In response to Trinidad and Tobago’s refusal to sign a major gas deal, Venezuela suspended the island nation’s response to a US ship.
According to state broadcaster TeleSUR, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the “immediate suspension” of a deal to supply Trinidad and Tobago with natural gas.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
One of the several US warships that President Donald Trump has deployed close to Venezuelan waters is located on the island. The US president has been accused of attempting regime change by Venezuelan officials.
Maduro accused Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of turning the Caribbean nation “into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela” while canceling the gas deal.
Before Venezuela had agreed to assist Trinidad and Tobago in the deal, Maduro claimed, the country “ran out” of gas.
Persad-Bissessar rebuffed his claim, telling Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday newspaper that Venezuela “never has” a “does not depend” on the nation’s future.
She continued, noting that her government has been relying less on the delayed joint Dragon gasfield, which is near Trinidad in Venezuela.
“The previous government … mistakenly placed all their hopes on the Dragon project.” Persad-Bissessar remarked, “We have not done so.”
This implies that Venezuelans are “not susceptible to any blackmail from the government,” she claimed.
She denied, however, that the two nations’ tensions are growing because their narrowest point is only 11 kilometers (7 miles) away from one another, which is separated by a small bay.
“Immoral and illegal military threat”
Prior to scheduled joint military exercises, the USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived on Sunday in Port of Spain, Trinidad, with US Marines on board.
Authorities in Venezuela called Trinidad’s decision to house the ship a provocation. The government of the island nation has emphasized that regular joint exercises with the US take place.
At least 43 people have died as a result of the Trump administration’s alleged drug-related attacks on ships in the area since September.
The Pentagon has so far sent seven warships, a submarine, drones, and fighter jets to the Caribbean, as well as another warship to the Gulf of Mexico.
The USS Gerald R Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, will soon be based on the USS Gerald R Ford, which can accommodate up to 90 aircraft and attack helicopters.
The strikes have been compared to extrajudicial killings by many leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean. Persad-Bissessar has backed the US campaign, saying she prefers to see drug traffickers “blown to pieces” as opposed to having them murder people in their own country.
Venezuela contends that the attacks are intended to “allow external powers to rob Venezuela’s untapped oil and gas wealth.”
According to Yvan Gil Pinto, the US has an “illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads,” according to Foreign Minister Gil Pinto, who spoke to the UN General Assembly on Monday.
Several senior officials have accused the US of fabricating information to plot a coup against Maduro’s government, which won elections that were discredited as neither fair nor free last year.
Gas projects for Manatee and Dragon
In 2018, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela first agreed to jointly drill for gas. The project has been delayed and hampered by US sanctions against Venezuela for a while.
The US supports the Trinidad government’s proposal for dragon gas, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month, but it will take steps to ensure Maduro’s government won’t benefit significantly from it.
Despite the sanctions against Maduro’s government, the British multinational oil and gas company Shell and Trinidad’s National Gas Company have been granted permission to develop the Dragon gasfield off Venezuela.
Shell is independently developing the Manatee gas project, which crosses Venezuela’s maritime border and has been approved for independent development on the Trinidad side by the Maduro government. According to the Reuters news agency, it was not immediately known whether that project might be in danger.
119 billion cubic meters (4. 2 trillion cubic feet) of gas, a fossil fuel that contributes to climate change, are reportedly present in the Dragon gasfield.
The Paris Agreement’s climate targets were warned by the International Energy Agency in 2021 as a prerequisite for the launch of new oil and gas projects.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Trinidad and Tobago depends on gas to provide 92.6% of its energy needs, with the remaining 7.3 percent coming from oil.
