DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

As min­is­ters re­spon­si­ble for na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty main­tain si­lence on on­go­ing op­er­a­tions with the Unit­ed States, act­ing For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath says that joint mil­i­tary train­ing with Wash­ing­ton will con­tin­ue.

Yes­ter­day, the Unit­ed States Ma­rine Corps 22nd Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit (MEU), which was de­ployed to the Unit­ed States South­ern Com­mand (SOUTH­COM), was sched­uled to end its train­ing with the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF). The train­ing be­gan on No­vem­ber 16 and end­ed yes­ter­day.

There has been grow­ing pub­lic scruti­ny over the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of re­cent se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion. Yes­ter­day, the Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty de­clined to an­swer re­porters’ ques­tions, walk­ing past the me­dia silent­ly as he head­ed in­to Par­lia­ment.

But speak­ing out­side the Red House, Padarath framed the ex­er­cis­es as part of a broad­er se­cu­ri­ty part­ner­ship with the Unit­ed States, say­ing the Gov­ern­ment al­so in­tend­ed to ex­pand co­op­er­a­tion with oth­er coun­tries to build lo­cal ca­pac­i­ty.

He stressed that the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s pri­or­i­ty re­mains tack­ling drug traf­fick­ing and hu­man traf­fick­ing.

“We have said, very clear­ly, that part of our man­date from the na­tion has been to re­store peace and se­cu­ri­ty. And there­fore, we are part­ner­ing with the Unit­ed States and con­tin­u­ing these joint ef­forts. So while to­day (yes­ter­day) one ex­er­cise may be com­plet­ed, you will see a lot more hap­pen­ing in the near fu­ture.”

Padarath, how­ev­er, de­clined to say whether the USS Ger­ald R Ford, the world’s largest war­ship, would be de­ployed to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“I would not want to spec­u­late on na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mat­ters. I am the act­ing for­eign min­is­ter, and I know that there will be part­ner­ships as we con­tin­ue, whether it’s in the sphere of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty train­ing. So those are some of the things I’m sure that we can look for­ward to.”

Pressed on whether he shared Wash­ing­ton’s view that Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro is a nar­co-traf­fick­er, Padarath avoid­ed tak­ing a po­si­tion. In­stead, he em­pha­sised the need for di­a­logue be­tween the two coun­tries.

“I think we have been very clear in terms of our po­si­tion on this mat­ter. Both the US and Venezuela are sov­er­eign na­tions, and we have been ad­vised through the in­ter­na­tion­al me­dia that there will be dis­cus­sion and there will be di­a­logue and, there­fore, we look for­ward to see­ing the out­come of those. We will not spec­u­late in a cir­cum­stance like this right now.”

How­ev­er, Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les ac­cused the ad­min­is­tra­tion of con­fus­ing the pub­lic with con­flict­ing ac­counts from the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and For­eign Af­fairs min­istries.

“The Op­po­si­tion’s po­si­tion re­mains that of ex­treme pro­found con­cern,” he said. “The Gov­ern­ment has not been com­mu­ni­cat­ing with its cit­i­zens. The Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty has al­ready in­di­cat­ed that he’s not even aware that we have for­eign mil­i­tary ves­sels with­in our bor­ders. The min­is­ter of Cari­com Af­fairs (is) say­ing some­thing com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent. The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al (is) say­ing some­thing com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent. It doesn’t seem as though mem­bers of the Gov­ern­ment are speak­ing to each oth­er at the lev­el of the Cab­i­net.”