After several warnings from the Venezuelan government were directed at Trinidad and Tobago over the past few days, Minister in the Ministry of Housing Phillip Edward Alexander took to his social media yesterday, suggesting the government of India would “nuke” Venezuela in defence of the Caribbean island.
On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had “gone crazy”, and that her welcoming of the US military action and lethal strikes on Venezuelan vessels had read like a “declaration of war” against Venezuela.
On Sunday, Venezuela’s Minister of Defence, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, issued a warning to the country that any attack on Venezuela launched from T&T would receive a response from its military.
He was referring to earlier statements by Persad-Bissessar, who pledged unflinching access to the country’s territory to US forces, in the event of a Venezuelan attack on neighbouring Guyana.
And days before that, while addressing the country as part of the Venezuelan government’s Independencia 200 military initiative, Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez said to the Trinidad and Tobago Government, “Do not dare.”
Alexander, in his social media post on Tuesday, said to the Venezuelan government, “Let me tell you this, you think America is the only problem? (Indian Prime Minister Narendra) Modi came here to show Trinidad and Tobago that one of the most powerful nations in the world has Trinidad in its hands, the diaspora,” he said.
‘More people of Indian descent’
Alexander referenced Modi’s visit to Trinidad in July, and claimed Trinidad and Tobago’s ethnic majority was East Indian.
“That will hurt you this morning, it will ‘bun’ you in your belly. Trinidad is part of the Indian diaspora. Trinidad has more people of East Indian descent than any other race. Let that ‘bun’ you in your navel.
“Oh God, Phillip don’t say it. Let us pretend Trinidad is a black country. That is what the 1% want to tell you, to incite violence…They don’t want you to know that the largest group of people in Trinidad and Tobago are of East Indian descent…and Modi and India have us held gently in the palm of his hands and he will nuke Venezuela. You think it is Trump alone you are dealing with? Touch Trinidad, Delcy (Rodriguez), you have talk?” Alexander said.
Alexander told the media yesterday afternoon he had no information on Indian intervention in the event of military explanation. However, he said the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sean Sobers had made it clear the country was not responding well to threats.
He said his statements made in the live video were hyperbolic, and that Trinidad and Tobago was “well protected”. “It was a live video, and yes, in live video there will be hyperbole. But the reality of the situation is the President of the US didn’t just send three warships, he sent an Ohio class submarine sitting somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.
“Trinidad is protected from all of the bluster and threats coming from Venezuela. That is what I was trying to say…I think I am going to stay more in my lane after this,” he said.
Diplomatic disaster
Former minister of foreign and Caricom affairs Amery Browne yesterday responded to Alexander’s live video rant, stating the United National Congress had made a diplomatic disaster even worse.
“How does a government insult at least three sovereign nations at once? When a deranged minister publicly boasts that because T&T has an Indo majority population, ‘Modi will nuke Venezuela’. And of course, to even begin to understand the concept of nuclear fallout, one would have to possess a working and functional brain,” he said.
Yesterday, the Venezuelan military launched a Caribbean task force in the Caribbean Sea, its Defence Minister telling the population the country could no longer turn its back on the region.
