“[…] Some of the main items agreed to in the MOU include the recognition by the Opposition of the legitimacy of Nicolás Maduro’s government, a renouncing of violence and a commitment to work for the well-being of Venezuelans, and a pledge to request that US sanctions and restrictive measures be …
Read More »Caricom’s shame! How Jamaica, Haiti and Bahamas orchestrated ‘unfounded’ attack on T&T over Venezuela migrant crisis
“[…] It’s difficult for me to understand, much less find justification, for why Jamaica, the sitting chair of the OAS Permanent Council at the time, failed to rule on whether to allow Guaidó’s agent to level unfounded charges directly accusing the T&T government of culpability in the Venezuelan tragedy. “[…] …
Read More »Noble: Bobbing on the ocean; how T&T’s fading regional influence led to migrant crisis
There was an outpouring of sympathy for the Venezuelan children and women, who were brought to our shores, after enduring cold weather and the high seas. And that is as it should be. However, there is no wailing for our own fates as represented by this turn of events. This …
Read More »MSJ: ‘Hypocritical’ USA and OAS smell end game in Venezuela, respect democratic process!
“[…] We note that the European Union has been totally silent with respect to the voter suppression in the US and the attempts, which have failed so far, by Donald Trump, Michael Pence, Mike Pompeo and other top Republicans to carry out a veritable coup d’etat in the US by …
Read More »Dear Editor: Why Cudjoe’s linkage of ‘unpatriotic’ Venezuelan stance to race is ‘sloppy’ and ‘poisonous’
“Attributing the Opposition’s awful stance on the Venezuela question to them being Indian is race-baiting, plain and simple. In the Caribbean, colluding and conspiring with foreign powers are hardly the sole preserve of Indians. “[…] Consider again the case of the late Prime Minister of Dominica, Eugenia Charles, who made …
Read More »Claude’s Comments: When CIA plotted to remove Dr Williams; and how USA is violating Rio Treaty
I couldn’t resist beginning by paraphrasing from calypsonian Bally’s 1987 masterpiece ‘It’s party time again’: five years nearly done, so let’s ramajay… if you see ram goat, join the bacchanal, just to get your vote. I intended to sit this one out, but for the statement by US Ambassador Joseph …
Read More »Daly Bread: The windmills of the mind; a month of spin
Why do persons in circumstances requiring full disclosure and accountability to the public invariably send us ‘in a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel, as the images unwind like the circles that you find in the windmills …
Read More »Dear editor: We should focus on bullying US ‘imperialism’—not Young’s ‘half-truths’
“Politicians, especially national security ministers, sometimes have to tell half-truths and lies—in the country’s or their own interest—and then we sit in judgement of them; we the better men. This is why Socrates did not favour democracy, but instead extolled the virtue of the philosopher, giving value to logic and …
Read More »MSJ: The problem with the Rio Treaty; and how gov’t, opposition and media got Venezuela imbroglio wrong
“[…] Central to this entire issue is the United States’ agenda with respect to Venezuela. If the US had not imposed sanctions on Venezuela there would be nothing for the government to explain about a visit by the vice-president of Venezuela, nothing to explain about the sale of fuel by …
Read More »Dear Editor: Venezuela’s ‘narco-terrorist’ state charge is ‘transparent propaganda’
“[…] If we agree with [US president Donald] Trump that the shipment of cocaine to the US is terrorism—as Opposition leaders implicitly do—then why did a transhipment area like Venezuela become a huge target, requiring the deployment of naval, air, and ground forces to nearby seas. “The consensus among scholars …
Read More »Demming: Methinks thou doth protest too much! Three reasons to doubt Venezuela explanations
After managing the Covid-19 pandemic so well, why did Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley score this own goal with the high-power Venezuela meeting? His team was doing well. Couldn’t his handlers advise him to duck this one and move on to the good news of opening up the country? Instead, …
Read More »Kamla: Rowley must come clean on Venezuela meeting; Rowley: ‘You are a traitor lady!’
On 27 March 2020, the Trinidad and Tobago government temporarily re-opened its borders for a meeting with a seven-member delegation from Venezuela, headed by vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, which—according to a press release—‘focused on the strategy being deployed in both countries to combat Covid-19’. However, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar suggested, in …
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