The PM’s open endorsement of the US President’s deployment of huge military assets in the southern Caribbean and her accepting without question that this is about fighting narco-trafficking is bereft of critical thinking or an understanding of history and the nature of US foreign policy.
Her earlier statements about “killing them all violently” cannot be taken back and her comment that the fight against narco-trafficking must be done within the law rings hollow.
The US has provided no evidence that the persons it killed by blowing up several boats were involved in illegal activity. The way to deal with illegal activity is to arrest the alleged criminals, seize the evidence (of drugs or taking into protective custody people who may have been trafficked), and then prosecute the criminals so that they do the time.
Summary execution is a crime. It is not even acceptable in warfare.
Trinidad and Tobago is now being seen as sanctioning extra-judicial killings. No country has the right to engage in that and to suggest that the US as a sovereign state acting in “its interest” as a justification is unacceptable.
There is no doubt that drugs, gangs and criminal activity have resulted in the huge and tragic loss of lives in our region. This has resulted in unprecedented co-operation between the US and some European countries and member states of Caricom.
We have US DEA and ATF agents here. There is the sharing of intelligence. There are joint training exercises of our militaries. There are joint operations. We have amended or introduced laws to comply with US and EU requirements. All of this is well known.
Have they succeeded in ending the scourge of drug trafficking. No, but they are all JOINT activities. What the US is now doing is a unilateral action.
(via UNC.)
Are fighter jets sent to Puerto Rico or a nuclear submarine required to intercept speedboats and seize drugs? We think not.
The facts are clear. The very UN that our Prime Minister said is a key institution has reported that Venezuela is not a producer or major transhipper of drugs. The US DEA reported the same facts.
The US deployment of military assets is not about fighting drug traffickers. If that was the intention those assets would be located where the majority of drugs transit.
It is also notable that she uttered not a word about the genocide in Gaza, where tens of thousands of children and women have been killed. That should have concerned our PM.
And there was no statement reaffirming our country’s principled position that the US must end the illegitimate blockade against Cuba and remove Cuba from the so-called list of countries that state sponsor terrorism.
By praising Trump and stating that this country is proud to be aligned with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call for an international coalition to fight narco-trafficking, this country’s Prime Minister has put our country in the pocket of the US.
We should all remember the words of former US Secretary of State: the US has no permanent friends, only permanent interests.
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