THE CARIBBEAN COST OF US-VENEZUELA STAND-OFF

By Staff Writer

With the peak winter tourist season beginning, caution prevails in the Caribbean, especially the southern islands, as uncertainty surrounds an American military build-up in the region amid an ongoing stand-off with Venezuela.

The southern Caribbean islands which increasingly depend on tourism, some more than traditional agriculture, are reportedly nervous following recent US actions. These actions involved high-seas targeting of alleged narco-speedboats from Venezuela.

The US Trump administration has embarked on a controversial ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy in which several vessels and their occupants were blown up.

The situation has become even more tense with the installation of American surveillance equipment on tourism-dependent Tobago and the recent American military exercises with local personnel on the main sister island, Trinidad. A similar request to Grenada is still being reviewed by that government.

Tourism businesses in Tobago are reporting that bookings are down from what they were hoping would have been a bumper winter tourist season. Several cruise ship calls are also said to have already been cancelled.

The Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who had earlier stated that the US presence in Tobago was to assist with improving road infrastructure, now admits that it was for the installation of hi-tech radar surveillance equipment. But she maintains that it bolsters her country’s security.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly voiced support for the actions by the US forces against the alleged Venezuelan narco-traffickers.

Elsewhere, there are reports from other islands of fishermen restricting their fishing trips and being reluctant to venture too far from shore.

The American president has also unilaterally declared the Venezuelan airspace a no-fly zone as he continues to apply pressure on the country’s hardline leader, Nicolas Maduro, declaring that the president of the South American country is himself facilitating drug trafficking.

With the risk of the stand-off escalating, there is added concern about what this could mean for regional and global trade, with major sea lanes traversing the Caribbean Sea.

Also close to the Venezuelan coast in the Caribbean Sea are the Dutch ABC Islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, the location of one of the US Forward Operating Locations(FOL) in the region.

The islands have longstanding trading ties with Venezuela, with boats from the South American country traditionally plying the islands with fruits and vegetables.

The Dutch government, which maintains military bases in Curacao and Aruba, is said to be monitoring the situation very closely, both locally and as part of its European Union(EU) mandate.

Reservations have been expressed by top Dutch military officials about the real objectives of the US mission in the area. “More military power than needed for drug enforcement,” said Onno Eichelsheim, Commander of the Dutch Armed Forces, while acknowledging that concerns in the ABC islands were understandable.

Ever since the rapid ‘explosion’ of tensions between America and Venezuela, Caribbean leaders - with the exception of their Trinidad and Tobago counterpart - have been appealing for the region to remain a zone of peace.

The stakes are high for the island states in the area individually and collectively in both economic and security terms.

To all intents and purposes, they just happen to be in the wrong geographical location between two belligerents in an issue over which they hardly have any influence or involvement, but could be victims…or collateral damage in military parlance.