PM: ‘Dangerous’ move by OAS on Venezuela intervention

THE PRIME Minister has described as “dangerous” a move by the Organisation of American States (OAS) to invoke an “obsolete” treaty for military intervention into Venezuela.

“The whole issue of the security of the region is not to be taken for granted, because there are powerful forces who are seeking to bring about military intervention as a solution to political problems.”

He was speaking yesterday at the media conference held at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s reporting on his trip to New York and his attendance at the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

He recalled at the meeting he alerted UN Secretary General António Guterres about a meeting in Washington two weeks ago where the OAS held a vote on the Rio Treaty to deem Venezuela a security risk and intervene in the country.

“This is a dangerous development and runs counter to the charter of the UN and the OAS itself.”

Rowley said TT, The Bahamas and Haiti are the only Caricom members of the Rio Treaty, which dates back to the early 60s, Cuba and the Cold War, and because it was not open to the wider OAS it excluded Caricom which is resolute there should be no military intervention into Venezuela.

He said this country chose to abstain in the vote to determine Venezuela a security risk. Rowley said a second vote was taken at the UN and TT again abstained. Asked why the country abstained instead of voting against he said the country usually abstained in these matters, there were “different levels of ‘no’” and TT did not want to make enemies. He also said there was an upcoming meeting at the World Health organisation seeking to place people under Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in international bodies but TT will not support this.

“We not take part in those games.”

He said there were forces known to the Government seeking military intervention and he linked this to reports “misrepresenting” the receipt of refugees and the timing of reportage, likely a reference to his previous condemnation of a BBC documentary on Venezuelan migrants.

Rowley said if the Rio Treaty was invoked TT cannot physically stop it but can continue to “sound the alarm” and advocate against it. He also said he met with Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez on the situation in the country but he could not provide the details.

He recalled during the UN meeting a couple of Caricom countries asked about the TT Venezuelan registration process in June as they were facing the same kind of problem. Asked which countries enquired Rowley said they would make their own announcement.

Asked about reported problems with Venezuelans accessing visas to enter TT he said Venezuela is a large country and it would be difficult for someone outside of Caracas to get the visas.

He said to his knowledge the TT mission in Venezuela had been receiving requests and processing them and added the number of Venezuelans entering TT had reduced compared to when Venezuelans could enter the country and spend 90 days.

Rowley was also asked about National Security Minister Stuart Young meeting visit to Venezuela two weeks ago and he said it was to discuss matters of interest but that did not include the Dragon gas deal.