The emergence yesterday of a document that purports to show that Minister of National Security Stuart Young gave an exemption for Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez’s delegation to enter Trinidad and Tobago is deeply disturbing if it is proven to be true.
The letter, which was circulating on social media, has not been denied by Minister Young nor the Government and is so potentially damning it cannot go unanswered by the administration.
The letter, dated March 26, 2020, addressed to the Chief Immigration Officer Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews and signed by the ministry’s acting Permanent Secretary Gary Joseph, conveyed an exemption to the COVID-19 travel restrictions to the Venezuelan delegation that arrived in and departed T&T on March 27.
The document, which bears the ministry’s letterhead, contained the names of Rodriguez, Asdrubal Chavez, Juan Vincente Santana, Alejandra Bastidas, Manuel Jimenez, Major Kenny Diaz Rosario and Antonio Perez-Suarez and their passport numbers. The document also contained the aircraft details and arrival and departure times.
The importance of this letter is that if true, it shows that contrary to denials from both the prime minister and Minister Young, the other members of delegation did not come here as a surprise and were planned for and welcomed.
If true, this is a major blow to Minister Young and the Government, for it would demonstrate that Minister Young was prepared to bend the truth. Did Minister Young misspeak when he insisted the Government neither knew the names of all in the Venezuelan delegation nor the aircraft they were coming on?
The seriousness of this issue cannot be understated because if this country broke US sanctions or willingly sold fuel to Venezuela, there is likely to be a price to be paid.
The allegations have been raging now for weeks and the Government has tried to explain what happened with information that seems implausible.
There is an easy way to bring an end to this. Government must produce the contract for the sale of fuel from Paria to fuel tycoon Wilmer Ruperti and the documents that gave permission for the Venezuela team to land in T&T. It must also tell the country about the nature of the discussions and the outcome. The country deserves an answer and needs transparency and if this is all made up and a misunderstanding, then this is an easy request for the Government to fulfil.
Failure to come clean will leave the country with no other conclusion than the Government put the country at risk and in that case the only question left to be answered is why?