JESSE RAMDEO

Se­nior Re­porter

One se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert says the un­rest in Venezuela, fol­low­ing last week­end's dis­put­ed elec­tions, war­rants ur­gent at­ten­tion here in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Garvin Heer­ah ex­plained that the is­sue of Venezue­lans flee­ing con­flict by cross­ing in­to this coun­try must be on the radar of the au­thor­i­ties.

Thou­sands of peo­ple have been ral­ly­ing through­out Venezuela, protest­ing the na­tion­al elec­tion re­sults which pro­claimed in­cum­bent Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro the win­ner.

The vi­o­lent clash­es with po­lice have re­sult­ed in the deaths of over a dozen peo­ple and led to scores of pro­test­ers be­ing ar­rest­ed.

Heer­ah says, the fall­out can have spill over con­se­quences in T&T.

“The ad­di­tion­al ar­rival of Venezue­lans on our shores would al­so bring the con­cerns of crim­i­nal­i­ty and crime,” he warns, “and of course, a cross-fer­til­iza­tion be­tween our crim­i­nal­i­ty and the Lat-Am crim­i­nal­i­ty and the abil­i­ty to treat with that from a law en­force­ment per­spec­tive—and as I would have men­tioned, in a very stretched ca­pac­i­ty—there should be con­cerns.”

The se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert al­so is ques­tion­ing whether the en­su­ing con­flict places this coun­try's en­er­gy deals with Venezuela in lim­bo.

“An­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant con­cern is our present en­er­gy deal … that was re­cent­ly signed with Venezuela,” Heer­ah points out.  “With the present con­di­tions in Venezuela now and with the civ­il un­rest …  If this is go­ing to af­fect the res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem of that present deal … I think this should be the con­cern of all.”

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has since main­tained that the Cab­i­net will not take a po­si­tion on Venezuela.  He al­so has de­clined to make any pro­nounce­ments on the po­lit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion there.