RAPHAEL JOHN-LALL

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

Af­ter vis­it­ing Grena­da three weeks ago, Venezue­lan act­ing Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez ar­rived in Bar­ba­dos on Sun­day night for “high-lev­el dis­cus­sions” dur­ing an of­fi­cial state vis­it.

On her X ac­count on Sun­day night, Prime Min­is­ter of Bar­ba­dos Mia Mot­t­ley wrote: “To­day we wel­comed Her Ex­cel­len­cy Del­cy Ro­dríguez, Pres­i­dent of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela, for an of­fi­cial vis­it. The vis­it will pro­vide an op­por­tu­ni­ty for high-lev­el dis­cus­sions on ar­eas of prac­ti­cal co­op­er­a­tion and wider re­gion­al de­vel­op­ment.”

Up­on her ar­rival in Bar­ba­dos, Ro­dríguez was re­ceived by Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs Christo­pher Pe­ter Sinck­ler, along with oth­er Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials.

Ac­cord­ing to Venezue­lan news­pa­per El Úl­ti­mas Noti­cias, dur­ing her stay Ro­dríguez will pur­sue a broad work agen­da with se­nior of­fi­cials, aimed at deep­en­ing strate­gic in­te­gra­tion and “win-win” co­op­er­a­tion in key ar­eas for so­cial and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment.

Ear­li­er this year, Ro­dríguez sent a mes­sage of recog­ni­tion and con­grat­u­la­tions to the peo­ple of Bar­ba­dos fol­low­ing their elec­toral process, reaf­firm­ing Venezuela’s com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing ties of broth­er­hood and re­spect with Caribbean na­tions.

Her vis­it to Bar­ba­dos and Grena­da, two CARI­COM mem­ber states, comes at a time when Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezue­lan ties are at an all-time low.

Last year, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was de­clared “per­sona non gra­ta” by the Venezue­lan Par­lia­ment, as Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Gov­ern­ment showed open sup­port for the Unit­ed States, which lat­er cap­tured Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro in ear­ly Jan­u­ary.

Last week, Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West and for­mer En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young met with Ro­dríguez.

The meet­ing came a week af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced that a diplo­mat­ic del­e­ga­tion would vis­it Venezuela soon to “en­sure we get our just share” of cross-bor­der oil and gas re­sources.

Two weeks ago, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Gov­ern­ment al­so recog­nised Ro­dríguez’s ad­min­is­tra­tion in an at­tempt to re­vive decades-old en­er­gy ne­go­ti­a­tions slowed by US sanc­tions against Venezuela.