Trinidad, Tobago Open Up to US Military12/16 06:09

   

   PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) -- The government of Trinidad and Tobago said 
Monday that it would allow the U.S. military to access its airports in coming 
weeks as tensions build between the United States and Venezuela.

   The announcement comes after the U.S. military recently installed a radar 
system at the airport in Tobago. The Caribbean country's government has said 
the radar is being used to fight local crime, and that the small nation 
wouldn't be used as a launchpad to attack any other country.

   The U.S. would use the airports for activity that would be "logistical in 
nature, facilitating supply replenishment and routine personnel rotations," 
Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. It did 
not provide further details.

   Trinidad's prime minister previously has praised ongoing U.S. strikes on 
alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

   Only 7 miles (11 kilometers) separate Venezuela from the twin-island 
Caribbean nation at their closest point. It has two main airports: Piarco 
International Airport in Trinidad and ANR Robinson International Airport in 
Tobago.

   Hours after the announcement, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodrguez said 
her country was immediately canceling any contract, deal or negotiation to 
supply natural gas to Trinidad and Tobago.

   She claimed that the government of Trinidad and Tobago participated in the 
recent U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off the country's coast, calling it an 
"act of piracy."

   She also accused Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar 
of having a "hostile agenda" against Venezuela, noting that the U.S. military 
installed an airport radar in Tobago.

   "This official has turned the territory of Trinidad and Tobago into a US 
aircraft carrier to attack Venezuela, in an unequivocal act of vassalage," 
Rodrguez said.

   Persad-Bissessar told The Associated Press that she wasn't bothered by the 
statement, describing it as "simply false propaganda."

   "They should direct their complaints to President Trump, as it is the U.S. 
military that has seized the sanctioned oil tanker. In the meantime, we 
continue to have peaceful relations with the Venezuelan people," 
Persad-Bissessar said.

   The prime minister asserted that her nation has "never depended" on 
Venezuela for natural gas supplies: "We have adequate reserves within our 
territory."

   Trinidad and Venezuela had previously reached a deal over the development of 
a gas field in Venezuelan waters, near the maritime border separating the two 
countries.

   In December 2023, Venezuela granted a license for oil giant Shell and 
Trinidad and Tobago to produce gas from the field. In October, the U.S. 
government granted Trinidad and Tobago permission to negotiate the gas deal 
without facing U.S sanctions placed on Venezuela.

   Amery Browne, an opposition senator and Trinidad and Tobago's former foreign 
minister, accused the Trinidadian government on Monday of being deceptive in 
its announcement.

   Browne said that Trinidad and Tobago has become "complicit facilitators of 
extrajudicial killings, cross-border tension and belligerence."

   "There is nothing routine about this. It has nothing to do with the usual 
cooperation and friendly collaborations that we have enjoyed with the USA and 
all of our neighbors for decades," he said.

   He said the "blanket permission" with the U.S. takes the country "a further 
step down the path of a satellite state" and that it embraces a "'might is 
right' philosophy."

   American strikes began in September and have killed more than 80 people as 
Washington builds up a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest 
U.S. aircraft carrier.

   In October, an American warship docked in Trinidad's capital, Port-of-Spain, 
as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump boosts military pressure 
on Venezuela and President Nicols Maduro.

   U.S. lawmakers have questioned the legality of the strikes against vessels 
in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean, and recently announced that 
there would be a congressional review of them.