Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent, spoke for the first time on Sunday about the seizure of President Nicolas Maduro’s plane. St Vincent is being reported as the alleged place where the company through which the aircraft was purchased was registered.
I’ve seen various reports that the plane came from Miami and came to Saint Vincent and went on to Venezuela. I’m trying to ascertain whether that actually happened.
Nobody in any political directorate controls which planes come in; that’s a matter for the director of civil aviation once under the rules or everything that is before her says that’s fine. She will give permission to enter and pass through.
Then I see it said that it was done through a Shell company. Some say the Caribbean, some say St. Vincent. I see they also said it was registered in San Marino, which is a small principality in Europe.
I’m checking to find out from the FSA whether any registration took place, but the registration of an IBC international business company doesn’t come to anybody in the political directorate. That’s a normal company formation. If you’re acquiring a banking license, an international banking license that goes to the Minister of Finance through the FSA. So people have the whole process cockeyed.
But what is strange is that the people who are commenting around the Caribbean haven’t asked the simple question in the first question. What sort of sanction is this? This is a unilateral sanction. This is not a United Nations sanction. Saint Vincent the Grenadines is bound by international law to follow the sanctions of the United Nations Security Council. And when they’re such sanctions, these matters come to me as prime minister, and I immediately send out that document to the attorney general, the FSA, the FIU, the commissioner, the police superintendent, the Comptroller of Customs, the chief immigration officer, all the points that will deal with any sanctioned individual because we are bound by international law.
The US sanctions are unilateral sanctions. And if the US informs us of a particular sanction and seeks our cooperation in it. But I don’t know of any communication that has been so made. But remember the distinction between a unilateral sanction and an international sanction from the Security Council; the international sanctions from the Security Council are to be obeyed by all responsible nations. If there’s a unilateral sanction of a particular state, they may seek the cooperation of another state in compliance with those sanctions. But no request is made to us as far as I’m aware in that regard, in relation to this particular matter.
I see in the report that that very plane. Arrived in Canouan, took Americans from Venezuela as part of the exchange of prisoners, which this government had facilitated between Americans and Venezuelans. You notice I’ve not said anything about this yet because I allow everybody to speak and run off their mouth. Much of it is politically jaundiced and uninformed, and they don’t understand the specificities of particular types of sanctions or what the requisites are. As we say, we are friends of all, and we strive for a better world.