Even as Cari­com na­tions con­tin­ue to lob­by for con­sen­sus on the sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela, in­di­vid­ual coun­tries are pray­ing that a res­o­lu­tion may soon be found as they ex­press an out­pour­ing of love and hope for the strick­en south-Amer­i­can na­tion.

One such ap­peal came from Grena­da’s Min­is­ter for Youth De­vel­op­ment, Sports, Cul­ture and the Arts Nor­land Cox yes­ter­day.

“The world is a very small place and we are all very sad­dened by what is hap­pen­ing there (Venezuela). The whole re­gion, of course, wants the sit­u­a­tion to be re­solved as quick­ly as pos­si­ble,” Cox told the me­dia dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at The Nor­mandie Ho­tel, St Ann’s.

“If some­thing is go­ing wrong in your back­yard it can af­fect you sig­nif­i­cant­ly and so we are just hop­ing for some con­sen­sus for heads to come to­geth­er and re­solve this.”

Point­ing out that Venezuela was a sov­er­eign na­tion, Cox added, “There is on­ly so much you can do as oth­er is­lands and we are work­ing on the diplo­mat­ic end to en­sure that they can come to­geth­er and re­solve this.

“It is very painful. Venezuela has been a re­gion­al friend to Grena­da and we have worked to­geth­er for a num­ber of years so we are hop­ing for the best. If you don’t put a han­dle on these things it can al­ways get away from you and there will be col­lat­er­al dam­age. It is right in our back­yard.”

Re­fer­ring to the pres­ence of some of the world’s su­per-pow­ers in lo­cal wa­ters as the sit­u­a­tion rages on in Venezuela, Cox said, “They are right in our neigh­bour­hood and we are very con­cerned but very hope­ful that some re­solve can come to this mat­ter very quick­ly.

“We know all who are on both sides do love Venezuela in their own way and I think that is the start­ing point in terms of re­solv­ing this mat­ter. Once you fo­cus on Venezuela and the pas­sion and love they have for the coun­try, I be­lieve they can come to a con­sen­sus and re­solve this mat­ter once and for all.”

Asked if Grena­da had be­gun to re­ceive Venezue­lans flee­ing the cri­sis in that coun­try, Cox said they had not wit­nessed any in­flux of na­tion­als from that coun­try, as has been the case in T&T.

In De­cem­ber 2018, the Unit­ed Na­tions said the deep eco­nom­ic cri­sis af­flict­ing Venezuela had prompt­ed 3.6 mil­lion Venezue­lans to flee - most since 2015. This fig­ure, they claimed, rep­re­sent­ed rough­ly ten per cent of that coun­try’s pop­u­la­tion.

Cox is in T&T at the in­vi­ta­tion of Caribbean Pres­tige Foun­da­tion (CPF) and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) to of­fer sup­port to the five Grena­di­an artistes who will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in to­day’s So­ca Monarch and Groovy So­ca Monarch se­mi-fi­nals at the Ari­ma Velo­drome.

Com­pet­ing tonight from Grena­da will be Hol­lice “Mr Kil­la” Map, Din­gaan “Lil Nat­ty” Hen­ry, Nyelon “Thun­da” Williams, Hec­tor “Mr Legz” Thomas and Je­vaughn “V’ghn” John. Thir­ty-five peo­ple were se­lect­ed for the se­mi-fi­nals tonight fol­low­ing which on­ly 15 will be se­lect­ed for the fi­nals on March 1.

“I am here to give them our full sup­port and I want to wish them all the best. It means a lot and we are pret­ty ex­cit­ed that is hap­pen­ing. We are pleased to share that with T&T as the two have a long-stand­ing his­to­ry of suc­cess­ful part­ner­ships…T&T is like fam­i­ly to us,” Cox said.

Ex­tend­ing an in­vi­ta­tion to Trinida­di­ans want­i­ng to get away dur­ing the two days of Grena­da rev­el­ry sched­uled for March 4 and 5, Cox said per­sons could go to Grena­da and ex­pe­ri­ence a “scaled down” ver­sion of T&T’s car­ni­val on the is­land of Car­ri­a­cou which will high­light the Jab-Jab Mas they are unique­ly known for. Grena­da’s of­fi­cial car­ni­val will take place in Au­gust.